Rack
'Em Up with America's
Perfect Horse
The
Racking Horse has it all: a smooth gait, speed,
stamina, and a gentle character.
By Tracy
Williams
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Deep
in the heart of the South during the pre-Civil War era of vast
plantations dividing a landscape of cotton fields and haunting
magnolias, a unique breed of horse emerged. Landowners in this
era surveyed their holdings and managed their estates via horseback,
and it became essential for these great men to possess horses
able to cover the miles of territory with quickness, hardiness
and, to spare the backs of the riders, a smooth gait. Thus,
a breed was formed and perpetuated based on a gait – one
that stands apart from the typical walk-trot-canter-gallop monotony
and that would wing these landowners across the plantations
with an ease and swiftness that became indispensable to their
livelihoods.
Fast
forward through the years, and this horse’s gaited talents
have launched him off the plantation and into the lives of
horse-owners across the country. As these horses gained popularity
and significance, they have specialized into several different
breeds – one of which is titled the Racking Horse. This
particular breed is known for |
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performing its namesake, the rack, a unique 4-beat gait that
is as natural as walking to the breed. As the Racking Horse
has gained acclaim for its smooth gait and gentle disposition,
a new association is springing to life to perpetuate a particular
strain of the Racking Horse – those who can not only perform
the rack but do it at impressive speeds without losing the technical
aspects of the gait. This new association, the American
Gaited Endurance Horse Association, has closed the breeding
books with just 10 studs and 100 mares that fit their rigorous
standards. On the Spotted
Haven Walking Horse Farm, Heather and Johnny McKeehan proudly
display one of the 10 chosen studs – a remarkable stallion
named Grave Digger who embodies the ideals. He is, according
to the new association, practically a perfect horse.
Background
of a Breed |
The
Racking Horse stems from the Tennessee Walking Horse breed
– a group of horses known for the running walk, an extraordinarily
smooth gait that was much prized and selected for on Old Southern
plantations. However, mixed within these Tennessee Walking
horses were those that began to distinguish themselves by
either replacing the running walk with the rack or by performing
both gaits. The rack is a fast, evenly timed, bi-lateral gait
where each foot hits the ground at separate but equal intervals.
It is an athletic gait, requiring powerful shoulder and hindquarter
strength, but it is as natural as a walk for these horses
– just much faster. Racking Horses began to set themselves |
Grave Digger is the epitome of the Racking
Horse breed and is one of only 10 studs selected as foundation
stock for the new American Gaited Endurance Horse Association. |
apart as a distinct group from Tennessee Walkers, but they had
no organization, no show circuit and no incentives to cultivate
the breed. Thus an association was formed to promote this group
of horses as a separate breed, highlighting disposition and,
of course, the rack.
In
the 1960s, a group of Alabama businessmen headed by Joe Bright
formed a corporation and started working with the USDA to negotiate
a place for the Racking Horse in the horse world. On May 23,
1971, the breed association was formed to “protect and
perpetuate” the breed. Association members determined
initial eligibility simply by the ability to perform the rack
– a task that should be natural as breathing. A true Racking
Horse “single-foots the entire time no matter how fast
he is moving; it is always as smooth as silk.” The association
drew heavily on pleasure Walking Horses who previously hadn’t
had a niche in the show circuit. Currently, eligibility is determined
either by pedigree – via blood-typing – or performance.
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A
Racking Horse is characterized by its beauty, stamina, calm
disposition, intelligence and versatility according to the
Racking Horse Breeders Association. They are on average 15.2
hands and around 1,000 pounds with long, sloping shoulders,
full flanks and hindquarters and good bone. All colors and
patterns are seen in the Racking Horse except leopard spotting.
In 1975 the Racking Horse was designated as Alabama’s
official state horse.
Producing
the Perfect Horse
Springing
from the Racking Horse breed is a new association that is
seeking to create a super horse, one that can literally
do it all with excellence. The new breed is being developed
from the fastest and best gaited horses in the country.
