All the Pretty (Six Million) Horses
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70 – March/April, 2022
By Barbara Aitken Jenkins
It all started with Wimpy. Eighty-one years later, the American Quarter Horse Association is the largest equine breed registry in the world that has a global following spanning multiple avenues, disciplines, and opportunities.
AQHA announced in June of 2021 that the Association’s registration reached a significant milestone with six million registered horses. In 1941, AQHA registered its first horse, Wimpy, and 34 years later it registered its first million. In celebration of 1,000,000, the registration number wasn’t assigned to a horse. Instead, the number was given to AQHA membership; a plaque celebrating the milestone hangs in AQHA Headquarters in Amarillo, Texas. Since then, the Association has celebrated each millionth registration landmark by auctioning off the historical number.
Karen McCuistion, Senior Director of Membership Programs, shares some history about the milestones.
“AQHA Registration No. 1 was reserved for the horse that won the stallion class at the 1941 Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show in Fort Worth, Texas. The King Ranch’s Wimpy won that class. AQHA reached the one million registration milestone in 1974, two million in 1983, three million in 1991, four million in 2001, five million in 2007, and six million in 2020. The six million dollar number was sold in 2021. That’s 6 million American Quarter Horses in 80 years! AQHA has already assigned registration number 6,122,500 and is averaging over 75,000 registrations per year. It’s conceivable that the 7,000,000 mark might be reached by 2033! Both that number of registrations and that year on the calendar are incredible to consider,” she says.
The six millionth number was auctioned off during the 2021 AQHA World Championship Show’s online auction benefiting the AQHA Professional Horsemen’s Endowment Fund. The endowment fund is designed to help professional horsemen who need financial assistance due to unexpected hardship or disaster. Karen explains, “Formerly, we aided those in need through the AQHA Professional Horsemen’s Crisis Fund. More than $250,000 has been given to more than 50 professionals facing hardship.”
Click here to read the complete article
70 – March/April, 2022
