Page 128 - SPEEDHORSE April 2018

story courtesy American Quarter Horse Association • photo courtesy The American Quarter Horse Journal
The American Quarter Horse Association Executive Committee was elected at the 2018 AQHA Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. Though AQHA operates primarily upon the decisions of its members through the board of directors, the five-person Executive Committee
is responsible for implementing these important decisions and governing AQHA between the annual meetings of the membership and the board.
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 at the convention. Each member serves a term of one year until the selection of his/her successor. The Executive Committee convenes quarterly at AQHA Headquarters in Amarillo to conduct business and consider all disciplinary matters.
PRESIDENT DR. JIM HEIRD
Dr. Jim Heird was an AQHA director for Colorado in 2009 and became a director for Texas in 2011. He has served on the judges, international and show committees, and on the show council and AQHA 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 commissioner of the Animal Welfare Commission, 2011-2015. He currently serves as the Executive Committee representative on the American Quarter Horse Foundation Council.
He was an extension horse specialist at North Carolina State University, an instructor/professor at Texas Tech University and 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 executive professor and coordinator of the Equine Initiative at Texas A&M University. He also holds the Dr. Glenn Blodgett Equine Chair at Texas A&M. Dr. Heird served on the executive committee of the National Western Stock Show and is an ex-officio director of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. He currently serves as director of the National Advisory Board of the National Collegiate Equestrian Association.
Dr. Heird is an honorary vice president of the Uruguayan and Argentine Quarter Horse associations. He was an AQHA judge from 1977 to 2018 and has judged 13 AQHA World Championship shows, multiple international championships and two National Reining Horse Association futurities. He was inducted in to the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2017.
He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Tennessee and has a Ph.D. 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.
FIRST VICE PRESIDENT STAN WEAVER
Stan Weaver of Big Sandy, Montana,
has been an AQHA director since 2011.
He is a former member of the studbook
and registration, public policy, and Hall of Fame selection committees; Foundation, marketing and ranching councils; and served as chairman of the ranching council. He was also instrumental in developing the AQHA Ranching Heritage Breeders program.
Weaver has bred American Quarter Horses for more than 30 years and has registered more than 1,600 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. He is involved with the Montana Quarter Horse Association (past president), Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame, Montana Land & Mineral Owners Association, National Cattleman’s Beef Association, Montana Stockgrowers, 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 41 years. He also owns and operates Weaver Order Buying, a cattle brokerage firm. Stan and Nancy raised three children on the ranch. All three children and their families continue to work on the ranch, but have also expanded their own ranching and farming interests in the area. KellyAnne and husband Casey Terry have two children, Wyatt and Avery, and live in Lewistown, Montana; David Weaver and wife Stacey live in Bozeman, Montana, with their two children, Hailey and Wesley; and Daniel Weaver and wife Dr. Danielle Weaver also live 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.
126 SPEEDHORSE, April 2018