Re: [RC] AHA and Juniors at the National Ride - Mary Ann Spencer
This is a very good point..... and I am guilty
of it due to not being able to consistently compete and the cost seems to go up
on yrs that are not so good financially. Not a good excuse but a reality
of life. mas
Subject: Re: [RC] AHA and Juniors at the
National Ride
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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