Meet our Board of Directors

Brian Crandall President

Bob Silbernagel Vice President

Brian began his equine passion more than twenty years ago while working on a dude ranch on the Front Range of Colorado. Brian had raised, trained, and shown Quarter Horses and Arabians across the country, earning multiple national and regional awards in reining and working cow horse. For the past thirteen years, Brian has been a professional farrier throughout the Colorado Plateau Region.
Bob Silbernagel was the editorial page editor for The Daily Sentinel newspaper in Grand Junction for 19 years. He retired in 2014, but he continues to write a regional history column for the newspaper. He is the author of several books on regional history, including on about the Colorado Plateau.He enjoys horseback riding, bicycling and camping, primarily in Western Colorado and Eastern Utah.He and his wife, Judy, live near Palisade, Colo.

Carol Hirshi Treasurer

Jenny Kellner Secretary

Carol is a retired Registered Nurse from Vernal, Utah. She has been around horses most of her life. She is currently treasurer for Uintah Basin Back County Horsemen and a member of Rising Star Riders. This photo is of one of her favorite horses, Rising Star.
Jenny Kellner recently retired after a career covering horse racing and other sports for a variety of publications, including the New York Times, the Associated Press, the New York Daily News and the New York Post. As well, her work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Louisville Courier-Journal, Newsday, the Blood-Horse and the Thoroughbred Times. She also served as the assistant director of communications for the New York Racing Association, which operates Belmont Park, Aqueduct Racetrack and Saratoga Race Course. She was lucky enough to have witnessed first-hand (from the winners’ circle!) the crowning of three Triple Crown champions – Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978) and most recently, American Pharoah (2015). Her lifelong dream of having her own horse finally came to fruition when she moved to Grand Junction in the fall of 2016 with her husband, Richard Rosenblatt, former horse racing writer for the Associated Press.

Angelina Kelleghan Board Member

Gordon Hirshi Board Member

Angelina is a Native of Western Colorado. She and her husband own and operate Kelleghan Hay Company in Loma, CO raising alfalfa and grass hay and a small commercial beef cow herd. She has been active in the horse industry her entire life growing up on a family run boarding stable. Angelina showed horses as a youth and during college in events from driving and English equitation to break away roping. She attended Colorado State University to earn a Bachelor’s of Animal Science and a Master’s of Agriculture in Integrated Resource Management. Angelina was previously a 4H horse leader for 14 years, then the Horse Superintendent for three years. She is currently the coach of the Tri- River Area 4H Horse Judging Team and is also a crochet project leader. Angelina is also on the Board for the Mesa County Farm Bureau Board and currently serving as the women’s committee chair for Mesa County.
Gordon is retired from Simplot Phosphates in Vernal, Utah. He has been involved with horses his whole life. He’s been involved with 4-H, Past president of Rising Star Riders Family riding club, post president of Uintah Basin Back Country Horsemen, and past National Board member of Spotted Saddle Horse Breeders and Exhibitors Association. He and his wife own More than Color Horses in Vernal, Utah.

Braden Shafer Board Member

A fourth-generation Western Colorado native, Braden owns and operates Shafer Equine Services. Dr. Shafer has specific interest in equine sports medicine, lameness, podiatry, geriatrics, and dentistry. Dr. Shafer is an active member of the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Equine Practitioners. He graduated in 2000 from Colorado State University with his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. He served as the president of the SCAAEP, was on the Dean’s List, received the CSU Anesthesia Award (SA) and the Pfizer/Upjohn Large Animal Proficiency Award. He also served on the CVMBS Foal Care team. Dr. Shafer moved back to his native Colorado and began work at an equine referral practice that he had joined as an undergraduate intern some ten years prior. Mentored by Dr. John Harris, a veteran equine lameness diagnostician and innovative surgeon, Dr. Shafer saw a wide variety of emergency and elective cases. Dr. Shafer is now operating out of his Loma facility and maintains clients throughout western Colorado.