2024 AQHA Executive Committee

From AQHA:

The 2024-2025 American Quarter Horse Association Executive Committee was elected at the 2024 AQHA Convention in Las Vegas. Though AQHA operates primarily upon the decisions of its members through the board of directors, the five-person Executive Committee is responsible for implementing important decisions and governing AQHA between the annual meetings of the membership and the board. The Executive Committee convenes throughout the year to conduct and manage the business of AQHA.

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. Members are eligible for re-election and may serve on the Executive Committee for up to five years.

President James Hunt
James “Jim” Hunt of Faith, South Dakota, is an AQHA life member and has been an AQHA director since 2013. Hunt has served on the Ranching Council, Stud Book and Registration Committee, Animal Welfare Commission and Hall of Fame Selection Committee. He has also served on the governance and microchipping task forces. Hunt also served as the chairman of the Ranching Committee. He also spearheaded developing the AQHA Ranching Heritage Breeder Young Horse Development Program and has personally donated more than 60 foals from his breeding program to this AQHYA program.

Hunt graduated from South Dakota State University with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business and worked for Hulett National Bank in Wyoming as a loan officer and then vice president. He competed as a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association saddle bronc rider, was the event director in the South Dakota Rodeo and Northwest Ranch Cowboy’s associations and was captain of the South Dakota State University College Rodeo Team. Hunt was also an agricultural reporter for radio station KLSC in Watertown, South Dakota. Hunt currently owns and operates Open Box Rafter Ranch, a working cattle and horse operation that has produced its own annual Quarter Horse production sale since 1994. He is an AQHA 40-year breeder and has bred more than 1,200 registered American Quarter Horses, including an AQHA Champion, Superior and Performance Register of Merit horses, AQHA World Show and Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifiers. Open Box Rafter Ranch was named the 2019 AQHA Ranching Heritage Breeder of the Year.

Hunt earned the 2009 Sunshine Bible Academy Distinguished Alumnus Award, was named the 2011 Black Hills Stockman of the Year and received the 2020 Black Hills Stock Show Pioneer Award.

Hunt, who serves on the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, has also served on the Rushmore Plaza Expansion Project Design Committee, Central States Fair Board of Directors, Black Hills Stock Show Horse Committee, Black Hills Stock Show Foundation Board, Sunshine Bible Academy School Board, SBA Foundation Board, Bethel Free Lutheran Church deacon and South Dakota Quarter Horse Association Board of Directors.

Hunt and his wife, Joni, have seven children, all of whom are involved in the family ranching operation: oldest son J. Tom and wife Sage; daughters Jessica and Jimmie Jean; sons Joshua and Jeb; son Justin and wife Erica; and son Jordan and wife Dr. Grace Hunt; and six grandchildren, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Hannah, Jackson, Elloise and Juniper.

First Vice President Jeff Tebow
Jeff Tebow is an AQHA life member and has served as an AQHA director since 2011. Tebow currently serves on the AQHA Executive Committee and formerly on the Stud Book and Registration, Hall of Fame Selection, and Grievance committees. He has also served on the Racing Committee and Racing Council.

Tebow graduated with a master of business from Oklahoma City University, bachelor of business administration in finance from the University of Central Oklahoma and associate of applied science in business/accounting from Connors State College. He is the managing partner and licensed insurance producer at Andreini and Co. of Oklahoma, chief executive officer of Heritage Place Inc., and auctioneer and real estate agent at Buford Resources Inc. Auction and Reality.

Tebow is a life member of the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing and Oklahoma Quarter Horse associations. He is a past OQHRA president and currently serves as an OQHRA board of director. He was also the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Youth Association president in 1983. He is a member of the Ranchero Visitadores-Los Bustardos, Southwest Texas Cattleman’s Association, National Auctioneers Association, Oklahoma Auctioneers Association, National Rifle Association and United States Team Roping Championships.

He has been an avid competitor at AQHA shows in the past and currently enjoys team roping. He also earned the reserve world champion title in boxing and was a finalist in ranch riding and heading at the 2017 Adequan® Select World.

