1998-1999 CELEBRATION CONTROVERSY
Many people have asked us to memorialize the history changing events surrounding the 1998 – 1999
TENNESSEE WALKING HORSE NATIONAL CELEBRATION.
Most have heard bits of pieces and wild rumors of what occurred, we are going to set the record straight and
tell you the facts of that time. We are going to write this in simplified detailed terms for the many who are not
part of this breed that are also interested in what happened. So those who are in the breed please bear with us.
History is the retelling of events that have happened before today. It is not something that you can change, nor
erase or ignore. Before the written word or advent of the film and video, all of history was passed down from
generation to generation by mouth to mouth. Now we can go back and actually review pass recorded events.
This story is not about the glorification of the people or the horse, this is about what happened that change the
status quote of a 61-year-old industry. How by putting one tin soldier up against a major force can effect
change in policies, perception, minds and hearts. All information here can be verified and corroborated. We left
most names out, feeling that we think time has shown them to be wrong and they now know it, we had to
however state the names of “Major” officials in order to preserve the integrity of the story. Here we go.
1997
Jennie and Nathanael Jackson living in Copperopolis California were discussing the rules of the organization
they belonged to THE TENNESSEE WALKING HORSE BREEDERS AND EXHIBITORS ASSOCIATION, and
THE WALKING HORSE TRAINERS ASSOCIATION, both of which are regulated and governed by THE
NATIONAL HORSE SHOW COMMISSIONS.
The Jackson’s and their family traveled each year to Murfreesboro and Shelbyville Tennessee to exhibit their
Walking Horses in THE WALKING HORSE OWNERS ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL VERSATILIY WORLD
GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW held in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and THE NATIONAL CELEBRATION held
in Shelbyville, Tennessee.
While preparing for the 1998 show season they were reviewing rules and regulations. Nathanael asked Jennie
if a Keg Lite Shod Horse could show in the Padded Horse Division.
A BRIEF BACKGROUND AND HISTORY OF THE WALKING HORSE AND SHOWING
(Definitions and Explanations: The Keg Lite Shod Horse wears a metal shoe that is 3/8 thick by 3/8 wide
that is nailed to the bottom of the front and back hooves. This to protect the horse’s feet from stone
bruises and chipping away at their hooves while walking. This would be the shoe that you would see on
a horse running around in a field or traveling down a road anywhere in the world. The Padded Shoe not
only includes a 1” - 1½” inch thick/wide metal shoe on the bottom, they also put the maximum of 4”
inches of hard rubberized pad between the horse’s hoof and those metal shoes. The theory is this; by
elevating the horse’s front end with pads this will make the horse lift their front feet up and make the
traveling height of the foot higher than the regular keg lite shod horse. The history of this man made
contrivance came about not too long after the advent of showing the walking horse as a breed. The
first walking horse champions were horses that wore only a keg shoe. Then people who did not have
the quality of stock with the body conformation to elevate the front end with it’s back end “scooting”
underneath itself, or skills to train a horse naturally came up with the idea to first, put heavy weights on
the horse’s front end which acts the opposite of what we would think it would do, instead of “bogging”
down the horse, the horse actually lifts his front legs higher. These were called “Action Devices.” This
is why when you see early pictures of walking horse competitors you see them with a white “Bell Boot,”
this bell boot is weighted. As man does with everything he gets a hold of he started experimenting with
elevating the front end with the height of the pads and different weights of the action devices and down
through the years they put caps on the limits of the height of the pads, and the weight of the action
devices, today it’s at 4 inches high and 10 oz of weigh. These devices were considered to be humane.
But in 1970 The Federal Government had to step in).
THE USDA AND THE HORSE PROTECTION ACT OF 1970
The United States Department of Agriculture had to step in because some folks started experimenting with
using harmful, painful and deadly chemicals to “SORE” the walking horse. To get even freakier front end
action and deeper back end movement, some folks started putting Diesel Gas, Oil of Mustard Seed, Croatin Oil
or any number of dangerous chemicals that would “burn” the horses pasterns and the top of the front of the
hoof, they would then wrap this concoction with saran wrap and let the horse sit in it for days to drive the
chemical deep into the horses foot. This is done so that when this weighted action device hit against the sored
area, the horse would literally try to throw that action device off his foot when he traveled, it’s called “Pitching”
the front foot, that’s why when you watch a padded horse he has that “freaky” front end pitching the foot out in
front of him, it hurts him so bad he’s trying to pitch it off of him. This was deemed inhumane and this became
wide spread in the industry and some were not very clean in the way they did it and horses were dying and
becoming crippled because of these “Barn Chemist.” This so outraged the public’s consciences and
sentiments that the 1970 HORSE PROTECTION ACT was enacted by Congress to out law these practices. The
USDA was charged with monitoring these practices and levying just punishment for the offenders, this in a way
became one of the first Wars On Drugs.
Believe us folks; if you see a horse with pads and action devices, these horses HAVE been sored at one point
or another. We can say that because if the horse had not been sored, 10oz action devices have absolutely no
effect on the horse’s movements all by themselves. But put in conjunction with illegal chemicals, you have a
horse that reacts to the pain. Now some of these horses are what we called “Brain Sored” Meaning that these
horses have been sored so many times that you could put a drop of water on their feet and they “Think” it’s the
painful chemicals and act as if it was on them burning them, this works until the horse realizes that it doesn't’t
hurt and does less with it’s pitching and traveling.
What many are doing now to get around the chemicals is what is called "Pressure Shoeing" What that en-
tells is cutting a horses hoofs down to the quick to the point it bleeds, (much like cutting your fingernails back
into the meat of the nail), next they hollow out areas around the white line and set plastic or steel beads in
them and then they nail a horse shoe over that now sensitive and sore hoof, and then they make them stand
like on a hard surface like cement for a good deal of time. Another way is to nail a steel bar across the horse's
frog area and make a little hole in which a screw is put in and screwed down into the frog area, then you let
them stand on that for a while tied up so they can't lay down and take the pressure off. The horse now tries to
stay off his front end which is sore to him, so he lifts his foot quickly and higher to avoid the pain, after a while
they take the bar and screw off just before show time, but by that time the horse's foot is still sore. There you
go you have a sore horse without using chemicals. The hallmark identifier of a pressure shod horse is very
simple to recognize, if a horse puts his front heel down on the ground first when he walks, he's been pressure
shod, horses simply don't walk that way naturally..and the other tell-tale sign is the long toes to the point of
"dishing" of the front feet. A normal horse could not "break" over these long toes, but if it was putting it's heel
down first, it could be done. These are just a couple examples of the way they pressure shoe.
WHITE STAR
In 1954 White Star was the last keg-shod horse to win the World Grand Championship Class. She showed
against the padded up horse and was picked by the judges and the attending crowd as the WGC (World
Grand Champion). Since then keg shod horses just didn’t show up anymore to compete against the padded
horse. No rule was enacted preventing lite shod horses from showing for the WGC; the rules stated the
maximum height and weight of shoes and action devices. NO MINIMUM! That is until the Jackson’s and a 4-
year-old stallion named CHAMPAGNE WATCHOUT came along.
INTERPRETING THE RULES
The Jackson’s poured over the rule book looking for rules that would preclude them from showing their horse
along side of the padded horse, they could find none, so right then they decided to vie for the WGC in 1998.
They started training their horse for the class; they started a 8-month long advertising campaign in the breed’s
magazine THE VOICE OF THE TENNESSEE WALKING HORSE, culminating in a two-page color spread in the
July 1998 issue.
In that same month Nathanael placed a call to The National Celebration CEO Mr. Ron Thomas and asked him if
he knew of any rule that prevented us from showing our lite shod horse in the WGC class. Mr. Thomas said he
knew of none and invited him to “Come On Down!” and show our horse.
The Jackson’s packed up their horses and 7 children and headed for nearly 2800-mile trek to Tennessee. The
rules governing the Tennessee Walking Horse is written by and enforced by The National Horse Show
Commissions. In those rules it says that a horse can show “UP” in divisions, but can’t show down, meaning a
lite shod horse can show in lite shod classes and then show in the upper divisions of the heavy shod or
padded divisions, but a heavy shod or padded horse could not show in a lite shod division.
The Jackson’s showed CHAMPAGNE WATCHOUT in Versatility (trail, western riding, reining, pleasue and
obstacles driving, jumping etc) classes and 2 gaited (no canter) and 3 gaited (canter) rail classes at the
TWHBEA’S World Grand Championship Versatility Show held the last weekend of July in Murfreesboro, and the
WHOA’S International World Grand Championship Show held at the same facility directly following that show.
He placed very well in both of those shows.
THE CHECK
Nathanael went to The Celebration’s entry office and signed up his horse for the 4-year-old stallion qualifying
class and the WGC class $106,00 and $2006.00 respectfully for entry fees for the show that would be held the
last weekend of August. The Celebration accepted the checks and cashed them. The stage was set for the first
lite shod horse to compete against the padded horse in 45 years.
THE DENIAL
The Jackson’s were contacted by Mr. Thomas and asked to please come to his office and meet with him. The
Jackson’s complied and went they got there they were introduced to Mr. John T. Bobo Esq., representing The
Celebration. They then asked us what our plans were, we told them and they asked if we wouldn’t be more
satisfied winning the Lite Shod World Championship Class than trying to show in a class that they thought our
horse was not decked out properly to compete in. We said no, The Celebration at that time offered 1 and 1
only WORLD GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP CLASS, all the rest of the winners in other classes and divisions only
received a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP designation. We explained that most of the horses that competed in the
WGC class were seen by at least 28,000 people not including the television audience and that the horses
competing in that class were mostly stallions who then receive good breeding recognition because of their
appearance and performance and I wanted my stallion to have access to that platform.
We were asked again, wouldn’t we be happier KNOWING that our horse would be recognized as the World
Champion Lite Shod Horse. We’ll admit that we were not picking up on the signals that were being sent and we
continued to assert that the rule book says that we could show our horse in that venue. Then the subject
shifted to the ability of the judges to judge a class with 2 different shod horses and that we should talk to the
Director of Judges, Mr. Jim Kane (deceased) at the NHSC. They said if Mr. Kane signed on, we would be
allowed to show our horse in the class we wanted to. But before we left we were once again for the third time
asked if we wouldn’t achieve the same recognition for a breeding stallion as the WC Lite Shod Horse.
HERE COMES DA JUDGE
We left the Celebration office and traveled a few blocks over to the NHSC office and were received by Mr.
Kane. Now what the Celebration did not know was that Nathanael had spoken to Mr. Kane at length about a
Lite Shod Horse showing in the WGC the previous 1997 fall at The Western States Celebration in Reno,
Nevada where he was monitoring the show and we were participating. At that time he also agreed with him that
there should be no problem with the two horses showing together and that if the judges back in the day could
distinguish the most correct and most consistent basic gait between the padded horse and the Lite Shod
Horse, and choose the Lite Shod Horse as the champion, it could be done today.
Mr. Kane tried to reason with us also asking if we would not be satisfied with winning the World Championship
Lite Shod Division, by now the lights were coming on, exactly what was being offered. We again stated that we
wanted to show in the WGC class. He said he would think about it and let us know. We received a letter stating
that we would not be permitted to show our horse in the WGC class.
