Who We Are - Founder and President

PAHC founder Sally L. Lasater has been involved in the horse world for more than seven decades as a horse owner, breeder, competitor, show organizer, and an early pioneer in the establishment of equestrian education through visual media. The PAHC reflects a lifetime of experience in organizing equestrian events, promoting the horse industry, and developing innovative programs that celebrate the heritage and achievements of the horse world. .

Her leadership in equestrian event organization began at an early age -- when she was fourteen, she created what grew into the largest all-breed junior horse show in the country -- leading a group of teenagers all under the age of 18 -- in the organization and management of a four-day, multi-breed and multi-discipline horse show attracting more than a thousand horse and rider entries. The show was promoted and supported by many Houston companies and prominent Houstonians, including Jim Abercrombie and Leopold Meyer, who made the iconic Pin Oak Stables showgrounds available to the youngsters. .

In October 1960, Lasater was featured on the front page of the Houston Chronicle’s Sunday Feature Magazine with a full-page photograph portraying her - at age sixteen - as someone who “aptly symbolizes the renewed interest in horseback riding as a sport.” The article highlighted the growing popularity of horseback riding and recognized her leadership among young riders in the Houston area. .

At the age of 18, she was acknowledged by the American Quarter Horse Association in their monthly magazine as the youngest manager and organizer of an AQHA approved horse show. The same year, she was the first – and maybe the only - competitor in the Rodeo Houston Queen competition history to ride an Arabian against other contestants -- all mounted on Quarter Horses -- finishing up as one of five finalists, and proving the capability of an Arabian competing against traditional "western" horses in a reining event. .

Over the years she has organized and managed numerous sanctioned breed shows and competitions representing a wide variety of disciplines, including Arabian, Appaloosa, Saddlebred, and Hunter/Jumper competitions as well as dressage, combined training (eventing), cutting, and rodeo events. The “all girls rodeo” she produced in Simonton, Texas was a unique event attracting girls and women from throughout Texas and neighboring states. .

Lasater played a significant role in the development of equestrian video and educational programming. In 1973 she co-produced The American Horse and Horseman, the first nationally syndicated television series devoted to horses, hosted by actor and horseman Dale Robertson. She later helped pioneer the distribution of equestrian educational media through a series of innovative video and television initiatives including EquiVid, The Discovery Trail and Equestrian Vision US. She helped obtain the video rights to just the equestrian events of the Olmpics, enabling tack and feed stores to make them available to horse lovers throughout America. Her award winning documentary, The Complete Mule (1992) was recognized by Equus Magazine as one of the top equestrian videos of the year. She was the creator of the original HorseTV concept on RFD-TV, later helping to develop The HorseTV Channel in its own television network launch, serving as president of the HorseTV Media Group, Inc. .

In addition to her work within the equestrian industry, she founded and led several media and information distribution companies. As founder and CEO of Sallyforth, Inc., doing business as The Video Schoolhouse, she built a company that was one of North America’s largest distributors of educational and instructional video programs, distributing more than 10,000 titles across 36 subject categories to libraries, schools, and retail markets long before Amazon was even on the horizon. Her work in educational video distribution led to consulting engagements with organizations such as The New York Times, PBS, Readers Digest and other major media and publishing companies. She also authored a book - "The Knowledge Collection" - on educational video publishing for McGraw Hill, and even managed to be named an "Outstanding Woman of Monterey" (California) during the 1980's. .

Lasater was also an early innovator in the use of digital and Internet technologies within the horse industry. In the early 1990s she helped create HorseNet.com, one of the first equestrian Internet portals, featuring online discussion communities, early e‑commerce platforms for horse‑related products and media and one of the very first streaming online video channels.

Her personal connections to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo dates back to her youth. At age eighteen she became the first woman to compete in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Queen Contest -- riding an Arabian mare, finishing as one of five finalists and receiving Lifetime Membership in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in 1963. .

In 2010, Sally Lasater was also the founder and developer of PegasusTV, a television and digital media network created to showcase equine and livestock events and rural country lifestyle proramming. Designed to serve the large but historically underserved audience of horse owners, breeders, and agricultural communities, PegasusTV distributed programming through digital broadcast subchannels and online streaming platforms, with initial affiliate stations in Houston and Los Angeles as well as numerous other cities. .

She helped to organize PegasusTV’s produced continuous live daytime broadcast coverage of horse and livestock judging at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in 2011 airing locally on its Houston affiliate, KUBE-TV digital channel 57.4 and streamed online through PegasusTV.com, bringing many of the event’s livestock competitions to television and internet audiences for the first time. .

Today, Lasater is semi-retired and a preservation breeder of the almost extinct, heritage-bred old world Polish Arabians, and the founder of the Polish Arabian Heritage Conservancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving historically significant Polish Arabian horse bloodlines promoting public understanding of the Arabian horse’s influence on modern equestrian culture.