On The Fence With Carol
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106 – October, 2014
By Carol Harris
Oh my goodness? It is October and we are approaching the end of the year. We are still in a dilemma with regard to our leadership. We haven’t heard anything regarding Don Treadway’s successor, but we have hired a new staff member. He is Pete Kyle, a likeable horseman who I hear has thoughts about reorganization.
We have either fired or shuffled around 14 members of our staff for reasons only known by those who AQHA feel necessary. It shouldn’t surprise any of you to hear that AQHA is still discussing more ‘levels’ of competition to further confuse our exhibitors and our show managers. If we are still contemplating blue ribbons or championship awards for everyone, I fear our entire “reward system” will become further cheapened.
I have to laugh when I think back to earlier days and the AQHA shows I once supported. In the beginning, I seldom won anything significant, but I still hung in there realizing that winning was never meant to be easy. Most of us believed satisfaction was only meant to come from mistakes and hard work. For some reason, in those days, we didn’t get discouraged even when some of us were taking regular beatings at the shows. Most of us were in the same boat, happily attempting to learn our sport and, thank goodness, we only advanced at the rate of improvement the judges felt we deserved at that time. It never entered our minds that unearned rewards were supposed to create “warm, fuzzy feelings.”
It seems the demand for alliances with AQHA and specialty organizations is on the rise. I would appreciate some help in understanding the purpose of this trend. Do you think alliances are supposed to assist our parent association in some way or is the purpose simply to promote improved ways to oversee judging discipline for themselves? With regard to the NSBA, the members and judges for both associations (AQHA and NSBA) appear to be pretty much the same, but their ambitions and leadership appears to be very different to me. For instance, the NSBA is more adept at promoting growth and popularity than our larger, wealthier association. All this causes us to wonder whether AQHA will eventually wake up and realize that their alliances are, in my opinion, weakening them by stealing their valuable members along with the energy and support they provide. I don’t get it but then no one, to my knowledge, has ever asked any of us “what we think.”
Alliances are not only stealing our members but they seem to be providing them with much better services, lavish incentives and less confusion. At this time AQHA has 14 alliances – 9 of them are specialized. Some of these alliances have become extremely popular and some we rarely hear about. What will happen eventually no one knows for sure, but isn’t it possible that any group that permits itself to be divided into another entity should be aware that it could be allowing one or both entities to weaken and eventually become history?
While on the subject of interest in specialty disciplines, it might be a good time for us to discuss the fact that, in my opinion, all of this specialization represents a significant conflict with our Quarter Horse’s amazing reputation for excelling in multiple classes. We should always remember the word VERSATILITY because at one time the American Quarter Horse was proclaimed THE WORLD’S MOST VERSATILE HORSE. As an individual they could win, place or show in a Western Pleasure Class, continue the same in Reining, followed by Trail, Barrel Racing, Working Hunter, etc., etc. Today, even in Amarillo, we don’t hear a peep about this virtue. In my opinion, most of our leadership’s chatter only seems to involve opportunities for horses and riders to be given all kinds of awards for an assortment of misunderstood leveling “championships.” Yes, we still have extraordinary horses today, but shouldn’t we wonder why they no longer are being expected to live up to their original “claim to fame?”
While I’m still trying to keep my balance on this stupid fence, I’d like to attempt to question one more mysterious topic. The other day I was told our Association does not believe in keeping records of discussions or decisions made in meetings because of an unfortunate happening some time ago during a lawsuit. If this is true, could this be a reason why we so often don’t remember what we do or say, or why committee members avoid necessary discussions in meetings? Without written plans or minutes, most of us are unable to recall what we said or did. Everything in the past could possibly become a blur, with mistakes made, corrections forgotten, and improvements overlooked. If this is true, how can we ever become comfortable with our leadership condoning the total absence of Roberts Rules of Order?
It’s no wonder that, in my opinion, we find it hard to know the difference between right and wrong. Common sense should remind us to write down important decisions or we’ll never discover how stupid we’ve been or how badly we need to change. Which reminds me, the other day I heard two Amateur owners discussing how they would rather show under four individual judges (one judge per day) at a horse show rather than four judges on one day in one performance. This would allow them to use each judge to gain improvement of their showmanship skills for their chosen discipline. Their feeling is the decision to hold four shows on one day, with four judges in the pen at the same time, was pushed by the professionals so they could get qualified for the “big one” quickly and go home. (I don’t know if this is true or not). These two frustrated ladies informed me they had both taken valuable time off from their complicated lives to travel a distance so they could learn to show their horses better. They were beyond upset because they had both made mistakes in their class and lost under all four judges. They would have to go home with no opportunity to try to do better the next day. I don’t have a clue how or why this decision for horse shows was made. To my knowledge, we have no minutes, we have no records, and we have no names. We have no idea whether it was a good decision or not. This is a perfect example of how we are permitting our business to be run.
In closing, let’s hope we realize our present leadership is attempting to correct some mistakes, and for this reason we should try to understand the difficult situations facing them with this chore. We seriously hope they will keep improvements simple and practical instead of creating havoc with confusing makeovers. It would also be appreciated if changes to our rule book were made to accommodate the majority. It would be easier for everyone to understand these rules. Our sport is supposed to be enjoyable. Even our youth should be able to comprehend the meanings of our rules and policies. Every one of you who are anxiously looking forward to improvements should be hoping that at least a few words in this article will help our leadership, our membership and our horses enjoy a brighter future.
See you later,
Carol
