Bint Al Bahr Arabians Preservation Breeders of Straight Babson Egyptians

The Second Annual Arabian Horse Association Convention

Anchorage , Alaska   -   November 16-20, 2004

By Bruce M. Johnson

Two major topics filled the discussions at the second annual AHA convention was held in Anchorage Alaska . Open elections would beheld using, for the first time, self nominated candidates for the officers of President, Vice President , Secretary, and Treasurer. Additionally, membership categories would be redefined and the two existing versions of membership year (calendar for Affiliate members; anniversary – one full year- for Associate members) would be reduced to only one type.

Campaign stickers, buttons, banners and materials were in evidence throughout the convention and for the first time the officer candidates would be required to participate in a moderated forum where they answered questions they had not bee n previously provided. There were three candidates for President (Gary Dearth, Van Jacobsen and Myron Krause), two candidates for Vice President (Lance Walters and Dennis Valentine) and two candidates for Treasurer (Dan Stevenson and Frank Galovic). Jan Decker ran unopposed for Secretary.

 The following is a chronological account of the convention with information provided by fellow delegates Cheryl Brock and Kris Searle.  

Tuesday November 16, 2004

 Board of Directors meeting

 The Board met from 0800 – 1545 on Tuesday. All Regional Directors, Officers, and Directors at Large were present.

 George Johnson presented the Judges and Stewards Commissioners Report. There are a total of 276 Judges within the Arabian Community, with 147 holding National and Regional level qualifications and 125 holding regular cards (small “r”) December 2-4 will have the Exhibitors and Judges class held in conjunction with the Saguaro Classic. There are 60 participants expected with an additional 30 scheduled to be evaluated for judge’s qualification.

Barbara Burke presented the Executive Vice President Report. Purebred and HA/AA registration were down with about 6400 purebreds registered year to date. She forecast to meet the revenue budgeted for the fiscal year. The Half Arabian and Anglo-Arabian registrations had been moved over to the Purebred computer system resulting in significant improvement sin turnaround time. Currently, it was taking only 1-2 days to complete registration processing for HA/AA which matches the purebred times. Customers have noted the significant improvements. The Information Technology group merged information is that now Sweepstakes qualifications and horse achievement award symbols now appear on the Registration papers. DataSource (online data base of all Arabian Registrations) now contains half Arabians with the purebred portion of the pedigree filled out. There are about 250 thousand Half- and Anglo-Arabian registration records with incomplete data. The date was not entered into the old IAHA system before the merger took place. The old dusty Half- and Anglo-Arabian registration forms were being pulled out of the storage boxes. Registration services staff is now going through each HA/AA registration application to identify and correct missing information.

Barbara expected AHA to meet the membership revenue budget. There are 213 clubs out of 257 who are electronically linked to the AHA website and members can join or renew their memberships on line. The new I/T director Bob Huff had started work on September 1 and is already establishing new processes based on best practices around the I/T industry. The AHA staff now sits at 60 full time and 4 contract employees.

Outgoing Treasurer Alan Sankpill gave the Treasurer’s report. “We’re in much better shape that we were in August.” Through October, the staff was able to compare 7 months of activity against the budget which is the first year they have been able to do that in the new organization. Net revenue was slightly ahead of budget (good) and expenses were below their budget (good!) Costs were now being tracked against specific activities. This ability to track costs against activities or programs has not been able to be performed before.

 The Board then went through the Board-elected positions and voted. These are position like the AHA membership at the Registration commission, etc. (In many of the “elections” there were only enough candidates to fill out the required number of position being voted upon.)  

The Board then approved applications for AHA membership from five new clubs;

Arabian Cutting Horse Association - based in region 8

Arabian Working Western Association) - based in Region 9

Cape Fear Arabian Horse Assn. – Coastal South Carolina

Palmetto Trail Horse Association - South Carolina

Spanish Arabian Horse Society

 The Board then selected its dates to meet in 2005. The Board went back to four meetings a year, after their experiment with reducing that to three in 2004.

 Howard Pike gave a report on his efforts in establishing changes in the USEF mileage rules. This would modify the existing USEF rules on how many miles there has to exist between two horse shows of a similar discipline or type on the same weekend. This phased approach would allow horse shows to petition for approval of similar shows within the existing 250 mile radius through the AHA board of Directors to USEF.            

