Maybe instead of saying the problem is the winning done by the ASPC/AMHR horses-- I should have said the problem is fear, as “fear” can cover both showing and breeding/selling. Exhibitors fear that their straight AMHR horses cannot compete against the Shetlands. Breeders of straight AMHR horses fear that no one will buy their horses because buyers prefer the ASPC/AMHR horses. (Why? Because those buyers apparently might presume that they will do better in the showring if they have ASPC/AMHR and/or their future clients will prefer to purchase ASPC/AMHR horses.
If show people didn’t fear that their AMHR horses will get beat by the Shetlands, and if breeders didn’t fear that they will lose their market to the Shetlands—then none of these people would have a problem with Shetlands being in the registry. If Shetlands were short legged, stumble footed, stumpy, dumpy and just plain UGLY with mean personalities, no one would care if there were some poor souls out there trying to show the wretched creatures, nor would anyone care of there were some breeders that were misguided enough to be breeding those same wretched creatures!! Just because someone else was breeding such a creature wouldn’t mean that they would have to give up their straight AMHR horses and turn to breeding those same creatures themselves! In fact, I’ll bet they would feel very smug because their straight AMHR horses were so far superior to those Shetlands. The attitude would be “yeah, some people are breeding and showing them but we always beat them so they are of no consequence…as long as they are of no consequence, let them pay their money to support us and our superiority”
I have heard that sentiment expressed in too many groups too many times to not know how it goes.
Interesting, so if Miniatures did not have to qualify I wonder if AMHR National and AMHA World shows would get even bigger?
I can’t say for sure about that, but I’ll bet that if qualifying wasn’t required for Nationals the local shows would get smaller. Some people haul 9+ hours to a show because they have to in order to qualify. If they could they would likely just not bother with that drive, and just go to Nationals to show. Some people that have local shows would likely not bring as many horses to those shows if they didn’t need to in order to get all their horses qualified.
I mean, we are governed by the same association as each other.
And that, I think, is a big part of the problem. The straight Mini people feel that because the Minis have the largest numbers in the registry, and bring in the most money, that the Mini people should be able to control the registry. They feel they are supporting the Shetlands, and they don’t want to do that.
In actual fact, the club is the American Shetland Pony Club. AMHR is a part of that, but is not THE club. Read the very first page of the Rule book—Section 1, Article 1—the name of the Corporation shall be THE AMERICAN SHETLAND PONY CLUB. What it amounts to is this Shetland Pony Club is including Miniatures under its umbrella, but it is first and foremost the Shetland Pony Club. No matter how much money AMHR horses bring in, owners are paying for the Shetland Pony Club to keep registration records on their Miniature Horses, but that money doesn’t automatically give AMHR owners control of ASPC.
I was talking with someone several days ago and she had an interesting analogy—and I hope she won’t mind that I repeat it here. If someone goes and spends $1.5 million (or whatever huge amount) at Wal-Mart to buy a bunch of merchandise, that doesn’t give that person part ownership of Wal-Mart—no, that person is simply a customer who spends money in that store. That’s kind of how it is with ASPC—ASPC is the big store, and Miniature Horse owners are the customer that buys things (or rather services) from it. (I hope I worded that all right…nothing worse than taking someone else’s words & getting them all messed up!!!) I’m sure this post isn’t going to win me any Mini friends but that’s okay!
As for the suggestion that ASPC/AMHR horses should be shown ASPC—that’s not so easy for a lot of people. Depending on area, some people don’t even have any ASPC sanctioned shows unless they do drive for hours. If they’ve got AMHR shows right close, and their horses are ASPC/AMHR registered, why on earth shouldn’t they show those horses AMHR? In some cases those ASPC/AMHR have as many generations of AMHR ancestors as do the straight AMHR horses—just because the double registered ones come from stock that retained their ASPC papers, how are they any less AMHR than those horses that might be just as much Shetland, except their ancestors happened to belong to someone who didn’t bother paying to keep up with the ASPC papers???
