Page 74 - April 2016

story courtesy AQHA • photo courtesy The American Quarter Horse Journal
The American Quarter Horse Association Executive Committee was elected at
the 2016 AQHA Convention in Las Vegas. This five-person committee is responsible for implementing important decisions made by AQHA members through the Association’s board of directors.
PRESIDENT
SANDY ARLEDGE
Sandy Arledge of Encinitas, California,
has been an AQHA director since 1997 and was elevated to director emeritus in 2011. She has served on the membership, shows and professional horsemen, judges, stud book and registration, and hall of fame selection commit- tees. Arledge also served on the nominations and credentials committee and served as the committee’s chairwoman in 2010. She cur- rently serves on the American Quarter Horse Foundation Council.
She received her bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law.
Arledge is active in the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Association and California Horse Council. She owned and operated Sandy Arledge Quarter Horses and was a general part- ner and manager of Far West Farms, a full-ser- vice boarding facility in Del Mar, California. She has bred and trained numerous AQHA world champions and reserve world champions. She was named the 2010 Professional’s Choice Professional Horsewoman of the Year and
was inducted into the Pacific Quarter Horse Association Hall of Fame in 2015.
When she’s home in California, Arledge enjoys gardening and keeping up with her koi pond in the company of her two corgis, Zip and Zoom.
FIRST VICE PRESIDENT
RALPH SEEKINS
Ralph Seekins of Fairbanks, Alaska,
has been an AQHA director since 2006 for Washington/Alaska and was elevated to director emeritus in 2016. Seekins has served on the AQHA Marketing and Membership Committee, the Foundation Council and the AQHA Public Policy Committee.
Seekins has owned American Quarter Horses since 1995 when his daughters con- vinced him and his wife, Connie, that they really needed horses. His early horse years
were spent in Wyoming and Montana and included ranch work and sprint racing. The family’s first two American Quarter Horses were home-trained and went on to earn AQHA Open Champion titles, Youth Champion titles, Youth Supreme Champion titles and one Youth Versatility award. Over the years, the Seekins family has raised and trained horses that have earned nine AQHA Champion titles, three AQHA Supreme Champion titles and two versatility awards.
For more than 14 years, the Seekins family has used their American Quarter Horses in the Helping Hooves therapeutic riding program for riders with disabilities.
They have four children – two sons and two daughters. All the children and their families live in Fairbanks. Aaron Seekins has four sons, Austin, Brandon, Gabe and Zachary along with one daughter, Shelby. Ben Seekins and
his wife, Tamie, have sons Christian and Caleb and daughter Larissa. Daughter Andrea and her husband, Ryan Reinheller, have twin boys, Jakan and Logan, as well as three daughters, Rebecca, Tricia and Sarah. Daughter Beth and her husband, Paul Austin, have three daugh- ters, Emma, Leah and Madison, and son Isaac.
SECOND VICE PRESIDENT
DR. JIM HEIRD
Dr. Jim Heird was an AQHA director for Colorado in 2009 and Texas in 2011. He has served on the judges, international and show committees, and on the show council and 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 the animal welfare commission, 2011-2015.
He was the former extension horse specialist at North Carolina State University, a former instructor/professor at Texas Tech University
in Lubbock and has held various dean/director positions at Colorado State University for the colleges of agricultural sciences and business and equine sciences program. Dr. Heird is cur- rently the executive professor and coordinator of equine initiatives at Texas A&M University. He also holds the Dr. Glenn Blodgett Equine
72 SPEEDHORSE, April 2016