SUNDAY BANKING
We were invited by Mr. Thomas to attend a special meeting of the board of directors of The Celebration and
their attorneys at The Union Planter’s Bank in downtown Shelbyville on one Sunday afternoon. We entered a
big boardroom where we were very cordially received and introduced to everyone there. We outlined our case
and pointed out the specific rules and regulations of the official rule book governing The Celebration and all
members of the Tennessee Walking Horse World. They took it under advisement and said they would get back
in touch with us. They notified us via mail that we would not be allowed to show in the qualifying 4-year-old
stallion class nor the World Grand championship class.
We met some people who had gotten wind of what was going on and they referred us to a local attorney who
reviewed the rule book and also concluded there was no rule prohibiting us from showing in the WGC class, he
wrote a letter to the Celebration requesting that they re-address this issue and reverse their decision, they
declined stating that they were protecting the integrity of the class. We then went through the outlined
procedure of filing an official protest with The NHSC. They shifted it back to the Celebration without any action
on the complaint. Now the word was out and several newspapers and TV stations contacted us about our case,
it was picked up by the Associated Press and appeared in several newspapers across the United States. We
were told that there was a "Run" on the rule books, as organizations that issue the rule books ran out because
so many curious people had requested copies to read for themselves what the rules said.
We were referred to a Nashville attorney who told us that he would take our case for 1 penny. He said that he
did not like bullies and that if necessary we would get a federal injunction to shut down the Celebration for that
year until a Federal Magistrate heard the case. He wrote letters and sent faxes to the Celebration again
outlining our case and demanding that they honor the rules, which they were governed by. They wrote letters
stating their position which was mainly they felt that allowing my horse show was somehow violating the
traditions and integrity of the show.
THE BRIBE
While at a friend’s home we received a phone call from our attorney on our cell phone. He told us that we had
an offer on the table from the Celebration asking us “How much would it take for us to go away and not pursue
this case?” Our attorney left it to us to discuss this and after discussing it with some involved friends, some
wanted us to turn it down and proceed directly to court. We told the attorney that we decided to respectfully
turn down their offer and show our horse. Then they offered to let us present our horse to the whole of the
audience right before the WGC class all alone in the arena with the lights down and spotlighted all around the
arena, they said that we could have the announcer say anything that we wanted. (I was later told that this type
of special exhibition has a price tag on it of $5,000.00.) We respectfully declined that offer also.
THE ARBITRATION
The next offer was then tendered, would we be willing to go to binding arbitration, in which they would pay for it
and we could select the judge to hear the case? We wanted to proceed to the court but our attorney advised
us that we would not stand a chance now in court if arbitration was offered and we turned it down. He stated
that Federal Court was the last option when all other forms of negotiation have fallen through and no
settlement had been reached. We reluctantly accepted the arbitration and our attorney selected a retired
judge that worked in his office building in Nashville. We tried to get people who knew the issues of the rule
book, even a former NHSC Judging Director to stand up with us. But everyone declined, citing perceived
inherent danger of doing something like that and living here in the South. We met with our attorney at the KFC
on the day of the hearing, we traveled the few blocks again to the Bank’s boardroom. Upon reaching the
hearing, our attorney informed us that the judge he had selected could not make it, so The Celebration
selected one to replace him. Yes, we were naive, we believed a judge was above been corrupted by something
like this and that no matter who was sitting on the bench, the only issue was does the current rules preclude us
from showing our horse? We felt that the truth would be all that we needed to prevail. So we went forth.
THE INQUISITION
We showed up with all of our children who sat very quietly throughout the hearing. We were introduced to
everyone there which included besides the sitting board members and their attorneys, The Executive Director
and Attorney R. Craig Evans for the up until then silent NHSC, and the President and Executive Director of
Crisis International Associates out of Georgia. The Judge Matthew J, Sweeney (Ret), stated that he did not
know much about the Tennessee Walking Horse or it’s industry and set the ground rules for the hearing. He
turned the floor over to our attorney who proceeded to also claim he knew very little about the issues and said
that Nathanael and Jennie were better informed and would let us conduct the case. Well this was a shock to us
because he had not said anything like that to us before we went in there; we had the distinct impression that he
would be representing us. We took the challenge and began presenting our case. One by one the defense
took what was dubbed “The Hot Seat” after a couple of witnesses had sat in the chair directly across from
Nathanael and was questioned by him. The Jackson’s presented photos of past WGC’s such as Midnight Sun,
Strolling Jim and others and compared their walking pose against that of Champagne Watchout. The poses
were pretty much identical, using that as a platform to show that from the beginning these were the
foundational horses, then he presented photos of past padded WGC showing the aberrancy of the gait. The
rules book was pulled out and all clauses pertaining to the requirements, standards and prohibitions of
showing were presented. To us it was very clear with absolutely no gray areas, there was a maximum on shoe
size, weight of the action device, which also stated that bell boots were also acceptable, and the tail assembly,
which said a humane tail may be worn, (that’s kinda like a wig, that gives the walking horse that built up look on
the tail, most all of the padded horses have had the tendons that control the movement of tail cut, thus the tail
can be moved and fixed in any position with a special rigging.
Board director David Howard, also the owner of WORLD CHAMPION TACK STORE and the trade paper THE
WALKING HORSE REPORT, started asking some irrelevant and stupid questions about the Jackson’s
personal life. He asked the Jackson’s where they got their money from to advertise and enter their horse in the
Celebration, When we told the judge that all of these breeding stallions get very good responses from showing
in this class, Mr. Howard asked us if Watchout had every bred a mare, we said no, he then snapped back then
how do we know if he is able to sire any mares and is not sterile. I asked him if any of the other entries had to
answer those kind of questions and what does that have to do with the rule book It was our distinct impression
that he was the power behind all of this, he pressed how he felt that the integrity and traditions were being
violated, this was parroted by Ron Thomas. Mr. Howard told the judge that we was exploiting a loop-hole in the
rule books, we retorted that there is no loop-hole, it was very clear what the framers of the rule book had
meant,it’s just that no one had ever tried to act on the literal word of the rule book as we were now doing.
We raised the point that Mr. Howard has a direct conflict of interest in this matter as the big Marquee to the
Celebration sitting out there on main street was clearly a huge billboard for Mr. Howard’s business’, it had his
store and his paper plastered all over it. We pointed out how Mr. Howard had a monopoly on the tack stores
that could be vendors at the show and how his paper was the only publication allowed to be present on the
show grounds during the show.
Mr. Thomas explained to the judge that he felt that my horse would be overwhelmed by the more powerful and
faster padded horse, he asked us what we would do in the event that these horses would be flying by me. We
told him that we didn’t think that these horses were any more powerful than mine, in any case, it was not a race
and that if the situation should arise we would do what anybody with a slower horse is suppose to do, stay on
the rail and let the other horses pass. He then told the judge he thought letting our horse show would be like a
family car trying to race in the Indianapolis 500 race, the car would be left in the dust and be a danger to
everyone else out there racing.
We told the judge that they really only had two choices, one; honor the rule book and let us show, two: let us
show and change the rule book for the next year, but in any case the rules had to be upheld. How can you
expect to govern all of the people by one set of standards and let the big corporations make up their own rules
and do what they want?
THE RACE CARD
Then they bought out their big guns, the two gentlemen from Georgia who were crisis and riot consultants,
without ever speaking to us to interview us they characterized us as poster children for disaster to happen,
they said because Nathanael was black and our horse was a lite shod horse, there was going to be over
30,000 drunken rednecks in the stands and there would be a riot. BAM! There it was; they just played the
Race Card! Race had not been an issue until then. They said that this was virtually a power keg ready to
explode. We came back and stated that Tiger Woods had just finished winning the Augusta Master’s Golf
Tournament a couple weeks before this and there was not a riot, was Tennessee that backwards? That shut
them up.
A VOICE OF REASON
Their side then called R. Craig Evans to the stand, now he’s the Executive Director and Attorney for as we said
the now up until then silent and non-responsive NHSC, the actual governing body and of the rules, regulations
and standards for the industry that should of have settled this according to the rule book, it was their job to rule
on my official complaint and hand down a decision, but they just deferred it back to the Celebration. We
objected to his testimony, he asked if he please would be allowed to testify anyways. He explained his
interpretation of the rules and surprisingly stated upon questioning from us he interpreted the rules as saying
that there was no reason for us not to be able to show our horse in the class we wanted to. We respected him
for standing in the midst of all of those people and telling the truth, career wise and business wise, he took a
chance by voicing his honest opinion. Out of all the board members and expert witnesses that testified that the
rules may say that we can show, but their traditions and integrity were more important than the rules, he owned
up to the truth.
LET THE CHILDREN SPEAK
We concluded the hearing, by hearing testimony from the Jackson children, they each spoke of their
understanding of fair play and feelings about the issues, and they were articulate and sincere. Natalie walked
away from that and said she wanted to be an attorney because they had inspired her. That was a good thing.
The Judge said that he would take the matter under submission and render his decision that day or the next
morning.
THE MORNING AFTER PILL
The next morning the decision was handed down and faxed to our lawyer, who faxed it to us, the judge agreed
that the rule books do allow us to show our horse, but he felt that judging the two different styles of gaits would
be near impossible for the judge of today, he also agreed with the Celebration that the integrity and traditions
would by violated, so on those points he denied our petition. This floored us, how would conjectures and
feelings overrule the written word in this case? Well that took most of the wind out of our sails, their lawyer
proposed to offer us money to pay for our trip back home, we respectfully turned that offer down, because we
still wanted to show our horse, but the entry deadline had come and gone. So graciously they did something
that had never been done, they reopened the entry application for us. We entered Watchout in both a lite shod
class and a heavy shod class (requirements for this class was that a maximum metal shoe of 1- 11/2 shoe
could be worn.) They refunded our entry fee for the WGC class and that was the end of that, OR was it?
Jennie showed him in one class and Nathanael showed him in another to a rousing round of boos and jeers.
Jennie did well but Nathanael faltered a bit and took we think a tenth place.
1999
SAY WHAT?
That would have been the end of the story had The Celebration and the NHSC left things alone right there. But
they acted in what they thought was closing a loophole. The NHSC rule book clearly states that if a new rule
was to be instituted it would have to be written, then sent out for public comment for 6 months and then it would
be enacted the following calendar year. Not our interpretation, it is what is said. Well, they issued a new rule
without doing any of this we dubbed THE WATCHOUT CLAUSE …this clause states that there will be from now
on a minimum of pad height on the classes calling for the padded horse, they said the minimum would be a
½ inch pad. They somehow thought we were such purists that we would not put a pad on our horse, shoot,
that’s just a therapeutic cushioning pad for us. The challenge was on for 1999.
We started making our plans for a return of the king, we then returned to Tennessee as we did every year and
competed in all the Versatility and Rail classes at the WHOA International Championship Show, we did real well
with our horses winning High Point Awards for Adult and Youth. We then went and placed our entry for the 5-
year-old-stallion qualifying class, which is the qualifier for the WGC class at the Celebration. We were
contacted by Mr. John T. Bobo, attorney for the Celebration and told based on the decision by the judge the
previous year they were denying my entry. We explained to Mr. Bobo that the new rules stated that a horse
could have a minimum of ½ inch pad on and that this was to be confirmed in the pre-class check in on the
show grounds, and our horse was not to be denied the chance to meet the qualifications of the class any time
before that. They still denied our entry.
