All in all, the 73rd Annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, which concluded last Saturday night in Shelbyville was a great success. With the exception of a 'glitch' with inspection on the first Saturday night with the Aged Stallions, most everything went pretty smooth throughout the 11 days and nights of the World's Largest Walking Horse Show.

The grand finale of the show was the Tennessee Walking Horse World Grand Championship class. Seven horses made their way into the big oval one at a time. The call judge was Jamie Hankins with the other judges Jamie Bradshaw, Jennifer Bingham, Ronnie Spears and Jeff Willis spaced around the ring. After they made their way around the ring in both directions, they were asked to park in and remove their saddles for conformation judging. Following that, the saddles were put back on and the riders remounted. They returned to the rail for one more work. They crowd picked their favorite. After moving to the grass for final judging, everything got real quiet and the spotlight began looking for the champion. Mr. Bobby Sands picked up his microphone and called entry number 1315, the team of Game World and Gary Edwards riding for Chester and Lynda Stokes of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. An enthusiastic crowd cheered as they made their way around the big oval to pick up their floral horse show of roses and tri-colored ribbon. Gary trains out of Carl Edwards & Sons Stables of Dawson, Ga., with his brother Larry. This was a first for this family and the Celebration. Their dad, Carl rode Old Glory's Big Man to the championship in 1950 and Larry rode Coin's Hard Cash to the championship in 1987. Previously, a father and son had won the championship with C. A. Bobo and son Bill Bobo. Reserve in the class was Folsom Prison Blues and Rodney Dick. Third place went to Ozone's Cut Above All and John Allan Callaway.

In another exciting class prior to the stake class, the Owner-Amateur Walking Horses WGC (Canter) brought the crowd to its feet as the great horse NYPD and Kenny Compton of North Tazewell won the class for the second time in his career. They retired two challenge trophies in the process.

In the performance classes, the two-three and four year old championship winners were all unanimous in the judge's decisions and also crowd favorites. With these young horses as great as they are, the future of the Tennessee walking horse is going to be good. The two-year-old WGC was won by I Am Jose and Casey Wright of Lexington for owners Billy and Debbie Woods also of Lexington. They had won previously on Monday night one of the split division classed of two-year-old stallions. Reserve in the class was I'm Coach Cal and John Allan Callaway.

The three-year-old WGC on Thursday night was the highlight of the evening. Winning the blue ribbon and title of three-year-old WGC was Honors and Larry Edwards of Dawson, Ga., for owners McSwain of Duluth, Ga., and Kelly Weaver of Shelbyville. (Kelly is the former Kelly Aymett of Lewisburg.) Honors had won the preliminary class on the previous Friday night. Tying reserve was Pro V1 and Bill Callaway, last year's two-year-old champion.

On Friday night, the four-year-old WGC was crowned. This class is usually called the Junior Stake. In another unanimous decision by the judges, Copperfield and Knox Blackburn claimed top honors. This pair was reserve as a two-year-old in 2009 and went undefeated in 2010 and won the three-year-old WGC. He is a beautiful sorrel stallion by Generator's Man of Magic. Knox was raised in nearby Brick Church in Giles County. He rode Masquerading to the World Grand Championship in 1989 for owners Gilbert Miller and Dee Dee Sale of Lewisburg. Reserve in the class was Mr. Heisman and Brandye Mills for the Randall Baskin Family of Franklin.

With various "humane" organizations casting a shadow on the walking horse industry for the past show season, the 73rd Celebration was a success. There were several classes where all the judges agreed with the winners. Everything may have not been perfect, but the Celebration officials are to be commended for a job well done.