On the Fence with Carol

Click here to read Carol’s piece in the Equine Chronicle 

by Carol Harris

Hello everybody! Oh my, our Association has exciting news! Pete Kyle has been hired to be the new Executive Director of Shows and Judges. Pete has had a great deal of experience in training, showing and judging. For this reason he should be a valuable asset for realigning our many responsibilities, such as – animal welfare, shows and judges. Wow! This was a surprise, such an important position was changed and nobody even knew about it.

­Our present leadership has asked me to be more patient, and to tone down my criticisms. I guess I should do this because some of us know how disturbing criticisms can be, but everyone should understand some of us have been loving and promoting these horses for such a long time that we believe it would be absolutely sinful for us to stupidly sit in the dark and quietly leave this earth watching our industry totally lose the respect it once had. Leadership is such a delicate gift that we often forget the wisdom it takes to make it work. As I have so often mentioned, SIMPLICITY is a virtue we have all enjoyed. It makes everything fun, easy and successful. This lesson was instilled in me at an early age and I am still finding it hard to get anyone to listen to its valuable meaning so we might achieve some totally different results at AQHA.
Many of our members have asked me to continue my column because they have a desire for our activities to be more like they once were. A few others, along with our present leadership, seem to feel differently. In my opinion, they don’t want to hear any criticism because they feel we, in the 21st Century, should be doing things in a more modern way. Well we are, but I have serious doubts that we are doing them well. Our government today is in a mess, the world’s in a mess and our Association is certainly not in great shape, but naturally some people just don’t want to hear this so I guess I should bite my tongue and apologize.

Mostly, I only want to do what will help our horses and our future. I believe I would like to continue my “On The Fence” column because I feel I have many useful tips that I was privileged to learn from the many friends I have made throughout my life. I would love to share them. Some of these friends were the men and women who started our Association and caused it to grow into a phenomenal world class organization. They believed in our horses and their natural ability to willingly do the jobs they were bred to do. This is why everyone enjoyed them so much. Today we enjoy only a fragment of that because so many of our horses are visibly intimidated and show no expression. Some look much too sad and, worst of all, we are so used to it that many are unable to recognize how terribly sad they look. My friends have always been generous, fun loving competitors who everyone seems to enjoy being around. I have learned so much from them. I remember back in the late fifties and early sixties, the entire American Horse Show Association (now the USEF), absolutely enjoyed all their gorgeous shaky tail saddle horses, hackneys, hunters and jumpers, etc., etc., yet they all wanted to own an American Quarter Horse so they could play cowboy and have the same fun we were having. At that time the Quarter Horse business for breeders, owners and investors was out of sight in both the East and the West. Amazingly the elite Devon Horse Show in Pennsylvania appreciated our horse so much they included a complete Quarter Horse Division including cutting in their Annual Spring Show. Philadelphia’s jet set all wanted to ride Quarter Horses and the prominent Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, that for some reason had never given the Devon Show much publicity, actually put a horse’s picture on the front cover. Guess what? It wasn’t a hunter or a jumper, it was an American Quarter Horse. There are not many of us left who remember these “heydays”, but believe it or not, I still feel we could live these days again if we did some major planning and called on our vision to recreate a better future. All we would have to do is wake up and show the public once again how exciting the versatile Quarter Horse is.

If you folks want me to stop writing, I know I can easily oblige. Just ask me and you don’t even have to be polite. In the meantime, we must hope that our leadership will permit us to assist them to find the correct direction our future needs to take.

Sincerely yours,
Carol
charris75@aol.com · (352) 591-1020