Alan Ehrlich reported on the Canadian Nationals which had been hampered by an outbreak of Vesicular Stomatitis and an unexpectedly strong Canadian dollar when measured against the US currency.  

Cynthia Richardson reported on the efforts to date of the Marketing and Development committee. They had conducted forums in September and at the US National Show. At Nationals, the Committee had family day the first weekend where they would introduce new people and families to the Arabian horse. The committee had also planned and executed the Extravaganza where barns would schedule open house during a 2 hour time slot in the afternoons. Barns were assigned specific one hour blocks where they could conduct an educational talk or demonstration for people new to the Arabian horse. Then free tickets to the evening competitions would be handed out which put interested new families into the stands during the evening performances. The committee also sponsored vendor seminars in the vendor/commercial area.

 The AHA became major partners with Equine Affair for 2005, this ensuring prime location and access to the 40-100,000 attendees who come to the 4 equine affairs each year. They are also developing a pop-up booth that clubs could order and have it shipped fully stocked with brochures, etc. for clubs to use at their open houses, etc. The committee is also exploring the opportunity for the Arabian horse to have a permanent presence at the Kentucky Horse Park . The Marketing and Development committee is already looking forward to building the 2006 budget, updating the Marketing and Development Strategic Plan, and will be working with the new I/T director to develop a program that allows outreach to people who used to own or be involved with Arabian horses but who are no longer participating members.

 Mike Troxler had developed CD’s for distribution to clubs to help them plan, develop and issue press releases and other advertising and marketing solutions to advertise their horse shows in the area.

 Steve Joseph, the Sr. Director of the AHA’s marketing and Development department ran a DVD that he and his working group had developed. It provided a year end review of what the committee and the AHA staff had accomplished in the past year. The DVDs will be sent to each club president for dissemination and display with their members and or at club functions. Steve gave some figures which proved that the year’s campaign to try to market the Arabian Horses had met with success. One included the fact that a year ago, the department received about 4000 inquiries for new members. After all the work to upgrade the website and new information and new brochures, the incoming new inquiries are on a pace to hit about 15,000 this year.  

Bill Pennington reported on this year’s Sport Horse Nationals Championships which were held near Sacramento , California in September, He stated it was a horribly-managed facility and the commissioners are already looking for a new facility somewhere in the west to handle a show of that size during that timeframe. The entries in 2004 were down from the inaugural 2003 numbers in Virginia . However there was still a large number of amateur exhibitors and a large percentage of exhibitors that had never competed at an Arabian event before. After discussion, the Board approved no qualifications for Driving and Hunter Jumper classes of the 2005 and 2006 US Sport Horse Nationals. Sport Horse and Dressage classes would still have to qualify.  

US Nationals Show Commission Chair Lance Walters reported on the US Nationals where the facility bill, catering bill and a few other known costs had not yet arrived. He expected to make a profit on the show. He noted that many more people were in the stands in Albuquerque than before. He noted that the numbers of entries in the halter classes had grown in all divisions.  

After a break to eat lunch, Veronica Re of Region 15 presented information about the 2004 Youth Nationals which was the best show to date in both entries and income. She noted some changes would be required to be made to help the show continue to run smoothly. Specifically,

1. Classes will have to start at 0730 instead of 0800.

2. There will be classes being held in the Horse Arena on Saturday.

3. Judges panels will be moved around so that each discipline is judged by 2 panels.

 Dale Harvill of Region 9 spoke on the Legal Review Committee. The purpose of this committee is to look ahead at litigation which might be forthcoming and work towards resolution in advance of filing the suit. The Committee, made up of lawyers, is available to the Board and staff on legal issues.

 Barbara Burke addressed the Board on the subject of Achievement Award costs which has risen substantially although the cost to participate in the program has remained the same since 1994. The number of participants has trended upwards with spikes when a horse trailer was offered as an incentive for the Horse of the Year competition. Treasurer Alan Sankpill noted that the organization was $93,000 in the hole, year to date in this activity, and forecast to be in the red by about $159k by the end of the fiscal year at the end of March 2005. Barbara added that the costs are accurate because the Association is using a new Time Activity tracking system where actual man-hours are charged against the specific departments and tasks assigned. The board passed the recommended fee increase by a 27-2 margin.

