VAL HOWE (VALKEN)
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OUR PRESIDENT
VALERIE HOWE (VALKEN)
Val, like her late husband, Ken, was born in Norfolk and has lived there all her life, except for a brief spell in Suffolk when she worked in a racing stables in Newmarket.
She handled ponies for a friend and shook hands with that other famous horse lover, H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, when she won B.O.B. at the Windsor Show with a Connemara.
She also showed an Oldmanor Great Dane which she loved dearly, but he died young, as the breed tends to do, and because she couldn’t face losing one so young again, changed to bulldogs. She had a little success with these but after marriage it wasn’t possible to keep them so they stayed with her parents.
When it was possible to have a dog again, she informed Ken that they would have a wire fox terrier; she got the impression Ken wasn’t very impressed with this but he knew that when Val had made up her mind, it was better not to argue, and so a wire dog pup was purchased from Joe Cartledge. Despite his earlier misgivings, the little wire, Simon, became the love of Ken’s life and went everywhere with him. When they lost him at 13 years, although by then they had other wires, Val says they lost a little part of themselves – wires do tend to get to you like that!
When Ken became President of the Association he was so very proud and Val knows that he would be even prouder to know that she has achieved this honour – Val regards her election as a great honour and thanks everyone who elected her.
The Howe’s have bred seven champions, perhaps most notably, Ch. Valken Downtown Boy, who not only won 19 CC’s but was that rare jewel – an excellent sire who passed on his qualities to his progeny by producing many champions from many different bloodlines.
Jacqueline Thompson
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