Helen Crabtree

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Helen Crabtree
Birth nameHelen Kitner
OccupationHorse trainer, riding teacher, author, horse breeder
DisciplineSaddle seat
Born(1915-12-14)December 14, 1915
Jacksonville, Illinois
DiedJanuary 4, 2002(2002-01-04) (aged 86)
Simpsonville, Kentucky
Honors
AHSA Lifetime Achievement Award
UPHA Instructor of the Year

Helen Crabtree (December 14, 1915 – January 4, 2002) was an American equitation coach in the discipline of saddle seat riding as well as a breeder and trainer of American Saddlebred horses. In 1970, she authored the book Saddle Seat Equitation which remains a primary guide for equitation riders. Crabtree Stables, in which she ran with her husband Charles and son Redd, produced 75 World Champion American Saddlebred horses and 22 winners of the National Equitation Championships.

Life and career

She was born Helen Kitner in

St. Louis, Missouri, before moving to Arkansas, then Tennessee and ultimately to Kentucky. They trained at the Rock Creek Riding Club in Louisville for several years.[1] The Crabtrees bought their own farm, Crabtree Stables, located near Simpsonville, Kentucky, in 1958.[2]

While in Arkansas, they adopted their son,

longe line riding.[1]
In 1970 she wrote the book Saddle Seat Equitation,[4] which she revised in 1982,[5] and was re-released in paperback in 1999.[6] Helen Crabtree received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Horse Shows Association (now the United States Equestrian Federation) and was also the United Professional Horsemen's Association Instructor of the Year.

Helen Crabtree died January 4, 2002. She was 86 years old. At her passing, it was said that she helped make Shelby County, Kentucky the "Saddle Horse Capital" of the United States and "changed the face of the Saddlebred industry."[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Funkhouser, Bob. "The Grand Dame...Helen K. Crabtree". The Saddle Horse Report Online. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
  2. ISBN 9781935538097
    .
  3. ^ "Redd Crabtree | the Saddle Horse Report".
  4. ^ "Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: 1970: January-June". 1972.
  5. ISBN 9780385172172
    .
  6. ^ Saddle Seat Equitation. January 1999.
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