TENN. WALKERS FEATURED AT REGIONAL SHOW

JACKSON -- If anyone is responsible for the region's affection for the Tennessee walking horse, it's 97-year-old A.W. Wright, aficionados say.

The breed was little known until Wright's stallion, Our Shadow's Boy, became the 1976 amateur owner and trainer world champion. Local horse lovers had seen what the easy riding, gentle-natured breed could do and has continued to do.

"It's very popular every place now," the Scott City man says.

Wright was still riding two years ago when he won a second-place ribbon in a riding competition at the Southeast Missouri District Fair but since then has had a leg amputated.

He was at Flickerwood Arena Saturday to watch the breed's Midwest Regional Futurity. The event was a benefit for the Shriners Hospital.

The futurity was both a horse show and an opportunity for Tennessee walking horse breeders to show off their goods. Stallions, mares and their offspring were on display, and weanlings to 3-year-olds were judged.

A futurity is a chance to collect breeding fees and to promote the breed.

Riders also competed in the versatility classes, in which they show their skills in trail, basic reining, western riding, barrels, poles and fence jumping, and in an evening show that even included a stick horse class for the really wee ones.

The entrants ranged from youngsters who are just beginning to ride competitively to seasoned champions. Twelve-year-old Heather Schubert is in the first group. She's a member of the Riding High Aces 4-H drill team from Perryville and also competes.

Her parents raise Tennessee walking horses, and she saw her horse, Star, born. She loves these horses. "They're intelligent, smart and ride smooth," she says.

Heather doesn't get upset about making mistakes in competition and never gets mad at her horse. "I know she does well no matter how we do," she said.

Beth Hopkins, 17, of Clinton, Miss., has ridden Tennessee walking horses for only three years and is the only rider in her family. She rides every day after school for about 30 minutes and last year was the reserve high-point winner at the futurity.

There's no mystery about why she spends so much time practicing and going to shows. "I like horses and I like to be around them," she says.

Dan Starnes attended his first horse show when he was 12 days old. His whole family -- including a grandmother -- still goes to horse shows almost every weekend of the year. His mother, Linda, and sometimes his father, Larry, also compete.

From Edmondson County in Kentucky, the 14-year-old has won a state competition and says trust is the key to riding. "If you don't trust the horse, the horse won't trust you," he says.

He also thinks the Tennessee walking horse is very intelligent. Of his horse Traveling Time, he says, "Her mom taught her to open our stall door."

Martha Ann Huck and her horse won the 1997 and 1998 world championships in the versatility class. And her confident style was racking up first-place ribbons in the versatility classes at the regional futurity Saturday morning.

The 16-year-old Jackson High School junior doesn't think Tennessee walking horses are smarter than other horses. "A horse is like a person," she says. "Some are smart, some aren't. Some take longer to learn."

Huck likes riding Tennessee walking horses but says riding different breeds of horses "makes you a better rider and makes you appreciate your own breed more."

She rides at least an hour a day, though sometimes it's an easy trail or bareback ride to keep the horse fresh. "The most important thing is the horse's mind," she says.