Walking On Volume 6, Issue 1, January 2019 | Page 10

Kathy Wolav
Inducted Into SSH
Lifelong Tennessee Walking Horse and Spotted Saddle Horse enthusiast Kathy Wolaver Anderson, the dau
hibitors’ Association (SSHBEA) Hall of Fame. She was nominated by Jerry Higgins and the induction, which
in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Kathy’s story, which is summarized in the Hall of Fame speech read at the banquet
“No newcomer to SSHBEA, this person started trail
riding with the gang at three years of age. There was no
hill to high or steep for Spot and this spunky rider.
Always a promoter of the Spotted Saddle Horse,
she took her pony Spot to school for show and tell and
every child in the kindergarten class rode the length of
the football field. Later in life, when she moved away
from home, she built a barn and raised and trained
her own horses. Here too she promoted the breed by
taking her beloved Southwind to nursing homes to visit
the residents. She assisted the 4H and Girl Scouts by
allowing them both to come to her barn to groom the
horses and learn about Spotted Saddle Horses as they
received credit for their merit badges through their
experiences.
During her teen years she lobbied hard to get the
Spotted Saddle Horse accepted as a separate breed
in the Tennessee State 4H Program. This acceptance
of the Spotted Saddle Horse Breeders’ and Exhibi-
tors’ Association would be followed when the Spotted
Kathy with 2018 Spotted Saddle Horse World Grand Champions
Who’s Afraid Of Ellie Wolf and Wolf Man’s Savannah Grace.
10 • Walking On
Saddle Horse was being judged in 4H. After hours of
consulting with Doyle Meadows, James Neal, and Dave
Whitaker the Spotted Saddle Horse was admitted as a
separate breed in the Tennessee 4H Program. A major
milestone for the Spotted Saddle Horse and a major
accomplishment for a teen.
As a teenager she also competed and won the title
of Miss Rodeo Tennessee aboard her Spotted Saddle
Horse, never once giving into the pressure to show a
different breed in the competition.
In 1999, while breaking a colt, this person sustained
a severe brain injury. The family was told many times
in the first weeks that the chances of recovery were
impossible and the odds of being anything but in a
vegetative state were slim. For five long months she
lay unresponsive in a deep coma. Once, in an effort
to wake her, the family played an audio tape of Mr.
Arlie announcing her Two-Year-Old Amateur World
Grand Championship win aboard the famous Lady
Wolf. Although there were no visible responses that the
Kathy aboard Wolf Man’s Savannah Grace at the
2018 SSHBEA World Grand Championship Show.