Image courtesy of AQHA.
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The American Quarter Horse Association Executive Committee was elected at the 2016 AQHA Convention in Las Vegas. This five-person committee is responsible for implementing important decisions made by AQHA members through the Association’s board of directors.
President Sandy Arledge
Sandy Arledge of Encinitas, California, has been an AQHA director since 1997 and elevated to director emeritus in 2011. She has served on the membership, shows and professional horsemen, judges, stud book and registration, and hall of fame selection committees. Arledge also served on the nominations and credentials committee and served as the committee’s chairwoman in 2010. She currently serves on the American Quarter Horse Foundation Council.
She received her bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law.
Arledge is active in the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Association and California Horse Council. She owned and operated Sandy Arledge Quarter Horses and was a general partner and manager of Far West Farms, a full-service boarding facility in Del Mar, California. She has bred and trained numerous AQHA world champions and reserve world champions. She was named the 2010 Professional’s Choice Professional Horsewoman of the Year and was inducted into the Pacific Quarter Horse Association Hall of Fame in 2015.
When she’s home in California, Arledge enjoys gardening and keeping up with her koi pond in the company of her two corgis, Zip and Zoom.
First Vice President Ralph Seekins
Ralph Seekins of Fairbanks, Alaska, has been an AQHA director since 2006 for Washington/Alaska and was elevated to director emeritus in 2016. Seekins has served on the AQHA Marketing and Membership Committee, the Foundation Council and the AQHA Public Policy Committee.
Seekins has owned American Quarter Horses since 1995 when his daughters convinced him and his wife, Connie, that they really needed horses. His early horse years were spent in Wyoming and Montana and included ranch work and sprint racing. The family’s first two American Quarter Horses were home-trained and went on to earn AQHA Open Champion titles, Youth Champion titles, Youth Supreme Champion titles and one Youth Versatility award. Over the years, the Seekins family has raised and trained horses that have earned nine AQHA Champion titles, three AQHA Supreme Champion titles and two versatility awards.
For more than 14 years, the Seekins family has used their American Quarter Horses in the Helping Hooves therapeutic riding program for riders with disabilities.
They have four children – two sons and two daughters. All the children and their families live in Fairbanks. Aaron Seekins has four sons, Austin, Brandon, Gabe and Zachary along with one daughter, Shelby. Ben Seekins and his wife, Tamie, have sons Christian and Caleb and daughter Larissa. Daughter Andrea and her husband, Ryan Reinheller, have twin boys, Jakan and Logan, as well as three daughters, Rebecca, Tricia and Sarah. Daughter Beth and her husband, Paul Austin, have three daughters, Emma, Leah and Madison, and son Isaac.
Second Vice President Dr. Jim Heird
Dr. Jim Heird was an AQHA director for Colorado in 2009 and Texas in 2011. He has served on the judges, international and show committees, and on the show council and animal welfare commission. Dr. Heird was the chairman of the judges committee, 1989-1991; show committee, 2008-2010; international committee, 2013-2015; show council, 2008-2011; and the animal welfare commission, 2011-2015.
He was the former extension horse specialist at North Carolina State University, a former instructor/professor at Texas Tech University in Lubbock and has held various dean/director positions at Colorado State University for the colleges of agricultural sciences and business and equine sciences program. Dr. Heird is currently the executive professor and coordinator of equine initiatives at Texas A&M University. He also holds the Dr. Glenn Blodgett Equine Chair at Texas A&M. He was on the executive committee of the National Western Stock Show and is an ex-officio director of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.
Dr. Heird is an honorary vice president of the Uruguayan Quarter Horse Association. He was an AQHA judge from 1977 to 2015 and has judged 13 AQHA World Championship shows, multiple international championships and two National Reining Horse Association futurities.
He graduated from the University of Tennessee with a B.S. and M.S. and has a PhD from Texas Tech University. He and his wife, Dr. Eleanor Green, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M, live in College Station.
Member Stan Weaver
Stan Weaver of Big Sandy, Montana, has been an AQHA director since 2011. He is currently on the Foundation council, and is a former member of the studbook and registration, public policy, Hall of Fame selection committees, marketing and ranching councils, and served as chairman of the ranching council. He was also instrumental in helping develop the AQHA Ranching Heritage Breeders Program.
Weaver has bred American Quarter Horses for more than 30 years and has registered more than 1,400 foals with AQHA during that time.
