CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Anyone who has seen Mr. Ed or Fury on television, Black Beauty in the movies or a photo of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Traveler knows something about the American saddlebred horse.
Hundreds of horses, mostly American Saddlebreds, will be at the Tri-State Exhibition Center through the weekend to show why their relatives are famous for style and beauty.
The 35th annual Chattanooga-Cleveland Charity Horse Show begins this evening.
It is Tennessee’s largest show for saddlebred horses, which organizers are quick to point out have nothing to do with Tennessee walking horses. In recent weeks, court cases that played out in Chattanooga and a video showing trainers abusing a horse have put the walking horse industry in a bad light.
“The other night I was watching ‘Meet Me In St. Louis,’ and the carriage that came to get Judy Garland and Fred Astaire, the horse was an American saddlebred,” said Connie Blue of Covington, La. She was at the show Tuesday with 10 horses along with trainer Tommy Benton of Maranatha Stables of Baton Rouge, La., and her son Kendall.