Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

Glenn Petty, manager of the Roanoke Valley Horse Show, is serving his last year as director, a post he has held since 2000. The Wake Forest, N.C., resident will take a new job as executive vice president of the Arabian Horse Association, starting July 1.

Perhaps at some point in the past nine years at the Roanoke Valley Horse Show there has been a crisis.

Maybe there has been an episode at some point during horse show week at the Salem Civic Center the likes of which at another show would have caused tears to fall and blood pressures to rise.

It is possible there have been incidents that may have prompted people's voices to rise.

If so, you'd never know it by Glenn Petty, the show's manager for most of the past decade. The 60-year-old Petty is the definition of unflappable.

"When I grow up, I aspire to be as calm as Glenn Petty," said Becca Mispel, Petty's administrative assistant.

Nobody can remember a day in the last nine years that events at the show haven't been as smooth as a well-trained hunter going over a fence.

"It's because all the volunteers who work the show have such confidence in Glenn and [executive director] June Camper," said Carol Whiteside, a past president of the Roanoke Valley Horsemen's Association, the show's sponsor.

This will be the last show for Petty, who has been appointed executive vice president of the Arabian Horse Association. He will be a long-distance commuter from his home in Wake Forest, N.C., to the association's headquarters in suburban Denver.

His wife, Joan, will continue to operate her real estate sales business and raise horses as well as administer the family's horse shows. The family also operates Triangle Farms, a hunter-jumper and show facility.

Petty will relinquish the 10 shows he's contracted to manage, including the North Carolina State Fair, which he's worked for a quarter of a century. He's also leaving his horse show consulting business.

"We keep hoping that when he tells people he's leaving us, we'll see some tears on his cheeks, but all we see are smiles," Camper said as she introduced him to a visitor to the horse show office earlier this week.

The Arabian Association had been after him for a while before things began to get serious earlier this year.

"Before that, I treated it pretty much as a joke," he said.

Nobody was laughing when he interviewed with the association's board of directors in May. It occurred to him that he might have a strong candidacy when he realized he'd had prior professional dealings with most of the board members.

"Glenn brings a unique set of skills, background and talent to the Arabian Horse Association," said association president Myron Krause when the hiring was announced earlier this month. "He has been involved many years in the equine industry both as an official and as a member of many important national committees."

Petty is known for his connections throughout the industry as well as his knowledge of the many breeds.

"That's something few managers have," Camper said.

Petty is only the fifth manager in the 37 years of the Roanoke Valley Horse Show. A possible successor is the current assistant manager Andrew Ellis, Petty's former son-in-law who has continued to work with him.

Camper and the horse show's executive committee will meet to review the budget and the candidates then make a hiring recommendation to the Horsemen's Association. A decision is hoped for in July, Camper said.

Finding a manager who has Petty's management and people skills won't be easy.

"He's a great guy to work for," said Sue Tallon of the horse show office.

"I don't know how he puts up with me," Mispel said. "He's forgiving of people's faults, which I'm very grateful for."

Were he not in the equine industry, diplomacy might have been a worthy calling for him.

"He treats everybody the same, which is important in this business," Camper said.

Petty rode as a child.

"When other boys graduated to cars, I kept riding horses and got a car, too," he said.

Although he's been most closely associated with hunters and jumpers over the years, he spent a time when he was a student at North Carolina State riding in rodeos.

Surviving that experience, he was hired by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture as a horse specialist after graduation. From that platform, he was able to be exposed to almost all aspects of the horse industry.

For the past 21 years, he's been associated with the Roanoke Valley show both as a senior United States Equestrian Federation steward and as show manager. He's officiated virtually all the USEF divisions.

Petty said his focus with the Arabian Horse Association will be to emphasize its youth program and to promote the pleasure-riding virtues of the breed.

He'll also be raising money for a Arabian museum scheduled to open in 2010.

One of the oldest breeds, Arabians are known for beauty, agility, and endurance. They were originally bred as a war horse capable of withstanding harsh desert conditions. Arabian blood is in almost every one of the well-known American breeds.

One the most treasured personality traits of the breed is its calm and pleasant humor. Sounds a lot like the new executive vice president.