Saratoga News Photograph by George Sakkestad Bob and Patti Diamond with their 2-year-old son, Tyler, and their 6-year-old daughter, Ashley, and Expressive Gold, the 9-year-old sorrel gelding which, with Bob, won the Tennessee Walking Horse World Champion title in the Amateur Western Division. Simply Grand Bob and Patti Diamond win titles in the Superbowl of Tennessee Walker shows By Suzanne Cristallo Football has its Superbowl, baseball its World Series. In the high-stepping world of the Tennessee Walking Horse, it's the National Celebration. From all over the United States and abroad, more than 100,000 breeders, riders and fans of the revered animal gather every August in Shelbyville, Tenn. For 10 days, they watch 3,000 of the world's top horses and riders compete for world titles. It's an extravaganza that pleases the eye--a validation of athletic prowess and showmanship. Responding to the judge's command to "Walk on!," riders urge their mounts into the running walk--an exaggerated foreleg stride called "the big lick," a term derived from "a hit and a lick." The natural high-stepping gait that gives the breed its name has been clocked as fast as 20 miles per hour. The gait was bred into the animal originally for the comfort it afforded Southern aristocrats who spent long hours in the saddle overseeing their crops and field hands. Around the open-air arena the Walkers glide, their riders appearing glued to the saddle during the celebrated gait which is so smooth that even a glass of water carried by the rider remains unspilled. Last August, on a sultry evening like many others during the 60 years the Celebration has been held, 32,000 fans watched Bob Diamond of Monte Sereno urge Expressive Gold, his showy sorrel gelding, into the big lick. The eager 9-year-old responded, his flowing mane and tail a showcase of color that should be the envy of bottle blondes everywhere. The fragrant carnation and chrysanthemum sash draped around his neck flicked over Diamond's chaps as the two made their dashing winner's walk around the arena. Five judges had just awarded him the title of World Champion in the Amateur Western Division. With an impulsive gesture born of the exhilaration of the moment, Diamond threw his white Stetson to the crowd in the stands. It was his fourth world title and a payoff for the years of training and staying at the barn until midnight, and all the falls he had taken since his wife, Patti, first introduced him to horses during their courtship nine years earlier. In the English Division, Patti Diamond, a rider since the age of 2 and a veteran with 21 world titles since she started showing at 6, was riding her brilliant gray stallion, Pusher's Benny Boy. It was the last day of the Celebration and Patti had already racked up three more World and two Reserve championships--each in a different division and each on a different horse from her family's S & P Farms. But this was the World Grand Champion competition, and she was riding her favorite. Stallions that have won the title have acquired along with it a coveted status. As popular breeding animals, they command large stud fees, and their semen is transported all over the world. Outfitted in a midnight-blue riding habit and a white tuxedo shirt festooned with a pink rose, her blonde hair swept back with a matching bow, Patti made a striking picture astride the nearly white horse, a horse she had "wanted forever" since the day she first saw him win as a 3-year-old. Two years ago, she was able to buy him, taking the then 8-year-old out of retirement to re-enter the show circuit. Of the 30 entrants in the class who had displayed their skills at three gaits--the flat walk, running walk and canter--a third had been asked to stand in the middle of the arena so that the remainder could be more clearly seen by the five judges. Patti was among those in the center. Although the riders in the center seemed in repose, their emotions were churning. They knew they were there because they had been noticed first. "The better the picture you make, the better the chance you have," observes Bob, on the importance of appearance. "At that level, you do everything to make it as easy as possible for the judges [to see you]." Evidently, the approach works. After a grueling 45 minutes in the ring, all but 12 entrants in the center were excused with a "Thank you very much," the signal of exclusion. When Patti and Pusher's Benny Boy were called forward again, it was to receive the long, multicolored ribbons and flower sash of the World Grand Champion. "What a thrill! What a rush!" she recalls. "It's something I had dreamed about for 20 years. It was my goal." And the fans she had earned over her years of showing came to congratulate her, to see the stallion up close, and to have her sign their programs. "It's like the Olympics for us," Patti explains. "It's just as important." As it does for the Olympics, preparing for the National Celebration consumes years on the road. The show season runs from spring into fall with winter considered vacation time when horses stand at stud or go home to their farms for training or to become pleasure horses again for their owners. "In August alone, we're away three weeks for the Celebration," Patti notes. An entrepreneur with her own shop, the Exclusively Yours Boutique in Saratoga, she comes home then just to pay bills and check on the store. Both she and Bob, who has RWD Enterprises, a commercial property management company with dealings in California and Arizona, keep tabs on their businesses every day via cell phone, pagers and Fed Ex. Their children, Ashley, 6, and Tyler, 2, go with them, taking part in junior show activities. All the while they are showing, the Diamonds are developing recognition for themselves and their horses. "All year 'round, we're winning and gearing up, getting a reputation, getting the judges to know our horses before they get to the [Celebration] show," Bob says, explaining the politics and mechanics that lead to becoming a champion. "You're trying to get a judge to recognize you, to see you, because, if you're seen, he can judge you." Being seen in the show ring is no easy task. Sometimes 60 riders contend for a visible position, so the competition can be tough. "Positioning is very important," Bob says, "so you slow down and let the others pass, always looking ahead for an opening. The toughest part is having to concentrate on the horse ahead of you or to the side." "You can't loaf anywhere," Patti adds. And does the ambitious competition sometimes play dirty? "I've been muscled out," Patti concedes, "but usually it's by people who don't know what they're doing. After all, we show against our friends. They're from all over the world. We socialize together and like each other." Showing is not for the uncommitted. "Anyone in the world can enter a horse for the $500 fee," Patti says, "but if the horse is not top