Tebow and his wife, Vickie, reside in Piedmont, Oklahoma. Tebow also has two daughters, AQHYA Past President Ann Elizabeth and Meg, who served on the AQHYA board of directors.

Second Vice President Jim Brinkman
Jim Brinkman is an AQHA life member and has served as an AQHA director since 2011. Brinkman currently serves on the Stud Book and Registration Committee and Ranching Council. He has also served on the Hall of Fame and Best Remuda selection committees, AQHA World Show Sale committee and the parentage verification task force.

Brinkman is a third-generation rancher on the Pitzer Ranch, which was founded in 1946. He runs commercial cattle and is the owner, manager and trainer overseeing the ranch’s American Quarter Horse program. The ranch runs over 500 broodmares and hosts two AQHA horse sales a year, one in the spring and one in the fall, selling about 800 head total.

Brinkman is an AQHA Professional Horseman and showed the first-ever AQHA Superhorse, Vickie Lee Pine, for grandfather and owner Howard Pitzer. Brinkman works to continue the traditions of honesty and integrity that built his family’s operation over 75 years ago.

Brinkman and his wife, Tana, a former Miss Rodeo Nebraska, reside in Ericson, Nebraska. They have two children, daughter Sarah and husband Lane; son Sam and his wife, Kendra; and three grandchildren, Kale, Rio and Brooke.

Member Lori Bucholz

Lori Bucholz of Waterloo, Nebraska, is an AQHA life member and has been an AQHA director since 2008 and was elevated to director-at-large in 2020. Bucholz has served as the chairperson of the International Committee and Animal Welfare Commission. She has served on the American Quarter Horse Foundation Committee and Council, the Nominations and Credentials Committee, the Affiliate Advisory Board and Hall of Fame Selection and Animal Welfare Grievance committees.

Bucholz is a Professional Registered Parliamentarian and received her bachelor of science degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She has shown horses for over fifty years and is an AQHA Amateur Champion, multiple AQHA world champion, year-end high-point winner and AQHA 10-year breeder. Bucholz also currently serves on the Colorado State University Ag Industry Leadership Council, Equine Sciences Advisory Board and the Temple Grandin Equine Center Steering Committee. She is also a member of the Texas A & M Equine Initiative Advisory Committee, National Snaffle Bit Association Board of Directors, the National Collegiate Equestrian Association Advisory Committee, the Omaha Equestrian Foundation Board of Directors, the Nebraska Quarter Horse Association Board of Directors, and is the current president of the Nebraska State Association of Parliamentarians. She also serves on the Carl and Caroline Swanson Foundation Board of Trustees and Plastilite Corporation Board of Directors.

She and her husband, Frederick “Rick” have three children, Marca Bucholz, Britta Ruoff and husband Chad, and Fredrick “Buck” Bucholz; and five grandchildren, Sophia Bucholz and Cayson, Bristol, Lily and Cooper Ruoff.

When she’s not in the saddle, or spending time with family and their Jack Russell terriers, Bucholz is an active runner who has completed multiple marathons, a certified scuba diver and also enjoys reading, gardening and needlepoint.

Member Ross Roark

AQHA life member Ross Roark of Andrews, Texas, is an AQHA Professional Horseman, specialized halter judge and has been an AQHA director representing Texas since 2010. He was elevated to director-at-large in 2022.

Roark has served on the Animal Welfare Commission, Show Committee and the Stud Book and Registration Committee. He served as the chairman of the Stud Book and Registration Committee from 2020 to 2022. A judging contest horse donor at both the AQHA Youth and World championship shows, Roark was president of the American Junior Quarter Horse Association (now AQHYA) from 1984 to 1985.

A halter trainer and exhibitor, Roark was the first AQHA exhibitor to earn 100 AQHA world championships in his career. He also holds a racing license in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana and California.

A graduate of Texas Tech University, Roark is a rancher and trainer. He is a Texas Caucus Chair and serves on the advisory board for Security Bank in Monahans, Texas. He is married to Sharon Roark.

For more information on the Association, visit www.aqha.com.