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A Letter from Ted Robinson concerning his exculsion from the 2012 NRCHA board member ballot.

Dear Friends and fellow National Reined Cow Horse Association Members:

By now, you have probably received your ballot for the NRCHA Board of Directors’ election. I wanted to be part of this election. Although I did everything I could to place my name on that ballot, you won’t find it there, because the NRCHA banned me from running for the Board.

Part of my reason for writing this letter is to thank everyone for the outpouring of support, and to say how much I appreciate the calls and emails from many of you who know what happened and believe I was treated unfairly.

For those of you who don’t know what happened, I want to share the truth about a small group of Board members with a personal agenda. They operated outside the NRCHA bylaws when they denied me the opportunity to represent you on the same Board I served on from 1986 through 2002.

All the NRCHA requires of its Board candidates is to be 21 years old and an NRCHA member in good standing for at least three years. Pretty reasonable, and I meet those requirements – no problem. The nomination form also asks a “yes or no” question about past felony convictions. It doesn’t say you can’t run if you’re a felon. It simply asks if you are willing to disclose that history.

Being a straightforward kind of guy, I checked “yes,” because it’s no secret I was once convicted for income tax evasion.  Until recently, the NRCHA had no problem with this. The conviction occurred while I was a Board member, and no one tried to throw me out – in fact, I was even the NRCHA President after my conviction. Yet suddenly, a handful of NRCHA Board members view me as a threat. Is it ironic that I, an ex-felon, can legally buy a gun in my home state of California, but a not-for-profit association says I‘m unfit to run for the same office I held for 17 years?

While we’re pointing out irony, let’s also consider a few of the “Gang of Seven” board members who voted me unworthy of running for office. The debate over whether I could run was evenly split – six to six. One of the 14 board members was out of the country and not available to vote, so the tie-breaking vote was cast by the NRCHA President. Here are a few things you may not know about a few of the Board members who voted against me:

-One of them has been written up on three separate occasions for horse abuse.

-Another wrote bad checks to an NRCHA Corporate Partner this fall, and still has not made them good.

-About three years ago, when I was President of the National Stock Horse Association, the NSHA received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service about a third member of the “Gang of Seven.” It stated that the NSHA must withhold any show earnings because this person was delinquent on federal taxes.

-Another person who voted against me ditched the NRCHA when it fell on financial hard times back in the late 1980s. This person’s spouse also abandoned ship, and the two of them decided to leave the cow horse and be cutting horse trainers instead. (More irony: this was the time when I became the NRCHA President and obtained two loans – one from the late Ralph Gragg and another from Matt Day – who helped me clear the NRCHA’s debt and save the Association.) The husband-and-wife team was happy to get back on the bandwagon when the NRCHA began to flourish again.

Some people have asked me why I decided not to pursue this issue in court. I thought this open letter, sharing the truth with the NRCHA members, would be more effective.

Please cast your ballots – there are many fine people seeking a place on the NRCHA Board, including several of my fellow Million-Dollar Riders. While some people have suggested I launch a write-in campaign, please do NOT to put my name anywhere on your ballot. My concern is that the Board will find some way to throw out ballots that have my name on them.

Although my critics have decided I am unfit to represent you on the NRCHA Board, my personal commitment to the NRCHA and the reined cow horse industry has not changed. Because of the NRCHA, I have experienced some of the highest points in my personal and professional life. I have tried to give back to the organization over the years, and I will continue to do so as much as possible in the future.

Again, thank you to everyone who has supported me.

Sincerely,

Ted Robinson
TedRobinsonCowhorses.com