“The breed
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Grave
Digger holds a Reserve World Champion Title and has won State
Championships in flat-shod racking, lite-shod racking, model
stallion, trail pleasure, gaited poles and gaited barrels.
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emphasizes gait, forward speed, stamina, conformation, docility,
versatility and the innate ability to metabolize oxygen quicker
than other gaited breeds,” says the American Gaited Endurance
Horse Association’s mission statement.
The
association has several purposes. First, the new breed will
provide an alternative mount in competitive endurance riding.
These horses will not only be able to maintain the speed and
physical fitness necessary in the sport but they will also
provide a “smooth as silk” ride to the participant.
In addition the breed will, via its registration requirements,
protect the rack gait by using a sounding board to ensure
that the horses are truly performing the rack and not breaking
into a pace or a trot at such high speeds. The new breed should
also make the Racking Horse a more worthy commodity, setting
it apart from horses that don’t perform the gait in
its purest form and maintaining the gentle personality that
will endear the breed to every level of horsemanship. In its
essence, the association is simply seeking to create the perfect
horse. “These horses will become known as a gaited athlete
with superb speed, endurance and mentality that anyone can
ride and will become every family’s prized possession,”
says the American Gaited Endurance Horse Association.
Finding
a Super Stud |
As
the new association gathered together the pieces it believed
would make up the perfect horse, they also needed to find
horses that epitomized these ideals to create the initial
stud book. Only 10 studs were selected based on ability to
rack at high speeds (greater than 10 miles per hour), endurance
capabilities, versatility and disposition. The search was
not an easy one, but one of these super horses lives on the
Spotted Haven Walking Horse Farm tucked away in Hudson, FL
– home to Heather and Johnny McKeehan.
Heather is an equine enthusiast since she was four years old;
she has studied most forms of equitation including dressage,
saddleseat, stadium jumping, cross-country jumping and western
riding. In her various activities, she has worked with numerous
breeds including Appaloosas, Arabians, Quarter Horses and
Tennessee Walkers and, of course, Racking Horses. Her husband
Johnny, however, entered the ring a bit belatedly at the persuasion
of his wife. “I
met my husband and introduced him to
horses,” Heather reminisces. “However, because
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he had a bad back, we needed a horse he would be able to ride,
preferably one that wasn’t a trotter.” The pair
found Tennessee Walkers to be the perfect fit. They purchased
a 16 month-old gaited filly and trained her together, a task
that hooked Johnny to the industry and spurred him to take
trick training classes and schooling in different disciplines.
At the time, the two were only training horses within their
own stable, but “people started asking us to train their
horses,” Heather says. “It wasn’t exactly
a choice; it just kind of happened.” In 1999 they moved
to Hudson and created the Spotted Haven Walking Horse Farm.
Currently they have nine studs and a thriving breeding program
that specializes in spotted saddle horses. Their collection
of horses competes in different gaited competitions, including
the flat walk, running walk and rack, and they have several
World Championships in their show history.
Grave
Digger |
Despite
all their success, Heather and Johnny went on the hunt for
a speed racking horse to expand their expertise. They wanted
a horse with the natural racking gait with lots of animation
but not one that had been tampered with by human hands to
“enhance” it. To gain this combination, they needed
a horse with speed. “If you do anything to enhance the
gait, it slows the horse down; with a speed horse, you can’t
do that, you can’t alter the gait artificially.”
says Heather. (Sometimes the methods used to enhance a horse’s
gait involve some pain which increases animation but slows
the |
Heather
& Johnny McKeehan of Spotted Haven Farms with their Racking
Horse stallion “Digger”. |
horse
down.) Not long into their search, they found Grave Digger.
His original owner intended him to be for his daughter who
suffers from a condition that stunts her growth. This small-in-stature
young lady riding a powerful and magnetic stallion created
quite a picture, capturing the attention of Heather and Johnny.
