Betty Sain

Elizabeth Fay Sain (born November 20, 1942) is a former Tennessee Walking Horse trainer and breeder from Tennessee. In 1966 she became the first woman to win the breed's World Grand Championship with the horse Shaker's Shocker.

Life

Betty Sain was born Elizabeth Fay Sain on November 20, 1942, in Manchester, Tennessee. Her parents were Virginia Wright Sain and H. Pearl Sain, and she was their second child. As of 2010, Betty Sain had retired from the horse industry and was living in Lynchburg, Tennessee.

Career

In 1962, the Sain family bought the weanling colt Shaker's Shocker from Tom Barham, of Lewisburg, Tennessee. Betty Sain trained the colt exclusively and started him under saddle herself. In 1964, she began showing him. She raised goats as well as horses, and supported a controversial Tennessee law that would have enacted a bounty on the killing of coyotes. When a reporter denied that there were coyotes in Tennessee, Sain froze a dead coyote to preserve it, tied a bow around its neck and presented it to him.

Legacy and recognition Although Sain was offered several book and movie deals, she turned them all down. In 2010, the Sain House at Webb School was given a Tennessee historical marker.