AQHA & APHA Form a Historic Partnership

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160 – September/October, 2022

By Barbara Aitken Jenkins

Earlier this summer, the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) and the American Paint Horse Association (APHA) announced a historic partnership. The two associations, which are the two largest stock horse breed registries in the world, are partnering in a two-year strategic alliance that will focus on animal welfare, youth development, data collaboration to enhance horse records for owners, cross-promotional opportunities, and event collaboration.

APHA Executive Director Billy Smith finds this partnership to be a step in the right direction for the betterment of the horse industry.

“AQHA and APHA currently have leadership in both associations with histories of collaboration in the past. Over the years, we have seen that cooperating is more valuable to the horse community than trying to rudder our own ship by ourselves,” he says.

Although the collaboration is still developing, it is exciting to know that association leaders are consciously and continually working to improve the membership experience.

“All associations are experiencing similar highs and lows,” says APHA President Melanie Cox-Dayhuff. “We are very early in our partnership, and I am sure we will find new things along the way, but I feel we will have an opportunity in a few different ways. If we work together on some of the pressing issues facing the industry, we have a chance to solve them in a mutually exclusive way. Instead of responding to each other’s decisions, we have a chance to work together.”

Click here to read the complete article
160 – September/October, 2022