The National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) membership has voted to re-elect representatives Paul Bailey, Todd Bergen and Jon Roeser for additional three-year terms on the NRCHA board of directors.
“I’ve been a part of the NRCHA now for several years, especially on the board, and we’ve seen a lot of great changes,” Bailey said about his decision to run for re-election. “I think with the many changes that the NRCHA is going through as far as the relocation of the Snaffle Bit Futurity and the big growth that we’ve seen with the World Show and World’s Greatest Horseman at Fort Worth, I just wanted to make sure I was there to see these changes come to fruition.”
Bailey, of Sparta, Tennessee, posted his first check to Equi-Stat in 1996 and has accumulated $84,298 in earnings since. In 2016, he made the Amateur Working Cow Horse finals at the American Quarter Horse Association World Championship Show with Frankentime and Cruze Mode. Bailey has served as the NRCHA’s vice-president, chair of the executive committee and member of the non-pro committee.
“I think, first and foremost, that we continue to grow our membership nationwide,” Bailey continued of his goals for the next three years. “I think we need to expand the association into international markets, and we need to also continue to grow our youth association within the cow horse. Since we’ve become a part of the [National] High School Rodeo Association, we’ve seen a large growth in the number of youth that are now participating at NRCHA shows. That’s our future and we have to continue to move toward those types of programs.”
Bergen, an Equi-Stat Elite $4 Million Rider, resides in Eagle Point, Oregon, and earned his first paycheck in reining in 1990. Since that time, he has picked up numerous titles at NRCHA and National Reining Horse Association events across the country, including two NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Open Championships in 2001 and 2011. Bergen served as NRCHA president in 2016.
A Kuna, Idaho-based trainer, Roeser is an Equi-Stat Elite $1 Million Rider who won his first check in cutting back in 1990, the same year he won the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Open Championship aboard Otoe Master. In 2016, Roeser served on the NRCHA’s Hall of Fame committee.
The NRCHA board of directors consists of 12 elected and appointed members. At its upcoming meeting in February, prior to the Celebration of Champions in Fort Worth, Texas, the board will elect its officers (president, vice president, secretary, treasurer) and executive committee members. After the new president is elected, he or she will appoint as many as four additional board members to ensure adequate representation from all of the NRCHA’s eight geographical regions. After the meeting, an updated board member listing will be posted at www.NRCHA.com.