QUINCY, Ill. — Marvin Huber said his wife is famous. “Bits are what she is known for across the country,” he said. “Horse bits are her passion; and if people have a question about a bit or how to work with a horse on a bit, they call her.”

Cathy McKinley Huber said, “Ever since I was a little kid, I was fascinated with horse bits.”

To earn money to buy horse bits Cathy would hunt for mushrooms and sell them. The selling paid off and now she has a large collection of bits and a head full of knowledge.

Horses are a family passion passed down from her mother, Joyce McKinley. For years, Cathy trained primarily Arabian horses. These days she and her husband run Show Horse Tack, Inc., a high-end horse supply company that caters to society horse show clientele. From the first of March on through the summer the couple is on the road attending horse shows and setting up to sell their wares.

While they offer a bit of everything for both the horse and the rider, Cathy always has her bits with her and those seeking information about horse bits seek her out first thing.

At home in Quincy, Ill. right outside her business is her father Don McKinley’s passion, the 1930’s Preserving Agriculture Museum. While the museum is filled with agricultural items from equipment to buggies to what a farm wife in the 1930s would use, one wall is filled with what else but horse bits.

“When Dad built the museum, I asked if I could have a section for my horse bits, he said just a section, but I ended up with a whole wall,” Cathy said.

With more than 1,300 horse bits on display at las