GOTCHA!
We went and hired another Nashville attorney who reviewed everything from the previous year and felt that this
time we had an excellent chance of presenting our case before a Federal Magistrate and seek an injunction for
them to cease and desist barring us from showing in the WGC class or an injunction shutting down the show
completely. Our attorney faxed and then mailed a letter to the Celebration stating our intentions and they had
until 5 PM to respond.
THE WARRANT FOR NATHANAEL’S ARREST
The Jackson’s were out shopping when we got a phone call on our cell from the barn we were staying at stating
that two undercover police officers had just come to our barn and were looking for Nathanael to serve him
some papers, they thought it was a warrant for his arrest. The kids were crying and they were scared. We
thought who would swear out a warrant for Nathanael’s arrest? The best that we could come up with was that
someone falsely accused him of something and the plan was to get him out of the way to intimidate Jennie and
the kids.
We drove around trying to think of what to do, then it hit us, a TV news reporter and camera crew were in route
to us to do an interview, we contacted the TV station and told them what was going on, they had the news crew
contact us and we arranged to meet them in the parking lot of a super market. When we met them we told them
all that had transpired, so we decided that we all would go back to the barn and see what was going on. The
cameraman prepared his camera, placed a mic on Nathanael and the reporter drove their vehicle. When we
got close to the barn we passed an unmarked police sedan that turned around and followed us back to the
barn. Nathanael told the cameraman that if they started to beat on him for him to put down the camera and
help me, he didn’t want to be another Rodney King. Also, if they did take him to jail to follow us all the way to
the jail so he wouldn’t just disappear, Hey! It’s been done before.
We pulled into the driveway and shortly afterwards the sedan pulled in behind us, there was one officer in the
car and when he saw the TV camera and reporter with a mic, Nathanael had been mic’d up with one attached
to his shirt, the officer stayed in his vehicle and asked for Nathanael, he thought this is a funny arrest, what
was he going to do, reach back and open the back door and ask him to put on some handcuff himself and sit in
the back seat? He identified himself as a detective for the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office. He had an envelope
that he gave to Nathanael, we read it aloud for the camera and saw that it was a letter from Mr. Bobo saying
that they were accepting our entry and that we could show our horse in the Qualifying Class #65 AND the
WGC Class #138! Jennie asked the officer why were the Sheriff’s department delivering a letter for a private
organization? He said he was doing a favor for a friend. He placed his car in reverse and backed out of the
driveway. The stage was now set for History making events!
We put a couple of the kids on an airplane to go back home to start school. So we were left with the 3 smallest
kids.
MY KINGDOM FOR A RIDER!
We knew because they had played the race card Nathanael had to show and they were expecting him. But we
knew that he was not the best rider we had, admittedly, this was not a class for him to ride. During the off
season in 1998 before the Celebration, We researched the Celebration’s history and found that there had
never in it’s history ever been a black owner who showed a horse in the WGC class nor ever a black rider in
the class, and there had never been a juvenile to ride in the class! In trying to recover from playing the race
card in 1998 the Celebration hires the first woman ever to be a ring steward in 1999, (those are official people
assigned one to each judge to carry their judges cards back to be scored and basically kind of take care of
them) and would you be surprised if we told you that she was black? Also, for the first time in the Celebration’s
history they hire a black lady to sing the Star Spangled Banner. It’s a bit patronizing, but in many incidences,
that’s how change has to come about.
THE QUALIFICATION
The qualifying class is held about 4-5 days before the championship class is held. When we put in our entry for
the qualifying preliminary class we had to designate a rider, we put Jennie down for the qualifying round, which
is nothing more than, stay on your horse and don’t get disqualified for something and this makes you eligible
for the championship class. But for the WGC class we were in a quandary of what to do. Jennie showed up for
her class.
Nathanael led Watchout into the “Lion’s Den” this is the area where all the horses getting ready to show
congregate waiting to go into their respective class, horses are being ridden to warm them up and tack being
prepared for the show. This is also where the DQP station is, (Designated Qualified Person, these are people
who check the horse’s for compliance and to make sure that horses are not sored by palpating, sometimes
thermography checking for unusual heat to the pastern area, and sometimes using a type of fluoroscope to
check for foreign body under the hooves), once you get checked you are not allowed to leave the area without
being rechecked. When he entered the area, all activity stopped as everyone watches him lead his glistening
gold colored stallion to behind the curtains where the DQP station was set up. There were jeers and comments
made to him as he approached the curtains, they kept walking. When he got in the DQP area and was brought
up to be checked there were so many officials around him and they all watched with baited breath as the DQP
palpated Watchout’s foot so hard their fingers blanched, they checked him over head to toe and front to back.
The warm up arena was still silent as they waited to see if he passed inspection, when he came out the other
end of the curtain they knew, because if you did not pass, you exited out the same way you went in. The
activity picked back up as we just stood there and waited for the class. No one approached us nor said
anything to us, until Mr. Craig Evans came up to us and said that someone had complained that we had not
rode our horse around with an minimum of a 2 oz chain to let the DQP person out in the warm arena watch
each horse go around and see if anything showed up as being sored had been missed in the inspection area.
So we put Jennie up on him and said we will not use the 2 oz chain but the authorized bell boots. They asked to
see the bell boots and they turned them inside out checking for anything in there that could sore the horse’s
feet. These bell boots were not weighed. They approved and Jennie took a quick spin around the arena as
every eye glared at her ride. After he passed that little inspection we sat and waited.
THE 3-MINUTE CLOCK
The order of entrance into the arena was random, however, there was a 3-minute clock that ran and if you had
not entered the arena by the time it expired the gate would be closed on you. Jennie sat on Watchout in the
furtherest corner of the arena waiting for all the other horses to enter, she wanted to be the last horse in, there
was another horse Generator’s Champion who had won his division of the qualifying class who wanted to be in
last, so they both sat there and watched the clock. Jennie later said that she knew she could make it down the
ramp in a few seconds and make the gate, but the other horse would take much more time because of the
pads. Champion couldn't’t wait any longer and he took off, Jennie followed, as she started down the ramp, a
couple of grooms jumped out in front of her waving towels and yelling at them trying to spook our horse. They
didn’t know Watchout, he’s a 17HH and at that time about 1400 lbs of toned horse, he has worked cattle and
he was not phased by this distraction at all and Jennie rode right through them brushing them to the side. They
entered the arena to a loud and rousing round of jeers and boos.
She showed Watchout in a flawless ride, we had worked out some ring tactics that we employed in this class.
Historically, these padded up horses are stressed so hard in these classes that when they call for the horses to
reverse and show in the other direction the horses sit there and “blow” they are heaving and dripping with
sweat, it’s a wonder that they just don’t fall over, and some do. Well, the rules (by now that terms has
absolutely no meaning) states that when the reverse is called for you are to immediately turn your horse
around and go the opposite direction. Nathanael told Jennie to sit on the rail with the rest of the horses and
wait until they all started moving again before she proceeded. Again she had a beautiful, flawless ride, when
she lined up for the final judging and the judges walked up to her horse, the crowd again booed her. The class
was judged and she received no ribbon, but had qualified to enter the WGC class.
THE HIT MAN.
We decided to put Natalie on him and let her show, the class was an open class, which meant that anyone
could show a horse in that particular class, some classes are designated as amateur classes which means that
trainers could not ride against amateurs, giving them a better chance to win. Open classes were for anybody.
Natalie had just turned 15 the month before. She had only ridden Watchout no more than two times before this.
We put her on a plane and flew her back to Tennessee on a Friday, the day before the WGC class. Nathanael
went to the airport to pick up and said it felt like he was going to pick up an out-of-town hit man.
She went to the barn and practiced on him in an open field with Jennie coaching her. We received another
hand-delivered letter from Mr. Bobo stating that they had heard of our plans from our rider designation on the
entry form to let our daughter ride him, the letter pleaded with us not to let her show and that Nathanael should
be the one to ride. We took his letter under advisement. We had several well-meaning people approach us and
plead with us not to put Natalie out there, but they did not know how well Jackson children could ride. We stuck
to our plans.
SHOW YOUR CLASS…
David Howard, who as we said earlier was a sitting board member and the owner of the trade paper The
Walking Horse Report, not only abused his power and printed a article the night before the WGC’s and had
them distributed by the thousands at the Celebration show grounds, but displayed the kind of courage that
scoundrels take when they don’t get their way..We are reprinting this article word for ugly word because to us it
shows the lengths that they went to, to be controlling. Printed August 24, 1999 in The Walking Horse Report.
“Nathan Jackson has entered his lite shod horse in the Grand Championship Stake by virtue of a
loophole in the rules. His wife showed the horse – Champagne Watchout – in the preliminary class and
was greeted with boos.
Media sources are prepared to report that Nathan’s daughter – a juvenile – will be showing the horse
Saturday night but there is no way of knowing what this man is planning.
I find it difficult to believe that any man would show such a total disregard for the safety of his family,
his horse or the other competitors and their horses. His child, his horse and the legitimate entrants in
the class deserve more.
The National Horse Show Commission and the Celebration need to address this situation. To expose this
youngster and the other riders to such a dangerous situation is unacceptable.
Nathan has his own agenda and there is no telling what other stunt he has in mind for the class in his
attempt to embarrass the industry and get a little attention for himself.
Almost all people – pleasure and padded – are offended and outraged by Nathan’s actions, but please
simply ignore him and his horse if they come into the ring. Nothing would suit him better than for the
crowd to give him an issue to run with to the media.
If you like his horse, cheer for him, if not, ignore him and watch a great class of horses compete for the
World Grand Championship.”
Is that not the ugliest, meanest and most prejudicial thing you ever heard of from an sitting official advising
people before a contest how to respond to one of the entrants before the class had even been held? We think
he thought that Nathanael was going to show up there in a Zoot Suit or something!
They just could not lose gracefully and let the show go on.
THE BELL BOOTS
We practiced with the two on Saturday morning and went looking for a show jacket Natalie could ride in, we
found the perfect gold jacket and in her size at Bedford Tack, then just rested up for the show. When the time
came we loaded up the trailer and left for the show, when we got there we realized that we had left Watchout’s
bell boot at the barn (The rule book stated that a horse could show in bell boots instead of the heavy chains,
we opted for the foot protecting bell boot which was lined with sheep’s skin to protect from chaffing the foot).
Nathanael unhooked the trailer and took off back to the barn. Upon arriving the bell boots were not where he
was told they would be so him and Jeremiah, his youngest child, scoured the area for the boots and could not
find them. So back to the truck he went figuring they had to be in the trailer somewhere, and just as he started
to leave Jeremiah ran up to him with the bell boots! When asked where they were, they were in a very little
used cabinet away from the rest of the tack. Go figure! Back to the show grounds he flew, when he got there
they were preparing Watchout and we led him to the DQP area
WALK THIS WAY
Nathanael again led Watchout to the DQP area and again they thoroughly went over him and checked him. He
passed and the stage was set for history to be made. For the WGC class, horses were given a position of
when they were to enter. Natalie wearing the number 140 was to be the first to enter the arena in front of
28,000 – 30,000 people. Some cheers met her and some boos. But she definitely had everyone’s attention.
