ACTHA ride host “team” Carole and Gary Wilder were high school sweethearts from the farm county in Iowa. In September, they will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. A monumental milestone filled with love and teamwork, which along the way has been blessed with a wonderful daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons.
Carole and Gary divide their time between Waddell, Arizona, a horse community on the outskirts of Phoenix and the cooler climate of Payson/Star Valley, Arizona. Accustomed to small towns they are proud to say Waddell has only a post office and a well equipped general store, for anything you might need on the ranch. For everything else, it requires a 30 mile drive into Phoenix. From April to November the Wilder’s head 80 miles north of Scottsdale to their cabin which sits on the edge of the 3,000,000 acre Tonto National Forest. With a temperature fifteen degrees cooler than Phoenix and a wonderful trail system, they couldn’t ask for a more ideal way to spend their summers.
ACTHA Monthly |May 2015 | 6
For ACTHA, having this pair of dedicated ride hosts is a true testament of teamwork, not only to their riders and the charities they support, but to each other as well.