Local couple’s hobby leads to gallop for another world championship

A Corbin couple got the surprise of their lives last year when their two-year-old Tennessee Walking Horse named Gen on the Run went from relative obscurity to sudden fame.
Gen on the Run captured the two-year-old World Grand Championship award at The Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration – an annual competition of the world’s best walking horses, held in Shelbyville, Tenn.
“We didn’t think we had any kind of chance of winning,” said Ty Hart. She and her husband, Michael, live in Corbin and own Hart Funeral Home.
“It’s very difficult to win something like that. People who have been in the business 20 or 30 years say they’ve never won.”
The Harts were more fortunate. And they could join an even more elite rank of owners if Gen on the Run is able to pull off a repeat; a world championship in the three-year-old division.
“He’s a champ,” Hart said. “He won every award you can win as a two-year-old. It’s been an outstanding year for us.”
So far, Gen on the Run is undefeated in competition as a three-year-old.
For the Harts, success has come fairly quickly and unexpectedly. Purchasing their first horse only about five years ago, the couple has turned their hobby into a sideline business. Ty Hart said it started when they remodeled their Corbin home and thought a vacant barn on the property needed an occupant. Enter Major, a four-year-old stallion that became their first foray into walking horses.
“We got him primarily because he was very affectionate and sweet,” Hart said “He was just a big, beautiful horse and I just felt as if he needed something more.”
Major was sent to trainer Bobby Burton, of Lily, who began entering him in some competitions. A blue ribbon winner, Major died of colic about a year after the couple purchased him.
“I said no more horses,” Hart said. “I was so devastated losing that horse.”
But it wasn’t long after that the couple purchased a more experienced walker – Coins, LTD; a chestnut stallion that had been on the competition circuit.
About three years ago they purchased what is now called Hartland Farms in Bell Buckle, Tenn., a small community near Shelbyville. Soon after, they bought a few mares and began breeding. The farm is now a productive broodmare facility.
Ty Hart, a retired schoolteacher who now works as a funeral director, said the farm and walking horse was something the couple could do together that wouldn’t take them too far away from their time-consuming business.
“We’ve just always loved horses and it’s something we are able to do together,” Hart said. “Our business is a 24 hour a day, 365 day a year job. We are very confined. This is just a great getaway for us.”
Gen on the Run was a near miss for the couple. Ty said she thought they already had enough horses and “stayed in the car” when her husband took a trip to Fleming Stables to take a look at him. He convinced her to just look at the horse. That was enough.
“He came back out and said ‘you’ve got to see this horse. It’s just the color you love,” she said. “Reluctantly, I went in and fell in love with Gen on sight.”
Hart said purchasing two-year-olds speculating they could be good walking horses is dicey, but Gen had good pedigree. He was sired by another champion, Armed and Dangerous.
The Celebration begins today and runs through Sept. 2. Hart said if Gen on the Run takes top honors again, she and her husband will be at a crossroads.
“We could promote him for the four-year-old Grand Championship or stand him to stud,” she said. “Either way, he will be a valuable horse.”