1949

Reining first recognized as a sport by the American Quarter Horse Association

Only just formed on March 15, 1940 the young AQHA recognizes reining as an official horse sport

June 2,1956

Reining demonstrated for President Eisenhower

 In 1956 AQHA Past President Lester Goodson and trainer Charles W. “Bubba” Cascio (both now in the AQHA Hall of Fame) traveled to Gettysburg, PA, to give Doodle De Do and Sporty Miss to President Dwight D. Eisenhower at his farm there.

Cascio  rode one of the horses in a reining pattern to demonstrate to the president.

1965

Bill Horn wins a reining jackpot on Continental King, inspires NRHA formation

As Mickie Glenn recalled in a 2015 Reiner article “It was really kind of an odd situation how it all happened. We had gone to a horse show at Chuck Whitchurch’s place in Dayton, Ohio, because we had a horse that we really liked and enjoyed watching perform. Almost all of the top reining horses in Ohio and surrounding areas were there to show, so we all decided that it would be neat to really test the horses with a new kind of pattern.” Bill Horn won the event aboard Continental King, owned by Mickie Glenn, beating out Clark Bradley and his brother Paul in a run off. The buzz from the event inspired Glenn to form the NRHA. As Glenn says in the 2015 Reiner article “So I came home and I was sitting in my rocking chair and I got on the phone with Dale Wilkinson and asked him if he thought we could get some of the breeders and owners together and have some kind of an invitational reining with the top reining horses in the country. I thought we could put up $3,000 in added prize money, which back then was considered a lot of money. Everybody would have to pay into it like the cutting horse association and that would be added to the pot and then you take out the expenses and that would be it. But Dale told me if I was going to go to all of that trouble I should start a reining horse association and do it every year.” Glenn made phone calls to the AQHA and NCHA for guidance to get everything started. “I was only like 25 or so at that time and I didn’t really know anybody, but Dale said all you have to do is call a few people and ask how you would go about getting started. He also suggested making the event a Futurity for 3 year olds instead of an invitational for older horses.” Glenn talked to Zack Wood, the secretary of NCHA who confirmed she should start an association. “He told me that if we wanted to hold a big reining we needed to form an association because people would respond better to the idea if it came from an association instead of just an individual. So we made some phone calls, Dale (Wilkinson) knew a lot of people and who to call, and had our first meeting.”
In attendance at that meeting were those we now know as the founders of the NRHA: Dale Wilkinson, Bill Horn, Bob Anthony, Mickie Glenn and her husband Dr James Glenn, R.D. Baker, Stretch Bradley, Jim Cotton, and C.T. Fuller.
And so the NRHA, National Reining Horse Association, was formed. By December Glenn had fliers for the very first NRHA Futurity and went to the Chicago International Show in Illinois to promote the event and the new association.

Read more in the November 2015 NRHA Reiner article 

October 1966

The first NRHA Futurity is held at the Ohio State Fairgrounds

Stretch Bradley assisted Mickie Glenn in securing the contracts to rent the Coliseum at the Ohio State Fairgrounds and Ray Bankston of Dalco Photogrraphy helped Glenn promote the event. The Futurity featured two go rounds and a finals and was won by Dale Wilkinson on Pocorochie Bo owned by Miles Chester.

According to Mickie Glenn, the first NRHA Futurity lost $14,000 for the association and paid out around $3,000 to the winner.

November 30, 1966

The National Reining Horse Association is officially incorporated in the state of Ohio

“When we incorporated we had to have all the bylaws written. We also had four patterns to start with. Jim Willoughby, Bob Anthony, and anybody who had an idea that was coming to our meetings turned in a pattern design that they liked and we just picked them. We used the bylaws from AQHA, the Ohio Quarter Horse Association, and the NCHA as guidelines to help us write our bylaws. Mr. Baker’s wife, Virginia, and I did a lot of the typing and everyone just helped out and we got it done.”- Mickie Glenn

The first officers of the NRHA were:
President- Dr. James Glenn
Executive Vice President-  Bailey (Stretch) Bradley
1st Vice President- R.D. Baker
2nd Vice President- Henry Egbert of Galion, Ohio
Secretary- Mickie Glenn
Executive Member- Rodney Vincent of New Lebanon, Ohio
Executive Member- Blair Folck of Springfield, Ohio

First members of the association included:
Jim Willoughby (credited with writing A General)
Paul Horn
Dick Pieper
Pat Faitz
Leo Barbera
Tommy Manion
Miles Cooperman

Most of the first meetings of the NRHA were held in Bill Horn’s kitchen.

1966-1967

The NRHA Sire and Dam program is created

To pay off the debts from the first NRHA Futurity, R.D. Baker came up with the idea to have stallion owners donate breedings to their stallions, which the association would sell for half price to mare owners. This would pay the association’s debts and help to run the association. “The association really didn’t have any money in the beginning, I remember when I was president you had to kind of wait for the membership dues and Sire & Dam program money to come in to pay off last year’s winners.” Clark Bradley NRHA President 1973-1974
Mickie Glenn made the first phone calls to stallion owners to get the program started. 
“Mr. Baker, Mr. Fuller and my husband seemed to carry a lot of influence back then. All I had to do was make some phone calls and say Mr. Baker wanted this and it would get done and people would jump on board with what he wanted to do.” Mickie Glenn