Page 71 - April 2016

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 import- ing 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 Ranch- ing Heritage Breeder program, the Ranching Heri- tage 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 hal- ter classes, where the horse earned 46 grand championships and seven reserve champion- ships, 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 suc- cessor, 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 Associa- tion and the Fort Worth Petroleum Club. He died in 2003 at age 87.
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 As- sociation. In 2009, Orr was inducted into the Rocky Mountain Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.
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 contin- ues 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 Coun- cil, 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, Hud- son has also received awards for writing, adver- tising and photography.