TWHNC hires new CEO Warren Wells

TWHNC welcomes new CEO
Monday, May 10, 2021

 

The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration (TWHNC) has hired Warren Wells to be its new Chief Executive Officer. Wells will be the fifth CEO in the Celebration’s rich history.  Wells, originally from Bedford County, currently lives in Signal Mountain, Tenn. and is the Assistant Vice President for Government Affairs at Unum Group, a fortune 300 employee benefits company headquartered in Chattanooga.  Wells’ wife, Jessica and son Walker will be joining Wells when he relocates back to Bedford County.  Jessica is expecting their second son, Wright in June.

Wells joins the Celebration with a wealth of knowledge in state politics. Wells began his career in politics helping Jim Tracy as his deputy campaign manager and eventually serving as his research analyst in the State Senate.  Wells later joined Governor Bill Haslam’s administration as Deputy for Legislation and then advanced to a senior staff role in Haslam’s administration as Director for Legislation.

As the Director for Legislation, Wells was the governor’s chief lobbyist and primary liaison between the administration and General Assembly. Wells was also responsible for managing the administration’s legislative agenda. One of the most impactful pieces of legislation that Wells led on was the IMPROVE Act, which contained the largest tax cut in Tennessee history.

As a Bedford County native, Wells is intimately familiar with the impact The Celebration has on the community as well as the prestige of being the World Championship Tennessee Walking Horse show. Jessica is an avid horse lover and has owned and shown Tennessee Walking Horses as well as Thoroughbreds, Spotted Saddle Horses and currently a Paint mare. Wells and Walker have also participated in lead line classes.

“My family and I are extremely excited to be returning home to serve in the community that raised us.  The Celebration is the cornerstone of Bedford County, and a treasured asset for all of Tennessee. I am humbled and honored that the board has asked me to serve in this capacity. I have so many fond memories of The Celebration and events on the grounds, including my wedding reception, that it feels surreal that I now have the opportunity to partner with the board in carrying on The Celebration’s great traditions and developing a vision of growth and prosperity. I can’t wait to hit the ground running and serve this community,” said Wells.

Wells is a graduate of Motlow State Community College with a A.S. in Criminal Justice and received his B.S. in Political Science from Middle Tennessee State University. Wells is a first-generation college graduate. Wells also served in the Tennessee Army National Guard from 2001-2010 and in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005-2006, where Wells earned a Combat Action Badge and an Army Commendation Medal.

“We are extremely excited to add someone of Warren’s experience and background to The Celebration. We were fortunate to have several good applicants for the position and conducted a thorough search.  Warren first impressed our search committee and then our entire board.  What he has been able to accomplish in his career is something that impressed our board, and made all of us confident Warren will lead The Celebration to new heights. We can’t wait for our Tennessee Walking Horse community to get to know Warren and his family and we know our Bedford County community will also be grateful for his family’s return home,” said Celebration Chairman David Crowell.

Warren will officially begin his duties as Chief Executive Officer on June 7th, but in the meantime has already hit the ground running learning more about The Celebration and the upcoming World Championship show in August.



Walkinghorse.video welcomes 8 new corporate sponsor advertiser’s! LIVE BROADCAST’S AND TV

Friends,

We have been overwhelmed by our recent growth spurt since WalkingHorseChat.com WHC was redesigned to be the WalkingHorse.video. Our traffic on our live video streams has been record breaking, and we will soon expand our concentration to  Walking , Racking and now Spotted Saddle horses, that are in a huge growth period.

We can not accomplish this wonderful experience without members and advertisers and we welcome these sponsors to our family!

