"COWBOYS, CUTTING HORSES, AND OTHER GOOD TIMES"

Buster Welch, known as the Father of the Cutting Horse, has dedicated his life to enhancing the cutting horse industry. He is a five-time NCHA Open Futurity Champion and a four-time NCHA Open World Champion, winning four World Championships with Marion's Girl in the 1950's and with Mr. San Peppy in the 1970's.

Buster's hall of fame inductions include the American Quarter Horse Association Hall of Fame; National Cutting Horse Association Hall of Fame; National Cutting Horse Association Riders Hall of Fame; and Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. He is also the recipient of the American Cowboy Culture Working Cowboy Award; Charles Goodnight Award; Foy Proctor Memorial Cowman's Award of Honor; and the Zane Schulte Trainer of the Year.

With all of his accolades as a cutting horse champion, Buster has made it no secret that he considers himself a rancher first and foremost. Today he works cattle and holds a partnership on the Double Mountain River Ranch near Rotan, Texas, with his wife, Sheila, who is also a cutting horse champion.

"TRUE HORSEMANSHIP"

Al Dunning has served as a leader for the local and national horse industry for over thirty years. He is one of the founding members of the Arizona Quarter Horse Youth Association and its Charter President. Al also served on the USET formation committee for Reining as an Olympic sport. Since 1970, Al has owned and operated Almosta Ranch, a Quarter Horse training facility in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In 2004, Al was the recipient of the Monty Roberts Equitarian Award. In 2003, he received the Zane Schulte NCHA Trainer of the Year Award, and in 1996, Al was named American Quarter Horse Association Professional Horseman of the Year. His stunning show career includes winning the 1980 NRHA Open World Championship, the 1984 Tropicana Cutting Futurity Championship, the 1986 PCCHA Derby Championship, the 1988 Las Vegas Classic/Challenge Championship, the 1991 NCHA World Champion Open Gelding title, the 2002 NRCHA Open Bridle Horse Champion at the S.B.F., and many other major championships.

Al and his students have garnered twenty-one world titles, including nine AQHA World Champions, nine AQHA Reserve World Champions, seven AQHA Amateur World Titles, numerous Arizona Year End Champions, three AJQHA World Champions, and eleven All-American Congress Winners in three years.

With the AQHA, Al is a Director at Large and has served on the Show Committee for seventeen years, including Chairman of the Show committee from 1997 to 1999. He has also served as Western Sub-Committee Chairman, and served on the Hall of Fame Committee and Nomination Credentials Committee. Al has been President of the Arizona Quarter Horse Association and the Arizona Cutting Horse Association. He has also served on Nominations, Limited Age Events, and Rules committees of the NCHA as well as National Director. In addition, Al served on the American Horse Show Association Stock Seat Committee for five years, and currently, he serves on the National Reined Cow Horse Association and AQHA judges committee.

"GOD'S FAVORITE ANIMAL"

John Lyons' extraordinary ability to inspire and teach people how to become partners with their horses has launched a global training career that has spanned over twenty-five years. After a successful show career and gaining practical horse knowledge on his Colorado cattle ranch, he began giving training clinics and symposiums in 1980.

John has received much recognition in the industry. Equine Affaire chose him as the recipient of their Exceptional Equestrian Educator Award; Equitana USA chose to honor John with their highly regarded Modern Masters Award for Outstanding Horsemanship; he was winner of the University of Louisville's John W. Galbreath Award for his outstanding contributions to the horse industry; and recognized by the North American Horseman's Association for Outstanding Safety Management in the Horse Industry.

As a pioneer in the clinician movement, John has been instrumental in changing the horse industry forever. He has developed a certification program that has produced over tw0-hundred professional "John & Josh Lyons Certified" trainers. His Perfect Horse Magazine reaches over 150,000 monthly subscribers, and he has co-authored over twenty books and produced many video/DVD's and audio tapes. John and his wife, Jody, live in Parachute, Colorado, on Our Dream Ranch.

"THE HORSE AND DOG MAN"

As a boy, Leon Harrel worked alongside his father and grandfather who farmed and raised cattle in Oklahoma. Early on, these men instilled in Leon the western way of life and the hard work it took to maintain it. As he grew, Leon began to dream of one day becoming a World Champion cowboy. After growing up and moving to California, he became involved in rodeo. Bull riding was his passion until 1962 when a near-fatal spill left him unable to continue in the sport.

Leon then began training race horses for G.D. Turnbull, but he missed the western element he loved so much. Then in 1968, Leon discovered the grace and beauty of the cutting horse. Their strength, stamina, and cunning challenged Leon and fueled his dreams. He began to concentrate fully on the cutting horse business in 1969, and in 1972, he purchased his first training facility.

Leon has realized his childhood dream of becoming a World Champion cowboy five times over. He has claimed the NCHA Futurity Championship twice, and has qualified for the finals twenty-three times in twenty-eight years. Not only is Leon one of the most consistent winners in major cutting horse competition, he is widely recognized by other horsemen as one of the world's leading cutting horse trainers. He is also a former President of the NCHA, and was inducted into the NCHA Hall of Fame in 1989.