We'll tell you about some interesting highlights of that class that you probably never knew and no one does,
mainly because we own the only tape of Watchout’s ride because we bought the only copy of the master
tape….. When you watch Natalie ride in, when she gets to the end of her entrance and comes to a halt to let
the other horses enter, look right at the base of Watchout’s tail and you’ll see a lady with a pink sweater and a
man with glasses on, then you’ll see Jennie with a white short sleeve shirt and black homburg hat on asking the
people if she could step in there real quick and give Natalie a couple pointers in riding Watchout. You’ll see the
lady say no and point for her to leave, the guy shakes his head no and tells her to leave…(nice people huh?)
….
Well the announcer called for the class to start riding, the moment of truth was upon us, was she going to be
overwhelmed by the more powerful and faster padded horses as David Howard and Ron Thomas predicted?
Natalie took off, she had to take to the inside of the arena track because she couldn't get to the rail and ride
like we told her because of the slower padded horses. Well, we guess they didn’t have the crystal ball or
foresight they wanted everyone to believe they had.
Remember when we told you about Jennie qualifying Watchout in her 5 y/o stallion class, and we told her to
stop on the reverse way like all the other horses do and wait until they started up again before she started up
again?…well in the championship class with Natalie…we told her when they announced for them to reverse for
her to turn Watchout around and not to stop and get on the rail and ride!… she did and turned him on a dime
switched her whip, which looks like she was drawing a sword and she was the only thing moving out there!
Again she had to take the line of inside of the track because of all the horses on the rail. There was complete
silence in the stadium as every eye watched Natalie ride…Larry Bright the organist started playing a song that
you might recognize…”It Had To Be You”…Is that great or what? She traveled a complete lap around that
arena before the first horse moved. The other riders could only just watch Natalie & Watchout ride by
them…they had to let their horse’s blow before they could start up again….The announcer seeing the
embarrassment of this tried to gaff and goad the other riders to get moving, after all, the governor of the state
of Tennessee was in the center arena watching this class.
Observe on the reverse canter (going left to right on your screen) an out of control horse and rider brush
Natalie & Watchout and stop short right in front of them both making her veer out of his way before running into
him…his horse was so out of control! Now we knew Ron Thomas, David Howard was just waiting for her to
mess up and do something they could scream was dangerous so they could stop the class and excuse her.
Watch Natalie get to the lineup to take her saddle off, she has Watchout back up….then they call for grooms
in…Jennie and Nathanael go out there and Nathanael give Natalie a big hug because I was so proud of
her…well the announcer IMMEDIATELY says “Saddles off, Saddles off please!” to break us up! …now watch
the sweat and how hard the horses are blowing when they take off their saddles and the judges walk by to
review them…look at Watchout and how much he had sweated and he never stopped moving out there and
rested like they did! Another good observation is, watch Natalie PARK OUT Watchout, this means to present
your horse stretched out making for a beautiful frame of the horse, which is required for the horse to do. .
Watch ALL of the other riders try to park out their horses, you'll see the horse step forward his whole body
because it is way to painful for them to put pressure on their front feet to PARK OUT., another tale-tell sign that
a horse has been sored!
You’ll hear the announcer say don’t put on your saddles until I tell you to…well, after they inspected Watchout
Jennie told Nathanael to go get the saddle to put back on Watchout…so it’s not enough that we didn’t already
have enough attention on us…here he was putting the saddle back on him. Take a look at the 3 of us talking,
and Watchout just calmly standing there with us, as we all were discussing the ride. They told the riders to get
back on the horse, Nathanael was going to give Natalie a hand and she said I’ll do it, watch her snap the reins
over Watchout’s head and climb up in the saddle. We didn’t know there was going to be a work off, we thought
that the class was over so when Jennie & Nathanael left the ring, we didn’t say anything about what to do for
the work off…
Now watch how long the judges spend at each horse…then they come to Watchout and they pitch camp! They
had us take off his bell boots to make sure we didn’t have anything in there to SORE him as they told us!!! Can
you believe that?!!! Off she went again…but this time around when they called for the reverse, one rider just
couldn't watch her ride by him again so he took off…You'll see her ride by a chestnut colored horse named
Generator's Champion, you'll observe the rider stretched out over the horse's neck doing something to the
horses face, well, the rules books state that if you dismount you'll be disqualified. What that gentleman is doing
is this: If you look closely you'll see these very long shanked bits in these horses mouths, (compared to our
short direct pull bit) this is to get leverage in controlling the horse's head, it's the fulcrum and lever principal,
the longer the shank of the bit the more leverage you can get onto the fulcrum, which is the curb chain located
under the horse's chin (bottom lip), in other words, you can really crank down on a horse's mouth but putting a
curb chain under his chin and pulling back hard on the reins. Well, when you keep constant pressure doing
this, the horse's chin, bottom lip can and does go numb, when this happens the horse does not respond very
well to continued pressure and actually starts to respond less because it no longer hurts. Well, what he is
doing is reaching up under that curb chain and loosing it up and massaging the chin to get the blood flowing
back into that area and reestablishing feeling back in the chin and lip area so he can continue to control his
horse's head.
Natalie rode like a professional! There were 2 horses out there that broke down in the canter and just stopped!
Generator’s Champion was one of them that is why he got booed for taking 2nd place and still both of those
horses placed over Natalie…which again the rule book states that if any horse does not complete all gaits, they
are not to be picked over a horse that does. The rule book also says that the horses must complete a full turn
around the arena in the canter, which the judges cut short because horses were starting to break down and
stop dead in their tracks.
When Natalie lined up for the final review by the judges, we had told her to get on the end of the line and stay
there, don’t get sandwiched between two horses. You’ll watch her side pass several times to allow the horses
to line up inside of her. You’ll also see Natalie applauding for every rider called for a ribbon, as good
sportsmanship had been taught to her years and years before
We want to give a well deserved thank you and special kudos to one of the judges The Honorable Roger
Hand, he placed Watchout and Natalie as 10th on his judging card. He acknowledged her presence and her
ride by placing her at least over 2 of the horses out there that night. That took courage.
Entries for this class are closed at noon on Friday before the class…well when they decided to let us
show…they let 3 horses enter after the deadline because Nathanael checked to see how many horses were
going to be showing, we believe this was done so we would not be in the ribbons or the history books as being
there.
WHERE'S A GOOD COP WHEN YOU NEED ONE?
When Natalie was about to enter the arena Nathanael asked the head of the security for the Celebration, Mr.
David Nash, for an escort for our daughter down the entry shoot because of what happened to Jennie in her
qualifying ride, he said to me, “Mr. Jackson, you bought this on yourself so you deal with it.” We were amazed
at the pettiness of these people, After we left the show ring a man ran by Watchout and stabbed him in the butt
with something that made him kick out …we were so glad no one was standing behind him…we stood outside
the gate after the class for a long time because so many people came down and wanted to talk to us and take
pictures of Watchout and Natalie. So when we were ready to go to our trailer Nathanael asked a REAL
policeman on horseback to watch over us because of the problems we had before, he graciously did and had 2
other officers on horse back come and assist. They waited for us and then escorted us along with some good
friends back to our trailer and waited for us to pack up and leave..
Coming out of the exit gate of the class
…This is a picture of Natalie & Watchout right after the class.
Well the next year in 2000 they came up with THE NATALIE CLAUSE, which said only professional riders could
show in that class! Then they came up with THE HUMANE TAIL CLAUSE, which said that horses could not
show with a humane tail, that they had to have their tails cut! This because Ron Thomas told us "He wasn’t
going to let our horse in with that ugly tail sitting up there on his ass." We asked who’s going to monitor that?
First the DQP had to check to see if the feet weren’t sore now they have to go to check to see if the tail had
been sored by being cut? They dropped that.
After the show, The Celebration came out with the Official 1999 highlight videotape of the whole Celebration
show. When the WGC class was shown, they shown Natalie and Watchout entering the arena, but never
showed them again as they highlighted every other horse in the class several times. She can be seen a couple
of time riding by a horse that was being highlighted, but never her alone. We however, purchased the only
copy, the master tape of Natalie’s ride, which is available FREE by request below. You be the judge!
We've make some bold statements about horses been sored, we also said that every thing we've said here
can be backed up. Well, we know about soring because years and years ago Jennie used to sore horses until
God changed her heart and she changed her ways. Since that time we have made it our mission in life to let
everyone we can know how soring is done, she first told the world in The 1986 CNN Special Assignment
Report about the abuses to TWH's, and then followed that up with an open letter to sore horse trainers in
the now defunk Steppin Out Newspaper:.
An Open Letter To Sore Horse Trainers From An Ex-Sore Horse Trainer
Well you got it from the horse’s mouth, as it were!
Here is a list of the changes that came out of these two years:
2000
Before:
Only padded horses with a maximum of a 4-inch pads could show in the class.
After:
Horses with a minimum of a ½ inch pads could now show.. THE WATCHOUT CLAUSE
Before:
The Celebration’s main marquee on main street with the World Champion Tack and Walking Horse Report
name all over it had been a mainstay for years.
After:
That sign was removed and replaced with a non-commercial sign.
Before:
There was only one World Grand Championship Title and Class, every other divisional winner for the past
61 years was crowned A World Champion.
After:
There are now 24 World Grand Championship Titles and Classes representing every division. Every horse
since year 2000 who has won a Championship class at The Celebration owes the designation of World Grand
Champion title to Champagne Watchout!
Before:
The WGC was an Open Class that any body could ride in.
After:
Only professional Trainers can now ride in it. THE NATALIE CLAUSE, she became the first and now the ONLY
juvenile to exhibit in that class.
Before:
There had never been an Afro-American Owner of a horse or Exhibitor to ever ride in the WGC.
After:
We became the first Afro-American Owner of a horse and Exhibitor in its 61-year history to successfully show in
that class.
Before:
There had never been a female Steward to work center ring at the Celebration.
After:
The first female steward who was also Afro-American was hired.
Before:
There had never been an Afro-American to sing the national Anthem in the Celebration.
After:
The first Afro-American sang the national Anthem was hired.
After:
Several organizations dedicated to only the clean flat shod horse sprang up, the attention of a lite shod horse
inspired many to now boldly stand for the right thing to do with our horses. Many people became strong activist
and advocates against soring practices and for the promotion of the lite shod horse. This too is a good thing
THE KU KLUX KLAN
As a side note, after the Celebration history making ride, several people were caught in a private chat room on
the Internet, plotting to have the KKK take Nathanael and Natalie Jackson and do terrible things to them both.
The FBI was contacted and they subpoenaed the list, names and addresses of each of them each and every
one of those people were visited by the FBI, confronted with their email's and warned that if anything were
happened to us they would be the first people they come looking for. Those people now have an FBI file on
them.
In all fairness, a couple of the above mentioned people in the chat room have since become very nice and
apologetic about the incidence, we've been treated to dinner and a warm welcome by them every time we see
them. Sometimes people just talk and really don't mean what they are saying, we all do that one time or
another, and it is not who the person really is. Just a little bit of "Acting Out."
Whether you thought it was right or wrong for the horse to be shown, it was history, and that, my friend you can
never dispute or change.
Because of the overwhelming request for the video, we have had to put it up on the website for viewing,
VIEW The 1999 Celebration WGC Class Video NOW! AND The 1986 CNN Special Assignment Report
On The Abuses To The TWH
.
