AQHA Women of Influence honor highlights Bobbie Walton’s role in shaping Tarleton’s Equine Program

BY MACKENZIE JOHNSON

Editor-in-Chief

More often than not, permanent passions grow and develop with time. The most beloved ambitions typically don’t sink their roots into one’s dreams overnight, but the love of horses is one that often arrives instantaneously. And once that love takes hold, it’s hard to shake off.

Bobbie Walton is a horsewoman who has long been both an enthusiast and an advocate for the industry – a love that took shape quickly. Her path to becoming an equine instructor, and eventually the director of Tarleton’s Equine Center, however, unfolded over a longer course.

Walton grew up in Golden, Colorado, surrounded by horses. In her early teens, she was introduced into the competitive side of horse ownership by becoming involved in a local youth organization, marking her claim on its drill team and taking a particular interest in trick riding. With the help of her grandfather, Walton was also able to break more into the show horse world.

“I’ve been a crazy horse girl from the time I was a little kid,” Walton said. “I can’t imagine myself without them. I tried to gear a different direction when I went to college, but they drew me back in. And it’s been my life.”

While college responsibilities at Colorado State University posed a risk for horses being pushed to the backburner, it actually ended up doing the opposite and became the very thing Walton began studying. At first an art major, it took just one equine behavior class for her to change her degree path to equine science.

After graduating, Walton moved to Texas to work for Carol Rose Quarter Horses, a legendary breeding operation in Gainesville. Following several years there, she clinched her first teaching role at Redlands Community College in El Reno, Oklahoma, where she stayed for six years before then going to Clarendon College for a year – all steps leading her back to her alma mater to teach.

Walton spent a dozen years in Colorado State University’s equine program, teaching equitation and colt training classes to then horse training, behavior modification and horse handling classes. Although she no doubt loved the rocky soil she was raised on and the formative years spent teaching there, when the opportunity arose to move back to Texas, it was a jump Walton felt encouraged to make and a decision even more solidified by her husband’s history of growing up in North Texas.

“It just spoke to us here, so we moved to Stephenville,” Walton said. “I always have thought that Tarleton should have the best equine program in the country, even when I was in Colorado. When this position came open, I thought, ‘What the heck? Let’s go again.’”

Now over a decade ago, that leap has led Walton to being an instructor and director of Tarleton’s Equine Center. A role with many facets, her job description spans a wide spectrum of responsibilities, ranging from running the facility and its horses—those both in the production herd, fitted and taken to sales, and those used for in-classroom lab-type studies for students—to also serving as coach and faculty adviser for the stock horse team and the equine bloodstock club.

“Taking care of animals is not a job. It’s a lifestyle,” Walton said. “In the industry, I have met so many people and have had so many opportunities… I have the best of both worlds. I still continue to work with horses but then I also get to try to help pass that on to younger generations and to help the horse that way.”

Through the production herd specifically, Walton feels she’s able to make a big impact on her mission to pass the love and knowledge of the horse down to the youth by giving students the opportunity to have hands-on experience, from the early selection process of breeding, through foaling to halter breaking, all the way until the times comes to take those well cared for horses to a sale.

Walton believes this serves as a springboard to getting students networking and interacting with the equine industry and having a first look at what it’s like to haul a yearling, all while simultaneously getting the program positive visibility.

“That’s why I do what I do,” Walton said of that rewarding process. “And the horse is a vital part of that. I always tell the students, ‘You’re gonna learn more about yourself in this class than you will about horses because the horse can teach you so much about life.’ It’s pretty awesome to watch what they can teach a person and to watch the growth of the students. I get to see the force in the person change.”

Kaitlyn Collins is a student of Walton’s who took an equine sales prep course of hers and credits that force not only to the horse, but to Walton herself.

“Ms. Walton is an incredible horsewoman that has taught me crucial skills when it came to starting young horses,” Collins said. “These skills have been foundational to my equine endeavors outside of Tarleton, being able to work with young horses on my own. She has guided me down the right career path, even when I came to a fork in the road. The biggest lesson I learned from Ms. Walton was to show up and take every opportunity, even if it’s just sweeping the floors.”

Collins is just one of many of Walton’s students over the years, but each and every one of their journeys is one she doesn’t just love to observe but also be an active contributor to.

“When they come in as freshmen, you get to see them go through life experiences and watch how much they change,” Walton said. “And then after they graduate, you see them go out and be successful in their own careers. It’s pretty awesome to be able to see and be part of it. If I could be a little part of any of that, then it’s good.”

The clear and prominent influence of Walton is one that stretches beyond just Tarleton parameters, and it shows in her recent naming to the AQHA (American Quarter Horse Association) Wrangler Women of Influence Class of 2025.

One of this year’s six members, the award strives to recognize influential women in the equine community who are unwaveringly dedicated to their craft and love of the horse. Among a panel of judges following a peer nomination, Walton was deemed an individual who embodied all of these characteristics.

“There are so many people that have helped shape the Wrangler Woman of Influence deal,” Walton said. “To see the other ladies that I’m in there with, it’s pretty crazy to have my name mentioned and be nominated with them. And then to actually be selected in that group of ladies was an honor.”

Beyond the public acknowledgment, each winner will be featured in an issue of the 2026 AQHA Journal, as well as received prize packages, but Walton said getting to stand among those fellow winners is an award itself she values deeply.

“Those are ladies I have looked up to throughout my career,” Walton said. “You work hard and hope people recognize that at some point in time, but don’t necessarily expect to. It’s something that says, ‘Yeah, maybe I’m doing the right thing.’ I’m just so appreciative that somebody would think enough of me to nominate me for an award and that others would vouch for it. And I’m also thankful for AQHA for being a place for me to be able to do that and meet these people and grow.”

As an accomplished horsewoman who started out as just a girl infatuated by horses, Walton is recognized not only as a woman surrounded by mentors in the equine industry, but as one herself. And that love—the love for not just the horse but the ability to share it—is one that shapes the most lasting legacies in the equine world.

“I love the horse, but I also really enjoy trying to help people find success because I had so many people that helped me,” Walton said. “And if there’s anything that I can do that might help one of them and be a positive influence in some way to those students, that’s my why.”