2026-2027 AQHA Executive Committee Elected at AQHA Convention

The 2026-2027 American Quarter Horse Association Executive Committee was elected on March 16 at the 2026 AQHA Convention in Las Vegas. Though AQHA operates primarily upon the decisions of its members through the board of directors, the five-person Executive Committee is responsible for implementing important decisions and governing AQHA between the annual meetings of the membership and the board. The Executive Committee convenes throughout the year to conduct and manage the business of AQHA.

The AQHA Executive Committee – consisting of a president, first vice president, second vice president and two additional members – is elected each year by the board of directors at the Convention. Each member serves a term of one year until the selection of his/her successor. Members are eligible for re-election and may serve on the Executive Committee for up to five years.

President Jim Brinkman

Jim Brinkman is an AQHA life member and has served as an AQHA director since 2011. Brinkman served on the Stud Book and Registration Committee, Ranching Council, Hall of Fame and Best Remuda selection committees, AQHA World Show Sale committee and the parentage verification task force.

Brinkman is a third-generation rancher on the Pitzer Ranch, which was founded in 1946. He runs commercial cattle and is the owner, manager and trainer overseeing the ranch’s American Quarter Horse program. The ranch near Ericson, Nebraska, runs more than 500 broodmares and hosts two Quarter Horse sales a year, one in the spring and one in the fall, selling about 800 head total.

Brinkman is an AQHA Professional Horseman and showed the first AQHA Superhorse, Vickie Lee Pine, for grandfather and owner Howard Pitzer. Brinkman works to continue the traditions of honesty and integrity that built his family’s operation over 75 years ago.

Brinkman and his wife, Tana, a former Miss Rodeo Nebraska, have two children, daughter Sarah; son Sam and his wife, Kendra; and four grandchildren, Kale, Rio, Brooke and Clara.

First Vice President Lori Bucholz

Lori Bucholz of Waterloo, Nebraska, is an AQHA life member and has been an AQHA director since 2008 and was elevated to director-at-large in 2020. Lori has served as the chairperson of the International Committee and Animal Welfare Commission. She has served on the American Quarter Horse Foundation Committee and Council, the Nominations and Credentials Committee, the Affiliate Advisory Board, and Hall of Fame Selection and Animal Welfare Grievance committees.

Bucholz is a professional registered parliamentarian and received her bachelor of science degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She has shown horses for more than 50 years and is an AQHA amateur champion, has won multiple AQHA world champion titles and year-end high-point awards and is an AQHA 10-year breeder. Lori also currently serves on the Colorado State University Ag Industry Leadership Council, Equine Sciences Advisory Board and the Temple Grandin Equine Center Steering Committee. She is also a member of the Texas A&M Equine Initiative Advisory Committee, National Snaffle Bit Association Board of Directors, the Omaha Equestrian Foundation Board of Directors, the Nebraska Quarter Horse Association Board of Directors and is a past president of the Nebraska State Association of Parliamentarians. She also serves on the Carl and Caroline Swanson Foundation Board of Trustees and Plastilite Corporation Board of Directors.

Lori and her husband, Frederick “Rick,” have three children – Marca Bucholz, Britta Ruoff and spouse Chad, and Frederick “Buck” Bucholz; and five grandchildren, Sophia Bucholz, and Cayson, Bristol, Lily and Cooper Ruoff.

When she’s not in the saddle or spending time with family and their Jack Russell terriers, Lori is an active runner who has completed multiple marathons, a certified scuba diver and also enjoys reading, gardening and needlepoint.

Second Vice President Ross Roark

AQHA life member Ross Roark of Andrews, Texas, is an AQHA Professional Horseman, specialized halter judge and has been an AQHA director representing Texas since 2010. He was elevated to director-at-large in 2022.

Roark has served on the AQHA Animal Welfare Commission and Show and Stud Book and Registration committees. He served as the chairman of the Stud Book and Registration Committee from 2020-2022. A judging contest horse donor at both the AQHYA and AQHA world championship shows, Roark was president of the American Junior Quarter Horse Association (now AQHYA) from 1984-1985.

A halter horse trainer and exhibitor, Roark was the first AQHA exhibitor to earn 100 AQHA world championships in his career. He also holds a racing license in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana and California.

A graduate of Texas Tech University, Roark is a rancher and trainer. He is a Texas Caucus Chair and serves on the advisory board for Security Bank in Monahans, Texas. He is married to Sharon Roark.

Member Randy Ratliff

Executive Committee member Randy Ratliff and his wife, Susan, reside in Glencoe, Oklahoma. Ratliff is an AQHA life member, served as a director from 2011-2022 and has served on the AQHA Show and Public Policy committees, as well as chairman of the Nominations and Credentials Committee. He also served on the Affiliate Advisory Board and was elevated to director-at-large in 2023.

Ratliff received his Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University and recently retired from Syngenta, a global agribusiness corporation. Outside of the horse world, he has served in several positions on agriscience boards, such as the Southern Weed Science Society, where he received a distinguished service award; and the Political Action Committee at Syngenta. He is a pilot and past president of the Shiloh Pilot Association.

In the equine industry, Ratliff is a National Snaffle Bit Association life member and served in leadership positions in the North Carolina Horse Council and the North Carolina Quarter Horse Association, where he was recently inducted into the hall of fame. Showing and breeding western pleasure horses, Ratliff also served as the AQHA Region 10 Experience Committee chairman.

Member Victor Wolf

Victor Wolf of Guacima, Alajuela, Costa Rica, is an AQHA life member and longtime leader in the international Quarter Horse community. He served as the Costa Rica international appointed director from 2001 to 2022 and later as a director representing Costa Rica. Wolf has also been an active member of the AQHA International Committee since 2011 and served as its chairman from 2022-2025. In addition, he served on the AQHA Affiliate Advisory Board from 2022-2025 and was the founding president of the Costa Rica Quarter Horse Association, ACRICAMDE.

Beyond AQHA, Wolf has held numerous leadership roles within the equine and agricultural industries in Costa Rica and Central America. He currently serves as a director of Los Reyes Polo Club and previously served as president of the Costa Rica Sheep Breeders Association. Wolf also served as president of the board of directors for the Asociacion de Criadores de Caballos de Campo y Deportivo de Costa Rica from 2004 to 2014 and president of the board of directors for Club Hipico La Caraña, S.A. from 2000 to 2002.

Earlier in his career, he represented Costa Rica in EXPICA, the Central American Horse and Cattle Show Permanent Committee, from 1994 to 2002, and served as its president in 2001, the same year he also served as president of the Central America Stock Show Committee.

An accomplished horseman, Wolf ranked sixth in the FEI World Endurance Rankings for 100-mile one-day competitions in 2012 and was the 2018 AQHA amateur Versatility Ranch Horse world champion. In 2024, he was named an International Polo Federation ambassador for Costa Rica. Wolf is a rancher and a graduate of Universidad Fidelitas in Costa Rica. He and his wife, Hannia, reside in Guacima, Alajuela, Costa Rica.