Many people have asked us to memorialize the history changing events surrounding the 1998 – 1999
TENNESSEE WALKING HORSE NATIONAL CELEBRATION.
Most have heard bits of pieces and wild rumors of what occurred, we are going to set the record straight and
tell you the facts of that time. We are going to write this in simplified detailed terms for the many who are not
part of this breed that are also interested in what happened. So those who are in the breed please bear with us.
History is the retelling of events that have happened before today. It is not something that you can change, nor
erase or ignore. Before the written word or advent of the film and video, all of history was passed down from
generation to generation by mouth to mouth. Now we can go back and actually review pass recorded events.
This story is not about the glorification of the people or the horse, this is about what happened that change the
status quote of a 61-year-old industry. How by putting one tin soldier up against a major force can effect
change in policies, perception, minds and hearts. All information here can be verified and corroborated. We left
most names out, feeling that we think time has shown them to be wrong and they now know it, we had to
however state the names of “Major” officials in order to preserve the integrity of the story. Here we go.
1997
Jennie and Nathanael Jackson living in Copperopolis California were discussing the rules of the organization
they belonged to THE TENNESSEE WALKING HORSE BREEDERS AND EXHIBITORS ASSOCIATION, and
THE WALKING HORSE TRAINERS ASSOCIATION, both of which are regulated and governed by THE
NATIONAL HORSE SHOW COMMISSIONS.
The Jackson’s and their family traveled each year to Murfreesboro and Shelbyville Tennessee to exhibit their
Walking Horses in THE WALKING HORSE OWNERS ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL VERSATILIY WORLD
GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW held in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and THE NATIONAL CELEBRATION held
in Shelbyville, Tennessee.
While preparing for the 1998 show season they were reviewing rules and regulations. Nathanael asked Jennie
if a Keg Lite Shod Horse could show in the Padded Horse Division.
A BRIEF BACKGROUND AND HISTORY OF THE WALKING HORSE AND SHOWING
(Definitions and Explanations: The Keg Lite Shod Horse wears a metal shoe that is 3/8 thick by 3/8 wide
that is nailed to the bottom of the front and back hooves. This to protect the horse’s feet from stone
bruises and chipping away at their hooves while walking. This would be the shoe that you would see on
a horse running around in a field or traveling down a road anywhere in the world. The Padded Shoe not
only includes a 1” - 1½” inch thick/wide metal shoe on the bottom, they also put the maximum of 4”
inches of hard rubberized pad between the horse’s hoof and those metal shoes. The theory is this; by
elevating the horse’s front end with pads this will make the horse lift their front feet up and make the
traveling height of the foot higher than the regular keg lite shod horse. The history of this man made
contrivance came about not too long after the advent of showing the walking horse as a breed. The
first walking horse champions were horses that wore only a keg shoe. Then people who did not have
the quality of stock with the body conformation to elevate the front end with it’s back end “scooting”
underneath itself, or skills to train a horse naturally came up with the idea to first, put heavy weights on
the horse’s front end which acts the opposite of what we would think it would do, instead of “bogging”
down the horse, the horse actually lifts his front legs higher. These were called “Action Devices.” This
is why when you see early pictures of walking horse competitors you see them with a white “Bell Boot,”
this bell boot is weighted. As man does with everything he gets a hold of he started experimenting with
elevating the front end with the height of the pads and different weights of the action devices and down
through the years they put caps on the limits of the height of the pads, and the weight of the action
devices, today it’s at 4 inches high and 10 oz of weigh. These devices were considered to be humane.
But in 1970 The Federal Government had to step in).
THE USDA AND THE HORSE PROTECTION ACT OF 1970
The United States Department of Agriculture had to step in because some folks started experimenting with
using harmful, painful and deadly chemicals to “SORE” the walking horse. To get even freakier front end
action and deeper back end movement, some folks started putting Diesel Gas, Oil of Mustard Seed, Croatin Oil
or any number of dangerous chemicals that would “burn” the horses pasterns and the top of the front of the
hoof, they would then wrap this concoction with saran wrap and let the horse sit in it for days to drive the
chemical deep into the horses foot. This is done so that when this weighted action device hit against the sored
area, the horse would literally try to throw that action device off his foot when he traveled, it’s called “Pitching”
the front foot, that’s why when you watch a padded horse he has that “freaky” front end pitching the foot out in
front of him, it hurts him so bad he’s trying to pitch it off of him. This was deemed inhumane and this became
wide spread in the industry and some were not very clean in the way they did it and horses were dying and
becoming crippled because of these “Barn Chemist.” This so outraged the public’s consciences and
sentiments that the 1970 HORSE PROTECTION ACT was enacted by Congress to out law these practices. The
USDA was charged with monitoring these practices and levying just punishment for the offenders, this in a way
became one of the first Wars On Drugs.
Believe us folks; if you see a horse with pads and action devices, these horses HAVE been sored at one point
or another. We can say that because if the horse had not been sored, 10oz action devices have absolutely no
effect on the horse’s movements all by themselves. But put in conjunction with illegal chemicals, you have a
horse that reacts to the pain. Now some of these horses are what we called “Brain Sored” Meaning that these
horses have been sored so many times that you could put a drop of water on their feet and they “Think” it’s the
painful chemicals and act as if it was on them burning them, this works until the horse realizes that it doesn't’t
hurt and does less with it’s pitching and traveling.
What many are doing now to get around the chemicals is what is called "Pressure Shoeing" What that en-
tells is cutting a horses hoofs down to the quick to the point it bleeds, (much like cutting your fingernails back
into the meat of the nail), next they hollow out areas around the white line and set plastic or steel beads in
them and then they nail a horse shoe over that now sensitive and sore hoof, and then they make them stand
like on a hard surface like cement for a good deal of time. Another way is to nail a steel bar across the horse's
frog area and make a little hole in which a screw is put in and screwed down into the frog area, then you let
them stand on that for a while tied up so they can't lay down and take the pressure off. The horse now tries to
stay off his front end which is sore to him, so he lifts his foot quickly and higher to avoid the pain, after a while
they take the bar and screw off just before show time, but by that time the horse's foot is still sore. There you
go you have a sore horse without using chemicals. The hallmark identifier of a pressure shod horse is very
simple to recognize, if a horse puts his front heel down on the ground first when he walks, he's been pressure
shod, horses simply don't walk that way naturally..and the other tell-tale sign is the long toes to the point of
"dishing" of the front feet. A normal horse could not "break" over these long toes, but if it was putting it's heel
down first, it could be done. These are just a couple examples of the way they pressure shoe.
WHITE STAR
In 1954 White Star was the last keg-shod horse to win the World Grand Championship Class. She showed
against the padded up horse and was picked by the judges and the attending crowd as the WGC (World
Grand Champion). Since then keg shod horses just didn’t show up anymore to compete against the padded
horse. No rule was enacted preventing lite shod horses from showing for the WGC; the rules stated the
maximum height and weight of shoes and action devices. NO MINIMUM! That is until the Jackson’s and a 4-
year-old stallion named CHAMPAGNE WATCHOUT came along.
INTERPRETING THE RULES
The Jackson’s poured over the rule book looking for rules that would preclude them from showing their horse
along side of the padded horse, they could find none, so right then they decided to vie for the WGC in 1998.
They started training their horse for the class; they started a 8-month long advertising campaign in the breed’s
magazine THE VOICE OF THE TENNESSEE WALKING HORSE, culminating in a two-page color spread in the
July 1998 issue.
In that same month Nathanael placed a call to The National Celebration CEO Mr. Ron Thomas and asked him if
he knew of any rule that prevented us from showing our lite shod horse in the WGC class. Mr. Thomas said he
knew of none and invited him to “Come On Down!” and show our horse.
The Jackson’s packed up their horses and 7 children and headed for nearly 2800-mile trek to Tennessee. The
rules governing the Tennessee Walking Horse is written by and enforced by The National Horse Show
Commissions. In those rules it says that a horse can show “UP” in divisions, but can’t show down, meaning a
lite shod horse can show in lite shod classes and then show in the upper divisions of the heavy shod or
padded divisions, but a heavy shod or padded horse could not show in a lite shod division.
The Jackson’s showed CHAMPAGNE WATCHOUT in Versatility (trail, western riding, reining, pleasue and
obstacles driving, jumping etc) classes and 2 gaited (no canter) and 3 gaited (canter) rail classes at the
TWHBEA’S World Grand Championship Versatility Show held the last weekend of July in Murfreesboro, and the
WHOA’S International World Grand Championship Show held at the same facility directly following that show.
He placed very well in both of those shows.
THE CHECK
Nathanael went to The Celebration’s entry office and signed up his horse for the 4-year-old stallion qualifying
class and the WGC class $106,00 and $2006.00 respectfully for entry fees for the show that would be held the
last weekend of August. The Celebration accepted the checks and cashed them. The stage was set for the first
lite shod horse to compete against the padded horse in 45 years.
THE DENIAL
The Jackson’s were contacted by Mr. Thomas and asked to please come to his office and meet with him. The
Jackson’s complied and went they got there they were introduced to Mr. John T. Bobo Esq., representing The
Celebration. They then asked us what our plans were, we told them and they asked if we wouldn’t be more
satisfied winning the Lite Shod World Championship Class than trying to show in a class that they thought our
horse was not decked out properly to compete in. We said no, The Celebration at that time offered 1 and 1
only WORLD GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP CLASS, all the rest of the winners in other classes and divisions only
received a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP designation. We explained that most of the horses that competed in the
WGC class were seen by at least 28,000 people not including the television audience and that the horses
competing in that class were mostly stallions who then receive good breeding recognition because of their
appearance and performance and I wanted my stallion to have access to that platform.
We were asked again, wouldn’t we be happier KNOWING that our horse would be recognized as the World
Champion Lite Shod Horse. We’ll admit that we were not picking up on the signals that were being sent and we
continued to assert that the rule book says that we could show our horse in that venue. Then the subject
shifted to the ability of the judges to judge a class with 2 different shod horses and that we should talk to the
Director of Judges, Mr. Jim Kane (deceased) at the NHSC. They said if Mr. Kane signed on, we would be
allowed to show our horse in the class we wanted to. But before we left we were once again for the third time
asked if we wouldn’t achieve the same recognition for a breeding stallion as the WC Lite Shod Horse.
HERE COMES DA JUDGE
We left the Celebration office and traveled a few blocks over to the NHSC office and were received by Mr.
Kane. Now what the Celebration did not know was that Nathanael had spoken to Mr. Kane at length about a
Lite Shod Horse showing in the WGC the previous 1997 fall at The Western States Celebration in Reno,
Nevada where he was monitoring the show and we were participating. At that time he also agreed with him that
there should be no problem with the two horses showing together and that if the judges back in the day could
distinguish the most correct and most consistent basic gait between the padded horse and the Lite Shod
Horse, and choose the Lite Shod Horse as the champion, it could be done today.
Mr. Kane tried to reason with us also asking if we would not be satisfied with winning the World Championship
Lite Shod Division, by now the lights were coming on, exactly what was being offered. We again stated that we
wanted to show in the WGC class. He said he would think about it and let us know. We received a letter stating
that we would not be permitted to show our horse in the WGC class.
