NCHA News

Six horses and five American Quarter Horse Association members have been selected for induction into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2019.

The horses in the Class of 2019 are Harlan, a 1951 buckskin stallion; Mr Jess Perry, a 1992 sorrel stallion; Tiger Leo, a 1958 sorrel stallion; Vital Signs Are Good, a 2000 red roan mare; and Zippos Mr Good Bar, a 1984 red roan stallion. The 1976 Thoroughbred mare Trippy Dip will also join the Hall of Fame.

The AQHA members who will join the Hall of Fame are Billy Allen of Scott City, Kansas; AQHA Past President Johne Dobbs of Gastonia, North Carolina; the late J.M. Frost III of Houston; the late Hans Hansma of Granum, Alberta; and AQHA Past Executive Director of Publications Jim Jennings of Amarillo, Texas.

Two of the 2019 AQHA Hall of Fame inductees have strong ties to the National Cutting Horse Association:

Hans Hansma

Canadian Quarter Horse owner and breeder Hans Hansma (1917-1996), founded the Quarter Horse Association of Alberta, Canada and was a founding director of the Alberta Stakes and Futurities Association, which has become the Canadian Supreme, the largest western performance event in Canada. In 2002, Hansma was awarded the distinguished service award from The Horse Industry Association of Alberta.

Three of Hansma’s sons, Winston, Paul and Gerry, are NCHA Hall of Fame Riders. Winston Hansma, Weatherford, Tex., earner of over $2.3 million, and Paul Hansma, Fort Worth, Tex., earner of more than $6 million, are both NCHA Futurity Open champions. Gerry, Granum, Alberta, earner of over $1.3 million, is a Canadian Supreme and Calgary Stampede champion. Paul Hansma also bred 1994 NCHA Open Horse of the Year Hicapoo $446,712, who was out of Super Poo, a Hans Hansma family-owned mare.

J.M. Frost III (1914-2013), born on Frost Ranch in Houston, was a fourth-generation Texan, whose lifelong involvement with horses ranged from jumping horses, as a young man, to cutting horses, as a rider, owner and breeder, to race horses, as a breeder and owner. He was inducted into the NCHA Members Hall of Fame, and served as an AQHA director from 1962 until 1985, when he became one of the association’s first directors emeriti. At the 2013 AQHA Convention, he was recognized as the senior member of the AQHA board.

Harlan, foaled in 1951, also had ties to cutting competition. Bred by Paul and Jack Smith of Indiahoma, Okla., by Hank H out of Dixie Beach, in addition to an AQHA world champion, 17 AQHA Champions, eight Superiors, and two AA-rated race winners, in the early years of National Cutting Horse Association competition, Harlan also sired the NCHA earners of $15,241.