Stewart family horse garners national attention
His registered name is King of the Jungle, but well-known local pharmacist Nestor Stewart just calls him King, and the title may be a perfect fit if the buzz about this magnificent 6-year-old stallion presages a win at this year’s Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration in Shelbyville.
The horse, owned by the Stewart family and trained by Charlie Green, has racked up a number of wins, including taking top honors at a recent show in McMinnville and the Red Carpet Horse Show in Pulaski, Tenn. The Pulaski win landed King of the Jungle on the cover of The Scoop, the Tennessee Walking Horse industry’s official weekly paper.
Stewart purchased King of the Jungle from Billy Helton as a 3-year-old, after learning about him from longtime trainer Bobby Fann, who trained him for some time with good success.
As King matured, Stewart moved him to well-known and respected trainer Bill Bobo, who took the horse on to several more ribbons.
But eventually Bobo, who’s other commitments were taking increasing amounts of his time, suggested hiring a younger trainer. It was when Stewart approached Charlie Green this June that things really began to click, with the pair showing an almost immediate rapport, and an impressive string of early success.
Though Stewart is pleased with the performance of both trainer and horse, and gratified by the buzz King has been generating within the Tennessee Walking Horse community, he doesn’t take anything for granted. King placed fourth out of a large field in the Walking Stallions, 15.2 and under class he was entered in Monday night at the celebration, but Stewart still feels confident his stallion will have a chance to earn the roses.
King competes in Shelbyville again tomorrow night.
‘I have learned in life that we can have hopes and expectations,’ Stewart said, ‘and you can get disappointed. But I think we’ve got a real good chance, or the horse does,’ he added with a smile, ‘to win the World Championship, because there’s a lot of talk about him now and from some of the people who really know good horses. The statement has been made that he’s the best horse they’ve seen this year.
‘But I don’t know,’ Stewart said. ‘I just hope that it turns out good for us, but I’m not going to be heartbroken if he doesn’t win. I’m just going to sit in the saddle, so to speak, and take what comes. That’s the only thing I can do.’
Stewart’s lifelong love of Tennessee Walking Horses began when he was just a youngster. In fact, the well-known pharmacist placed in his first competition at the Warren County A&L Fair at the age of 13 on a horse he purchased with the proceeds from the sale of the first mare he owned and her colt. The next year he took first, and was hooked, showing his own horses until he gave up riding in the mid-’70s.
Oddly enough, his first horse was purchased from the proceeds of the sale of sheep the young entrepreneur had raised as a child in DeKalb County.
‘I started out with a ewe,’ Stewart said with a grin.
Stewart says there is another reason he supports and participates in the Tennessee Walking Horse industry.
‘The walking horse industry has been great for Tennessee,’ Stewart said. ‘It brings in a lot of money to the economy. And people love horses, nearly everybody loves to see a beautiful horse.’