SUNDAY BANKING
We were invited by Mr. Thomas to attend a special meeting of the board of directors of The Celebration and
their attorneys at The Union Planter’s Bank in downtown Shelbyville on one Sunday afternoon. We entered a
big boardroom where we were very cordially received and introduced to everyone there. We outlined our case
and pointed out the specific rules and regulations of the official rule book governing The Celebration and all
members of the Tennessee Walking Horse World. They took it under advisement and said they would get back
in touch with us. They notified us via mail that we would not be allowed to show in the qualifying 4-year-old
stallion class nor the World Grand championship class.
We met some people who had gotten wind of what was going on and they referred us to a local attorney who
reviewed the rule book and also concluded there was no rule prohibiting us from showing in the WGC class, he
wrote a letter to the Celebration requesting that they re-address this issue and reverse their decision, they
declined stating that they were protecting the integrity of the class. We then went through the outlined
procedure of filing an official protest with The NHSC. They shifted it back to the Celebration without any action
on the complaint. Now the word was out and several newspapers and TV stations contacted us about our case,
it was picked up by the Associated Press and appeared in several newspapers across the United States. We
were told that there was a "Run" on the rule books, as organizations that issue the rule books ran out because
so many curious people had requested copies to read for themselves what the rules said.
We were referred to a Nashville attorney who told us that he would take our case for 1 penny. He said that he
did not like bullies and that if necessary we would get a federal injunction to shut down the Celebration for that
year until a Federal Magistrate heard the case. He wrote letters and sent faxes to the Celebration again
outlining our case and demanding that they honor the rules, which they were governed by. They wrote letters
stating their position which was mainly they felt that allowing my horse show was somehow violating the
traditions and integrity of the show.
THE BRIBE
While at a friend’s home we received a phone call from our attorney on our cell phone. He told us that we had
an offer on the table from the Celebration asking us “How much would it take for us to go away and not pursue
this case?” Our attorney left it to us to discuss this and after discussing it with some involved friends, some
wanted us to turn it down and proceed directly to court. We told the attorney that we decided to respectfully
turn down their offer and show our horse. Then they offered to let us present our horse to the whole of the
audience right before the WGC class all alone in the arena with the lights down and spotlighted all around the
arena, they said that we could have the announcer say anything that we wanted. (I was later told that this type
of special exhibition has a price tag on it of $5,000.00.) We respectfully declined that offer also.
THE ARBITRATION
The next offer was then tendered, would we be willing to go to binding arbitration, in which they would pay for it
and we could select the judge to hear the case? We wanted to proceed to the court but our attorney advised
us that we would not stand a chance now in court if arbitration was offered and we turned it down. He stated
that Federal Court was the last option when all other forms of negotiation have fallen through and no
settlement had been reached. We reluctantly accepted the arbitration and our attorney selected a retired
judge that worked in his office building in Nashville. We tried to get people who knew the issues of the rule
book, even a former NHSC Judging Director to stand up with us. But everyone declined, citing perceived
inherent danger of doing something like that and living here in the South. We met with our attorney at the KFC
on the day of the hearing, we traveled the few blocks again to the Bank’s boardroom. Upon reaching the
hearing, our attorney informed us that the judge he had selected could not make it, so The Celebration
selected one to replace him. Yes, we were naive, we believed a judge was above been corrupted by something
like this and that no matter who was sitting on the bench, the only issue was does the current rules preclude us
from showing our horse? We felt that the truth would be all that we needed to prevail. So we went forth.
THE INQUISITION
We showed up with all of our children who sat very quietly throughout the hearing. We were introduced to
everyone there which included besides the sitting board members and their attorneys, The Executive Director
and Attorney R. Craig Evans for the up until then silent NHSC, and the President and Executive Director of
Crisis International Associates out of Georgia. The Judge Matthew J, Sweeney (Ret), stated that he did not
know much about the Tennessee Walking Horse or it’s industry and set the ground rules for the hearing. He
turned the floor over to our attorney who proceeded to also claim he knew very little about the issues and said
that Nathanael and Jennie were better informed and would let us conduct the case. Well this was a shock to us
because he had not said anything like that to us before we went in there; we had the distinct impression that he
would be representing us. We took the challenge and began presenting our case. One by one the defense
took what was dubbed “The Hot Seat” after a couple of witnesses had sat in the chair directly across from
Nathanael and was questioned by him. The Jackson’s presented photos of past WGC’s such as Midnight Sun,
Strolling Jim and others and compared their walking pose against that of Champagne Watchout. The poses
were pretty much identical, using that as a platform to show that from the beginning these were the
foundational horses, then he presented photos of past padded WGC showing the aberrancy of the gait. The
rules book was pulled out and all clauses pertaining to the requirements, standards and prohibitions of
showing were presented. To us it was very clear with absolutely no gray areas, there was a maximum on shoe
size, weight of the action device, which also stated that bell boots were also acceptable, and the tail assembly,
which said a humane tail may be worn, (that’s kinda like a wig, that gives the walking horse that built up look on
the tail, most all of the padded horses have had the tendons that control the movement of tail cut, thus the tail
can be moved and fixed in any position with a special rigging.
Board director David Howard, also the owner of WORLD CHAMPION TACK STORE and the trade paper THE
WALKING HORSE REPORT, started asking some irrelevant and stupid questions about the Jackson’s
personal life. He asked the Jackson’s where they got their money from to advertise and enter their horse in the
Celebration, When we told the judge that all of these breeding stallions get very good responses from showing
in this class, Mr. Howard asked us if Watchout had every bred a mare, we said no, he then snapped back then
how do we know if he is able to sire any mares and is not sterile. I asked him if any of the other entries had to
answer those kind of questions and what does that have to do with the rule book It was our distinct impression
that he was the power behind all of this, he pressed how he felt that the integrity and traditions were being
violated, this was parroted by Ron Thomas. Mr. Howard told the judge that we was exploiting a loop-hole in the
rule books, we retorted that there is no loop-hole, it was very clear what the framers of the rule book had
meant,it’s just that no one had ever tried to act on the literal word of the rule book as we were now doing.
We raised the point that Mr. Howard has a direct conflict of interest in this matter as the big Marquee to the
Celebration sitting out there on main street was clearly a huge billboard for Mr. Howard’s business’, it had his
store and his paper plastered all over it. We pointed out how Mr. Howard had a monopoly on the tack stores
that could be vendors at the show and how his paper was the only publication allowed to be present on the
show grounds during the show.
Mr. Thomas explained to the judge that he felt that my horse would be overwhelmed by the more powerful and
faster padded horse, he asked us what we would do in the event that these horses would be flying by me. We
told him that we didn’t think that these horses were any more powerful than mine, in any case, it was not a race
and that if the situation should arise we would do what anybody with a slower horse is suppose to do, stay on
the rail and let the other horses pass. He then told the judge he thought letting our horse show would be like a
family car trying to race in the Indianapolis 500 race, the car would be left in the dust and be a danger to
everyone else out there racing.
We told the judge that they really only had two choices, one; honor the rule book and let us show, two: let us
show and change the rule book for the next year, but in any case the rules had to be upheld. How can you
expect to govern all of the people by one set of standards and let the big corporations make up their own rules
and do what they want?
THE RACE CARD
Then they bought out their big guns, the two gentlemen from Georgia who were crisis and riot consultants,
without ever speaking to us to interview us they characterized us as poster children for disaster to happen,
they said because Nathanael was black and our horse was a lite shod horse, there was going to be over
30,000 drunken rednecks in the stands and there would be a riot. BAM! There it was; they just played the
Race Card! Race had not been an issue until then. They said that this was virtually a power keg ready to
explode. We came back and stated that Tiger Woods had just finished winning the Augusta Master’s Golf
Tournament a couple weeks before this and there was not a riot, was Tennessee that backwards? That shut
them up.
A VOICE OF REASON
Their side then called R. Craig Evans to the stand, now he’s the Executive Director and Attorney for as we said
the now up until then silent and non-responsive NHSC, the actual governing body and of the rules, regulations
and standards for the industry that should of have settled this according to the rule book, it was their job to rule
on my official complaint and hand down a decision, but they just deferred it back to the Celebration. We
objected to his testimony, he asked if he please would be allowed to testify anyways. He explained his
interpretation of the rules and surprisingly stated upon questioning from us he interpreted the rules as saying
that there was no reason for us not to be able to show our horse in the class we wanted to. We respected him
for standing in the midst of all of those people and telling the truth, career wise and business wise, he took a
chance by voicing his honest opinion. Out of all the board members and expert witnesses that testified that the
rules may say that we can show, but their traditions and integrity were more important than the rules, he owned
up to the truth.
LET THE CHILDREN SPEAK
We concluded the hearing, by hearing testimony from the Jackson children, they each spoke of their
understanding of fair play and feelings about the issues, and they were articulate and sincere. Natalie walked
away from that and said she wanted to be an attorney because they had inspired her. That was a good thing.
The Judge said that he would take the matter under submission and render his decision that day or the next
morning.
THE MORNING AFTER PILL
The next morning the decision was handed down and faxed to our lawyer, who faxed it to us, the judge agreed
that the rule books do allow us to show our horse, but he felt that judging the two different styles of gaits would
be near impossible for the judge of today, he also agreed with the Celebration that the integrity and traditions
would by violated, so on those points he denied our petition. This floored us, how would conjectures and
feelings overrule the written word in this case? Well that took most of the wind out of our sails, their lawyer
proposed to offer us money to pay for our trip back home, we respectfully turned that offer down, because we
still wanted to show our horse, but the entry deadline had come and gone. So graciously they did something
that had never been done, they reopened the entry application for us. We entered Watchout in both a lite shod
class and a heavy shod class (requirements for this class was that a maximum metal shoe of 1- 11/2 shoe
could be worn.) They refunded our entry fee for the WGC class and that was the end of that, OR was it?
Jennie showed him in one class and Nathanael showed him in another to a rousing round of boos and jeers.
Jennie did well but Nathanael faltered a bit and took we think a tenth place.
1999
SAY WHAT?
That would have been the end of the story had The Celebration and the NHSC left things alone right there. But
they acted in what they thought was closing a loophole. The NHSC rule book clearly states that if a new rule
was to be instituted it would have to be written, then sent out for public comment for 6 months and then it would
be enacted the following calendar year. Not our interpretation, it is what is said. Well, they issued a new rule
without doing any of this we dubbed THE WATCHOUT CLAUSE …this clause states that there will be from now
on a minimum of pad height on the classes calling for the padded horse, they said the minimum would be a
½ inch pad. They somehow thought we were such purists that we would not put a pad on our horse, shoot,
that’s just a therapeutic cushioning pad for us. The challenge was on for 1999.
We started making our plans for a return of the king, we then returned to Tennessee as we did every year and
competed in all the Versatility and Rail classes at the WHOA International Championship Show, we did real well
with our horses winning High Point Awards for Adult and Youth. We then went and placed our entry for the 5-
year-old-stallion qualifying class, which is the qualifier for the WGC class at the Celebration. We were
contacted by Mr. John T. Bobo, attorney for the Celebration and told based on the decision by the judge the
previous year they were denying my entry. We explained to Mr. Bobo that the new rules stated that a horse
could have a minimum of ½ inch pad on and that this was to be confirmed in the pre-class check in on the
show grounds, and our horse was not to be denied the chance to meet the qualifications of the class any time
before that. They still denied our entry.
GOTCHA!
