Re: [RC] AHA and Juniors at the National Ride - Mollie Krumlaw-Smith
The National Endurance and CTR committee's don't
have anything to do with establishing the costs of the AHA programs. Note
there is a difference between Regional and National "ride rules and awards" vs.
AHA "programs." The mileage programs have been around for quite some time,
I believe started somewhere in the early 90's maybe late 80's. When they
first started they were around $15 or $20 a year per horse. I think it's
pretty logical to conclude that the increases over the years are related to
increases in overhead and labor to keep track of the horses in the programs as
well as cover the costs of the awards. I do know that AHA tries to keep as
many programs as possible self funded, meaning money taken in from those
enrolled in the programs cover most of the cost related to the programs.
There is also some impact from the merger of IAHA and the Registry to form
AHA. AHA is working on getting back on it's financial feet so to
speak.
One thing I would toss out for all distance riders
who own registered Arabs & Part-Arabs is to join AHA. I don't have the
figures in front of me right now but I did some research in this area about a
year and a half ago. Right now the distance riders who are members of AHA
represent less than 2% of the total AHA membership. When you are going to
AHA and asking for more programs, which cost more money, it's hard to be
persuasive when you represent such a small portion of the membership. Now
if ALL of the members of AERC who have Arabs joined AHA we would represent just
over 10% of the membership! A very substantial change in our favor.
Now if you really want to have fun...if all of the pleasure trail riders joined
with the distance riders and all became members of AHA we would represent 60 to
70% of the membership. AHA is very aware of this, thus the reason they are
starting to try to implement more programs like the frequent rider programs
etc. We're estimating that about 75-80% of all registered horses are owned
by non show people.
Another way distance riders shoot themselves
in the foot is the lack of participation in the Regional and National
rides. One of the first questions asked at
the convention are how many horses participated in these events. Numbers
like 5 horses in region X, and 7 horses in region Y don't do much for our
cause. When there is an open ride held with a regional ride and the open
ride starts 80 horses and the regional starts 5 horses I have to say I would
have questions myself. But that's another topic.
MKS
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