RISING STAR RANCH

DENALI CONSTRUCTION COMPANY SHELBYVILLE TENNESSEE

WALK FOR ROSES-LOGAN, MANOS AND BRASSY-RUSS THOMPSON STABLES

SPENCER BENEDICT STABLES, BREEDING TRAINING SALES, GLASGOW KY

SPOTTED SADDLE HORSE BREEDERS AND EXHIBITORS ASSOCIATION, SHELBYVILLE TN

WOODRUFF REALTY AND AUCTION COMPANY, SHELBYVILLE TN

HORSEMEN PROTECTING AMERICA’S SHOWHORSE HPAS

LONE MAGNOLIA FARM , LOGAN AND MANOS PROPERTIES- TROTNOT LLC

 



Farewell to WhataHorse TV and well wish’s!

Friends, 

As of today May 1st, I will no longer be a co-host of Whatahorse TV.

Back in August of 2020, I was asked to join as a co-host of Whatahorse. I was humbled and grateful for the opportunity,  Jerry Harris, Jimmy Fuller, Jon Gray, and C.J. Henry have always been gracious and helpful, and I truly believe they have a commitment to make the TWH experience better. I thank them all. I hope I made a contribution. I wish them well.

On May 1st I sold the webcast “This Week with America’s Showhorse“ and the retail store “Mypony.store“ to TROTNOT LLC, a California and Tennessee based real estate and equine investment group. With that, and the huge success of the re-design of WalkingHorseChat.com to the new Walkinghorse.video, there is so much more to do. Opportunity to expand what I started 23 years ago has been a huge blessing. What Dean Johnson crafted in 1997 to bring the Tennessee Walking Horse to the World Wide Web via Horse-Review.com was way before its time. WalkingHorseChat was the format for Facebook…before Facebook, but I was too channeled on walking horse people to know others might like to banter back and forth aswell. Dean brought TWH shows streaming to the net before the Super Bowl was streamed. That’s just the facts. 

 Blessed with the sale of the webcast and the online store to TROTNOT LLC, and their resources, and with the encouragement of our new corporate sponsors, WalkingHorse.video owes it to it’s members to expand to podcast, expanded live streaming, and TV, like RFD, and Public TV, Roku, and other more venues with widespread availability. The TWH business needs more than the restriction of news and information, solely based on who buys advertising for horses that win or though they should have won.  We have had decades of that nightmare already, and often our crowd attendance has suffered. We can do better. There are 30,000 seats in The Celebration arena, and they are empty now because too often fans are dictated who their “Fan Favorite” is with a simple payment of an advertising bill. As a new sponsor put it “let the actual reaction of the fans decide.”

Again, my gratitude and well wish’s are always with Whatahorse TV, the staff of Peahead Productions, Jerry Harris, Jon Gray, Jimmy Fuller and their talented crew and we look forward to working with them in the future.

sincerely,

Tommy Williams

WalkingHorse.video

Mypony.store

‘This Week with America’s Show Horse”



WEST TENNESSEE STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL SHOW May 7, 2021, Humboldt, TN

WEST TENNESSEE STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL SHOW

May 7, 2021, Humboldt, TN

 

 

Located at the Chalmus Davenport Arena on Elliott Street in Humboldt, TN. Contact Vicki Benjamin at 731-694-5188 or Vicki@ivacres.com.

Start time: 6:30 pm

Judge: Steve Glidewell

Click here for a revised class schedule (as of 4/19/21).



TWH Industry mourns Judy Tillett Young

Obituary – Judy Tillett Young
Saturday, April 24, 2021

Judy Tillett Young, age 67, of the Wheel Community passed from this life Friday, April 23, 2021 at her home surrounded by her family.

Born July 23, 1953, in Shelbyville, TN, Judy was the daughter of the late Joe Charles and Dorothy Jean Garner Tillett. Judy was preceded in death by her husband of 35 years, Ronal Young.

She is survived by: step-daughter, Beth (Josh) Lawwell; mother-in-law, Jean (Bob) Poarch; grandkids, Jessica and Johnathon Lawwell; and brother, Joe (Nancy) Tillett.

