VERY EXCITING AMHA WORLD SHOW NEWS!

[Julie/Azariah]

BIG CHANGES for 2011 AMHA WORLD SHOW QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS!!!!

I Just got back from San Antonio ~ AMHA Annual Meeting ~ Though I don't have the EXACT details, the board passed a Standing Rule to try for one year, some changes in qualifying for the World Show

~ Basic idea ~ You can either qualify in the regular way through points OR attend at least 2 shows (two or more different weekends) under at least 4 judges at approved AMHA shows in any classes and you are eligible to participate in ANY CLASS that your horse or you (height, age requirements, not cross entering driving classes) are eligible for. YOUTH MUST HAVE SHOWN the horse they are showing IN YOUTH CLASSES at at least one show to show that horse at the World Show...Proper paperwork will have to be filled out at the time of your qualifying shows for this... keep watching AMHA site for info.

Please... everyone... Get out and show your horses at the local shows and help your local clubs as well... This year those shows, more than ever will help you get to the World Show.

We will have a great time at the AMHA Worlds.... the more folks that come, the more new people we meet, the more fun we have!!!!

 

[Tenltraining]

Well, this will be interesting to see how this works out but that will be a big help on qualifying horses! So I hope to see a larger number of entries at the World show! It will really help with the out of state clients we have that can only come to a certain number of shows too.

 

[Riverrose28]

That is good news, some of the shows around here only one or two horses in a class, and it is impossable to get enough points. Thanks for the info

 

[Karen S]

That's great for the AMHA, sounds like you are trying the same program that the AMHR already has with the qualifying at two shows and four judges in any class. It works there very well. Glad to know that looking to the future will help you get your numbers back up.

Karen

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

That is terrific!! Maybe they can get the numbers up! Anything is worth trying once.

 

[Barbie]

Sounds wonderful to me!!!! My 2 year old stallion and yearling mare are both qualified. Glad to know that is done. Now bring on some more shows as they need to log some miles in the showring.

Barbie

 

[RockRiverTiff]

While I always liked the prestige attached to the idea of qualifying with points, where we are that system has made qualifying seem like an impossibility. This new rule definitely makes the daylong drive to the nearest A shows seem a lot more worthwhile.

 

[maestoso]

This will not make the world show any less prestigious. In fact, it may be more prestigious. Right now several people list their horses as top ten winners. In many cases, they forget to mention that their top ten was the result of getting a 9th place out of 9 horses. Of course there are plenty of classes that have way more than 10 competitors in it. My point is, when you win, you'll win having competed against more horses (hopefully) making your win even more prestigious.

Its about making the world show more accessible. This may mean that someone who might otherwise not be able to afford to go to the world show, can skip a couple local shows and save to go to the world show. It will bring more money into the organization, and we need that!

 

[ruffian]

This is outstanding.

 

[wildoak]

I'm so glad this passed! Thanks to Ray for proposing it - I think it will be a boost to the World show entries, and it is something that makes a lot of sense for AMHA right now.

Jan

 

[jeniemac]

THIS IS GREAT NEWS..NOW IF THEY COLD DROP THE PRICES OF THE STALLS AT THE WORLD SHOW IT WOULD BE PERFECT...BABY STEPS

 

[jeniemac]

THIS IS GREAT NEWS..NOW IF THEY COULD DROP THE PRICES OF THE STALLS AT THE WORLD SHOW IT WOULD BE PERFECT...BABY STEPS

 

[attwoode]

Love the idea to make it easier to qualify. Wonder how that will affect honor roll.

 

[MountainMeadows]

I like the idea of making it easier to qualify but I wonder how it will affect the local club shows if people only need to go to a couple to get qualified - I know that our club puts on 4 big shows a year and I sincerely hope that the numbers for Show #3 & #4 don't drop way down since people have already qualified at the two earlier shows -- gotta remember, if the local clubs can't survive then AMHA will be in big trouble - we must have local shows in order for the average person to be able to qualify for World's - without them we are are the mercy of long distance travel which means taking more time off of work, or putting horses with trainers - again very expensive - so, hopefully the club's will not suffer for this decision.

I know that AMHR does it this way, but AMHR also takes it a bit further by allowing a horse to accumulate points toward their HOF which is an incentive to continue to show and remember to attain a HOF you must accumulate a certain number of points as a mature horse, therefore it keeps the horse in the ring past it's junior career -

This is omething for AMHA to think about if this new rule is going to work in the long run - yes it will bring more horses to World's but at what cost overall

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

I like the idea of making it easier to qualify but I wonder how it will affect the local club shows if people only need to go to a couple to get qualified - I know that our club puts on 4 big shows a year and I sincerely hope that the numbers for Show #3 & #4 don't drop way down since people have already qualified at the two earlier shows -- gotta remember, if the local clubs can't survive then AMHA will be in big trouble - we must have local shows in order for the average person to be able to qualify for World's - without them we are are the mercy of long distance travel which means taking more time off of work, or putting horses with trainers - again very expensive - so, hopefully the club's will not suffer for this decision.

