Meadows reflects on first Celebration

As the 70th annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration came to a close last Saturday night, that meant one thing for Dr. Doyle Meadows, Celebration CEO, and his staff, come Sunday morning.

Exhale ... and breathe.

"Saturday night was so much fun for me," said Meadows. "I was able to sit back and relax. I knew we were going to have a World Grand Champion."

Because this year marked Meadows' first Celebration as its CEO, he had a lot on his mind going into and during the show, such as elements he wanted to improve and problems that could potentially come up.

"The last thing I wanted was another '06," he said, referring to the year when no world grand champion was crowned due to controversy with the inspection of horses.

Now that it's over, he took a chance to reflect Wednesday about both the highlights and lowlights of this year's show. It didn't take him long to talk about what he saw as the greatest highlight.

Trainers 'made the show'

"I am so proud of the trainers," he said. "They made the Celebration this year. The government was hard on them, both with inspections and in the barns, but they responded and hung in there ... they kept bringing horses."

With great participation from trainers, young and old alike, Saturday night went off without a hitch. As Meadows sat in center ring, he felt proud and knew the Celebration had succeeded when he saw the large crowd on its feet throughout the night.

"Saturday night made the show," he said.

Rollie Beard, the call judge for the last class of the horse show, agreed.

"The last class was so exciting," he said. "I was the call judge and that class made cold chills come up my back."

Beard said, though exhausting, the show "was wonderful. (Meadows) was very easy to work with and very much on the ball. The show was run well and he gave us a very comfortable atmosphere to work in."

Judges praised

Meadows was quick to commend the judges for living up to his expectations of them.

"I wanted them to judge every horse, every time ... and to let the best horse to win," he said.

Meadows pointed out that in many divisions, like in the world grand championship, a different horse won the championship than did the preliminary, which is indicative that the judging was on target.

The culmination of what's deemed the world's greatest horse show came with a victory pass being made by Link Webb and Santana's El Niņo. They had received second in the preliminary behind favorites Rowdy Rev and Bill Bobo, who received third in the world grand championship.

While he wouldn't point out specific horses, other show ring highlights from Meadows' perspective included the amateur classes and the young horse classes.

"The amateur competition was huge this year, and the two-year-olds were great. We had three splits for the two-year-olds," he said.

Meadows said splitting classes, sometimes at the last minute just prior to entries hitting the ring, is something he feels is necessary for both safety reasons, like in the fine harness division, and for the fairness of competition.

"There were 31 entries in the ladies' amateur class," said Meadows, stating that he, with the judges being in agreement, decided to split the class. "They all deserve a good look."

Better timing

Meadows also opened up about some of the less than stellar aspects of the show. While the government has every federal right to inspect in the barn areas, something which Meadows "applauds" them for doing, he hopes that "in the future we can do a better job working together."

Meadows said the timing of those inspections is something he hopes can be improved, noting that the trainers are in time crunches, have families, customers and a lot of things going on at the barn during the show.

"I hope we can get things ironed out in the future," he said.

Previous interviews by the Times-Gazette with various trainers indicated the trainers were not surprised by barn visits. They were expected and dealt with, despite their hectic schedules.

New ideas

The Celebration added a few new elements this year, like various bands that played in the Celebration Plaza each night before the show, as well as musical entertainment after each night's show.

In addition to entertaining the adult exhibitors, Meadows hopes that things such as the music will attract more young people to the Celebration, one of his goals for the future of the show.

Also in the future, Meadows would like to see some of the evening sessions finish earlier, so more folks can stay out and enjoy some of the after-show entertainment. However, that, as well as Meadows' other ideas for improving the show, are only in the very beginning stages.

"Right now I'm not sure how that (shortening some sessions) can be done, but it's something I'd like to see."

As exhibitors began traveling to their various homes across the country Sunday morning, the grounds looked barren. But work for the grounds crew was just beginning ... the next event to be held on the Celebration grounds is just around the corner.

The trash, in both the stadium and on the grounds, was all taken off by an independent contractor Sunday morning.

The Celebration grounds crew immediately began focusing on preparing for the Spotted Saddle Horse Breeders' and Exhibitors' Association championships, which will take place later this month.