Miniature Nationals

It had been stated before that maybe the Site Selection Committee should pick two (2) facilities for us to vote on. I so hope that there is at least four (4) put out there as possible Congress sites. I still feel that in order to move ahead we need to think bigger. We need to think of exposure. We need to think of population. We need to think of a nice facility that can offer what we need to increase participation and marketing.

Zona gave an interview to this paper My link In this interview she states that last year (Cloverdale) there was 530 ponies that showed and over 1800 entries. I am glad we are getting some publicity!

I did think of something else.... HOSPITALITY!

First, I'd like to again say thanks to the Area V folks that had the hospitality set up near the ring. Having the water coolers right there was WONDERFUL. Also, thanks again to the Hinkles and Shaws for coordinating the carry-in. Good job to the group that hosted the aisle party one night; your efforts were much appreciated, too.

Congress is truly a living creature that has changed over the years. Like the info I noted on the stake payouts & the incentives, I also want to share that hospitality at the Congress isn't a brand new concept. Here are some various things that have happened over the years....

1) Exhibitors dinner sponsored by the show/registry

2) Water stations

3) Alumni reunions/luncheons

4) Coffee & donuts

5) Multiple 50th anniversary celebrations

6) Privately sponsored dinners for all exhibitors (like this year's aisle party but w/ fewer folks footing the bill)

Those are just some of the things that have come & gone that I know of since the late 70s. I can't speak to what might have come & gone in the first 40 Congresses. When you think of the things that happened this year AND consider the half dozen mentioned above, I think it's probably safe to assume that there was some sorts of hospitality in the first 40 years.

Many of these activities are all things that could be done again. As someone who has paid out thousands of dollars to feed all exhibitors at Congress over 6-8 years, I appreciate the Wed. night aisle party this year. I am glad someone else picked up that ball. It's great that when one thing ends, something new can begin.

I encourage groups to work together and do things like the hospitality area or the aisle party w/ food. It's great to see new folks take on past traditions. It's also helpful to spread around the costs and workload.

If you haven't made a contribution like that to the Congress, I would urge you to consider what you can do. If this is just your first or second, third, fourth or fifth Congress, welcome. Also, I would like to remind you not to assume that what you've seen or experienced in a brief portion of the show's history is how it ALWAYS is/has been.

Like I said ....Congress is a living, growing, changing and evolving entity. That wonderful webcast is a great example ... one that wouldn't have been possible just 10-12 years ago .... hence the need to constantly evolve. Youth stuff is another example. I can remember the VERY FIRST time youth activities were offered at Congress or Nationals. Hard to believe now it's been within the last 20 years! Again, positive growth and change.

Don't forget ... We can and all should make contributions toward the evolution at some course throughout the continuing history.

Like I said ....Congress is a living, growing, changing and evolving entity. That wonderful webcast is a great example ... one that wouldn't have been possible just 10-12 years ago .... hence the need to constantly evolve. Youth stuff is another example. I can remember the VERY FIRST time youth activities were offered at Congress or Nationals. Hard to believe now it's been within the last 20 years! Again, positive growth and change.

Yes Amy you are correct. Things like bathrooms and heat let off from the barns, if the HMC (Hardy Murphy Coliseum) BOD wants to fix them and make it so 300+ people can use them, shower in them and keep them maintained, then that part of Congress works. If the big barn, barn 9 had some way to ventilate all the excessive heat, that would be even better!

But if we don't recognize the basic facts of growth, planning, and change to support it, it won't evolve into everything it can be.

Stallion Avenue - great start

Webcast - wonderful new addition

Youth Roving Reporter - fabulous way to get behind the scenes and involve the youth even more

Barn parties - wouldn't it be fabulous if every night a different barn hosted something

and so much more!

Thanks Amy

that's the kind of reply I was looking for, not another re-hash of facilities or money

I wanted to know why the show program did not seem more exhibitor friendly and more attuned to a National Caliber show. You imply that it is the way the program is written more than anything, and I thank you for your explanations on a lot of the classes, as well as your thoughts on moving classes around.

I still would like to know who comprises the 'mystery committee' that puts together the show bill (and facilities?)

I agree, likely we will have Congress at Ardmore again, and I already said this year BEFORE I WENT, that it was my last Congress for awhile. But that doesn't mean I can't help to improve future shows.

