2008 AHA Convention Report

Lori Conway - lori@conwayarabians.com

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of MAHA for allowing me to serve as a delegate for this club.  It is an honor, and I do value the ability to serve within this Region.  With that being said, many of the other MAHA Delegates have given excellent reports regarding many aspects of the Convention and instead of duplicating their information, I will expound upon the areas that I am directly involved with.

My primary focus at the Convention this year was the Equine Stress Research and Education Committee (ESRE).  The Arabian breed is at a crossroads with so many changes taking place due to the economic downturn and the revision of many of the rules and regulations. Some of the aspects that ESRE have been involved with are the Shoeing changes, the Halter Scoring System, working on increased awareness of Genetic disorders, planning Educational seminars which will be focused on a variety of topics and unfortunately, the need to focus on the Rescue and Re-Homing of Arabian horses that have been abandoned or mistreated.

The convention week always begins with committee meetings and the Equine Stress meeting was open to everyone and therefore the room was packed. This was considered a “working meeting” and the format is to discuss the issues relevant to the health, welfare and education of our horses and AHA members.  I like to form Sub-Committee’s within our group since it is so large and our responsibilities are vast. 

The Committee's formed are:

 1. The Rescue and Re-Homing committee will be chaired by Carole Darnell. Carole is very involved in this endeavor and is working with the Arabian Horse Foundation and the grant money that has been earmarked by them to help various facilities that are focused on saving Arabians. This topic is moving to the forefront of importance due to the economic downturn and the demise of many horse owners. If you are interested in getting involved in this issue, please let me know and I can direct you to Carole. We would like to get people organized in every state and they have a lot of great ideas and plans that are already being implemented.

2.  A Pad Rule committee has been formed. The Shoeing changes were solidified at this convention and the resolution to do so passed unanimously. This is a good thing. However, there has been a mandate to look at the pad rules and see if they need to be addressed. I recognize that the pad usage on many of our horses has swung to the extreme in some barns, but the strict regulation and a “one size fits all” type pad rule is not prudent for our horses either. Some feel the pads should be division specific i.e.: 1 pad for Western/Hunter/Country English and no restrictions for English horses. Mary Trowbridge, and myself now chair this committee. I am unsure as to the direction the recommendations will be at next year’s convention, but this is an important issue that we will address.

3.  The Educational Seminar committee is chaired by Tim Fleck, DVM and Cindy Reich. The goal is to focus on creating a format and information to cover a wide variety of topics including but not limited to: all areas relating to the Arabian Scoring System, Genetic Disorders such as CA, Lavender Foal, and many other diseases and general horse keeping information.

4.  Dead Tails. A number of complaints have arisen regarding the number of tails that have had manipulation so they no longer swing, swish, wring, raise or in anyway have the ability to detract or subtract from the performance of the Arabian horse. A natural tail carriage is one of the hallmark features of our breed and unfortunately there has been a propensity by some in the western division to alter this carriage, which is obviously against the rules.  A committee has been formed to create suggestions and an outline to be presented next year. Jim Hitt is chair of this committee.

This meeting took place on Wednesday and the convention ended on Saturday night. Within that time frame were many more meetings and discussions. One such discussion that took place was an impromptu meeting that contained several of the leading halter handlers, the Scottsdale show commission, several ESRE committee members, the Education & Evaluation commission (EEC) and a few prominent Arabian horse owners. The focus of this meeting was to facilitate a discussion on the Arabian Scoring System and working to bridge the gap between the Scottsdale show group (who are choosing to not have AHA sanctioned Halter classes) and listening to suggestions and ideas on how to move forward, improve and facilitate using the Scorecard at their show. It was a very productive meeting and hopefully the EEC committee will make a few modifications and next year the Scottsdale show will be using the scorecard as well.

Overall, the convention was a positive one.  There was a feeling of unity and moving in a forward direction vs. dwelling on who and what has gone wrong. Yes, some of the statistics regarding registrations, breeding, program participation and the financials were gloomy, but the promotion is moving in a positive direction with the Arabian Horse Galleries and the opportunity to improve awareness and education of the horse we all love will increase by a huge margin.

I would like to encourage everyone to get involved from the local level to the national one. At the convention you can be a guest or a delegate and you can make a difference.  I know at one meeting a guest asked a pertinent question that the proponent of a certain Resolution had not considered. That insight from the opinion of this guest was enough to get this resolution tabled and re-worked. That one question from that one person made a huge difference.

When you renew your membership to MAHA online, go to the Committee directory and pick an area that you would like to be involved in and sign up. We need all the Arabian horse lovers we can get!