World champ honors piling up: Lawrence & Ted
The horse competed in the Tennessee National Walking Horse Celebration, a 10-day show on the Celebration Grounds in Shelbyville from Wednesday, Aug. 21, to Saturday, Aug. 31.
“This is the first time for a performance horse to become a world grand champion,” Lawrence said. “There’s typically horses from about 40 different states, and there’s usually between 3,500 and 4,000 entries every year.
“I think breeders bring their best horses, so that’s not representative of the total number of horses in the walking horse breed,” he added. “Most of the classes in this are pretty competitive. There are horses that come from Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Kansas, Utah (and) there’s a lot of states in the lower 48 that have horses represented.”
The Celebration Grounds, which is more than 100 acres, has an outdoor stadium that will seat 30,000 spectators, he added.
In Ted’s Image competed in a qualifying event the first Monday night for the first seven classes.
“If you do well in that, then you can go on to the championship class,” Lawrence said. His horse won the preliminaries, capturing his 11th World Championship.
Friday, Aug. 30, In Ted’s Image competed in the amateur fine harness class and won his fourth World Grand Championship.
This class involves a very lightweight, fragile four-wheel buggy, on which Lawrence rode. This class only started five years ago, “so Ted has won four of the five (championships in that class),” he added.
Now 16, In Ted’s Image was 2 years old when he first competed in an Under Saddle class.
The horse was about 8 or 9 years old when he started competing in fine harness classes and also competing in under saddle classes at times.
“He’s considered a classic horse,” Lawrence said. “Classic horses are those who are 15 years and older, but Ted really competes with much younger horses. He’s very active, muscular. He’s in great shape.”
Lawrence, who has been showing for the last 31 years with In Ted’ s Image and other horses, is a member of FAST Inc., a foundation for formation and protection of the walking horse, and Tennessee Walking Horse and Breeders Association.
Besides In Ted’s Image, he also owns another horse, Sweet Lucy, a mare that lives at the farm with Lawrence.
“She’s the aunt of Ted,” he said. “Ted’s mother died about three years ago. Her name was Picture’s Perfection.”
The sire was a Tennessee walking horse named Ted Williams, also a world grand champion horse in the under saddle class. “That’s how I named my horse In Ted’s Image,” Lawrence said.
He noted the first horse with which he won a world championship, in 1997, was Jen’s Picture Perfect, the grandmother of In Ted’s Image.
“So, he comes from a lineage of very talented horses,” Lawrence said.
In Ted’s Image resides in Calloway Stables at Shelbyville, “the heart of the walking horse world,” where the horse is housed and trained, he said.
Always an animal lover, Lawrence said his wife, Carolyn Lawrence, got him started with horses in 1992.
“Before we were married, she took me with her family to the Celebration,” he recalled. “I saw all these beautiful, talented horses in the ring. I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to have one.’
“So, after we were married the next year, I bought the first mare and showed her,” Lawrence added.
However, this horse was a little temperamental to be a champion.
Still, “I ended up learning a lot because of her,” Lawrence said.
