Sheila Welch

Sheila Dolin Welch, 76, an NCHA NonPro Hall of Fame inductee and wife of cutting legend Buster Welch, passed away on Sunday, December 7. Her family held a private Graveside service at Cottonwood Flats Cemetery. A Memorial Service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, December 15, 2014, at the River of Life Church in Abilene.
Born in Wolf Point, Montana, Sheila acquired a love of horses from her grandfather Dolin, an entrepreneur and newspaper publisher who served on the board the Wolf Point Stampede and counted Will Rogers and Charles Russell among his friends.
When she was 10, Sheilas family moved to Fresno, Calif., where she won her first award on horseback, as a participant in the annual Christmas parade. Although she was competitive in tennis, volleyball and gymnastics as a girl, her natural instincts for riding led her to the California Rangerettes, where she participated as a drill team member for six years. During this time she also made forays into jumping, dressage, roping, cutting and gymkhana events, and was runnerup queen of the Salinas Rodeo.
After attending California State University at Fresno, Sheila married and helped her first husband operate a busy feedlot. At the time, she also found herself drawn away from other horse events and into cutting, which had only recently created a class for nonpro contenders.
Although her first cutting horse had been trained by famed West Coast horseman Jimmy Williams, Texas was the home of cutting horse competition and in 1966, Sheila traveled to the Lone Star State for a clinic given by Buster Welch, who would win his third NCHA Futurity that same year.
I was awestruck, Buster later said of his first impression of Sheila on horseback. She could really ride a horse and she was sure pretty on one. Seven months following the clinic, Sheila won the NCHA NonPro World Championship Finals, defeating B.F. Phillips, Jr., the NonPro World Champion.
Sheila and Buster married in 1972, and in addition to nurturing their combined families of six children Nina and Dolin Morris, and Georgia, Greg, Ken and Ruth Ann Welch, Sheila became a top ranchhand, assisting Buster with his cattle operation and semiannual roundups.
In 1974, Sheila and Buster moved to the King Ranch, where Buster had been hired as trainer, as well as consultant for the world famous ranchs Quarter Horse program. It was during this time that Sheila came to know her cherished mentor and friend, Helen Groves, greatgranddaughter of King Ranch founder Richard King.
In 1972 and 1978, Sheila ranked among NCHAs Top Ten nonpro riders aboard Mr San Peppy and Peppy San Badger, respectively. In 1980, she won the NCHA NonPro World Champion on Doc O Leo and broke an alltime annual NCHA earnings record for