We went and hired another Nashville attorney who reviewed everything from the previous year and felt that this
time we had an excellent chance of presenting our case before a Federal Magistrate and seek an injunction for
them to cease and desist barring us from showing in the WGC class or an injunction shutting down the show
completely. Our attorney faxed and then mailed a letter to the Celebration stating our intentions and they had
until 5 PM to respond.
THE WARRANT FOR NATHANAEL’S ARREST
The Jackson’s were out shopping when we got a phone call on our cell from the barn we were staying at stating
that two undercover police officers had just come to our barn and were looking for Nathanael to serve him
some papers, they thought it was a warrant for his arrest. The kids were crying and they were scared. We
thought who would swear out a warrant for Nathanael’s arrest? The best that we could come up with was that
someone falsely accused him of something and the plan was to get him out of the way to intimidate Jennie and
the kids.
We drove around trying to think of what to do, then it hit us, a TV news reporter and camera crew were in route
to us to do an interview, we contacted the TV station and told them what was going on, they had the news crew
contact us and we arranged to meet them in the parking lot of a super market. When we met them we told them
all that had transpired, so we decided that we all would go back to the barn and see what was going on. The
cameraman prepared his camera, placed a mic on Nathanael and the reporter drove their vehicle. When we
got close to the barn we passed an unmarked police sedan that turned around and followed us back to the
barn. Nathanael told the cameraman that if they started to beat on him for him to put down the camera and
help me, he didn’t want to be another Rodney King. Also, if they did take him to jail to follow us all the way to
the jail so he wouldn’t just disappear, Hey! It’s been done before.
We pulled into the driveway and shortly afterwards the sedan pulled in behind us, there was one officer in the
car and when he saw the TV camera and reporter with a mic, Nathanael had been mic’d up with one attached
to his shirt, the officer stayed in his vehicle and asked for Nathanael, he thought this is a funny arrest, what
was he going to do, reach back and open the back door and ask him to put on some handcuff himself and sit in
the back seat? He identified himself as a detective for the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office. He had an envelope
that he gave to Nathanael, we read it aloud for the camera and saw that it was a letter from Mr. Bobo saying
that they were accepting our entry and that we could show our horse in the Qualifying Class #65 AND the
WGC Class #138! Jennie asked the officer why were the Sheriff’s department delivering a letter for a private
organization? He said he was doing a favor for a friend. He placed his car in reverse and backed out of the
driveway. The stage was now set for History making events!
We put a couple of the kids on an airplane to go back home to start school. So we were left with the 3 smallest
kids.
MY KINGDOM FOR A RIDER!
We knew because they had played the race card Nathanael had to show and they were expecting him. But we
knew that he was not the best rider we had, admittedly, this was not a class for him to ride. During the off
season in 1998 before the Celebration, We researched the Celebration’s history and found that there had
never in it’s history ever been a black owner who showed a horse in the WGC class nor ever a black rider in
the class, and there had never been a juvenile to ride in the class! In trying to recover from playing the race
card in 1998 the Celebration hires the first woman ever to be a ring steward in 1999, (those are official people
assigned one to each judge to carry their judges cards back to be scored and basically kind of take care of
them) and would you be surprised if we told you that she was black? Also, for the first time in the Celebration’s
history they hire a black lady to sing the Star Spangled Banner. It’s a bit patronizing, but in many incidences,
that’s how change has to come about.
THE QUALIFICATION
The qualifying class is held about 4-5 days before the championship class is held. When we put in our entry for
the qualifying preliminary class we had to designate a rider, we put Jennie down for the qualifying round, which
is nothing more than, stay on your horse and don’t get disqualified for something and this makes you eligible
for the championship class. But for the WGC class we were in a quandary of what to do. Jennie showed up for
her class.
Nathanael led Watchout into the “Lion’s Den” this is the area where all the horses getting ready to show
congregate waiting to go into their respective class, horses are being ridden to warm them up and tack being
prepared for the show. This is also where the DQP station is, (Designated Qualified Person, these are people
who check the horse’s for compliance and to make sure that horses are not sored by palpating, sometimes
thermography checking for unusual heat to the pastern area, and sometimes using a type of fluoroscope to
check for foreign body under the hooves), once you get checked you are not allowed to leave the area without
being rechecked. When he entered the area, all activity stopped as everyone watches him lead his glistening
gold colored stallion to behind the curtains where the DQP station was set up. There were jeers and comments
made to him as he approached the curtains, they kept walking. When he got in the DQP area and was brought
up to be checked there were so many officials around him and they all watched with baited breath as the DQP
palpated Watchout’s foot so hard their fingers blanched, they checked him over head to toe and front to back.
The warm up arena was still silent as they waited to see if he passed inspection, when he came out the other
end of the curtain they knew, because if you did not pass, you exited out the same way you went in. The
activity picked back up as we just stood there and waited for the class. No one approached us nor said
anything to us, until Mr. Craig Evans came up to us and said that someone had complained that we had not
rode our horse around with an minimum of a 2 oz chain to let the DQP person out in the warm arena watch
each horse go around and see if anything showed up as being sored had been missed in the inspection area.
So we put Jennie up on him and said we will not use the 2 oz chain but the authorized bell boots. They asked to
see the bell boots and they turned them inside out checking for anything in there that could sore the horse’s
feet. These bell boots were not weighed. They approved and Jennie took a quick spin around the arena as
every eye glared at her ride. After he passed that little inspection we sat and waited.
THE 3-MINUTE CLOCK
The order of entrance into the arena was random, however, there was a 3-minute clock that ran and if you had
not entered the arena by the time it expired the gate would be closed on you. Jennie sat on Watchout in the
furtherest corner of the arena waiting for all the other horses to enter, she wanted to be the last horse in, there
was another horse Generator’s Champion who had won his division of the qualifying class who wanted to be in
last, so they both sat there and watched the clock. Jennie later said that she knew she could make it down the
ramp in a few seconds and make the gate, but the other horse would take much more time because of the
pads. Champion couldn't’t wait any longer and he took off, Jennie followed, as she started down the ramp, a
couple of grooms jumped out in front of her waving towels and yelling at them trying to spook our horse. They
didn’t know Watchout, he’s a 17HH and at that time about 1400 lbs of toned horse, he has worked cattle and
he was not phased by this distraction at all and Jennie rode right through them brushing them to the side. They
entered the arena to a loud and rousing round of jeers and boos.
She showed Watchout in a flawless ride, we had worked out some ring tactics that we employed in this class.
Historically, these padded up horses are stressed so hard in these classes that when they call for the horses to
reverse and show in the other direction the horses sit there and “blow” they are heaving and dripping with
sweat, it’s a wonder that they just don’t fall over, and some do. Well, the rules (by now that terms has
absolutely no meaning) states that when the reverse is called for you are to immediately turn your horse
around and go the opposite direction. Nathanael told Jennie to sit on the rail with the rest of the horses and
wait until they all started moving again before she proceeded. Again she had a beautiful, flawless ride, when
she lined up for the final judging and the judges walked up to her horse, the crowd again booed her. The class
was judged and she received no ribbon, but had qualified to enter the WGC class.
THE HIT MAN.
We decided to put Natalie on him and let her show, the class was an open class, which meant that anyone
could show a horse in that particular class, some classes are designated as amateur classes which means that
trainers could not ride against amateurs, giving them a better chance to win. Open classes were for anybody.
Natalie had just turned 15 the month before. She had only ridden Watchout no more than two times before this.
We put her on a plane and flew her back to Tennessee on a Friday, the day before the WGC class. Nathanael
went to the airport to pick up and said it felt like he was going to pick up an out-of-town hit man.
She went to the barn and practiced on him in an open field with Jennie coaching her. We received another
hand-delivered letter from Mr. Bobo stating that they had heard of our plans from our rider designation on the
entry form to let our daughter ride him, the letter pleaded with us not to let her show and that Nathanael should
be the one to ride. We took his letter under advisement. We had several well-meaning people approach us and
plead with us not to put Natalie out there, but they did not know how well Jackson children could ride. We stuck
to our plans.
SHOW YOUR CLASS…
David Howard, who as we said earlier was a sitting board member and the owner of the trade paper The
Walking Horse Report, not only abused his power and printed a article the night before the WGC’s and had
them distributed by the thousands at the Celebration show grounds, but displayed the kind of courage that
scoundrels take when they don’t get their way..We are reprinting this article word for ugly word because to us it
shows the lengths that they went to, to be controlling. Printed August 24, 1999 in The Walking Horse Report.
“Nathan Jackson has entered his lite shod horse in the Grand Championship Stake by virtue of a
loophole in the rules. His wife showed the horse – Champagne Watchout – in the preliminary class and
was greeted with boos.
Media sources are prepared to report that Nathan’s daughter – a juvenile – will be showing the horse
Saturday night but there is no way of knowing what this man is planning.
I find it difficult to believe that any man would show such a total disregard for the safety of his family,
his horse or the other competitors and their horses. His child, his horse and the legitimate entrants in
the class deserve more.
The National Horse Show Commission and the Celebration need to address this situation. To expose this
youngster and the other riders to such a dangerous situation is unacceptable.
Nathan has his own agenda and there is no telling what other stunt he has in mind for the class in his
attempt to embarrass the industry and get a little attention for himself.
Almost all people – pleasure and padded – are offended and outraged by Nathan’s actions, but please
simply ignore him and his horse if they come into the ring. Nothing would suit him better than for the
crowd to give him an issue to run with to the media.
If you like his horse, cheer for him, if not, ignore him and watch a great class of horses compete for the
World Grand Championship.”
Is that not the ugliest, meanest and most prejudicial thing you ever heard of from an sitting official advising
people before a contest how to respond to one of the entrants before the class had even been held? We think
he thought that Nathanael was going to show up there in a Zoot Suit or something!
They just could not lose gracefully and let the show go on.
THE BELL BOOTS
We practiced with the two on Saturday morning and went looking for a show jacket Natalie could ride in, we
found the perfect gold jacket and in her size at Bedford Tack, then just rested up for the show. When the time
came we loaded up the trailer and left for the show, when we got there we realized that we had left Watchout’s
bell boot at the barn (The rule book stated that a horse could show in bell boots instead of the heavy chains,
we opted for the foot protecting bell boot which was lined with sheep’s skin to protect from chaffing the foot).
Nathanael unhooked the trailer and took off back to the barn. Upon arriving the bell boots were not where he
was told they would be so him and Jeremiah, his youngest child, scoured the area for the boots and could not
find them. So back to the truck he went figuring they had to be in the trailer somewhere, and just as he started
to leave Jeremiah ran up to him with the bell boots! When asked where they were, they were in a very little
used cabinet away from the rest of the tack. Go figure! Back to the show grounds he flew, when he got there
they were preparing Watchout and we led him to the DQP area
WALK THIS WAY
Nathanael again led Watchout to the DQP area and again they thoroughly went over him and checked him. He
passed and the stage was set for history to be made. For the WGC class, horses were given a position of
when they were to enter. Natalie wearing the number 140 was to be the first to enter the arena in front of
28,000 – 30,000 people. Some cheers met her and some boos. But she definitely had everyone’s attention.