 Steve Josephs gave a presentation on the state of the Arabian Horse Magazine. He had taken over management of this resource about a year ago. He noted that the current cost to produce the periodical was about 4 full time equivalent people. In 2002, the coast of the magazine was about $11-12 per member which did not take into account unallocated overhead. In 2003 the cost per magazine per individual was $5.60 to develop, write, layout, proof print and mail the issues. As of 2004, the staff is down one employee and is selling more ads, both to farms and trainers who see the large circulation as a benefit, but also to corporate sponsors because they see their ads hitting about 30,000 interested households. This has brought the cost down to about $3.00 per member and there is hope that with continued luck, large subscription numbers and better management and a better editorial to advertising ratio, that the coast can be reduced to approximately $1.00 per member. There are more color pages appearing in each issue. Although the editor resigned, her position and replacement will be redrawn as a managing editor to help manage the periodical from cradle to grave.

 New Information Technology Director Bob Huff gave a PowerPoint presentation on the state of the AHA I/T department and systems. Bob has about 30 years experience and has merged I/T systems before after the AT&T breakup. In his short stint since starting on September 1, Bob has changed the I/T reporting process, has instituted a new prioritization process where department managers will rank the priorities of I/T needs and then meet together to delineate the overall priorities His staff is currently spending 80% of their time fixing problems with existing codes and programs and about 20% in new product development. Bob noted that these figures should be reversed in a normal I/T department.  

His team has completed or is working on 110 projects ranging from simple fixes to large projects. He has also instituted a new documented process where Directors sit down and write out the specific needs for their products in advance. This eliminates wasted time. Affected Department personnel will be  required to give constant feedback and updates and participate in all testing.

 The I/T group has focused on stabilizing the environment by inventorying software and hardware to ensure license agreements are met, performed a network performance study (which revealed the network is not stable, even inside the AHA building in Aurora, Colorado) they are in the process of replacing the secure server the weekend of 11/20-21 (the server is 8-10 years old, which for that position, is older than “antique!”) The team is also standardizing anti-virus software across the company and establishing SPAM and popup blockers for more efficiency.

 In the last year, the AHA I/T organization has accomplished the following: There is a new membership renewal system that automatically sends out e-mail reminders as a expiration date comes closer. They have provided show support at Sport Horse and U.S. Nationals. They have issued a membership survey. Half- and Anglo- Arabian registration and pedigree information now appears on DataSource. The new time Activity Tracking system is currently in test and is being moved into production so that all individual staff members’ times are allotted to specific tasks so that the coast of each activity or program can be determined for the first time. In the past 7 weeks, I/T has responded to and completed 221 separate requests.  

Information Technology was a major topic based on the expensive estimate of the replacement costs for hardware and software requirements required to provide a fully integrated web-based I/T system. A major potion of this plans are to have Business Rule Documentation so subsequent programmers not only know what is in the code but what it is trying to accomplish. Bob has changed the requirements for developing future applications. These plans included ensuring that major projects have a structure of requirements and demands using today’s business models of building a Software Requirements Specifications prior to starting to ensure that the project plans are known by all participants from the beginning.

Debbie Fuentes presented information on the Equine Species Working group which is looking at how best to implement the US Animal Identification plan in horses as part of identifying all livestock. The goal is to maintain animal health and to be able to trace back infectious diseases through all animals the infected one(s) has/have come into contact with within 48 hours. Debbie is the co-chair of the Equine Breed Registry subcommittee. This the plan would focus using existing identifications, (freeze brands, tattooing, special brands, microchips, etc.). Not only the individual horses require identification, but also various commonly-visited locations would require identification (horse show arenas, large breeding barns, etc) Colorado is running a pilot program with about 1000 horses participating.

 The Board of Directors discussed the various resolutions referred to them for review and comments. Outgoing President Bill Hughes adjourned the board meeting (early!) at 3:45 PM .

