Richard Bingham

Richard Bingham came to the Quarter Horse industry by way of a bus.

Bingham married his high school sweetheart, Karen Davidsmeyer, in 1956.  The couple moved to Chicago to join the Davidsmeyer Bus Company, which began when Karen’s mom purchased a 1938 Chevrolet to transport children to and from school.

The Davidsmeyer Bus Company now provides bus service for Chicago-area school districts.  

The company also owns Mid-American Charter Lines in Illinois, Central West in Texas and Colorado Charter Line in Colorado.

After buying more land for the company in 1961, the Binghams soon realized they had enough room to build a six-stall barn, and bought their first Quarter Horse, a weanling halter colt, in 1962.

The Binghams outgrew their barn in town and bought a small farm near Harvard, Illinois.  Today, their daughter Kim manages the horse operation, which includes training and fitting the show horses, breeding six stallions and caring for all the weanlings, yearlings and broodmares.

The Bingham farm was home to more than 160 horses, including 1995 AQHA Amateur World Champion Aged Stallion Recognized.  Another successful horse to grace the Bingham farm was I Do Impress, who sired reserved world champions and a number of futurity winners.

Bingham became an AQHA Director in 1981, served on the youth activities committee and convention subcommittee, and chaired the youth activities committee for two years before he became a member of the AQHA Executive Committee in 1990.  He was AQHA president in 1994.

Bingham was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2003, and died in 2010.