Carolyn you do make a good point about the fact that the two miniature registries will now be using different measuring systems. That is a thought that I did not have cross my mind up to now.
I do believe that it is not quite right that decisions of this magnitude are voted on by a very few of our members. It being the season that it is, many of our breeders simply cannot get away, and as mentioned before others cannot afford to travel away due to a shortage of money and/or vacation days. It is a concern. The only way to address it is to get a by-law change in to allow absentee voting, and there are some people, including myself, that are working on that. I had hoped to get the rule change submitted in time for this meeting, but life has interfered for me since Christmas time and I have not been able to sit down and put the thought in that it requires. Other people are also working on it. One of our first major steps taken in this direction is to webcast the meeting, this is HUGE! I hope a lot of people are able to tune in tomorrow to view it. There are other things that can be done to facilitate that change, which probably most people would feel is for the good.
It is a rule change that brought in this registry direction, and it is a rule change that can repeal it. So if you feel very strongly about an issue, please do what you can to be an active participant in the process. This is OUR registry. It is not the BOD that makes arbitrary decisions. It is not "the registry." When people say, well I hope the AMHA thought about this aspect or that aspect of making that rule change, the AMHA is US!!! It is the people who get involved. That rule change was instituted by a margin of A SINGLE VOTE. It was the prevailing desire of the members who cared enough and were able to attend. So right or wrong, there you go. We are all equal opportunity players in the game.
Although the vote did not go in the direction I wanted it to, for many reasons, I still was fascinated by the process. I believe that it was won fair and square by the proponents of the rule change. I went to the meeting in person last year, and I watched every minute of it today online. I highly recommend that everyone who is passionate about the breed do all that you can to be well-informed about the registry. I didn't really get involved at all for the first several years of owning miniatures, but then realized what information was available to us and I took advantage of learning all I could about it. It is pretty easy to get involved, if you are interested.
In 2008 I hope to learn more about the AMHR registry, because it is where I have been doing most of my showing, and where I will be showing in the forseeable future. This is because I enjoy my "over" division performance horses. I love performance! There are a lot of performance opportunities in the AMHA registry also, and as soon as I can get my Esprit hardshipped in, you can bet that we will be there showing too. Yes, he will be eligible in 2010, so we will be under the deadline on that one. And I bet there will be a lot of people who will like him, in both registries. I believe in him enough to pay the big bucks to get him double-registered. I wouldn't do that with a horse that wasn't exceptional.
Anyway, I guess the point of my long and rambling post is, if you don't like the direction, get involved! It is not nearly as scary or intimidating as you might think.
OH!