"THE TRAITS OF A GENUINE HORSEMAN"

Known among his peers in the horse industry as the "King of Stock Horses", Ronnie Richards has had a winning career both as a competitor and a world-class trainer. Ronnie started his own horse training business in Irvine, California, in 1955 at age eighteen. On Lucky Libra, he won California's richest stock horse event in 1961. His many other titles include the 1966 Santa Barbara Nationals championship and the Cow Palace Mare Class in 1972.

On the unregistered mare, Mona Lisa, Ronnie impressed the entire industry with his spectacular wins. Other winners he trained include talented horses such as Scooter Reigh, Hackamore Stakes Champion Ebony Chex, and Cow Palace Champion Poppa Chex. Ronnie won Santa Barbara Championship and Reserve titles on Cheshire Chex and Moon Chex, the Bakersfield Cow Horse Classic on Lucky Mac, and the Cow Palace on King Jay Bar.

On other great horses such as Who Knows and Speedy Cash, Ronnie won the Open "A" Stock Horse Division more times than any other competitor. He is credited with turning out more International and American Horse Show Association Medal Finalists than any other trainer. In addition, he qualified seventeen horses for the NRCHA World Championship Snaffle Bit Futurity Finals and was reserve champion on Me O' Lena in 1981. Ronnie has served as an AHSA, AQHA, and NRCHA judge and as NRCHA Director of Judges, and he was named the National Reined Cow Horse Association Stock Horseman of the Year in 1997.

"FINDING YOUR WAY"

Bob Avila, of Temecula, California, is often referred to as "the trainer's trainer." He is also described as one of the most versatile and accomplished horsemen of the last thirty-five years. Accumulating over thirty-seven world champion and reserved titles during his career, Bob has performed in events ranging from performance to halter. He received the first AQHA Professional Horseman Award and is one of only two horsemen to have won both the $100,000 NRCHA Futurity and the $100,000 NRHA Futurity.

Bob won the title of World's Greatest Horseman in 2000, and in the last few years, he has taken home five Stallion Stakes Futurity championships, three Snaffle Bit Futurity championships, and one NRHA Futurity Championship. These wins have helped him achieve career earnings of over $1.5 million between the NRHA and the NRCHA.

"THOUGHTS ON THE RODEO LIFE"

A seven-time World Champion team roper, Jake Barnes has been an inspiration to rodeo fans and athletes in all sports. His world titles in 1985-89, 19992, and 1994, as well as his other winnings, have brought career earnings approaching two million dollars.

During the fifth performance of the 2005 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, Jake suffered a right thumb amputation that forced him out of the competition. Through his faith, hard work, and the support of the rodeo world, he thankfully has recovered and is back on the road doing what he loves best. In 2006, Jake won the average title at the Puyallup Pro Rodeo in Washington, and the Eastern Oregon Livestock Show & Rodeo in Union, Oregon. Born in Huntsville, Texas, Jake now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife, Toni. The couple has three sons, Tuff, Bo Jake, and Anthony and two daughters, Sunny and Shelly.

In December 2006, Jake was honored at the Wrangler national Finals Rodeo Weekend in Las Vegas when he received an esteemed award at the Legends of ProRodeo Breakfast. He was selected to receive the Legends of ProRodeo Award, which honors exemplary character and leadership in the home, the arena, and the community.

"FROM THE RANCH TO THE SHOW ARENA"

Ron Ralls was raised on a California cattle ranch in the rugged hill country between Tehachapi and Lake Isabella. He lived the life of a working cowboy until his late twenties, when some difficult ranching years and a chance meeting with celebrated trainer Monty Roberts of Flag Is Up Farms in Santa Ynez Valley sparked a new career for Ron in the working cow horse show world.

Highlights of Ron's many achievements include winning the 2003 and 2004 World's Greatest Horseman Contest on two different horses: Cowgirls Are Smart and A Chic 'N Time. His other wins include the Silver Legacy Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity on Captain Nice; the Florida Snaffle Bit Futurity in 2003 and 2004; the Georgia Snaffle Bit Futurity; the Ardmore Snaffle Bit Futurity; Reserve Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity 2003; the Salinas Bridle Class; and the Salinas Hackamore Class.

Ron showed in California before starting a training facility in Texas near Gainesville. Adding to his wins, he won the World's Richest Stock Horse Contest on A Chic 'N Time in 2006.

"A TRIBUTE TO RAY HUNT"

Like his unique philosophies, Ray Hunt's contribution to American horsemanship over the past four decades is hard to sum up. His influence has spawned an approach to working with horses based on understanding and compassion rather than domination, and this approach has spread throughout the training world almost imperceptibly over several decades. Both horses and humans have benefited from Ray's influence.

Ray was raised on an Idaho farm where his father plowed, planted, and cut hay using draft horses. When Ray got older, he worked as a cowboy, riding rough stock for large outfits in northern Nevada. But living the cowboy life was not his ultimate calling. A disciple and colleague of the great horseman, Tom Dorrance, Ray has dedicated the last thirty-plus years to teaching people how to create a true partnership with the horse based on trust, respect, and understanding. As he often says, "I'm here for the horse, to help him get a better deal."