We'll tell you about some interesting highlights of that class that you probably never knew and no one does,
mainly because we own the only tape of Watchout’s ride because we bought the only copy of the master
tape….. When you watch Natalie ride in, when she gets to the end of her entrance and comes to a halt to let
the other horses enter, look right at the base of Watchout’s tail and you’ll see a lady with a pink sweater and a
man with glasses on, then you’ll see Jennie with a white short sleeve shirt and black homburg hat on asking the
people if she could step in there real quick and give Natalie a couple pointers in riding Watchout. You’ll see the
lady say no and point for her to leave, the guy shakes his head no and tells her to leave…(nice people huh?)
….
Well the announcer called for the class to start riding, the moment of truth was upon us, was she going to be
overwhelmed by the more powerful and faster padded horses as David Howard and Ron Thomas predicted?
Natalie took off, she had to take to the inside of the arena track because she couldn't get to the rail and ride
like we told her because of the slower padded horses. Well, we guess they didn’t have the crystal ball or
foresight they wanted everyone to believe they had.
Remember when we told you about Jennie qualifying Watchout in her 5 y/o stallion class, and we told her to
stop on the reverse way like all the other horses do and wait until they started up again before she started up
again?…well in the championship class with Natalie…we told her when they announced for them to reverse for
her to turn Watchout around and not to stop and get on the rail and ride!… she did and turned him on a dime
switched her whip, which looks like she was drawing a sword and she was the only thing moving out there!
Again she had to take the line of inside of the track because of all the horses on the rail. There was complete
silence in the stadium as every eye watched Natalie ride…Larry Bright the organist started playing a song that
you might recognize…”It Had To Be You”…Is that great or what? She traveled a complete lap around that
arena before the first horse moved. The other riders could only just watch Natalie & Watchout ride by
them…they had to let their horse’s blow before they could start up again….The announcer seeing the
embarrassment of this tried to gaff and goad the other riders to get moving, after all, the governor of the state
of Tennessee was in the center arena watching this class.
Observe on the reverse canter (going left to right on your screen) an out of control horse and rider brush
Natalie & Watchout and stop short right in front of them both making her veer out of his way before running into
him…his horse was so out of control! Now we knew Ron Thomas, David Howard was just waiting for her to
mess up and do something they could scream was dangerous so they could stop the class and excuse her.
Watch Natalie get to the lineup to take her saddle off, she has Watchout back up….then they call for grooms
in…Jennie and Nathanael go out there and Nathanael give Natalie a big hug because I was so proud of
her…well the announcer IMMEDIATELY says “Saddles off, Saddles off please!” to break us up! …now watch
the sweat and how hard the horses are blowing when they take off their saddles and the judges walk by to
review them…look at Watchout and how much he had sweated and he never stopped moving out there and
rested like they did! Another good observation is, watch Natalie PARK OUT Watchout, this means to present
your horse stretched out making for a beautiful frame of the horse, which is required for the horse to do. .
Watch ALL of the other riders try to park out their horses, you'll see the horse step forward his whole body
because it is way to painful for them to put pressure on their front feet to PARK OUT., another tale-tell sign that
a horse has been sored!
You’ll hear the announcer say don’t put on your saddles until I tell you to…well, after they inspected Watchout
Jennie told Nathanael to go get the saddle to put back on Watchout…so it’s not enough that we didn’t already
have enough attention on us…here he was putting the saddle back on him. Take a look at the 3 of us talking,
and Watchout just calmly standing there with us, as we all were discussing the ride. They told the riders to get
back on the horse, Nathanael was going to give Natalie a hand and she said I’ll do it, watch her snap the reins
over Watchout’s head and climb up in the saddle. We didn’t know there was going to be a work off, we thought
that the class was over so when Jennie & Nathanael left the ring, we didn’t say anything about what to do for
the work off…
Now watch how long the judges spend at each horse…then they come to Watchout and they pitch camp! They
had us take off his bell boots to make sure we didn’t have anything in there to SORE him as they told us!!! Can
you believe that?!!! Off she went again…but this time around when they called for the reverse, one rider just
couldn't watch her ride by him again so he took off…You'll see her ride by a chestnut colored horse named
Generator's Champion, you'll observe the rider stretched out over the horse's neck doing something to the
horses face, well, the rules books state that if you dismount you'll be disqualified. What that gentleman is doing
is this: If you look closely you'll see these very long shanked bits in these horses mouths, (compared to our
short direct pull bit) this is to get leverage in controlling the horse's head, it's the fulcrum and lever principal,
the longer the shank of the bit the more leverage you can get onto the fulcrum, which is the curb chain located
under the horse's chin (bottom lip), in other words, you can really crank down on a horse's mouth but putting a
curb chain under his chin and pulling back hard on the reins. Well, when you keep constant pressure doing
this, the horse's chin, bottom lip can and does go numb, when this happens the horse does not respond very
well to continued pressure and actually starts to respond less because it no longer hurts. Well, what he is
doing is reaching up under that curb chain and loosing it up and massaging the chin to get the blood flowing
back into that area and reestablishing feeling back in the chin and lip area so he can continue to control his
horse's head.
Natalie rode like a professional! There were 2 horses out there that broke down in the canter and just stopped!
Generator’s Champion was one of them that is why he got booed for taking 2nd place and still both of those
horses placed over Natalie…which again the rule book states that if any horse does not complete all gaits, they
are not to be picked over a horse that does. The rule book also says that the horses must complete a full turn
around the arena in the canter, which the judges cut short because horses were starting to break down and
stop dead in their tracks.
When Natalie lined up for the final review by the judges, we had told her to get on the end of the line and stay
there, don’t get sandwiched between two horses. You’ll watch her side pass several times to allow the horses
to line up inside of her. You’ll also see Natalie applauding for every rider called for a ribbon, as good
sportsmanship had been taught to her years and years before
We want to give a well deserved thank you and special kudos to one of the judges The Honorable Roger
Hand, he placed Watchout and Natalie as 10th on his judging card. He acknowledged her presence and her
ride by placing her at least over 2 of the horses out there that night. That took courage.
Entries for this class are closed at noon on Friday before the class…well when they decided to let us
show…they let 3 horses enter after the deadline because Nathanael checked to see how many horses were
going to be showing, we believe this was done so we would not be in the ribbons or the history books as being
there.
WHERE'S A GOOD COP WHEN YOU NEED ONE?
When Natalie was about to enter the arena Nathanael asked the head of the security for the Celebration, Mr.
David Nash, for an escort for our daughter down the entry shoot because of what happened to Jennie in her
qualifying ride, he said to me, “Mr. Jackson, you bought this on yourself so you deal with it.” We were amazed
at the pettiness of these people, After we left the show ring a man ran by Watchout and stabbed him in the butt
with something that made him kick out …we were so glad no one was standing behind him…we stood outside
the gate after the class for a long time because so many people came down and wanted to talk to us and take
pictures of Watchout and Natalie. So when we were ready to go to our trailer Nathanael asked a REAL
policeman on horseback to watch over us because of the problems we had before, he graciously did and had 2
other officers on horse back come and assist. They waited for us and then escorted us along with some good
friends back to our trailer and waited for us to pack up and leave..
Coming out of the exit gate of the class
…This is a picture of Natalie & Watchout right after the class.
Well the next year in 2000 they came up with THE NATALIE CLAUSE, which said only professional riders could
show in that class! Then they came up with THE HUMANE TAIL CLAUSE, which said that horses could not
show with a humane tail, that they had to have their tails cut! This because Ron Thomas told us "He wasn’t
going to let our horse in with that ugly tail sitting up there on his ass." We asked who’s going to monitor that?
First the DQP had to check to see if the feet weren’t sore now they have to go to check to see if the tail had
been sored by being cut? They dropped that.
After the show, The Celebration came out with the Official 1999 highlight videotape of the whole Celebration
show. When the WGC class was shown, they shown Natalie and Watchout entering the arena, but never
showed them again as they highlighted every other horse in the class several times. She can be seen a couple
of time riding by a horse that was being highlighted, but never her alone. We however, purchased the only
copy, the master tape of Natalie’s ride, which is available FREE by request below. You be the judge!
We've make some bold statements about horses been sored, we also said that every thing we've said here
can be backed up. Well, we know about soring because years and years ago Jennie used to sore horses until
God changed her heart and she changed her ways. Since that time we have made it our mission in life to let
everyone we can know how soring is done, she first told the world in The 1986 CNN Special Assignment
Report about the abuses to TWH's, and then followed that up with an open letter to sore horse trainers in
the now defunk Steppin Out Newspaper:.
An Open Letter To Sore Horse Trainers From An Ex-Sore Horse Trainer
Well you got it from the horse’s mouth, as it were!
Here is a list of the changes that came out of these two years:
2000
Before:
Only padded horses with a maximum of a 4-inch pads could show in the class.
After:
Horses with a minimum of a ½ inch pads could now show.. THE WATCHOUT CLAUSE
Before:
The Celebration’s main marquee on main street with the World Champion Tack and Walking Horse Report
name all over it had been a mainstay for years.
After:
That sign was removed and replaced with a non-commercial sign.
Before:
There was only one World Grand Championship Title and Class, every other divisional winner for the past
61 years was crowned A World Champion.
After:
There are now 24 World Grand Championship Titles and Classes representing every division. Every horse
since year 2000 who has won a Championship class at The Celebration owes the designation of World Grand
Champion title to Champagne Watchout!
Before:
The WGC was an Open Class that any body could ride in.
After:
Only professional Trainers can now ride in it. THE NATALIE CLAUSE, she became the first and now the ONLY
juvenile to exhibit in that class.
Before:
There had never been an Afro-American Owner of a horse or Exhibitor to ever ride in the WGC.
After:
We became the first Afro-American Owner of a horse and Exhibitor in its 61-year history to successfully show in
that class.
Before:
There had never been a female Steward to work center ring at the Celebration.
After:
The first female steward who was also Afro-American was hired.
Before:
There had never been an Afro-American to sing the national Anthem in the Celebration.
After:
The first Afro-American sang the national Anthem was hired.
After:
Several organizations dedicated to only the clean flat shod horse sprang up, the attention of a lite shod horse
inspired many to now boldly stand for the right thing to do with our horses. Many people became strong activist
and advocates against soring practices and for the promotion of the lite shod horse. This too is a good thing
THE KU KLUX KLAN
As a side note, after the Celebration history making ride, several people were caught in a private chat room on
the Internet, plotting to have the KKK take Nathanael and Natalie Jackson and do terrible things to them both.
The FBI was contacted and they subpoenaed the list, names and addresses of each of them each and every
one of those people were visited by the FBI, confronted with their email's and warned that if anything were
happened to us they would be the first people they come looking for. Those people now have an FBI file on
them.
In all fairness, a couple of the above mentioned people in the chat room have since become very nice and
apologetic about the incidence, we've been treated to dinner and a warm welcome by them every time we see
them. Sometimes people just talk and really don't mean what they are saying, we all do that one time or
another, and it is not who the person really is. Just a little bit of "Acting Out."
Whether you thought it was right or wrong for the horse to be shown, it was history, and that, my friend you can
never dispute or change.
Because of the overwhelming request for the video, we have had to put it up on the website for viewing,
VIEW The 1999 Celebration WGC Class Video NOW! AND The 1986 CNN Special Assignment Report
On The Abuses To The TWH
.
Read The Steppin Out Newspaper
account of the Class Here
account of the Class Here
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Read Natalie's Comments Here:
Natalie's Comments
Natalie's Comments
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