Canadian Equestrian Community Loses Top Horseman—Bud Hanson

Ottawa, Ontario—The equestrian community in Canada is saddened to learn of the loss of Merton (Bud) Hanson who passed away November 8, 2009, at the age of 86.

Bud’s passion was Morgan horses, and he was the owner of the highly successful Big Oak Morgan Horse Farm, in Lunenburg, ON, with his wife, Virginia, and son, Calvin. Horses bred by the farm won and or produced champions at the world, grand national, international, regional, state and provincial level. Morgan horses generating from the Hanson bloodline have won 16 world championships, 10 world reserve championships, 29 grand national championships and 46 regional championships.  The farm operated a very successful fourth-generation breeding program based on their Champion stallion Waseeka's Serenade.

As a builder in the equestrian sport, he served many capacities: president of the Canadian Morgan Horse Association 1973-1979; member of the board of directors of the American Morgan Horse Association 1973-1980; and chairman of the horse show committee of the Canadian Morgan Horse Association 1968-1973. For several years in the American Morgan Horse Association, he was chairman of the open competition awards committee and was a member of the bylaws committee. Bud was also the Morgan horse breed director to Canadian Live Stock Records Corporation. He was also an Equine Canada board member and chairman of the national Morgan Horse rules committee.

“Bud Hanson was an honest, intelligent and giving individual,” said Mimi LeCain, who served as a Morgan representative to the Equine Canada Rules committee. “The equine industry has lost a very fine person. He was a man of great principle, and I have never heard a bad word spoken about him. He was respected by all.”

“My father possessed a unique talent for leading, organizing, developing new programs, and getting people involved in the equestrian sport, which ultimately helped every association he was involved with attain greater momentum and membership participation,” said Bud’s son Calvin Hanson. “He was a very fair man, totally committed to furthering the equestrian sport anyway he could.  His dedication and devotion to the sport were huge, working almost 24/7 for the organizations he served.  He always worked for the benefit of the equestrian industry to better it, never thinking of himself or what he personally could gain.”

Equine Canada would like to extend its deepest sympathies to Bud's family and friends.

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