 Wednesday November 17

 Membership the Membership Committee met for two hours on Wednesday morning and the large rooms was filled with both committee members and other interested guests. There were several members of Staff in attendance to provide information. There were several resolutions to be reviewed and

 Two separate resolutions were to be reviewed, one that advocated memberships on an anniversary year, one full year from the date of joining, no matter when that date was during the year. Another resolution adopted the Calendar year for all members with the expiration coming on December 31. The room and committee membership were split down the middle with lots of proponents eager to speak on the subject.

 As you may imagine, the Bylaws Committee is a group of nitpickers (predominantly lawyers) who gather together to review resolutions brought before them and argue about who nitpicks the best. They had a field day with all of resolutions brought before them that were bylaw changes – these included resolutions on membership, how the At-large Vice Presidents and Members should be selected, the establishment of a single chain of command between the Executive Vice President (EVP) and the President (Previously, the EVP reported to the President, the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors), a change in duties for the Treasurer and a few others.  

There were no resolutions brought before the Hunter Jumper committee although they mentioned that Sport Horse Nationals was well run with a large ring, nice jumps and exceptionally deep quality horses. Chair Chuck Mangan noted that there is no reason that Arabian shows can’t offer Green or Low jumping classes at Class A shows. Even though they don’t count towards regional qualification, it would serve to entice new and green riders into competition. He also noted that the Board had passed and extraordinary rule change with allowed back to back rides at the national level to mitigate conflicts with other classes. (The Saguaro Classic and Region 7 had already used this option for the same reason.)

 The Governance Committee, which had been formed after the merger to deal with ironing out all the subsequent demands of the Merger Agreement, held a public forum on Wednesday evening. This was to provide new delegates with a background of the reasons for the merger, the timetable, some of the bases for the decisions made, the financial relationships and impacts, etc. Howard Pike, assisted by most of the other members, addressed these issues along with providing attendees a lengthy question and answer session. This helped dispel some of the internet rumors that had been flying around before the conventions that were both misinformation and disinformation. Treasurer Alan Sankpill noted that some to the cost savings did not come as quickly as thought. Getting the two computer systems to work together took longer than originally thought and still was not completed. Additionally Purebred registrations, a major source of funding for the new AHA, were lower then forecast. Howard noted that the major benefits were already starting to show: the money for promoting the Purebred and Half and Anglo-Arabian horses is set aside. Since the merger about 19 months before, over a million dollars had been set aside for promotion. The number of memberships in the AHA had risen which adds over $240k of new money into AHA. More memberships means that advertising in the AHA Arabian Horse Magazine is more attractive, leading to more revenue. AHA has also been able to obtain corporate sponsors which have brought in additional revenue.

 Host Region 5 provided a welcome party on Wednesday night complete with moose and bears (in costume!) live music and finger food.

 Thursday November 18

This was the first general session and it was held at the Egan Convention Center , two chilly blocks from the hotel. Following introductions, invocation, presentation of the Canadian and United States flags and the national anthems, President Bill Hughes introduced staff and mentioned the AHA members who had died last year. Charles Bass presented the credentialing report and stated that of that morning there were 579 eligible delegates that could attend the convention, 374 had checked in and had been credentialed.

 Georgia Tashoires, membership chair provided the names of only two AHA clubs whose membership roles had fallen below 10 members in the previous year and therefore would be expelled from the approved clubs. Only Vermont Arabian Association and the Northeast Arabian Association fell to this level compared to about 6-8 clubs in 2003.

 In the President’s report, Bill Hughes asked for unity after the elections and told the delegates and guests that the fate of the Arabian horse rested on their shoulders – They must get out and promote the Arabian horse.

Barbara Burke, Executive Vice President presented her report. In the past year the staff had developed the Vision and Mission statement. She noted that with over 46,000 members, the Arabian Horse Association is the third largest breeding group (after Quarter Horse and Paints.) This makes AHA attractive to corporate sponsors. Additionally, AHA has entered into partnership with the AAEP and AERC. The Half and Anglo-Arabian registration process has been shifted to the same computer system as the Purebred registrations and this had significantly streamlined that activity. Registration Certificates now display Horse Achievement award symbols and whether the horse is nominated for Sweepstakes. Half-Arabians horses are on the DataSource although there were some 250,000 half and Anglo-Arabian registration that had incomplete information.

 Out of 79 full time employees that made up AHA at the time of the merger, there were currently 60 full time and 4 contractor positions. Bob Huff had been hired as the new Information Technology manager. The organization is doing much better financially during this fiscal year and is on track to meet budget.

