Vanessa Carlson

Originally from England, Vanessa Carlson moved to the United States in 1980 and with her husband, Ron, owns and manages Woodridge Farm, a full service sport horse facility located in Claremore, Okla. The farm stands three stallions, including ES Arrian and is home to more than 50 horses. In 2007 her homebred mare EMC Roccoca WF (Rienzi-Turteltaubchen/Tin Rocco) was the Reserve Champion in the Five-Year-Old division of the Markel/USEF National Young Horse Dressage Championships. Vanessa has made numerous trips to Germany to expand her knowledge in selecting sporthorses and breeding stock, and has also attended inspections and mare performance tests as a learner judge with the Hanoverian Verband. She was appointed to the Mare and Stallion Committee in 2002 and has been a board member since 1995. She currently serves as a member of the AHS Finance Committee.

Volker Ehlers
Volker Ehlers has spent his lifetime breeding, training, riding and judging warmblood horses. He served his Bereiter apprenticeship for 3 ½ years under Hermann Schride, formerly European champion and Gold medal winner in Grand Prix jumping. After passing the Bereiter testing, Volker went to Alwin Schockemohle’s stable where he trained and showed grand prix jumpers for eight years. During this time he continued to ride and train dressage horses under the instruction of Herbert Rehbein. In 1984 he immigrated to North America, working in Canada and later in Washington state. As Vice-President of Glenwood Farms he trains jumpers, dressage horses and prepares young stallions for their performance tests. He has been extremely successful competing and showing young dressage and jumping horses in California, including the Grand Prix jumper Prinz Gaylord.

Suzanne Quarles
Current AHS Executive Vice-President Suzanne Quarles was appointed to the Mare and Stallion Committee in January 1997 and serves as Committee Chair. Suzanne is a native of Connecticut, a graduate of Smith College and she shares a 250-acre farm in Maryland with her husband Steve. Suzanne has been an AHSA licensed Combined Training Judge and Technical Delegate since 1976 and an avid sport horse breeder since 1980. She acquired her first Hanoverians in 1988 and purchased Wertherson in 1989. Suzanne’s Elite Hanoverian Stallions stand at her Some Day Soon Farm in Maryland. She enjoys competing her horses; recent successes include EM Berlina, Grand Champion at Devon, and Elite Stallion Weltbekannt, a multiple AHS/USDF year-end awards winner.

George Walker
George Walker received board appointment to the Mare and Stallion Committee in 2002. During the February 2008 annual meeting in Lexington he received board approval as the society’s newest stallion judge. George and his wife Catherine own and operate Middlefield Farm in Blythewood, S.C. George was raised with Thoroughbreds in one capacity or another, and in 1984 his family acquired their first Hanoverians. While the family has raised and stood several stallions in the past, including Banter, recently their emphasis has been on maintaining a select group of homebred mares. The operation is strictly hands on, including the breeding and breaking work. He and his family have had the pleasure of learning a great deal from their friends Gerd and Yvonne Zuther and Fritz Floto. George believes in donating back to the Society and is the elected member of AHS’s Finance Committee. In the fall of 2007 he judged in Germany during the HV’s stallion pre-selection phase in which 813 colts were inspected.

Meg Williams
Meg Williams is a lifelong horsewoman and has been an active member of the AHS since 1986. Following her tenure as a Learner Judge, she was appointed to the Mare and Stallion Committee in 2006. With her husband Ron, she owns and operates Oakwood Farms in Lawrenceburg, Ind. She has made numerous trips to Germany to increase her knowledge, and completed the Breed Orientation Course in 2000. Oakwood Farm’s current broodmare band represents the most respected Hanoverian bloodlines available and the farm’s breeding program is consistently evaluated in order to produce foals with correct conformation and high rideability. Meg has trained numerous horses to the FEI levels in dressage and has earned her USDF bronze and silver medals, in addition to many USDF and AHS year-end awards. She currently campaigns Elite Stallion Widmark in dressage.

Gerd Zuther
AHS Honorary Member Gerd Zuther has been Mare and Stallion Committee judge since 1985. In 1965 he became a licensed German riding instructor and trainer certified by the German National Federation. For 16 years he managed November Hill Farm, where he also conducted the East Coast Stallion Performance Test biennially from 1987 to 1995. In 2001 on behalf of the Canadian Warmblood Horse Breeders’ Association, he traveled to Alberta, Canada to conduct the 30-Day Stallion Performance Test. Gerd is certified as a USEF licensed dressage sport horse breeding judge and devotes his time to selecting and training sporthorses, in addition to conducting riding clinics, breeding seminars, and consulting on breeding issues.

Manfred Schafer
Manfred Schaefer joined the HV’s board in 1993, became Vice-President in 1997, and in 2005 was elected as President. He competed as a jumper rider up to S-level. He, his wife and two sons operate a farm close to Braunschweig which has been in his family for more than 200 years. Besides growing grain and sugar beet, horse breeding is a major part of the family’s business. Around 12 mares are used for breeding and he has been very successful with the mare family of Silbersage. Internationally successful show jumpers such as Wahre Liebe (Werther) and El Paso (El Bundy) who was Bundeschampion as a five-year-old, were foaled and/or raised on his farm. Although he likes to focus on show jumping he also bred the world class dressage horse Sunrise (Singular Joter) that was a member of the Dutch gold medal-winning team at the 2007 European dressage championships. This is his first judging trip for the American Hanoverian Society.

Hugh Bellis-Jones
AHS Executive Director since 1995, Hugh Bellis-Jones has lived in Kentucky since 1976 and is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Newcastle in England and his Master’s from the University of Kentucky. Apart from a three-year stint as a professional biologist he has spent his entire adult career working in the horse industry in England and the United States. He is the AHS’s representative to the WBFSH and is Chief Financial Officer of Sporthorse Stallion Testing, LLC, which conducts the 100-Day Stallion Test. He contributes frequently to AHS publications and serves on both the Editorial Advisory Committee and Finance Committee. Hugh has attended over 300 AHS inspections, has visited or touched down in 47 of the lower 48 states, and has logged an untold number of air miles in doing so.

Cathy Tucker-Slaterbeck
Cathy Tucker-Slaterbeck has been interested in warmbloods since the early 1980s, and bought her first Hanoverian mare as a 2-year-old in 1990. She has a small breeding operation in Reisterstown, Md., breeding only an occasional foal as her mares are also riding horses, training and competing in dressage. In 2006 her Main Studbook mare Angel (Antibes-EM Lollipop/Letkiss) successfully completed the requirements for Elite Mare status. Cathy has been an AHS board member since 1996 and is Chair of the Awards Committee which has greatly expanded under her stewardship. A retired Montessori pre-school teacher, Cathy has also been a USEF “r” dressage and combined training judge for many years.