“We saw her – just a tiny thing – on a gorgeous
bay stallion flying around the ring,” Heather remembers
of that fateful day. Nonetheless, they returned home empty-handed
yet haunted by this image. Although their inquiries led them
to believe the owner wasn’t interested in selling, not
long after they returned home, Grave Digger’s owner
called, interested in relinquishing his champion stallion.
“He wanted him in the hands of someone who would show
him, promote him and let him realize his full potential but
who was still far enough away from Grave Digger’s sire
so as not to compete with him,” says Heather. With a
little stroke of luck, Grave Digger became theirs.
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Five
years later, and Grave Digger is an indispensable part of
Spotted Haven. True to their word, Heather and Johnny have
shown Grave Digger to his full potential. He has competed
in light shod, flat shod, gaited poles and gaited barrels,
only beaten once in Florida competition. He took fourth at
the World Championships as well, which Heather claims was
her fault that he didn’t place higher in that setting.
“That was my fault; I held him back,” she remembers.
“I was watching all these horses race around the ring,
and all I could think of was ‘Collision!’ So I
didn’t open him up.” Nonetheless, Grave Digger
has distinguished himself to the point of catching the eye
of the American Gaited Endurance Horse Association to be one
of the 10 foundation studs.
At
closer inspection, this horse is all the association wants
him to be. He is a powerful animal – only 15.1 hands
but with a huge neck, chest and shoulders. “You can
feel the power in him,” Heather says. “It’s
like getting behind the wheel of a Ferrari.” He performs
a true four-beat rack at speeds up to 25 miles per hour without
breaking into a pace or a trot – a job he loves to perform.
“People are always amazed when I tack him up because
I just hold the bridle by the top and he grabs the bit; he
loves his job,” Heather says. “His gait feels
like you are floating through the air – no bounce to
it at all. You can feel each hoof hit the
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Go
for the Gold! |
| What’s
in the Feed Room? When you are the proud owner of a horse
like Grave Digger, nutrition is of utmost importance.
Thus, Heather and Johnny McKeehan have fed Seminole
feeds for years. |
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| Their
varied farm of show and breeding horses thrive on Gold
Chance High Efficiency. “I’ve fed Seminole
for 15 years now. I’ve done all the other feeds,
but my horses have never been as healthy as they are on
Seminole feed. You can see it in their coats, their overall
health; they are sound-minded and not too hyper. We rarely
have colic, founder, or illnesses of any kind to the amazement
of our vet.” They have discovered the key to keeping
their prized possessions in peak form – Seminole
feed. |
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ground,
but it doesn’t jar you at all.”
Of
course to be included in the new studbook, chosen horses need
to have more than athletic ability; they need to have a sound
mind to appeal to all levels of horsemen. In addition to his
impressive talent, Grave Digger is a well-rounded animal with
a sound-minded, gentle disposition. Heather and Johnny have
set definite boundaries for him to ward against over-zealous
stallion behavior. “He’s allowed to act however
he wants in his stall or in his pasture, but if I am handling
him, he has to respect me, and he does,” says Heather.
“He’s not high strung; he’s so gentle a
kid could handle him. But as soon as I call on him for speed,
he is ready to go but also willing to come back down and walk
all day long if I ask him to.” With such a resume and
character references, Grave Digger was an obvious choice to
bring the right characteristics to offspring of the new lines
in the American Gaited Endurance Horse Association.
Over
a hundred years ago, plantation owners little realized their
impact on the horse world to come. All they wanted was something
smooth, stable and hardy, but their initial efforts, coupled
with dedicated horsemen throughout the years, have paved the
way to refine an inborn talent and create America’s
perfect horse.
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To learn more about the McKeehans Racking & Walking horses
visit www.spottedhaven.com.
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About
the Author: Tracy Williams is a graduate of Colorado
State University with degrees in Equine Science and
Journalism. She is a freelance writer and photographer
living in New Mexico. |
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