 Alan Sankpill gave the Treasurers’ report to the Delegates. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2004 , the organization lost approximately $545,000. This was due to lower than expected purebred registrations, planned merger expenses of $344k and a paper loss in investments of $116k. The interest income from the Sweepstakes trust paid less into the AHA general fund than expected. AHA had reduced expenses by about $200k but the income had dropped by $700k. On the good news side, the legal defense fund had increased by $44k to $572k, the four national shows made money, over $600k had been provided by the Purebred Arabian Trust for Purebred promotion and $113k had been provided for Half and Anglo-Arabian promotion.

 As for the current fiscal year, Alan stated that we are on track to make a surplus by the end of the year. He cited the new activity based cost accounting systems and being able to finally be able to provide an actual expense of each of the AHA programs for future planning and budgeting.  

Bill Hughes then opened the nominations for officers from the floor. There were no last minute nominations for the 4 officer positions.  

The candidates then participated in the first Candidates Forum. The candidates for each office were then asked a mixture of questions that had been solicited from the delegates and from the Nominating Committee. The questions were well thought out and had not been provided to the candidates prior to this time. This was an excellent tool for allowing the candidates to express their positions on many different factors. There was absolutely NO NOISE in the audience of delegates as everyone listened actively and intently for the entire hour and a half. Each of the answers was timed and the order of what each candidate was to answer was changed each question to keep a level playing field. One very positive outcome of the moderated forum was to provide an illustration of the depth of quality of the entire field of candidates.

 The afternoon was filled with more committee meetings. At this point in the convention, members met to determine the committee votes on the resolutions. Defeat in committee does not mean total defeat of the resolution; it just means that the committee goes on record as either favoring disapproving the measure.

 At the Marketing and Development committee, resolution 2-04 (Anniversary year) passed unanimously among committee members and a straw poll of everyone in the room showed that it passed by a 33-12 margin. The Calendar year resolution 2A-04 was defeated by the same margin in the straw poll. The Bylaws Committee voted to defeat both the anniversary year and the calendar year resolutions!

 At the Membership Committee, the split between the two factions, calendar and anniversary year) was still in evidence. After lengthy discussion, a compromise was reached in the Committee where the calendar year supporters would support the anniversary year if a late fee was tacked on for the people who did not renew on time.

 In the Dressage Committee, there were no resolutions affecting Dressage discipline that had to be reviewed. The time was spent in reviewing questions that and suggestions and appointing subcommittees to work on possible solutions and enchantments. Some the topics included splitting the USEF Horse of the Year awards into both the Purebred and Half and Anglo-Arabian divisions. The Committees also reviewed how Arabians could be recognized for participating in Open competition. A group was formed to evaluate changing the scores and points for the Achievement awards. A motion was made to eliminate the mandatory show manager/show secretary signature on the Dressage open report form. A copy of the Dressage test, attached to the show report would suffice. A subcommittee was formed to evaluate eliminating the three horse minimum to have points in dressage classes count towards USEF Horse of the year awards.

 Thursday evening brought the Region 7 caucus. This is an annual gathering of all delegates in the Region for dinner and lengthy discussion of issues specific to the region, adoption of the following year’s budget, and a review by regional committee chairs of the resolutions reviewed in their committee.  

 Director Sherry Layne noted that the region did not go over budget in any category in 2004. Furthermore the profit from the 2004 Region 7 show was about $45k. After subtracting the entire 2005 Region 7 budget for the profits, this left about $18,553 to be divided up a month the 12 Region 7 clubs. For clubs that apply for project-specific funds, each club would receive about $1546.10 as compared to about $999 from 2003.

 Sherry reported that she had contacted a new potential webmaster to update the Region 7 website and maintain it. The cost was very reasonable and was approved when the 2005 budget of $22,125 was approved. In that budget, the delegates voted to spend approximately $900 to pay for 3 national championship jackets at Youth Nationals.

 Mark Owens of the Arabian Horse Association of Arizona reported that the Region 7 futurity had 5 classes with 58 eligible horses, of which 16 showed. The Committee recommended that the futurity no longer accept nominations after 2004 and that the futurity be terminated after the horses nominated for 2005 were shown in their futurity year.

