Knox equestrian Reagan Campbell crowned world champion

Whit WhitmireOur Town Youth

For the 10th time, Knoxville native Reagan Campbell has earned the title of world or national champion for her equestrian excellence.

Her latest honors – Junior Exhibitor World’s Champion and World’s Champion of Champions – came at the Kentucky State Fair World’s Championship Horse Show in the Park Division astride her Saddlebred horse named It’s Aerosmith. The show has featured Saddlebred horses since 1902. At the 2019 event in August, more than 2,000 horses and riders participated from around the world.

“My love for horses started when I was a child,” said Campbell, a 2019 graduate of the Christian Academy of Knoxville who has enrolled as a freshman at Ole Miss, majoring in hospitality management. “While my primary focus is now my first semester as a college student, I will still practice and prepare for horse competitions.”

The 18-year-old’s next event will be the national championships in November in Kansas City, Missouri, where she also will ride It’s Aerosmith, a horse she commonly refers to as Tyler in honor of Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler. Campbell and Tyler will compete at the American Royal in the junior exhibitor Park division in November 2019.

Tyler was trained at Autumn Hills Farm in Simpsonville, Kentucky, by Steve and Tiffany Wheeler, which played a pivotal role in horse and rider success. Tyler overcame an injury in 2018, setting up a nearly undefeated year in 2019.

Campbell’s equestrian career began in 2012 with her first horse, The Mystery Machine. She won her first World Champion title in the highly competitive Saddle Seat Equitation 10 & Under Walk & Trot division and then went on to be crowned a National Champion in Kansas City. She moved up in age division and rode Real Action, a World Grand Champion, and earned the title of World’s Champion three times, World’s Champion of Champions twice and National Champion in 2015. The selection as World’s Champion of Champions is a designation given only to the most accomplished of riders.

Whit Whitmire is an account executive for Knoxville-based Moxley Carmichael.

 

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