American Quarter Horse Association

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The American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), based in Amarillo, Texas, is an international organization dedicated to the preservation, improvement and record-keeping of the American Quarter Horse, a breed of horses known throughout the globe for endurance, performance, conformation, and pedigree.

The American Quarter Horse traces its origin to Janus. The original genealogy bloodline chart was created by the late Dr. Darrell Sprott of Killeen, Texas and is displayed at the American Quarter Horse Museum and Heritage Center.

The official organization was founded in 1940 in Fort Worth, Texas and continues to thrive today with over 300,000 international members. The annual AQHA World Show, the largest AQHA-sponsored event, is held in November of each year.

Outside of the American Quarter Horse Association's Heritage Center and Museum.

Cross-registration of American Quarter Horses is not uncommon. Palominos are often registered with the Palomino Horse Breeders of America (PHBA) and horses with paint (the ones still eligible for AQHA registration) are often registered with the American Paint Horse Association (APHA).

In recent years registration requirements for the AQHA have significantly changed. They now allow registration of and recognize the near-white cremello and perlino coat colors; before, it was considered a risk to breed two palominos or buckskins due to risk of producing an unregisterable foal of these colors. They have also loosened requirements forbidding registration of horses with excessive paint. Many horses formerly registerable only with the APHA are now cross-registered with both. Finally, they are in the process of phasing out registration of horses who carry the genetic disease Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis (HYPP).

[edit] The Showing of America's Horse

The Quarter horse is truely America's horse. During the Westward Expansion American's chose one tough horse to do the job of carring man aross many miles. That was the Quarter Horse. Today, people still are breeding these lovely animals across America. Not only breeding but showing. You may not hear alot about this but there are tons of classes where Quarter Horses show their perfomance skills. These Classes include Western Riding, Western Pleasure, Reining and even racing. Depending on the skill of the animal depends on what its placing is. In Aqha when you place you may get points. The amount of points you get depend on how many other horse you have beaten. As these points add up you can get rewareds at the end of the year.

The biggest competiton in Aqha is The Quarter Horse Congress, with more than 3000 horses, held in Columbus, Ohio each October.