Page 84 - June 2017

Betty Raper counts the biggest successes of Developing Strength daughter, Dawn, was 4, and son, Shawn, was 1.
life as having a family who loves you and
remains together, clients who have stayed with you since you started, and having friends who, if you called them in the middle of the night, would be there on the drop of a dime — “I guess just being a good person and having good people in your life,” she summarizes.
Betty and her husband, Dee, have accomplished all that. They’ve done it through a passion for horses and racing and through living the values that they were raised with. For nearly four and a half decades, they’ve worked hard at promoting the stallions they stand and caring for the mares they breed and foal out at Belle Mere Farm in Norman, Oklahoma. And along the way, they’ve been a shining example of the values they treasure in their family, clients and friends.
Betty was the child and grandchild of Thoroughbred trainers in Colorado. It’s safe to
say she got her can-do attitude from her mother. While on a horse-hauling expedition from Omaha, Nebraska, Betty’s mother pulled into a hospital and gave birth to her in Lamar, Colorado, 63 miles from their home in Swink, Colorado.
“Betty grew up in the business and she
has a unique understanding of all aspects of
the business,” says longtime friend Debbie Schauf, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association. “Her mom ran a tack shop at Centennial [a racetrack in Littleton, Colorado], so she was on the backside every day.”
Betty married jockey Louis Sisneros, who was killed as a result of injuries sustained in a riding accident when Betty was just 22; their
“She raised my brother and me and we never did without anything,” says Dawn. “And no matter what it took, we were always a family, whether that meant she’d have three or four jobs. She’s probably the strongest woman I’ve ever met.”
When Louis passed away, Betty went back to Sunland Park and went to school. “When summer rolled around, I’d met two girls from the track whose parents had horses at Ruidoso, so we’d go back and forth from El Paso, Texas to Ruidoso, New Mexico. Once you’re on the racetrack and have that bonding with the horses and the people, it’s hard to let go.
“When school let out, we all three went to Ruidoso and got jobs in the pari-mutuels,” Betty continues. She hired on with D. Wayne Lukas and worked the following winter
for him, from Ruidoso to Centennial to El
82 SPEEDHORSE, June 2017