Val saw ACTHA as a place to showcase the talents of the breed of horse that she had grown to love; the Tennessee Walking Horse.
Walking Horse show in the world at the NWHA National. In addition, Val was also the chairperson for the NWHA Trail Committee and while as the chair, was instrumental in the development of the Trail Rider Incentive Program. During her time at NWHA Val served as a representative at the public hearing sessions put forth by the USDA to discuss the reforms to the Horse Protection Act. To this day she remains dedicated to the fight to protect the TWH against the horrific abuses that the breed has been subjected to by some trainers and owners for decades.
Even during all this, trail riding was still Val’s passion and as she headed toward retirement, found more time to spend on the trail. When Val first heard about ACTHA, she knew she was going to like what they were doing. Val went to her first ACTHA event in Tyler, TX as a volunteer with her friend, Beverley Berry. On the way home, Bev encouraged Val to host her first ACTHA event. Before that was to happen, Val and Bev went to several more events as participants and what fun they had. After all, what could be better? They got to trail ride, meet new people, ride in new places, earn points for our horse’s achievements all while knowing that some of their fees were going to help horses in need. Yep, ACTHA was right up Val’s alley!
Val also viewed ACTHA as a place to showcase the talents of the breed of horse that she had grown to love, the Tennessee Walking Horse.
Since March of 2009, Val has competed in 154 events, earned Bronze Medals on all 3 of her TWHs and hosted 14 CTCs and 22 AOCs. She became a Certified ACTHA judge and has judged numerous events.
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became a Certified ACTHA judge and has judged numerous events. The first event Val hosted was a CTC at the beautiful Trace Trails, a privately owned 1000+ Acre ranch about an hour East of Dallas. This was to be the venue for all of the CTCs that Val hosts but that first one, in Sept. 2009, was memorable. She was a rookie ride host with only 6 months into ACTHA and limited experience in this venue, but that ride completely filled with 100 riders signed up to go out on the trails. Wow! They had a very successful event and Val learned a lot about what to do and what not do. Val and her support team got through the day with positive feedback (a real pearl to your ride hosts is a 4-5 star feedback rating).
As Val participated in more events and continued hosting, she found that, in Texas, in the heart of stock horse world, there was a lack of knowledge about the gaited horse breeds. With her first ACTHA horse, she struggled to earn points because of his appearance and way of going. PBS Gold Dust Shaker, aka Duster, is a very compact, high head headed and loose moving TWH. All the attributes that won him National Reserve Grand Champion Model horse were now the attributes that were costing him points at ACTHA events. The judges simply did not know how these horses, and those of Val’s gaited horse friends, were supposed to move. She even once heard a judge say that her horse was lame because he was bobbing his head. Val saw many of her friends become frustrated and quit ACTHA. Because of these issues Val thought it was time to start some dialogue on educating judges on the different breeds of horses. Subsequent dialogues with the founders and “powers to be” at ACTHA, led to the relationship that has been developed with Friends of Sound Horses (F.O.S.H.) and the move toward education of judges with respect to gaited horses.
Val's Posse