maestoso
Well-Known Member
I recently attended an AMHA show in the Northeast on May 22nd. I will not name the club however if you are interested just go to the AMHA schedule and match the date. Back in January I learned that the person who hired the judge for this show is an exhibitor, and had intentions to show at this show. When I contacted AMHA for a clarification of the rule I received a direct email from the show rules committee chair clearly stating that the rule is to be interpreted in this way; The rule states that any person who is involved in a "business" relationship with a judge cannot exhibit under that judge until the relationship has been severed for 90 days. Then I asked him to clarify and he went on to state that the contract is not severed until the completion of the contract, i.e. at the end of that show.
I forwarded these emails to the president of the club and the show manager. Given the explicit nature of the email I assumed that there would be no question in what was to be done, the exhibitor would be told not to show. However, that was not the case. The exhibitor did compete and when I approached the show manager I was told that she spoke with the chair of the rules committee (the one who emailed me directly) and was told to just let her show and they would deal with it when the protest came in.....
WHAT!?!?
This is absurd! Shame on the organization for not enforcing their rules and shame on the show management for allowing this. As it turns out this has been going on with this particular club for years, and the person hiring the judges has been warned before, yet she ignores the warnings and continues to do what she pleases.
With all the rumors of the drama going on within the organization how can we be letting things like this fall through the cracks? We are perpetuating a growing problem within the organization and it is, in my opinion, ridiculous!
I forwarded these emails to the president of the club and the show manager. Given the explicit nature of the email I assumed that there would be no question in what was to be done, the exhibitor would be told not to show. However, that was not the case. The exhibitor did compete and when I approached the show manager I was told that she spoke with the chair of the rules committee (the one who emailed me directly) and was told to just let her show and they would deal with it when the protest came in.....
WHAT!?!?
This is absurd! Shame on the organization for not enforcing their rules and shame on the show management for allowing this. As it turns out this has been going on with this particular club for years, and the person hiring the judges has been warned before, yet she ignores the warnings and continues to do what she pleases.
With all the rumors of the drama going on within the organization how can we be letting things like this fall through the cracks? We are perpetuating a growing problem within the organization and it is, in my opinion, ridiculous!