Weaver and his wife, Nancy, began a Quarter Horse production sale in 1996 under Weaver Quarter Horses. Through the production sale, horses from the Weaver Ranch have sold to all 50 states, seven Canadian provinces, South Africa, Australia, Germany and Mexico. Weaver has shown his own horses in cutting, reined cow horse and working cow horse. Weaver is involved with the Big Sandy Public School Board, North Central Montana Stock Growers Association, Montana Reined Cow Horse Futurity, Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame, Montana Quarter Horse Association, Montana Land & Mineral Owners Association, and the Chouteau County Livestock Protection Association.
Weaver has owned and operated Weaver Cattle Co., a cattle and farming enterprise in North Central Montana for the past 40 years. Weaver also owns and operates Weaver Order Buying, a cattle brokerage firm.
He and Nancy raised three children on the ranch. All three children and families continue to work on the ranch, but have also expanded their own ranching and farming interests in the area. KellyAnne Terry is married to Casey Terry and they have two children, Wyatt and Avery, and live in Lewistown, Montana; David Weaver who lives in Big Sandy, has one daughter, Hailey; and Daniel Weaver also lives in Big Sandy.
The Weavers received the 1997 Montana Quarter Horse Association Ranch of the Year award, and Weaver Cattle Co. was recognized as the 2014 Montana State University Family Business of the Year in the business category for operations in existence at least 50 years.
Member Butch Wise
Butch Wise of El Reno, Oklahoma, was named an honorary AQHA vice president in 2015. He was an AQHA director from 2001 to 2015.
He currently serves on the studbook and registration committee. Wise is a former member of the nominations and credentials and racing committees and the racing council. He was the chairman of the Hall of Fame committee from 2013 to 2015 and also served as chairman of the racing council. In 2014, he was a member of the AQHA Governance Task Force.
In 2004, Wise received the Oklahoma State University Animal Science School Graduate of Distinction award and in 2007, he received the AQHA Racing Council Special Recognition Award.
He is a member of the Oklahoma Quarter Horse and Florida Quarter Horse Racing associations. Wise owns Stone Chase Stables LLC and is the bloodstock agent and president of Wise Sales Co. Inc. His former career experience includes AQHA, Ridgeleigh Farms Inc,. Mel Hatley Farms and Cox Manufacturing. Locally he is involved with the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association in establishing a successful working arrangement with the Oklahoma legislature.
Wise and his wife, Nancy, have two sons and two daughters. Their sons are Clay and Parker Wise, and daughters are Mallory Wise and Ashlie Blair. Blair and her husband, Shawn, have two children, Derek and Lacie.
Image courtesy of AQHA.
Congratulations are in order for the six horses and four men who were inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame at the 2016 AQHA Convention in Las Vegas.
“Induction into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame is the highest honor possible in our Association, and I look forward to welcoming these deserving individuals into the Hall of Fame,” said Craig Huffhines, executive vice president of the American Quarter Horse Association.
The horses going into the Hall of Fame are the stallions Mr Gun Smoke, Parker’s Trouble and Zantanon; the geldings Van Decka and Vandy’s Flash; and the Thoroughbred mare Woven Web.
The men are AQHA Past President Johannes Orgeldinger of Germany; the late Paul Curtner of Jacksboro, Texas; Floyd “Sunny Jim” Orr of Pueblo, Colorado; and Ben Hudson of Morgan Mill, Texas.
Mr Gun Smoke
Mr Gun Smoke was born to cut cattle. Foaled in 1961, he was trained by the late Dale Wilkinson, who bought the horse in 1967 by trading $2,500, a trophy and a filly. Wilkinson and the stallion earned 71 AQHA points and a Superior in cutting, plus $8,476 in National Cutting Horse Association earnings in an era when purses were much smaller.
In 1968, Mr Gun Smoke moved to the breeding shed, where the sorrel stallion by Rondo Leo was an outstanding outcross sire to King and Doc Bar mares. In all, Mr Gun Smoke progeny collected more than $1 million in earnings through NCHA, the National Reining Horse and the National Reined Cow Horse associations, and the AQHA world championship shows.
He was bred by Mamie and Harley Price of Bazine, Kansas, and was inducted into the NRCHA Hall of Fame in 1980 and the NRHA Hall of Fame in 2008. Last owned by Rapps Quarter Horses of Weatherford, Texas, Mr Gun Smoke died in 1983.
