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Calvin Hanson Inducted into Hall of Fame

March 3, 2008

Lunenburg, ON --- Calvin Hanson of Lunenburg, Ontario was inducted into the prestigious Hall of Fame of the American Morgan Horse Association at the AMHA convention awards banquet on Friday, February 15th, 2008 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

The Hall of Fame Award recognizes Hanson’s longtime accomplishments and profound impact over the past 40 years in the American Morgan Horse Association, the Morgan horse breed, and equestrian sport industry.

The AMHA is the founding organization and registry of the Morgan breed, and also home to the National Museum of the Morgan Horse at Shelburne, Vermont.

Previously, the AMHA awarded Hanson two honours for his outstanding contributions: “The 1999 Man of the Year Award” and “The Calvin Hanson Project 1st CD-ROM Produced May 2001 Award.”

Known for creating special international equestrian projects, Hanson generously donated eight of his works and their copyrights to the AMHA, and they are:

• He authored five books: three Morgan history books, plus “Score Cards for Equestrian Judges” and “Equitation Workouts - Practice Makes Perfect for Equestrian Judges, Coaches, Trainers and Riders.” He also donated all printed copies of his book, “The Morgan Horse Foundation - A Computerized Analysis” to the National Museum of the Morgan Horse where there is a Hanson exhibit on display.

• As an historian, he computerized the foundation ancestry and history of the Morgan breed on a CD-ROM, which had never been done before, containing 45,000 horses from the 1600s up to the mid-1950s, that took seven years to complete from 1993-1999. In the process, he made 6,000 new pedigree discoveries. The AMHA reproduced the CD-ROM in 2001 and marketed it worldwide under the title, “The Calvin Hanson Project.”

• Continuing another two years, he computerized a second CD-ROM containing 74,938 horses linking the foundation ancestries common to several breeds including the Morgan, Thoroughbred, Standardbred, Saddlebred, Arabian, Tennessee Walker, and Quarter horse, bringing the bloodlines up to the present day.

• He produced a 62-minute educational videotape detailing his CD-ROM computer projects.

Born and raised in Cornwall, Hanson began equestrian riding from age 9 to 14 while attending Central Public School. In 1967 as a 15-year old student at Cornwall Collegiate & Vocational High School, he won first prizes at the Avonmore fair and Chesterville fair horse shows, and he purchased his first registered Morgan horse in Maine.

To pave the way for a full-time equestrian sport career, he relocated to a 200-acre farm in Lunenburg named “Big Oak Morgan Farm” which soon housed twenty to thirty-four Morgans most of the time.

For 24 years, he was an athlete and trainer who showed horses competitively in a variety of disciplines amassing over 500 awards in North America including 120 championships and 161 first prizes internationally, nationally, provincially, regionally, and locally – all achieved as a self-coached equestrian.

At 16, his 37-year equestrian builder career began developing the sport.

In the late 60s and early 70s when most horse shows in Canada didn’t offer Morgan classes, he pioneered the Morgan in open classes winning against other breeds. Onlookers were excited seeing the Morgan for the very first time. After each show his farm was flooded with visitors including a Canadian Senator the day after exhibiting at the Ottawa Winter Fair.

He bred champion Morgan horses. Offspring from his farm won and/or produced champions at the world, grand national, international, regional, state and provincial levels. One example is the champion Hanson-bred mare Big Oak Mylady Cobra who produced a line of World champions: her son was World champion in 1989, 1990 and 1993; her daughter was World Reserve Champion in 1998; a grandson won seven World championships between 1995 and 2004; a fourth-generation son was World champion in 1996 and 1997; and another fourth-generation son was World champion in 2004.

As a recognized official, he was an international equestrian judge holding 26 judge’s licenses, the most licenses of any judge in Equine Canada and USA Equestrian Federation at the time, and the only judge in both countries licensed in all three equestrian seats (hunter seat, saddle seat, and western/stock/reining seat). He was a Morgan judge for 31 years, first licensed at age 22. Twenty-five of his judge’s licenses were the highest level attainable in the sport. He judged from coast to coast in Canada, USA, and South Africa including world, grand national, international, national, regional, state, and provincial championship shows. He judged the Grand National & World Championship Morgan horse show four times. He was mentor to many apprentice judges in the show ring, and to attendees at his judge’s seminars when he served as clinician.

In 1996, when Hanson was judging the World Cup equestrian championships in Louisville, Kentucky, Governor Paul E. Patton commissioned him as a “Colonel” in The Honourable Order of Kentucky Colonels, the highest honour awarded by the state. Additionally, he has been honoured by the Governor of Ohio; Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky; and Premier of South Africa’s Western Cape.

He was guest editor of The Morgan Horse magazine in Vermont. He authored twenty-eight copyrighted works, and articles for several magazines including Equine Canada, The Canadian Morgan, British Morgan Horse Society in England, and The International Morgan Connection in Rhode Island where he also was a horse show reporter.

As an executive, Hanson served many national and international associations creating the official rules of the sport governing the showing of horses, horse shows, and judges. He was a member of the AMHA Morgan Judging Standards committee, National Museum of the Morgan Horse council, and USA Equestrian Federation rules committee. He was secretary of the International Saddle Seat Equitation Association. In Equine Canada, he was a board of directors member; Morgan rules committee chairman; chairman of the national saddle seat equitation committee, a committee which he was responsible for creating; chairman of the national selection process for Canada’s first World Cup saddle seat equestrian team; and national rules committee member. In the Canadian Morgan Horse Association, he founded the national zonal high score awards system in 1973 and was national recorder; created the equitation Medal class rules for all seats; and chaired the horse show and Morgan rules committees. In the Ontario Morgan Horse Club, he was provincial recorder of the high score awards system and he helped develop the initial system rules.

Locally, he originated and organized several Morgan and open/breed horse shows at the Avonmore, Newington, and Williamstown fairgrounds. He worked a Cornwall horse show at Guindon Park. He also served as a horse show volunteer, gave clinics to youth and adult groups, developed new classes at many shows, and spearheaded equestrian clubs in the Ottawa and Cornwall areas.

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