Tennessee Walking Horse one-of-a-kind breed

“If you ride one today, you’ll own one tomorrow.”
That’s what the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders’ Association believes about the impact this unique animal has on its rider.
Rachel Hill of Alberton would wholeheartedly agree. She has two of them and as far she’s concerned, there’s no finer horse in the world.
And as far as she can figure it, Hill also is the only one in the district who owns the breed, which she trains for show.
Touted as the world’s greatest show, pleasure, and trail horse, the Tennessee Walking Horse is highly favoured for its inherited four-beat gait, meaning each of the horse’s hooves hit the ground separately at regular intervals–which gives the rider a smooth and comfortable “stay in the saddle.”
“I had no idea about the breed until I fell in love with him,” Hill said of ‘Ebony,’ the gelding she’s had for seven years.
The well-trained 13-year-old recently garnered its owner a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth-place ribbon in show ring competition in Minnesota.
‘Nancy’s Canadian Rainbow,’ a mare known informally as ‘Shadow,’ came into Hill’s possession on a bittersweet note two years ago when her friend Nancy, dying of cancer, willed the horse to her.
Hill and her husband Mark Gadawski, who both work at the Ministry of Natural Resources, recently bought 17-acre property on Bone Road, allowing Hill the chance to pasture the horses at home for the first time.
“I’ve boarded them everywhere and I missed feeding and cleaning them,” said Hill. “It’s hard to give horses the personal attention they need when you’re boarding them.
“Now I can watch them eat if I want!” she chuckled, admitting her passion for them gets her up early in the morning, followed by after work and weekends, too.
“I groom them in the morning, then there’s feeding and cleaning [and] I try to ride them every night and do trail rides on the weekends–the Walker shines on trails!” she enthused.
“Mike gives me tremendous support–he doesn’t hold me back at all,” she added.