Judy was a former Amateur World Grand Champion and multi grand champion rider of many horses.  She was well-known for riding ‘Black Magic Woman” in her orange riding suit. She attended New Beginnings Baptist Church and worked for Tillett Brothers with her Daddy for many years. In her free time she loved trail riding, camping, her dogs, and loved to be with her step-daughter and watching her grandkids show horses and play sports.

Funeral services will be held Tuesday, April 27, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. in the chapel of Doak-Howell Funeral Home with Brother Steve Murphree officiating.  Burial will follow at Hillcrest Memorial Gardens.

Visitation will be held prior to service starting at 11:00 p.m. Tuesday morning, April 27, 2021 at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to Doak-Howell Funeral Home to assist the family with the final expenses.

Doak-Howell Funeral Home is serving the family.



Celebration selects Fun Show judging panel

 

Celebration selects Fun Show judging panel
Friday, April 23, 2021

 

The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration has selected Jamie Hankins, Dale Watts and Robert Cortner to judge the 51st Annual Spring Fun Show. The panel consists of a Celebration veteran in Hankins along with two newcomers to the Celebration in Watts and Cortner.

The trio also represents Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee and blends differing levels of experience.  Hankins has previously judged The Celebration seven times and has been at most every major venue at some point in his career. Watts has also judged some of the industry’s premier events including multiple Middle Tennessee 4th of July shows, the North Carolina Championships and the Alabama Jubilee.

Cortner has not been a triple-A judge for long but has judged the National Trainers’ Show, Columbia Spring Jubilee and Walking in the Smokies shows in the last two years. Cortner has risen through the ranks quickly and will be making his initial appearance at a Celebration horse show.

The Spring Fun Show will be held May 27-29, 2021 in Maverick Arena on the historic showgrounds of the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration. For more information visit www.twhnc.com. 



SHOW proposes changes to flat shod portion of rulebook

SHOW proposes changes to flat shod portion of rulebook
Wednesday, April 21, 2021

 

The SHOW Board of Directors would like to put out for sixty (60) day public comment the attached recommendations from the SHOW Pleasure Committee.

Beginning on page 23 and ending on page 38 of the SHOW Rulebook, the recommendation is that the parts highlighted in red be removed and the parts highlighted in blue be added. There is also an updated Flat Shod Standards Chart and at Flat Shod Division quick reference chart for judges to have on hand in center ring.

It is the hope of the SHOW Pleasure Committee that these recommendations help to clarify some issues within judging and exhibiting in the flat shod division.

Please forward comments to SHOW, Inc. – P.O. Box 167 – Shelbyville,TN 37162 or email to rreed@showhio.com.



Celebration of Life for Jeff Willis planned

Celebration of Life for Jeff Willis planned
Friday, April 23, 2021

 

A Celebration of life for Jeff Willis will be on Sunday, May 2nd, from 2:00-5:00 pm at the Belfast Horse Show Grounds. Dress will be casual as we remember all the fun times he shared with so many of us. From horse shows, to lake days, to fishing, to ballgames and all his crazy pranks, he enjoyed life to the fullest. Please message Nancy Lynn Greene any special stories or pictures of Jeff that you would like to share. They will be saved for a memory book.



Rehearing to Urge Jurisdiction over Constitutional Claim Against USDA ALJs

NCLA Seeks D.C. Cir. Rehearing to Urge Jurisdiction over Constitutional Claim Against U

News and research before you hear about it on CNBC and others. Claim your 1-week free trial to StreetInsider Premium here.

Joe Fleming, et al. v. U.S. Department of Agriculture

Washington, D.C., April 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A two-judge majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit erred in Fleming v. USDA in February when it refused to address the constitutionality of the multiple layers of for-cause removal protection enjoyed by administrative law judges (ALJs) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The court remanded the issue back to USDA for initial consideration by the very ALJ whose constitutional status is under challenge. That remand not only failed to resolve the structural constitutional problem inherent in the statute but generated a second issue: whether USDA’s permissive claim-processing rules themselves bind Article III courts.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, today filed a petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc so that: (1) USDA may not shield its unconstitutional ALJs through strategic and inconsistent administrative exhaustion claims; and (2) the D.C. Circuit does not embrace a novel variety of “administrative exhaustion” that would force all issues appealed from agencies to first be heard by an ALJ. The statute requires exhaustion of administrative process, not prior raising to the ALJ of every issue, especially where the agency has signaled that it would not have ruled on an issue even if it had been raised more explicitly.

