Oklahoma City (Usa), August 29, 2020 – Following the presentation of the National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) Hall of Fame Committee’s recommended nominees, the Board of Directors and past Hall of Fame inductees voted to approve Sally Brown and Jerry Kimmel for induction into the NRHA Hall of Fame. Also announced was the selection of Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau President Mike Carrier as the NRHA Dale Wilkinson Lifetime Achievement Award recipient for 2020.
Sally Brown
Sally Brown was first involved in breeding cutting horses but when she switched to reining, she changed the industry forever. Her vision, innovation, knowledge of pedigrees, and innate management style put her far ahead of her time, in an era when reining breeding programs did not yet exist.
In 2008, the year after her passing, Sally was honored as the recipient of the first NRHA Dale Wilkinson Lifetime Achievement award in recognition of her contributions to and support of NRHA across so many platforms.
Jerry Kimmel
Jerry Kimmel is the hundredth inductee into the NRHA Hall of Fame. An extremely successful businessman who immersed himself into the horse world upon retirement, not even his vision could have predicted the impact he would have on the reining industry.
A defining moment for Jerry came with the 2006 Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) World Equestrian Games when he paid for Team USA to travel to Aachen, Germany. His son, Greg Kimmel, recalled. «They couldn’t raise all of the money for the trip, and Dad said, ‘We’re going. We’re doing this.’ He told everybody on that team, ‘Pack your bags. We’re going!’»
It was the trip of a lifetime. With Tim McQuay aboard, Kimmel’s stallion Mister Nicadual won team gold and an individual silver. It was a treasured honor and a proud moment for the unassuming man who had literally made it happen from behind the scenes.
The man who “loved horses and the people who love them” passed away this year at the age of 82 but his impact on the reining horse world will live on forever. Kimmel Reining Horses is still in operation thanks to Jerry’s daughter, Chris Pearce, who relocated the business and its horses to her ranch in Weatherford, Texas, in 2018.
