“Everybody who likes a horse is a pretty good individual,” said Albert C. Becker. The statement was made during his service as chairman of the American Horse Council Board of Trustees in the 1980s.
Becker was born in 1920 in Kansas City, Kansas, and viewed the world from the back of a horse. College, service in the military and business took the Kansas City kid away from his equine interests, but not for long. In the early 1950s, Becker moved to a farm on the edge of Kansas City and began breeding Quarter Horses. Before he knew it, there were 25 broodmares and their foals grazing on his 240-acre farm.
Over a decade later, in 1968, Becker was elected to the AQHA Board of Directors, and then elected as the Association’s 27th president in 1977. During his year as president, Becker and the AQHA Executive Committee gave final approval to plans for a horse sale to be held in conjunction with the AQHA World Championship Show. Also, the committee announced that the youth scholarship program was a reality. Ten scholarships of $500 each were awarded in 1978.
Becker invited the chairmen of the different standing committees to speak individually with the committee. It was a major move toward improving the communication within the organization. The other areas of service for Becker were the public information, stud book and registration, racing and finance committees, and the Heritage Center and Hall of Fame committee.
Becker was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 1995. He died in 1999 at the age of 79.
Biography updated as of December 1999.
