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The Tennessee Walker stands between 15 and 16 hands high. They can be black, bay, chestnut, palomino, roan, white, or brown and occasionally gray. They have a very good tempers. They can travel 9 to 14 miles an hour.
They are the only horse that can do the running walk or the Tennessee walk. They have three special gaits. They can do the flat-foot walk, the running walk, and the rocking-chair canter. they can provide a smooth ride at faster speeds. The typical Tennessee Walkers were very gentle horses. They are known to snap their teeth to the rhythm of their pace. They are very fun to ride.
The Walking horse was once called the Plantation Walking Horse or Turn Row Horse. The horse earned these names by being able to turn around plants rows of plants with out stepping on any plants. Walkers were not bred for speed. Farmers needed a horse that could hunt all day. They wanted a horse that they could hitch up to a plow for fieldwork. One day in 1837, a special horse was born in Kentucky. This was the first Tennessee Walking Horse. It was named Bald Stockings. His parents were a Standard breed and a Thoroughbred.