 Youth Chairperson Kristi Howes stated that there were 5 youth judging teams now in Arizona with a large number formed in the Tucson area. Elections were then held for various committees. Diana Allen and Judy Mitten were elected to the Nominating Committee. Mark Owens, Vicki Bowman and Kris Searle were elected to the Judge’s selection committee fro the Region7 show. The meeting was adjourned at 10:07 PM .

 Friday November 19

Friday morning found the delegates back in the convention center ready for general session II. At this point in the convention of the 579 eligible delegates, 390 had checked in. The morning session was used primarily for each candidate for officer (President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary) to give a five minute speech to the delegates outline in their qualifications and goals. Once again, the hundreds of delegates leaned forward and listened intently. The speeches reaffirmed the quality of those AHA members volunteering to serve in these very important positions. Myron Krause, in particular, gave an exceptional talk that swayed more than a few votes in his favor. Bill Hughes in closing reported that he was very glad that he had not had to run against such a distinguished slate of candidates when he ran for president.

 George Johnson then gave the Judges and Stewards Commissioner’s report. Of the 272 AHA judges, 147 were qualified to judge at National and Regional levels and there was an additional 125 accredited judges. He also noted that there were only 150 stewards and urged more delegates and their constituents to become stewards.

 Kendra McConnell, the Arabian Horse Youth Association President gave an excellent account of the youth activities for the past year. Speaking confidently and clearly, it was easy to see why Kendra, (in her first year at Colorado State ) had been elected by her peers to serve as president. The Youth program including delegates, regional directors and a convention, had just celebrated their 10^th year of existence. The Youth Board met this year and adopted two goals for the year – promoting Arabian Horses to outside youth and building unity within AHA. Kendra then went onto mention her experience at the 2004 FFA convention where she manned the AHYA Youth booth at a convention of 50,000 agriculturally-centered youths and was able to share her excitement and experiences with the hundreds who came up to her to learn about Arabian horses. She also laid out her plans for the 2005 youth convention which included a mentor program with older youths shepherding around younger kids and introducing them to the AHA delegate process. Kendra closed by warning the adult delegates to squeeze over and make way, the youth were coming up to actively participate!

 After lunch, the afternoon’s session began with and explanation of the voting and counting and then the official ballots, especially for the Officers, were collected with formal ceremony.

 Cynthia Richardson, Chair of the Market Development and Promotion Committee introduced Steve Joseph, Senior Director of Marketing at AHA, Steve presented a DVD that was to be given to all delegates that explained what the MDP committee had been able to accomplish in the past year for their members. He charged the delegates to show the DVD to their constituents. The DVD reviews the many improvements, changes in entirely new programs designed and implemented in the past year to promote the Arabian horse. He challenged clubs to put on a day or half-day open house to “Get to know the Arabian Horse.”

 Cynthia added that the newly designed brochure promoting the Half and Anglo-Arabian Horse would be completed and printed within the month, joining the many brochures that had been revamped or instituted this year. Additionally, the MDP committee had developed a CD of information which they would supply to the Regional Directors showing them how to promote their regional championships through promotional, advertising, radio spots, etc.

 The convention then began to vote on the resolutions. Resolution 2B-04, provided a base membership and replaced both the current affiliate and associate memberships and would cost each member $25.00 per year. Anyone interested in competing in horse show, endurance rides or who other would like to obtain insurance would purchase a Competition/Insurance card for an additional $20.00. This would keep the AHA membership at its current $45.00 per year. The motion passed by a very large margin.  

Resolution 2-04 proposed the anniversary year with the compromise amendment to add a late fee for those not renewing their memberships on time encountered strong discussion across the floor from people not willing to support the compromise position. Both sides cited their pros and the other side’s cons to the argument. The vote was close enough to require people to stand and be counted. When the dust settled and the votes were counted, the measure passed its 2/3 margin requirement by a bare six votes, 255 yes; 118 no (2/3 was 249 votes).  

The resolution clarifying the EVP’s chain of command to the President passed. After discussion on the floor, which included an argument against adoption that had been written up by Charlie Budge as a poem over the past month and a half, resolutions 4-04 and 5-04 were withdrawn.  