I know that AMHR does it this way, but AMHR also takes it a bit further by allowing a horse to accumulate points toward their HOF which is an incentive to continue to show and remember to attain a HOF you must accumulate a certain number of points as a mature horse, therefore it keeps the horse in the ring past it's junior career -

This is omething for AMHA to think about if this new rule is going to work in the long run - yes it will bring more horses to World's but at what cost overall

IMHO I don't think it will affect your shows too much. It doesn't seem to affect the AMHR shows I go to later in the year, people will still be running for their year end points, plus all of a sudden they might realise that "Missy" needs to go to one more show to get her qualification, etc. Heavens, it may help your show get BIGGER with people bringing horses later in the year to qualify that they hadn't thought of showing earlier. They'll bring out those babies for experience, the ones that were too young early in the season.

 

[ruffian]

I like the idea of making it easier to qualify but I wonder how it will affect the local club shows if people only need to go to a couple to get qualified - I know that our club puts on 4 big shows a year and I sincerely hope that the numbers for Show #3 & #4 don't drop way down since people have already qualified at the two earlier shows -- gotta remember, if the local clubs can't survive then AMHA will be in big trouble - we must have local shows in order for the average person to be able to qualify for World's - without them we are are the mercy of long distance travel which means taking more time off of work, or putting horses with trainers - again very expensive - so, hopefully the club's will not suffer for this decision.

I know that AMHR does it this way, but AMHR also takes it a bit further by allowing a horse to accumulate points toward their HOF which is an incentive to continue to show and remember to attain a HOF you must accumulate a certain number of points as a mature horse, therefore it keeps the horse in the ring past it's junior career -

This is omething for AMHA to think about if this new rule is going to work in the long run - yes it will bring more horses to World's but at what cost overall

I think it will help the local shows because it makes it easier to get to Worlds. I didn't bother trying to get to Worlds because the shows around here, which are about 200 miles away minimum, typically wouldn't have enough entries to make the points needed. As a former AMHA show manager, I think this is a good thing for local shows and the World show. Go AMHA!

 

[Lost Spoke Ranch]

I think this is a fantastic idea! I'm all for anything to help make it easier for the membership to get out there and show their horses.

Dawn

 

[Versatility Farm & Training]

I agree with MountainMeadows. This rule will likely hurt local shows/clubs and then there may no longer be local shows. The local club here puts on 3 shows each year, with great attendance. I do not know of anyone around here that can't get qualified for Worlds, if nothing else by the old hardship rule. I have already heard from several people in this area that normally go to 5-6 shows a year and go to Worlds, that they will only go to 2 shows this year because that's all it takes. I wish they would at least require you to show in the class you want to show in at Worlds. I've heard people saying they are going to stick a horse in color at 2 local shows and then drive it at Worlds. That scares me! I think the Regional shows will suffer as well. A top ten there qualified you last year, so several people brought horses there to qualify, but with as expensive as they are, it would be cheaper now to just go to 2 shows and do one class. I have heard people saying they are not going to Regionals this year because there is no need to, and they will be go to 2 local shows and do the first class they can with each horse and if possible not even get stalls. I have to admit, that's what I do at AMHR shows. Around here our local AMHA shows have 125 horses on average. The local AMHR shows have 80, but that's miniatures and Shetlands together. If our local shows/clubs suffer from this rule, there might not be any local shows at all next year. I also don't like that this rule went into effect after the show season had already started for some people. I liked the old hardship rule, that would go into place after the Regional shows before Worlds to give people incentive to try to qualify and go to local shows, but if you weren't able to qualify with points, you could get hardship approval for individual classes. I really don't like that you don't have to show in specific classes to qualify. I think if it is going to be so easy to qualify now, how about we charge for the privilage to qualify that way that might give people the incentive to still support the local shows. I think we should really have looked at at reducing the costs of Worlds (to the exhibitor) instead of changing the qualification process. We already had hardshipping. At least in my area I have not heard anyone say they weren't going to Worlds because they couldn't qualify, but I have heard that they weren't going to Worlds because it was too big of an expense, especially to be paying for all at once. I mean it costs close to $100 just to park there.

I agree this is a good rule for the owners and will allow them to save a lot of money, but looking at the big picture I think it will hurt AMHA starting at the local level and working its way up. I hope it works out good, but I am afriad it won't.

 

[PrestigeMiniHorses]

I agree that this is a GREAT move for AMHA. Here in CO it seems it could be alil hard to get all the points needed to qualify. I do think a horse should also atleast show in their classes they plan to show in at worlds. Thats like a horse going to show in color and then being a single pleasure winner or something at worlds. How fair is that. Hmmm I would say not very. I know people in AMHR do it all the time. It would be a good idea if AMHA drop the costs of the world show. I am sure that would help numbers

 

[MountainMeadows]

It is the long range picture that I am concerned with - not the immediate issue of not enough partcipation at Worlds. Causing our local clubs financial grief because this proposal was not well thought through could cause a club to collapse financially due to lack of participation at a given show - if the local clubs go broke there won't be local shows --- back to square #1

I sincerely hope that people will continue to enter multiple classes and support their local clubs, but in tough times it is not wise to EXPECT it. Likewise, the need to participate at Championship shows may also have people cutting back on this show if they have already "qualified" by going to 2 local shows and showing a couple of classes and getting qualified to show in any class at Worlds.

Again the reason it works for AMHR is not necessarily just for qualifying for Nationals, but also the added bonus of racking up those HOF points -- if you get pretty close to getting a title like HOF on your horse your are more likely to continue to show it rather than just park it at home for the rest of it's life, if all it would have taken was one or two more shows to be able to have the HOF added to the credentials of the horse.