AQHA and Ranch Horse Association of America Join Forces
The American Quarter Horse Association and the Ranch Horse Association of America have formed a strategic marketing alliance to promote the growing interest in and usage of American Quarter Horses in ranch horse competition. Through specific association marketing agreements, AQHA joins forces with other associations in which the American Quarter Horse is predominately the breed of choice.
As part of the agreement, Ranch Horse Association of America performance records and earnings by American Quarter Horses will become part of the horse’s permanent AQHA record. This valuable information will be available to the public through AQHA’s Internet record search and will help owners promote their horse’s performance history. Also, AQHA will recognize the highest placing American Quarter Horse in each of the four RHAA National Finals classes as AQHA/RHAA Horses of the Year and present their owners a specially designed AQHA bronze trophy and a $500 cash bonus. Additionally, The American Quarter Horse Journal, a long-standing RHAA sponsor, will continue their sponsorship of the RHAA National Finals, which are held in Abilene, Texas, in conjunction with the Western Heritage Classic.
“ Ranching and American Quarter Horses have been long-time partners in our nation’s history,” AQHA Executive Vice President Bill Brewer said. “AQHA is proud to partner with the Ranch Horse Association of America to promote the Western lifestyle and continue the legacy of the American Quarter Horse’s versatility.”
The RHAA was formed in 1998 to promote the qualities and characteristics of the ultimate working ranch horse, while providing a means of competition to show these ranch horses. The RHAA sanctions local working ranch horse competitions, provides a uniform set of rules, qualifies working ranch horse competition judges, and promotes uniformity and consistency in judging. The association works to accomplish these goals while maintaining traditional western influence with historic western sportsmanship and a cowboy ethic. To learn more about RHAA, visit their official Web site at www.rhaa.org.
Hello Members,
Another year has come and gone with the RHAA. We did face some challenges this year with the rising fuel costs, and had to cancel parts of some shows and even cancelled a couple of entire shows. In spite of this, we had a tremendous turnout for our National Finals. I want to congratulate all of the winners that made it to the semi-finals and then congratulate the champions for truly great performances at Abilene. And what a finals it was! I can only say to each and every one of you that you have done a great job with your horses, and the level of horsemanship continues to rise every year. Be proud of yourselves, I am.
Congratulations to Kelby Phillips for being the 2007-2008 RHAA Overall Champion. Kelby’s earnings of over $2500 earned him a beautiful Justin Walker hand-made belt buckle.
The rules committee met at Abilene and there are a couple of changes coming in the near future, along with a rewriting of the rules we have and trying to clearly define each of them. The changes I will tell you about here are that we changed the membership to run for one year from the date of application. If you purchased a membership in January, 2008, it will renew in January, 2009. Also, we have raised the limits in the Cowboy class to $1000 in RHAA earnings and the Ranch hand class to $2500 in RHAA earnings as of the beginning of the new year (the Sunday following the finals each year).Also, check in with Raylene to buy your competition license for each horse you will be competing on in the upcoming year. This license is required for each horse and must be purchased before the show. No applications will be taken the date of the show. This license is good for the lifetime of your horse as long as you own him and must be presented to the show official at each contest entered. This will eliminate a ton of paperwork for us and eliminate the need to make copies of your papers for each show. We think this will be a double blessing for all of us.
Thank each of you for another great year in the RHAA, and I look forward to seeing you at the shows this year.
Sincerely,
Jim Frank Richardson
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