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, has been a board member since 1995 and 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 three and a half 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 trained jumpers, dressage horses and prepares young stallions for their performance tests. He had an extensive and successful career competing and showing young dressage and jumping horses in California, including the Grand Prix jumper Prinz Gaylord. Volker and his wife Judy currently reside in Camas, Wash., where they stay active as much sought after clinicians.

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 was ratified 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. She was appointed to the Mare and Stallion Committee in 2006, and 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. Her homebred Elite Mare Candidate Won Tinkerbelle (Widmark/Webster) was the recipient of the 2008 Hartwig Prize.

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.

Dr. Ludwig Christmann
Dr. Ludwig Christmann, a graduate of the universities of Giessen and Goettingen, began his employment with the Hanoveraner Verband in 1984. He worked for many years as Deputy Breeding Director and was responsible for developing various projects, including the Young Breeders Initiative, the breeding program for Hanoverian show jumping horses, and the research into OCD. In 1996 he obtained his doctorate degree with “The development of breeding values based on the evaluation of mares in studbook inspections and mare performance tests.” He has been editor of Hannoveraner Jarbuch Hengste since 1999 and is a member of the Interstallion working group of the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses. In 2002 Dr. Christmann became managing director for the Verband’s breeding abroad and director of a new division for research, development and consulting within the Hanoverian Society. The latest program for which he is responsible is “Experience Hanoverians,” a project for promoting the Hanoverian as a pleasure horse. Dr. Christmann is married, and he and his wife have three adult daughters, two of whom are riders. In his spare time he breeds his own horses and currently has three Hanoverians at home.

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 degree 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. Prior to his employment with AHS he was for 12 years Director of Research and Advertising for Spendthrift Farm, then home to Thoroughbred Triple Crown winners Seattle Slew and Affirmed. He is the AHS’s representative to the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH). A frequent contributor to all AHS publications, Hugh serves on both the Editorial Advisory and Finance Committees. He has now attended well over 350 AHS inspections, has visited all of the lower 48 states and has logged an untold number of air miles in doing so. He and his wife Cindy are the parents of three college-aged children.

Cathy Tucker-Slaterbeck
Cathy Tucker-Slaterbeck has been interested in warmbloods since the early 1980s, and bought her first Hanoverian mare as a two-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 judges for many years.