AQHA Performance Horse Black Type

 

From AQHA:

The American Quarter Horse Association will launch the current performance horse black type system, which has been used since the 1980s, beginning February 1, 2024. The update will include a separate barrel racing black type system designed by the Barrel Racing Industry Alliance of which AQHA is a member. Along with the barrel horse black type system update, the AQHA Executive Committee has also approved an earnings update to the general performance horse black type system.

For decades, the sale catalogs for the industry’s premier performance horse sales have utilized a “performance black type system” offering a visual first-impression of the level of performance quality in the family of each sale horse, with horses’ names being displayed in uppercase bold or upper- and lowercase bold, depending on their achievements.

The changes will not be retroactive; horses that have already earned black type under the original system will retain that black type. The black type systems will be automatically applied to the show black type and barrel racing black type pages produced by the QData Catalog Builder, AQHA’s self-serve sale catalog production service. The QData Online Data Reports (performance, sire, dam and dam’s sire data reports) available at www.robinglenn.com will also display each horse’s black type status.

The updated general performance horse black type system applies to all performance disciplines except barrel racing and pertains to foals born in 2021 and later. It is as follows:

1. UPPERCASE BLACK TYPE
   1. *World champion [qualifying world-caliber shows]
   2. †AQHA-APHA Champion, Versatility Champion
   3. †AQHA-APHA Superior award
   4. Lifetime earnings of $15,000 or more
2. Lowercase Black Type:
   1. *Reserve world champion [qualifying world-caliber shows]
   2. AQHA Select world champion
   3. AQHA world Level 2 champion [no change except in documentation]
   4. †Color club (PHBA, IBHA, ABRA) champion
   5. †AQHA-APHA ROM award
   6. Lifetime earnings of $3,000-$14,999

 

*Qualifying world shows must attract exhibitors and/or horses from the U.S. and international countries. Examples are AQHA World Show, APHA World Show, NSBA World Show. Simply calling a show a “World” does not qualify it for the black type system.

†If the non-AQHA information is manually provided to the information producer.

The new barrel horse black type system developed by the Barrel Racing Industry Alliance applies to foals born in 2020 and later with only the barrel or pole bending performance code in their QData database performance lines. It is as follows:

1. UPPERCASE BLACK TYPE
   1. Earnings of $50,000 and above
   2. Winning a Grade 1 barrel race (regardless of earnings)
   3. AQHA Superior in barrel racing
2. Lowercase Black Type:
   1. Earnings of $25,000-$49,999
   2. Placing second or third in a Grade 1 barrel race (regardless of earnings)

 

The original performance horse black type system, applying to all disciplines prior to January 1, 2024, has been as follows:

1. UPPERCASE BLACK TYPE
   1. *World champion [qualifying world-caliber shows]
   2. †AQHA-APHA Champion, Versatility Champion
   3. †AQHA-APHA Superior award
   4. Lifetime earnings of $10,000 or more
2. Lowercase Black Type:
   1. *Reserve world champion [qualifying world-caliber shows]
   2. AQHA Select world champion
   3. †Color club (PHBA, IBHA, ABRA) champion
   4. †AQHA-APHA ROM award
   5. Lifetime earnings of $1,500-$9,999

BRIA’s barrel race grades implemented in 2023 have no impact on a horse’s black type status, except as described above.

As has always been the case, qualifying earnings must be recorded in the 41-year-old QData database, which records money earned in all disciplines. As an example, barrel racing and roping events that have not recorded results to the horse names and made those results available to QData will not produce black type-qualified earnings.

A new version of QData records, available at www.robinglenn.com, will also be launched on February 1, with the black type status of each horse appearing on the record.

About QData

QData offers horsemen tools for marketing and evaluating American Quarter Horses and breeds that cross onto Quarter Horses. This includes catalog-style pedigrees, stallion stats pages, DIY horse sale catalogs, the QData Leaderboards, QStallions and the QData online performance database.

 

AQHA news and information is a service of the American Quarter Horse Association. For more information visit www.aqha.com/news or tune into our Podcast, “Let’s Talk AQHA.”