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| American
Paint Horse Association founder to receive distinguished
national hall of fame honors
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| Rebecca Lockhart was determined
to get a Paint Horse registry started in
1962. "The Paints were such underdogs, I
felt compelled to rescue them," she said.
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FORT WORTH, Texas-Rebecca
Lockhart, a 73-year-old resident of Ryan, Oklahoma,
never thought of herself as anyone special. People
familiar with the colorful history of the popular
American Paint Horse, however, know she's one
of kind. In fact, she's a living legend.
Lockhart, founder of the
American Paint Horse Association (APHA), will
take her place with other legends of the American
West when she is formally inducted into the
National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in
Fort Worth on Nov. 10. That induction will put
the Paint Horse pioneer in good company with
people such as writer Laura Ingalls Wilder,
entertainer Dale Evans Rogers, accomplished
world champion cowgirl Tad Lucas, and renowned
artist Georgia O'Keefe, to name only a few of
the current hall of famers. Like those distinguished
women, Lockhart will be honored for exemplifying
the adventurous spirit that helped shape the
American West.
Lockhart is largely responsible for establishing
the breed standard that is known today as the
American Paint Horse. Her grit and determination
helped her achieve the goal of creating, maintaining
and promoting that standard in the horse world
nearly 40 years ago. |
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| Rebecca Lockhart always admired
the sound conformation of the Western stock horse. In
this 1944 photograph, she pauses for a moment while working
cattle at the Price-Short Ranch, in Addington, Oklahoma.
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In the early 1960s, Lockhart spoke up against the prevailing
establishment and advocated the start-up of a Paint, stock-type
horse registry. An avid admirer of beautifully colored animals
and horses of sound Western stock horse conformation, Lockhart
was looking for the best of both worlds. Overcoming seemingly
insurmountable odds and almost unanimous disagreement from breeders,
Lockhart forged ahead with her plans for a new breed standard,
and by the end of 1962 she had attracted 150 members and registered
250 horses. In the process, the founder set in motion a registry
that has grown exponentially over the past 38 years. Today,
the APHA, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, has more than
84,000 members and has registered more than 562,000 horses.
"I never followed the crowd. I always had my own opinion," said
Lockhart. "Some of the big breeders liked Paints, but they never
spoke up and said it. They didn't want to go against the grain.
Well, it didn't bother me."
What did disturb, Lockhart, however, was
that she saw a continuing trend of discrimination against
horses, like Paints, that had distinguished color patterns.
"People looked down on Paints," Lockhart said. "They just
didn't understand. They thought they were inferior. If a breeder
(of solid-colored horses) had a Paint foal, he was ashamed.
He thought it was a bad reflection on his herd, that it was
connected with inferior blood. He was afraid someone would
think there was something wrong with his breeding program.
So, a lot ranchers would get rid of them."
The APHA founder recalls that Paints would
often be relegated to the back pastures, or in some cases,
shot.
"There were many good Paints that were destroyed
back then," agreed Junior Robertson, of Waurika, Oklahoma.
He was one of the few ranchers in the country who actually
admired and owned Paints back then. One of the most notable
horses Robertson owned, even before there was an association
for Paints, was Wahoo King. With Robertson in the saddle,
the colorful sorrel Paint set the standard for top competition
horses in the 1960s and is well-known as a legendary roping
horse.
Lockhart made a point of getting ranchers
like Robertson involved in the start-up of the breed registry.
Confident she had the backing of the right people and enough
interest in getting an association started, Lockhart assembled
a meeting Feb. 16, 1962, with 17 people at a motel in Gainesville,
Texas, to lay the foundation for the new organization. At
that gathering, a constitution and bylaws were written, officers
and directors were elected, and a new name was chosen- American
Paint Stock Horse Association. Following a merger in 1965
with the American Paint Quarter Horse Association, it became
the APHA.
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Rebecca Lockhart,
who will be inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum
and Hall of Fame (NCMHF), in Fort Worth, on November 10,
is pictured here with one of her beloved Paints, Dusty
Siemon. |
Today, that association, a non-profit organization
employing more than 160 employees in Fort Worth, continues
to carry on Lockhart's work. In fact, new registrations hit
an all-time high in August when 7,773 horses were registered
in that month alone. In addition, membership in the APHA continues
to increase at a rate of about 5,000 Paint Horse enthusiasts
per month. By the end of the year, the total membership is
expected to reach 100,000 members.
"I never thought that far ahead to think
about the numbers that are being registered today," said Lockhart.
"But I did know the Paint Horse would be popular and the association
would grow. "Looking back, what makes me happiest is seeing
the association grow, seeing good horses, seeing children
and whole families enjoying them," said Lockhart. "I've just
loved seeing the pleasure horses give to people and all the
children who have gotten involved.
"And, the Paints were such underdogs, I
felt compelled to rescue them. It was as if I was driven to
do it. Once I got my friends involved by telling them it would
work, I had to see that it did. It was one of those cases
where 'He who rides the tiger cannot dismount.' "
Lockhart said she is honored to be selected
to the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame for her tireless
work in establishing and promoting the breed, but always likes
to make one clarification about her efforts.
"It wasn't work to me. It was so enjoyable,
and when you love what you're doing, well, it's not work,
it's fun."
Visit www.apha.com
for more news and information about the American Paint Horse
Association. |