Parker’s Trouble
Racehorse Parker’s Trouble was foaled on the ranch of his breeder, W.D. “Dink” Parker of Patagonia, Arizona. In 20 starts, Parker’s Trouble had six wins, three seconds and two thirds, for lifetime earnings of $4,609. He graded AAA before his race career ended.
The 1949 chestnut stallion was by Ed Echols and out of Little Nellie Bars by Three Bars (TB). Unadvertised, Parker’s Trouble made a name for himself through his offspring, such as top show horses Big Step, Bit O’ Trouble and Trouble Gal. Breeders liked the stallion’s conformation and athleticism but mostly appreciated the quiet mind he threw.
For owners Blain and Aneliza Lewis and A.R. Levis of Patagonia, Parker’s Trouble sired winners in AQHA and NCHA competition.
Van Decka
Van Decka boasts the most youth show points in American Quarter Horse history. The 1967 bay gelding by Decka Center and out of Vanessa Dee by Vandy was bred to be a sprinter, but in three starts on the racetrack, his best finish was a fourth.
Van Decka went to the show ring where the daughters and granddaughters of breeder Johnny Johnson of St. Louis rode him to 4,270 points. The next closest horse, Aledo Rita Bar, has about half that number.
Van Decka also won year-end all-around youth titles in 1974 and 1975 with Cheryl Johnson, as well as three all-around youth titles at the All American Quarter Horse Congress. With Kim Johnson, Van Decka earned year-end titles in western pleasure and horsemanship in 1977. In Van Decka’s last Congress in 1987, his last owner, the then-10-year-old Tara Green, won the 11-&-under horsemanship class. Van Decka died February 16, 1988.
Vandy’s Flash
In 1954, future American Quarter Horse Hall of Famer Garrett’s Miss Pawhuska foaled her fastest sprinter, a little sorrel named Vandy’s Flash.
Vandy’s Flash’s first step on a racetrack was in 1957, and in 1958, he was the champion racing gelding. By 1960, he was faster than ever, setting three track records and being named the champion gelding and the world champion racehorse.
In all, the gelding had 106 starts and 28 wins, with earnings of $101,848 in the late 1950s, when purses were much smaller. He continued to race for owner Parke McAvoy of South Laguna, California, and set another track record in his last season of racing in 1964. The gelding’s two records at Los Alamitos stood for close to 16 years.
In 2007, Vandy’s Flash was inducted into the Racehorse Hall of Fame at Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico.
Woven Web (TB)
The Thoroughbred mare Woven Web was bred and owned by American Quarter Horse Hall of Famer Robert “Bob” Kleberg Jr. of the King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas. While racing south of the Rio Grande at distances from a quarter-mile to 5 furlongs, Woven Web won four of five starts and equaled the world record of :27.2 for 550 yards.
Under the name “Miss Princess,” the mare raced on AQHA tracks, where she won 10 of 10 official starts. At Del Rio, Texas, she set a world record of 22 seconds flat that held for 33 years. She was a three-time American Quarter Horse racing champion and world champion, winning the titles in 1946, 1947 and 1948.
In retirement at the King Ranch, she was periodically brought out to show off her speed. She also produced three Thoroughbred foals. She was inducted into the Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2005. The Miss Princess Handicap at Los Alamitos Racecourse pays tribute to her accomplishments.
Zantanon
Zantanon was foaled in 1917, the same year as Man O’ War, at the Ott Adams ranch near Alice, Texas. The chestnut stallion was by Little Joe and out of Jeanette by Billy By Big Jim. Zantanon was purchased as a long weanling by Erasmo Flores of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and went into race training immediately. About a year later, Flores’ uncle, Eutiquio Flores, bought the colt and continued racing “The Man O’ War of Mexico,” purchasing buildings and a ranch with Zantanon’s winnings.
Zantanon wasn’t treated as carefully as racehorses are today but won anyway, impressing Manuel Benavides Volpe, who paid an unheard-of $500 for the 14-year-old stallion in 1931 before breeding him almost exclusively to his Traveler-bred mares.
Zantanon died in 1941, but today, American Quarter Horses from all disciplines trace to him, including King P-234 and 21 other horses already inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame. Of the 2016 inductees, Parker’s Trouble is a descendant of Zantanon, bringing the total to 23.
Johannes Orgeldinger
Businessman and AQHA Past President Johannes Orgeldinger of Grosswallstadt, Germany, loved TV westerns as a child. He saw his first western saddle and his first American Quarter Horse in 1975 at Equitana. The next summer, he spent six weeks in California and took a western saddle home with him.
