Hello Everyone!
Gary Barnes here..........
First let me tell you I am not a forum person, but after spending the last hour or so reading all of the replies here it appears that everyone plays nice so I'm going to stick my neck out and my toe in the water!
With fear and trepidation
OK, so what have we determined?
1. We don't like the name. OK, as Snakespear said "what's in a name". We can call it "Third Kind of Driving Pleasure".
2. It's not ADS. It follows the existing AMHA rules for cart, harness, etc.
3. It is a whole Division of driving with all the associated classes. That is Open, Amateur, AOTE, Youth. All the height classes and all the other breakdowns. That's a bunch of classes.
4. How will it affect Local, Championship and World shows. Time, cost, etc.
5. Will it bring in more exhibitors.
Al has brought up very good points here:
First, the name game.
As mentioned by Teri Collins we have never been able to agree on a name. In my run it up the flagploe and see who salutes stage (by the way that was a year before the AMHR adopted their Western Country pleasure class) I tried "Stock Driving" in order to paint a different picture than "Western" in our judges minds. Well that painted a similar picture to some judges and driving affecionados so I then started describing it as "Hunter Pleasure". Of course every year we had new members on the committee and every year I had to tweak their interest and the name along with trying to rewrite a rule that fit our breed and our rule book. I also embarked on a campaign to try to clarify our driving rules for the betterment of judging our classes and also to try to make them understandable to the outsider who might want to try our breed. I could keep explaining how this grew larger and harder as time went on, but I think you get the picture. By the way Nancy Idom (spelling?) who is both a Morgan judge and an AMHA judge "coined" this name for our class (she is also supplying the drawing). Then Mike McCabe and Diane Morgan Stasiak convinced us in committee to use this name for the new division. It was actually submitted for the June meeting, timely, as "Hunter Pleasure". The problem we have here is Show Rules had a tele-conference (unbeknownst to the Performance Committee) and shot it down without our input or explanation. Gotta love the politics! We have asked it to be resubmitted for PUBLIC discussion again at the june meeting. PLEASE ATTEND
Second, ADS...............
I talked with AL and his ADS trainer, read some literature, watched AL add a sidecheck to his ADS horse and harness and compete in Driving Obstacle. This made me think that those that liked ADS might want to try our upcoming "Reinsmanship" class along with "Driving Obstacle" and have FUN in our new class that was being proposed as "Carriage". I have seen the writing here and even worse the emails and all I can do is aplogize for painting that picture!
Third, number of classes.
Yes it is a whole division and this applies differntly to the World show and the Local shows.
Local shows. Please understand that just because we add a class (even when it is a "pointed" class) it is not mandatory on the local level. Show Rule GR-025 C. addresses what classes are mandatory for show approval and MOST driving classes are not mandatory. We feel that input from your members will tell you what classes to add for this new division, if any, and this will probably be different in geographical terms. At least at first. Some clubs will embrace the option of adding a large number of what I feel are "all around" horses. Remember that your halter as well as upper end driving horses don't enter as many classes as this type of horse. These horses could feasably be your 10 class horses. Add 10 of them to your show and your talking, what 100 entries at 40 bucks = $4000.00. Probably a lot more, think about it!
World Show.
The Stakes sunsets 2009. This clears the way for 4 classes. If some horses move down into this division from Country and we lose say 3 splits we gain 6 classes (splits run 3 times). That's 10 of the 13 for a whole division and Laura Mullins is helping us work on more time. I believe we also added a day for 2008 and some of these classes are Youth and Amateur/ AOTE. Seems do-able to me!
Vendors.
Not really what Al asked but a sure way to gauge AMHA's solvency in the market (ie; sinking or swimming) is to look around or ask around. Where are the vendors? If we were growing or even stagnate they would be making money by coming to our shows and they have been disappearing for years!
Fourth
The answer is in the above answers.
Fifth
It appears that the members here have resoundingly said they would show in it and the phone calls and email testimonials support it. Don't forget the "members" of AMHA thought Country Pleasure would never take off a few years back...........
I urge anyone that is truly concerned, positive or negative, to contact me at
[email protected] or anyone of our committee listed on the AMHA website). I also would like to beat my drum again and say PLEASE contact your Director and Kristy Mackey:
[email protected] But put it in writing so it wont get forgotten. Or better yet come to the June Meeting and see how the process happens. Al has reiterated the concerns of Show Rules (I was kicked off because I didn't attend the annual meeting after Lisa's accident) and Show Rules voted this down without asking these questions. Now is your chance to make a difference.
Thanks for your time and your support!
I am available email me if you want to talk.
Gary Barnes
AMHA Performance Committee
Co-Chair
[email protected]
www.minidrivinghorse.com