Visitors may notice changes

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The 70th Annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration began with morning classes today; evening Celebration classes will begin Thursday night in the main outdoor arena.

The show has a strong 4,222 pre-entries this year; total entries are expected to rise to over 4,500 once qualifying horses have entered their respective championship classes. There are 133 numbered classes, leading up to the Tennessee Walking Horse World Grand Championship on Aug. 30; because some of the preliminary classes are split into more than one division, the total number of classes is 191.

Out-of-town Celebration visitors may note an addition to the city's signage this year: Numbered traffic lights on main arteries through town, including Madison Street, North Main Street and Cannon Boulevard.

The numbers were posted in May, in large part to help visitors find their way around. That includes truck drivers, visitors to the Celebration, or visitors to any of the events held throughout the year in Calsonic Arena.

Signs placed on the lights on North Main (north of Madison) are green, with numbers on Madison colored blue. The signs are orange on Cannon Boulevard and North Main south of Madison. The intersection of Madison, Elm and North Main is numbered with a red "1," due to its central location.

Recent changes to the intersection of North Main and Colloredo Boulevard are intended to help promote traffic flow on North Main.

Another change Celebration visitors will need to know about is that Bedford County Medical Center has moved and changed its name. The hospital is now Heritage Medical Center, and is located on U.S. 231 north of Shelbyville, across from Shelbyville Municipal Airport. Emergency room care is available at the new location, and is no longer available at the old location.

Sound horses

The Celebration remains committed to having sound, clean horses in the show ring and will keep in place several measures with the health and safety of the animals and participants as well as the integrity of the inspection process in mind, according to Celebration officials.

The broad-based plan touches on five major areas.

* Drug Screening -- Random class winners will be selected for drug screening. In 2008, this screening will also include eye examinations. Additionally, the use of syringes by anyone other than a licensed veterinarian will be strictly prohibited on the Celebration grounds.

* Improper Shoeing -- Hoof testers will be used to detect evidence of improper shoeing. In addition, selected flat shod entries will be required to have their shoes removed, inspected and weighed following competition in championship classes.

* Event Integrity -- The Celebration has secured a sanctioning agreement with the National Horse Show Commission (NHSC).

* Inspection Security -- The Celebration will implement an overall security plan for the inspection area that will include identification credentials for trainers, grooms and amateur exhibitors. Only horses that are eligible and scheduled to compete will be allowed into the inspection area. As part of this plan, third-party veterinarians providing inspection opinions will be prohibited from the area. In order to protect owners and exhibitors, a secure area outside inspection will be made available for this purpose.

* HPA Enforcement -- Several steps will be taken to enhance the enforcement of the Horse Protection Act under the rules set forth by the 2007-09 Operating Plan. These steps include allowing USDA Veterinary Medical Officers and NHSC Designated Qualified Persons to perform random inspections in the barn area, and enforce the Tennessee Anti-Soring ordinance.

"A great deal of work went into this plan a year ago and we saw the fruits of that labor with the type of horse we saw in the ring," said Celebration CEO Doyle Meadows in a previous statement to the press. "We have kept everything in from a year ago and expanded certain sections. All of these items fall well within parameters of the S.H.O.W. initiative of Sound horses, Honest judging, Objective inspections, and Winning fairly."