The
founder of ATRA was the late Jane Bess, a fiery little redheaded
Arabian breeder/exhibitor from Batesville, AR. She had moved
to Arkansas with her husband and daughters from California.
While in California, she had competed in endurance rides.
The summer of 1981 Jane Bess sponsored
the first ever competitive trail ride in Arkansas, sanctioned
by the North American Trail Riding Conference (NATRC). She did
95% of it by herself. Jane then decided to get a group of trail
riders together to form a club that would not only sponsor and
promote competitive trail riding but would also act as a voice
to the various state and national government agencies concerning
the approval, construction and maintenance of horse trails and
campgrounds in Arkansas. The group would promote the breeding
and use of good, sound, well-mannered trail horses. ATRA was
born.
For the first years Jane and Delta
Arabians subsidized ATRA. She was President and Treasurer, wrote
the newsletters and ran the pleasure and competitive trail rides.
We still use the vests she had made for the competitive trail
rides. Years later, ATRA was able to repay $1000 to Jane, but
she provided much more than that during those first, critical
years.
Many people today have no idea
how much ATRA has done to promote horse trails in this state.
When ATRA was officially established in 1983 there were 2 public
equestrian trails in the state: Pea Ridge and Devil's Den. Devil's
Den had no marking and no map. Marking and mapping those trails
became ATRA's first project. The two competitive trail rides
held at that site spurred rider interest in the Northwest Arkansas
area. This type of activity has been repeated throughout Arkansas.
Jane Bess started ATRA members going to Arkansas Trails Council
meetings. We learned how to "play the game" when working
with governmental agencies to promote equestrian trail projects.
With a growing membership, we started identifying local groups
of interested people to adopt specific trail projects. Among
them are: Moccasin Gap, Sorghum Hollow, Bear Creek, Buffalo
National River, Beaver Lake (Hobbs), Mill Creek, and Burns Park.
Often it wasn't possible for everyone, as individuals, to do
significant physical work on each trail. It takes a small dedicated
local cadre that can work frequently to sustain a project, but
we tried to share our expertise in working with the agencies
and provided moral support from afar.
Arkansas has grown from two horse
camp/trails in the state to more than TEN! All of these areas
would not exist today if not for ATRA and it's membership. And
even though more of today's members are pleasure riders and
not competitors, it was the competitive trail riders who started
the club and started the acquisition of trails in our state.
ATRA will always owe them for getting it all started.
ATRA welcomes all trail riders,
from the competitive rider to the pleasure rider, as we all
have the same goal.........riding beautiful trails in Arkansas.