Resolution 13-04 which specified the procedures to test horses for ginger passed. This resolution allows show management to determine if they want to test for the substance, and how they would want to select the horses to be tested.

 After a break, the Regional Service Awards were announced. For Region 7, Sharon Chauncey-Siar and Kristi Howes (Region 7 Youth Director) were awarded this year’s awards.

 Hamp Johnston gave a wonderfully enjoyable presentation on Arabian Racing which included cost comparisons between the cost of showing and entering a race as well as the moneys each of the disciplines could win as a result of successful competition. The first recorded Arabian race occurred in 1360 BC and the first Arabian race in the United States occurred as an exhibition in 1959. The first para-mutual Arabian Race occurred in 1967. In 2003, there were 630 purebred Arabian horses racing on 19 race tracks around the country in the states of California , Colorado , Delaware , Texas and Washington .  

The racing purses for Purebred Arabian Horses have grown to incredible levels.

1983 - $ 297,704

1993 - $ 3,465,304

2003 - $ 4,882,483

The purse continued to grow through 2004 and is forecast to be over $5 million by the end of this year. So, 630 horses are racing for a portion of $5 million.

 Hamp noted that Arabians run for much longer timeframes than Thoroughbreds with some horses competing successfully and winning into their teens. There are several ways to race Arabian Horses; you can breed your own, you can buy your own, you can lease a horse, you can claim a horse off the track and you can be a partner in a horse. Hamp recommended partnering with people you know and like because partnership reduce the capital outlays, spreads the cost and risk and increases the fun factor. He concluded with an emphasis that there is a lot of information available on the AHA Website for people to learn about Arabian racing or to contact AHA for information and a video.  

Saturday November 20

The final general session began at 9:00 AM with still 390 delegates credentialed out of the 572 eligible. The room was very silent as Charles Bass then announced that there would be a runoff vote between Gary Dearth and Myron Krause. Ballots were marked and collected for later announcement.  

Mary Ann Hughes, Chair of the Convention Planning Committee reported that the 2005 convention would be held in Ft. Worth Texas November 16-19. Based on delegate’s request, the convention would be one day shorter with the Board meeting starting on Wednesday, no welcome party and Friday night left open. Mary Ann noted that this should make the convention more economically possible for many additional regions to host them. The 2006 convention will be in Louisville and the delegates voted have a non-hosted convention in 2007 in Denver . The decision the 2008 convention location was postponed although several regions had approached the committee for possible hosting.  

The delegates then continued reviewing and voting on resolutions. Some results from some of the most interesting ones included the approval of an English trail class for horses in English tack to compete on the same course using the same scoring. Additionally, a complete rewrite of the Sport Horse rules was approved after VSAHA president Cheryl Brock requested the section delineating how to award championships be removed, (The section would have required holding all Sport Horse in Hand horses and exhibitors out in the 100 degree heat until after all competition finished before handing out the awards.) A resolution that rescinded the performance requirements for Stallion breeding horses was defeated. A resolution was approved that changed the drug testing at the US nationals from mandatory Champion and Reserve to Random. And finally a resolution passed which combined the Ways and Means Committee and the Finance Committee into a new committee, called the Budget and Finance Committee.

 Of the 31 resolutions proposed at this year’s convention, 17 passed, five were defeated and nine were withdrawn.

 Then it was time to announce the winners. For the officers, Myron Krause yelled and threw papers high into the air when his name was announced as President for the next two years. The 2005 Vice President will be Lance Walters and the Treasurer will be Frank Galovic.

 Following the end of the convention, Cynthia Richardson and Evie Tubbs gave a presentation describing each individual new and rewritten brochure, video and DVD available to promote the Arabian horse. They explained all the programs designed to attract new people to the Arabian horse and how they worked. Most of these are free to AHA members and are easily accessible through the Website. If you have not been to the AHA website recently, it is well worth another look at www.arabianhorses.com

 Sunday November 21

 The flight home left Anchorage at 1:40 in the morning on Sunday November 21. It was dark outside as it had been most of the time we were in Anchorage. In fact, I had not seen the sun or the stars since our arrival. It felt good to get back to the Valley of the Sun and return charged up to help promote the Arabian, Half-Arabian and Anglo-Arabian horse.

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