• Writer: Haley Turner, halturn95@tamu.edu

The Texas A&M Horsemen’s Association had the opportunity this April to attend the American Collegiate Horsemen’s Association’s, ACHA, annual convention. Convention this year was hosted by Murray State University in Lexington, Kentucky from April 13^th-15^th. Texas A&M Horsemen’s Association was able to send all eight officers, three advisors and sixteen club members to convention this year.

For the first day of convention Texas A&M Horsemen’s Association took its members to the historic Keeneland Racecourse for a day of racing and a photo opportunity with one of the famous Budweiser Clydesdales. On the second day of convention members and advisors were able to choose from three different tour track options. The first track offered was the Thoroughbred track which toured Keeneland Racecourse, Three Chimney’s Farm and the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute. The second track was the Sport Horse track which toured Spy Coast Farms, KESMARC, and Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital. The last track was the Saddlebred track and they toured Sally horse transport, Park Equine Hospital and Brookdale Farm. Day two ended with a visit to the Saddlebred show at the Kentucky Horse Park and dinner with several guest speakers. The last day of convention centered around an international equine panel with speakers from China, Australia, and Brazil. Afterwards several presentations were made by Kentucky Mounted Search and Rescue, Kentucky Horse Council, the Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner, KEMI (Kentucky Equine Management Internship), and Roger Walters from the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. At the end of the day ACHA officer elections were carried out and three students from Texas A&M were elected as officers and those students were junior Mattie Willard, who was elected ACHA President, freshman Emma Coffman, elected Vice President, and freshman Zachary Wilson, elected Representative. Current Texas A&M Horsemen’s Vice President, Mackenzie Scoggin, was also awarded the Senior Scholarship. Lastly, Texas A&M put in a bid to host the ACHA convention in 2018 and that bid was granted.

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For more information regarding news from the Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M University, please contact Maggie Tucker at maggie.tucker@tamu.edu or (979) 845-1542.