ReveRsing The TRend A show is to qualify for a regional, and now when you go to a regional, you only go there to qualify for “The obvious soluTion is the U.S. Nationals. Also, ThaT we have To esTablish there is no prestige at most of the regionals anymore. local shows ThaT are Sometimes there aren’t exciTing and fun for many horses in the show and the only people in the There are no AHA programs people To parTicipaTe in.” stands are the ones who that I can think of that own the horses, so there is financially encourage you –Bob North no “fun factor.” You have to breed. It is one of the to go to Scottsdale or the reasons that I think breeding World Cup or the U.S. is a second thought for our Nationals to have a crowd, governing body, rather than and the problem is, those shows typically have 10 to 15 a primary issue in how to increase breeding. Why not horses in a class. If you’re just a breeder, what are the something like, if you breed three horses, you get the chances of your breeding one that is going to get into third one registered for free, or that kind of thing? one of those shows? Only a handful of horses in the whole United States make it to those events. When you The only programs that try to address this situation look at it from an average breeder’s standpoint, they are the amateur programs around the country—the have a very small probability of ever getting there. They Scottsdale Signature, Minnesota Medallion, and can take horses to a class A show (if they can find one), so forth. So, some people are trying to work on the but there is nobody there, or to a regional, but that’s problem, but there just aren’t enough of them to have a probably 500 miles away. Again, no one is there and major impact on the total number of horses being bred. it’s not a fun show. So again, there is little motivation If my memory and my information is correct, I think to breed. none of those are AHA-sponsored or recognized shows. It has taken other organizations to do this, and while I The obvious solution is, I think, that we have to support these other organizations and wholeheartedly establish local shows that are exciting and fun for approve of what they’ve done, I also think that we people to participate in. AHA needs to recreate the need for AHA to be more active as well. The issue for local show. That’s one thing that is done in Europe quite breeders is one of lack of motivation, promotion, and successfully. They have class A, B and C shows, and they recognition, and AHA needs to take a leading role in get fairly extensive participation all the way down to creating, sponsoring and promoting programs that will the class B and C shows—which, I might add, also get aid breeders. coverage in the magazines. So people have some place to go, and it is exciting and fun to share with their friends And then there is the whole issue of the shows. The class and fellow breeders. Of course, they have a system that A shows basically have been destroyed by the regional if you win at, say, a class B show, then you cannot show shows. Twenty or 30 years ago, the class A shows were at that level anymore; you have to show at class A. They nearby and you didn’t have to haul your horses all the try to keep the competition at the lower level shows way across the country. They also were exciting and consistent with the level of the show. So, if you don’t fun, and there were a lot of people and horses there. have a superstar or a world-class horse, you still have a When we got into Arabians, Dixie and I didn’t go to chance to participate and get ribbons and maybe even a national-level show for probably five years; we felt win at a local show, because the ones that are going to like we could show our horses ourselves and we were go all the way are not allowed to continue showing at happy to get ribbons—second, third, fourth, very close those shows. to winning. Now, for halter, the only purpose for a class insignificant sum of extra money for the chance to show. Multiply that by several foals, and the outlay adds up fast. The result is, I think, a lot of people feel that the cost versus the benefit of breeding is not warranted.
Volume 43, No. 4 | 117AA