There is an excellent article about American Quarter Horse Association president Frank Merrill in the August issue of the Quarter Horse Journal. Merrill, grandson of Gerber Baby Food Products founder Daniel Frank Gerber, has bred and shown Quarter Horses since 1969 and has been successful in virtually every aspect of the industry. He and his wife Robin, daughter of famed trumpeter and band leader Doc Severinsen, and their children McKenzie, Megan and Tyler have all won world championships in the show arena.

Most recently, Frank and Megan competed in the National Cutting Horse Association Summer Spectacular in Fort Worth, July 10 through 29. Both were Derby Non-Pro
semi-finalists and Frank was also a first go-round leader.

It isn’t his 218-point performance on Hang Em High Pep that Merrill is likely to recall about the Summer of 2007, however. It’s the hole-in-one that he hit during an afternoon of golf with cutting horse breeder and trainer Dick Gaines at Hawks Creek Golf Club.

“We could hardly believe it,” said Merrill, who used a number six iron on the 174-yard, par three fourth hole. “It’s the first time I’ve ever done that.”

If Merrill had hit a hole-in-one last year during a golf tournament for cutters who attended the NCHA Convention in Fort Worth, he would have had some impressive horsepower to add to his stable. But the $30,000 custom motorcycle, a prize to anyone who hit a hole-in-one, went unclaimed.