Page 39 - January 2018

Ray Reed, one of the first 4 employees at Speedhorse, with 22-year-old John Bach
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,
,
the current owner of Speedhorse, in 1976.
Forging New Paths
In spring 1976, Speedhorse’s offices moved from Roswell, New Mexico, to Norman, Oklahoma. “From its inception, the magazine was printed by Times Journal Publishing in Oklahoma City,” Walt Jr. says. “Also, back in that time, it was harder to put together a staff in Roswell. And, although New Mexico had
a major racehorse farm in Roswell and tracks within the state, the primary part of the horse business was located in central Oklahoma.”
In 1978, Walt Sr. served as president of American Horse Publications. By that time, he had developed interests in the art business, and after establishing a couple different galleries, Walt Jr. says, his father settled permanently into a gallery
in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which he operated
until his death in August 1992 at age 68. He also wrote many books in his lifetime about the West and western art, including New Mexico Cockleburs and Cow Chips, Alfred Morang, a Neglected Master, Ernest Berke: Paintings & Sculptures of the Old
West, Juan Dell, the First Lady of Western Bronze, Bill Wiggins: A Thirty-Year Retrospective, The Transcendental Art of Emil Bisttram and William Lumpkins: Pioneer Abstract Expressionist.
The “Golden Years”
Walt Sr.’s long acquaintance with Connie Golden led to him selling the majority of the business to her in 1978. “Since I’d gone with him from New Mexico to Oklahoma when he moved the magazine, he gave me a small interest in the magazine,” Walt Jr. says. “I worked for the magazine for about two years after that. Then Connie bought my interest and I went on my merry way.”
But before he left, Walt Jr. had contributed in a big way to preserving the statistics and history of Quarter Horse runners. In 1972,
he initiated the Stallion Register — detailed
“. . . AQHA didn’t have
a computer system for pedigrees and statistics like they do today;
. . . all those records were kept by hand on index cards or just filed away in someone’s mind.”
Walt Jr. also helped computerize pedigree records before he left the magazine around 1980, by refurbishing an old computer system from Bloodstock Research company of Lexington, Kentucky. The endeavor resulted in the AQHA beefing up its computer records to what we have today.
SPEEDHORSE, January 2018 37
“Walt was an absolutely, incredibly honorable man. He helped me a lot and gave me a lot of ideas.
“The first time I saw
him, he was down at Johnny
Ferguson’s at Wharton
seeking ads and came up
here to the Elgin Veterinary
Hospital. We visited and he
told me he liked all the vet
facilities I’d built. Finally,
just about dark, I said, ‘Let’s
go get us something to eat.’
There was a nice little place
up there to get a chicken fried
steak. After all the dialog, he
asked me what I was going to
name my breeding operation and I said, ‘Sir, I don’t even have a clue.’ He said, ‘Why don’t you call it Southwest Stallion Station?’ and that’s how it got its name. We stayed in contact from there on and had a trusted relationship.
“I have a real soft spot in my heart for Walt. He just meant so much to the industry back in those formative days, and he helped a lot of other people, too; I wasn’t the only one. He was devoted to the racing industry.”
Founder & Owner, Southwest Stallion Station