Tennessee Walking Horses, Rocky Mountain Horses, Kentucky Mountain Horses and other breeds totaling upward of 130 horses are at the Freeborn County Fairgrounds this weekend for the Minnesota Walking Horse Association’s Southern Minnesota Classic, a show that promoters and participants hail as one of the best in the season.

Richard Bol, a retired chiropractic physician from Stillwater, turned 82 on Friday but was still in Albert Lea riding two Tennessee Walking Horses and still owns and cares for five horses.

This is Bol’s third year coming to Albert Lea for this event, but he’s been involved in these competitions for about 40 years.

“The horse I’m going to ride in the western class is 26 years old and I’m 82. We total 108,” Bol said of his horse Halelujah Mr. Perfect. “That’s the oldest combo I know of in the state. And I’m probably the oldest active rider in the Tri-State Horsemen’s Association.”

Bol brought two horses; the other is Spirit’s Olympic Torch, whose sire was Olympic Generator, an amateur world grand champion.

Bol said the turnout this year was the largest he’s seen at this event, with about 130 stalls rented out for around 130 horses. One class Bol competed in included 21 horses all competing before Judge Tracy Weier from Mansfield, Ohio.

“They’re judged on manner of going, their gait and their behavior,” Bol said. “Gait is a four beat walking horse gait. We don’t want them pacing. That’s a two beat gait. We don’t want them trotting. That’s also a two beat gait. We want the 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4. They can walk up to 16 mph. That’s something most people don’t realize, that they’re still walking. They’re average walk is between six and eight mph for their running walk. Their flat walk is four to five mph.”

“They have a very comfortable gait,” Bol said. “Compared to other horses, it’s the difference between riding a forklift and a Cadillac. They both move, but the Cadillac is the easier one on your backside.”

Bol said he and his family used to go to about ten shows a year but currently attend eight in the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa area. Bol praised the Southern Minnesota Classic as a great show.

“It’s one of our better shows during the season; in fact, it was our show of the year last year for the Minnesota Walking Horse Association…” Bol said. “It’s been my experience that there’s a friendly atmosphere here. You help each other. If somebody forgets a piece of tack or needs an extra girth, somebody else has got one.”

Neal and Barbara Earl from Bloomingdale, Ind. travel as far as Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee for shows, but they also praised the Southern Minnesota classic.

“This is one of the best shows and most fun shows we go to all year,” Barbara said.

“This a very well organized, nicely run show,” Neal said. “It’s very relaxed fun. I think if you had a family this is someplace you’d feel comfortable about bringing them. … There are lots of kids out there.”

The Earls brought three horses to Albert Lea: Piper’s Mountain Trapper, Tobe’s Smokin Heather and Bamajama.

The Earls said National Walking Horse Association shows are something the two can do together, but the friendly atmosphere was not always the case at these shows. Neal said that since NWHA shows have become much more social and honest.

“About ten years ago the National Walking Horse Association was formed,” Barbara said. “That gave sound people a place to show. It’s a lot more fun. People are just real supportive. Everybody’s real helpful in this organization.”

Shows prior to the NWHA were under a different organization, and Barbara called them “commissioned shows.”

“(The shows were) very political, very secretive,” Neal said. “People did things to their horses that weren’t legal, but they did them anyway so they could get away with it. National Walking Horse is a zero tolerance organization. It has been a tremendous, tremendous boom to flat shod walking horses.”

“If you were a sound horse person, it was not a comfortable place to show,” Barbara said.

The change in the atmosphere of the shows is not the only change. The Earls said people are happier at the shows now, and Bold said the horses are happier now, too. In the last 20 years, Bol has seen a change in how horses are cared for and especially in the ways they are trained.

“We don’t break them anymore, we gentle them,” Bol said. “We use methods of acclimating the horse to the saddle and riding them. It’s done a lot differently than the old cowboy style of getting on and letting them buck. We’d just as soon they didn’t buck. We’ll work with them gently and put a saddle on to lead them around. The young horse I have now, we pony her. We have a leash on her – a lead line, and we’ve pulled her behind horses for the last year or so periodically just to get her acclimated to being with horses and moving around. We put a saddle on way before we ever ride her. We gentle her into it.”

Bol said he entered one of his horses into a show after riding her only nine times, but he usually prefers to ride them for about three months before entering them in two-year old classes in shows, which he said can only be ten minutes long.

Neal said the amount of training before competition typically depends on the horse, with some ready at age two or three and others still training at 15 and 16.

“It’s like any other kind of athletic event,” Neal said. “We usually work the horses five out of seven days a week from a half hour to an hour, depending on the horse. After you do the athletic work, you have to do the cosmetic thing – you have to clean them and bathe them. It’s a lot of work but it’s a lot of fun.”

“It’s really a continuous process,” Barbara said. “Just like any athlete, you’re always honing your skills and improving or tweaking as your competition improves.”

The Southern Minnesota Classic concludes Sunday afternoon at the Freeborn County Fairgrounds.

As for Bol, he plans to compete as long as he is physically able. He recently started training a horse born on his 80th birthday.

“I’d like to stick around long enough to see some action out of her, she’s pretty promising,” Bol said.