The United States Equestrian Team Foundation has announced that American Quarter Horse Association president Frank Merrill is one of its four new Board of Trustee members. The USET Foundation is the nonprofit organization that supports the competition, training, coaching, travel and educational needs of America’s international, high-performance horses and athletes in partnership with the United States Equestrian Federation. The organization’s programs are developed in the seven international equestrian disciplines of dressage, eventing, show jumping, driving, endurance, reining and vaulting. The programs train and support top athletes and horses to compete at the Olympics, World Championships, Pan American Games and other top international competitions.
The USET Foundation selects its Board of Trustee members based on their significant contributions to the performance horse industry and recognized Merrill for his more than 40 years of involvement with American Quarter Horses. Merrill has bred, owned and raised AQHA world champions and stakes winners and has participated in almost every AQHA discipline including racing, halter, roping, cutting, reining and other Western and English events.
Merrill has won multiple championships in the National Cutting Horse Association. He also has owned and exhibited two AQHA Hall of Fame horses – Miss Jim 45 and Royal Santana. In addition, his Windward Stud in Purcell, OK counted some of the Quarter Horse world’s most preeminent race and performance stallions on its roster.
With his wife, Robin, Merrill owned and operated Windward Stud until October 2006, when they sold the breeding and training facility to Bill, Barbara and Lisa Cowan, of Havre, MT. Currently, Frank Merrill serves as CO-CEO of Cowan Select Horses LLC at Windward Stud Ltd.
The other new USET Foundation board members are Melanie Smith Taylor, who helped the United States win Team Gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics aboard Calypso; Peter Welles, who has been active in promoting and enhancing equestrian sport in the United States and serves as a member of the United States Equestrian Team Foundation’s National Advisory and Development Committees; and Abigail S. Wexner, who is a lawyer and community activist involved in philanthropic work focused on children’s issues. For more information on the USET Foundation visit uset.org.