From then on, Orgeldinger was a proponent of the American Quarter Horse. In 1979, he built his JOMM Ranches with the idea of expanding the American Quarter Horse industry in Germany. He began importing about 300 horses a year to Europe, and by 1992, Orgeldinger and his friends were importing so many that he built Main River Quarter Horses in Gainesville, Texas, to satisfy quarantine requirements.
Later, after enough Quarter Horses were being bred in Germany to meet the needs of enthusiasts there, Orgeldinger and his wife, Astrid, turned Main River into a breeding and training operation.
In 2006, Orgeldinger was elected to the AQHA Executive Committee, and he served as AQHA president in 2010-11, with horse welfare and ethics as his primary objectives. Orgeldinger was keenly interested in the ranch heritage of AQHA. He was influential in initiatives such as the AQHA Ranching Heritage Breeder program, the Ranching Heritage Challenges and the AQHA Ranching Council.
Orgeldinger was the first AQHA president from outside the United States. During his term, he also advocated for international competition and was an AQHA representative at the 2010 FEI Alltech World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. He served as the manager of reining at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany.
Paul Curtner
Paul Curtner of Jacksboro, Texas, always had horses, but he made his living servicing wells. In 1954, Curtner bought Poco Pine as a weanling, then showed the stallion in halter classes, where the horse earned 46 grand championships and seven reserve championships, along with AQHA points in cutting and western pleasure.
When Curtner retired Poco Pine to the breeding shed, he found he was in the horse business instead of the well-servicing business. Poco Pine foals earned more than 7,000 points in the performance arena and more than 3,000 points in halter. As the stallion grew older, Curtner bred and began grooming his successor, Zippo Pat Bars, who eventually was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.
In all, Curtner bred the earners of 2,438.5 halter points and 10,311.5 performance points. His horses earned 150 Registers of Merit and 29 became AQHA Champions.
Curtner was a founder of the American Quarter Horse Heritage Center and has his own bust in the Hall of Fame. He was also involved with the Texas Quarter Horse and National Cutting Horse associations. He was a member of Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the Fort Worth Petroleum Club. He died in 2003 at age 87.
Ben Hudson
Ben Hudson of Morgan Mill, Texas, has been involved in racing and its governance in Texas and Oklahoma for many years. He has been president of the Texas Quarter Horse Association and served on other racing organizations. He was influential in getting pari-mutuel racing in Texas and continues to be involved in racetrack chaplaincy.
In 1975, Hudson started Track magazine. He and his wife, Christine, breed and own racehorses.
Hudson has been an AQHA director since 1987 and was elevated to director-at-large in 2007. Hudson has served on the AQHA Racing Council, racing committee, Foundation Council, and the nominations and credentials and Hall of Fame selection committees. He received the Gordon Crone Special Achievement Award in 2002 from the AQHA Racing Committee.
Recognized for his deep knowledge of the American Quarter Horse racing industry, Hudson has also received awards for writing, advertising and photography.
Sunny Jim Orr
Floyd E. “Sunny Jim” Orr was born into a ranching family and grew up a roper, becoming a Rodeo Cowboys Association tie-down roper at 21. While working with other cowboys’ horses, he realized he had a talent for training.
From 1960, when he began competing at AQHA shows, through 1986, when an injury forced his retirement from the saddle, Orr trained horses that could win halter in the morning and perform all day long. He rode Diamonds Sparkle to the AQHA Superhorse title in 1979 and Eighteen Letters to the reserve Superhorse title in 1980.
After retirement from the show ring, Orr focused on training amateurs to succeed. He was an AQHA judge for 16 years, judging the first AQHA World Championship Show in 1974 in Louisville, Kentucky.
As a breeder, Orr bred horses that earned 1,449.5 points in all divisions and earned $57,521.26 in the National Cutting Horse Association. In 2009, Orr was inducted into the Rocky Mountain Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.
About the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame
The American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum beautifully showcases the dozens of horses and people who have earned the distinction of becoming part of the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame. To be a part of the Hall of Fame, horses and people must have been outstanding over a period of years in a variety of categories. Inductees are those who have brought exceptional visibility and/or contribution to the American Quarter Horse. Hall of Fame inductees are chosen each year by a selection committee and honored at the annual AQHA Convention.
For more information on the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum, visit www.aqha.com/museum.
AQHA News and information is a service of the American Quarter Horse Association. For more news and information, follow @AQHAnews on Twitter and visit www.aqha.com/news.
