Strolling Jim

Strolling Jim started out pulling a plow. Foaled in 1936 near Viola and bred by Ed Gilliam, he was trained to a wagon and plow and worked as a farm horse until the trainer Floyd Carothers bought him for $350. After the 1939 win he was sold several times, went to a California farm, and later showed successfully in Pennsylvania. He was flown back to Tennessee in 1947 and given to Carothers' widow, Olive, who showed him in a ladies' class in 1948, his last show. He died on April 23, 1957.

What the plaque says

Strolling Jim Strolling Jim, the first World's Champion Tennessee Walking Horse, is buried in a pasture directly behind the Walking Horse Hotel. Foaled in 1936, this former work horse was ridden to the championship by Floyd Carothers at the first Walking Horse Celebration at Shelbyville in 1939. Jim died in 1957 in the pasture where he spent his last years.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration — 6.8 mi
  The Shelbyville show grounds where the Tennessee Walking Horse has been crowned world grand champion each late summer since 1939, and where the practice of soring is part of the story.
• Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park — 13 mi
  A 2,000-year-old enclosure of piled stone and earth on the bluffs above the forks of the Duck River, built by Native people between about 80 and 550 A.D., with a museum and waterfall trails.
• Jack Daniel Distillery — 17 mi
  The oldest registered distillery in the United States, in a limestone hollow outside Lynchburg, where the tour now names Nathan Nearest Green, an enslaved man, as the first master distiller.
• Henry Horton State Park — 21 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.

More markers nearby

• Wartrace — steps away
• Skirmish at Wartrace — steps away
• The Webb School — 4.3 mi
• Prentice Cooper — 7.4 mi