NCLA began as amicus curiae in this case, but the Fleming Petitioners are now NCLA clients. Those Petitioners, several horse trainers from Tennessee accused of violating the Horse Protection Act (HPA), should not be subjected to the needless delay and futility the majority’s remand order will cause. Their HPA liability, if any, should be determined promptly by a federal district court—or at least by an ALJ who does not enjoy unconstitutional protection from Presidential removal.

As Judge Rao established in her dissent, the Supreme Court made clear in Free Enterprise Fund v Public Co. Accounting Oversight Board that officers of the United States may not be insulated from removal by multiple layers of protection without running afoul of the clause in Article II of the Constitution that requires the President to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” NCLA’s amicus brief originally brought this very issue to the fore: As a consequence of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Lucia v. SEC, USDA’s ALJs are executive “officers” and must be removable in a way consistent with the Appointments Clause.

The Petitioners raised an Appointments Clause challenge to USDA’s ALJs during an agency HPA enforcement action. USDA insisted the issue must await an Article III court, but once in court, USDA reversed its stance and argued that Petitioners’ constitutional challenge must first go through the administrative process. A majority of the D.C. Circuit panel accepted the USDA’s reversal and remanded the case. The panel ruled that a statute requiring Petitioners first to go through the administrative process before seeking judicial review impliedly also required Petitioners to comply with every one of USDA’s claim-processing rules. According to the majority, an Article III court is powerless to waive non-compliance.

NCLA argues that the panel majority erred in creating the new variety of exhaustion, a non-jurisdictional yet mandatory exhaustion, that has no basis in law. In doing so, the panel converted USDA’s claim-processing rules into statutory requirements, which Congress did not do. The panel ruling strips courts of their inherent equitable discretion and robs Congress of its exclusive authority to set the jurisdiction of Article III courts. The decision also conflicts with precedential decisions of the D.C. Circuit indicating that there is no such thing as exhaustion that is mandatory but non-jurisdictional.

NCLA awaits decision in another ALJ case, Cochran v. SEC, from the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. NCLA has also filed several amicus briefs on ALJ appointments and removal protection issues in Axon v. FTC and recently in Jarkesy v. SEC. The issue of administrative exhaustion has been previously raised in NCLA’s amicus brief in Carr v. Saul.

NCLA released the following statements:

“By avoiding an important constitutional issue squarely before the court, the panel majority created yet another constitutional issue. Courts must not hesitate to perform their judicial duty, or else another branch of government will fill that void and upset our system of checks and balances.”
— Jared McClain, Litigation Counsel, NCLA

“The panel’s decision makes little sense. It defers its decision on an important constitutional issue until after an administrative agency can address the issue, despite acknowledging that the agency lacks authority to decide it.”
— Richard Samp, Senior Litigation Counsel, NCLA

“Circuit courts’ refusal to hear properly presented challenges to agency ALJs’ removal protections in the order logic requires—before an unconstitutional to-be-vacated adjudication takes place—defies reason and disserves justice.”
— Peggy Little, Senior Litigation Counsel, NCLA

For more information about this case visit here.

ABOUT NCLA

NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.

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Columbia Spring Jubilee selects judging panel

Columbia Spring Jubilee selects judging panel
Tuesday, March 23, 2021

 

The Columbia Spring Jubilee, scheduled for June 3-5, 2021, has selected Derek Bonner, Steve Glidewell and Brent Grider to mark the cards for their 70th annual event. The show will be held at the Maury County Park in Columbia, Tennessee.