AQHA January / February Magazine AQHA JAN-FEB 2020 PRINT | Page 17

PG.15
Heather Richardson
& John Langbridge
of this Congress, Heather initiated a meeting between
the Australian Cutting Horse Association and the
National Cutting Horse Association. It was because of her
involvement with the calling of this meeting that Robert
Baldwin (who chaired the meeting), credits Heather with
being the founder of the present NCHA. As a result of
this meeting and an indication of the high esteem with
which Heather was held by the early pioneers of Cutting
in Australia, Heather and the Richardson’s Solicitor were
flown to Moree to construct the Constitution of the
NCHA. In 1980 the South Western Queensland QHA
commenced and Lionel was the inaugural President with
Heather as the inaugural Secretary.
Between 1974 and 1980 Lionel was an AQHA Board
member. In 1978 he chaired a meeting called to set up
the Queensland Quarter Horse Association, the first
State Association in Australia. Lionel and Heather stayed
active members of the executive of this Association for
many years and assisted in the organization and running
of two successful Quarter Horse sales at Brookfield. Heather and Lionel also organised a Sprint Race to be run
on a Toowoomba Racetrack as part of the convention.
They were responsible for the running of two successful
Quarter Horse sales in Toowoomba.
From 1978 until 1984 Heather, in conjunction with
Marlene Allanson, produced the QQHA Newsletter,
which was sent to every financial member of the AQHA
in Queensland. During this time Heather wrote a column
in the AWH Magazine and had numerous articles
published in the QH Magazine.
Between 1983 and 1992 Heather organised and Lionel
chaired the meeting from which the T&DQHA was
formed. They both held various positions in this Club
such as President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer
and Publicity Officer. They assisted the AQHA Executive
Director, Kevin Norris, with the organisation and running
of an AQHA Convention held in Toowoomba.
In 1984 they sold “Pine Hills” at Wallumbilla to semi-
retire to Crows Nest, Queensland. At the time of the
sale, the Richardson’s had 200 registered Quarter Horses
including their six stallions; CATTLEMAN R1-236, TOM
DOOLEY R2-30, PINE HILLS QUARTER MOON Q-152,
TALK OF THE TOWN Q-375, COMMANDER STAR
Q-1009 and the youngster PINE HILLS INTREPID R2-
8225.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY ISSUE 2020