American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame

The American Quarter Horse Association, the largest horse breed registry on earth, has called Amarillo home since nineteen forty-seven, and its Hall of Fame museum opened here in nineteen eighty-nine just off Interstate Forty. The AQHA was founded in nineteen forty at a meeting in Fort Worth to preserve a horse breed prized since colonial Virginia: the Quarter Horse, named for its blazing speed over a quarter-mile sprint, was the workhorse of cattle drives and ranch life across the West. The association has registered nearly three million horses and maintains the stud books for every registered Quarter Horse on the planet. Inside, the story moves from frontier ranching to rodeo arenas to Olympic equestrian competition, all anchored in the Texas Panhandle.