Blair E. Folck
Blair E. Folck
Blair E. Folck’s vision and forethought greatly expanded the horizons of the American Quarter Horse world.
“In the early days of the Quarter Horse in this part of the country, Blair was one of the leading owners and breeders up here,” says Denny Hales of the Ohio Quarter Horse Association. “But what probably made him most famous is that he’s the founder of the All American Quarter Horse Congress.”
The Congress began in 1967 with Blair’s proposal to the OQHA for a three-day horse show that also featured clinics, lectures, a trade show, and horse sale. Its first year exceeded all expectations and the Congress quickly grew to be the largest single-breed show in the industry.
Born in 1926, Blair grew up in Springfield, Ohio, raising and showing national champion bulls and cows for Chester Folck & Sons Jersey Cattle. He and his wife, Nancy, then raised their children on a farm right across the street.
The Folcks purchased their first Quarter Horse in 1955, and as their interest grew, they purchased and showed the Poco Pine stallion Poco Tinto and bred him to a small band of working-bred performance mares.
In 1960, Blair established National Quarter Horse Sales (now National Equine Sales Inc.), the first managerial sales company east of the Mississippi River. The company managed sales for OQHA and for leading breeders including Carol Harris’s Bo-Bett Farm and C. T. Fuller’s Willow Brook Farm, and at Tattersalls Sales in Lexington, Kentucky.
Serving on numerous AQHA committees for more than four decades, Blair became an AQHA director in 1984 and an honorary vice president in 1994. He also put in four terms as president of OQHA in 1963-64 and 1972-73 and is in the Ohio State Fair and OQHA halls of fame.
Blair bred and raced the 1972 All American Congress Derby winner Go With The Wind, purchased and stood the Thoroughbred stallion What Luck, and brought the Quarter Horse world’s attention to Impressive, acquiring him as a weanling. Blair showed Impressive early, before selling him as a long yearling to Dean Landers and Jerry Wells.
Blair passed away in 2006 and was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2025.
Biography updated as of September 2025.