grade, it's a waste of time and money." Top-grade horses don't come cheap. This stylish, high-stepping horse, this easy-riding mount, has evolved from the breed that was established officially in 1935 when the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders and Exhibitors Association was formed. From an original roster of 208 registered animals, it has grown to 352,000 today. Its gene pool is drawn from several light horse breeds in America--Thoroughbred, Morgan, American Saddlebred and Standardbred. But it was a black Standardbred foaled in 1886 named Allan F-1 which is considered to be the founding stallion of the breed. He never made it as a trotter because he refused to trot. He would only pace. Today, his top-grade descendants can cost anywhere from about $35,000 for a "pretty good show horse" to more than $500,000 for a world grand champion stallion capable of commanding $1,000 stud fees, according to a breed profile compiled by Harold Twitty in Horse Illustrated. And then there are the many, everyday show costs: for the vet, the trainer, the boarding at showgrounds, transport vans, special shoeing, entrance fees, and airfare, lodging and meals for the riders. "Vacation" costs when the horse is at winter quarters still involve boarding and trainers. Some compensation can come with a stallion's earnings, if his colts show well. Top-grade stud fees run from $300 to $1,250, and because breeding is done through artificial insemination, servicing up to 200 mares per season is average for a popular stallion. Then there are the purses for the winners. But true lovers of the breed don't count on purses. They are in the show game for other reasons. "We show for enjoyment," Patti emphasizes . "Horses give you unconditional love," Bob says. "What other kind of activity gives you that?" Looking to give some credit where it is due for the very successful year they had, the Diamonds gave their major purse--an amount they wouldn't name--to their trainer, Wallace Brandan, of Franklin, Tenn. "This is not a business," Patti explains. What is her business--the unusual clothing boutique she has owned for 14 years--is actually a help when it comes to creating the picture she wants judges to see during riding competition. "I'm into fashion," she says. "That's why I go to the extreme to create a beautiful picture with [my horse]." The extreme involves having her horse transported to her tailor so that the fabric for making her formal English riding habit can be placed next to the horse, assuring that his color is complemented by it. For Bob, a childhood fascination with Roy Rogers influenced his choice of horse and matching western riding togs. To match the horse, he chose a soap-smooth, light rust-color leather for his chaps, trimmed in fringe the color of the mane and tail. Diamond-shaped designs symbolic of his surname are embedded in the leather. Judges try hard to separate trappings from horsemanship. But the quality of horses and riders at the world championship level is fairly equal, sometimes making the smallest detail a deciding factor. Nancy Lockston, a Campbell resident and a veteran "carded" judge who belongs to the Heart of America Tennessee Walker Association, is sensitive to the criticism that judges can be swayed by what exhibitors invest in their horses and appearance. "It's a judge's fault if silver or fancy clothes count more than horsemanship," she says. "If a judge hasn't the guts to place an exhibitor where he belongs--performance over clothes--then it's the judge's fault that the material approach is successful." Mostly, says Lockston, her contemporaries look for well-trained animals. They also want to see a good coat well-groomed, a healthy-- not skinny or fat--condition and correct posture in both horse and rider. The condition of hooves is also important. In recent years, they have grown in importance through controversy to become a symbol of the industry's integrity and the breed's further acceptance in the horse world: the Walker is prized in the ring for its ability to step high. This talent has led in past years to some trainers taking short cuts around the patient process of developing the exaggerated gait through training. Using a practice called "soring," or the creation by various methods of foot tenderness in the animal, these unethical trainers could quickly get their horses to step higher in reaction to the pain of their hooves hitting the ground. But the Walker industry has been successful in policing itself, giving teeth to laws that were passed to eliminate the practice. While judges look at hoof condition as a basic prerequisite for successful showing, it's the showmanship horse and rider exhibit that can make the final difference with them. "That happy, proud, 'look-at-me' attitude," Campbell adds, "is what we like to look for." It's that attitude that the Diamonds foster well. With the horses gleaming as they stream by in a running walk and the riders' faces aglow with smiles from what Patti calls "pure enjoyment of the moment," they serve as a magnet for the eye. Although Bob, 41, is a comparative newcomer to the realm of the horse, Patti was born into it. She credits her father, Saratogan Robert Pollack, a Bay Area real estate investor and building contractor, with fostering the family's love of horses. Fond of trips on his horse up Alum Rock Road some years back, he loved the simple pleasure of horseback riding, "And he wanted it for us," Patti recalls fondly. From the time they were toddlers, Patti and her siblings were taught to ride on their ranch in Morgan Hill. Patti is passing the love of horses on to a third generation. Her kindergartner, Ashley, rode alone this year for the first time, proudly taking fifth place. During share time at her St. Andrew's pre-school last year, she brought a miniature horse for her class to ride. Toddler Tyler was entered in a show class for his age group, dressed in a tux while his Tennessee Walker pony was led by his mother in matching attire. "Horses have been a family affair for a long time," Patti says. "I firmly believe in family events to keep kids out of trouble and to give them a sense of responsibility. When I was growing up and all the kids were at the mall, I was with my horse. I even took him to UCLA with me." Bob, a Chicago native, didn't get to California until he was 20. He supported himself while going to school and dabbling in the rising real estate market of the '70s. His philosophy of "work--that's what you do" served him well and carries over to the horse world. "I psych myself to everything in the arena," he says. But there is something else he derives after hours. "What other kind of activity allows you to win a championship, come home with your horse and ride on the beach? How does it get any better?" [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, January 6, 1999. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.