Belinda Bagby was your committee head this year, Lea Dill and Jeannie Braganini also particpated. Lenard Davenport would maybe have had some say.

muffntuf said:

Belinda Bagby was your committee head this year, Lea Dill and Jeannie Braganini also particpated. Lenard Davenport would maybe have had some say.

Click to expand...

Trace once again this is incorrect !! I was NOT chair of the committee .. Joe our Director of Finance was CHAIR OF the National Show and Congress Committee !! and the members were Zona, Belinda , Jeannie, Dolores, and Lea ..

 

Lost In Oz , The class line up is generally done by the Show Manager.. He also has to try and work it to a few things that we require also , such as not having just one or two classes at the end of the day on Futurity day that requires us to bring out two more judges for just about 30 minutes and have to pay them a full day's wages..

 

For those of you who don't know , ON Futurity day , The Modern Futurity picks one of the 3 judges that are hired to do Classics and the Classic /Foundation Futurity uses whoever the Modern folks hire for their Regular classes , So that leaves two judges sitting out a full day .. So we this year tried to arrange it so that they did not even fly in until the night before they were to judge , there for it required moving some classes and then it just goes on from there.. It is a very hard job to arrange classes to please everyone ., A job I am not sure I could ever do .. <<LOL>> Ok this is proably more than some really wanted to

 

know ..

So when you posted the original class list, are you saying you did not create it?

muffntuf said:

So when you posted the original class list, are you saying you did not create it?

Click to expand...

Ok after this I am DONE WITH THIS SUBJECT. . Trace it does not matter what I say or how I say you question it or correct it , or just don't believe it , what ever the case,

NEVER DID I SAY OR IMPLY THAT I ARRANGED THE CLASS LIST FOR CONGRESS OR NATIONALS.

In years past whenever I had a question about the Class list for Nationals and when an award I was sponsoring would be given (what day the mares would show) I was always directed to the Show Manager not the office or anyone else??

Belinda makes a good point. There are some planning & financial considerations related to the officials to keep in mind regarding the Congress schedule. I think we have the Futurities and Incentives figured out from that perspective now. Perhaps we can find the other places in the schedule with those types of concerns and fix those as well in the future. I know there was at least one major gap for the Modern judge this year. He seemed to take it in stride and even put himself to work helping w/ awards and getting ears at the win backdrop at times! Like I said, Congress is a living thing so these are issues and items we can work on as time goes on. There can always be room for improvement and re-evaluation as we move forward.

The key to a good premium book is probably to start early! Also, it seems to me that the breed division committees used to be a little more involved in reviewing the book … although, I do assume at least the breed chairs may … or may be able to … give some input. Not sure about now, but I am sure they used to. With more time, each breed chair could run it past a few members of their committee for feedback but full committee review might prove too time-consuming. It might be helpful for someone just to proofread the premium in the future … when & if time permits. Maybe someone who knows the history stuff could look over parts like the awards. Maybe the finance department could review any included text about payouts or paybacks of any sort.

Any suggestions or comments from any of those groups/individuals could be presented to the official committee for review. Or comments could be given to the show manager if that is who is doing the schedule.

I also think it would be ideal if you had someone in each of the following categories review and offer suggestions… NOT make changes … but make comments for the committee to CONSIDER: 1) a major halter stable that shows in all divisions… 2) a parent whose kid/kids compete in ALL youth categories … 3) a rep from a stable who does a lot of performance … 4) someone who knows all about the performance in hand stuff. Also, we might be in lucky since someone on the board was judge this year; he might have a perspective to add if given the opportunity. Again, we could allow some of these groups to give comments … not make changes … but make comments so things can be CONSIDERED by the decision-making committee or the management going forward.

Perhaps some of this might work if the committee or management worked on the premium over the winter and we gave ourselves plenty of time??? It’s all just thoughts/suggestions. As I’ve said, we can keep working to grow and improve the event. I’m sure Congress is a different animal than it was in 1948. I know it’s vastly different from the first one I attended in 1978. Working together, we can make it even better going forward …. So how know what it might be like in 2028?

You know looking at the posts again after having been involved in the topic on another site, my feelings are still the same. Listed below are my suggestions & thoughts:

1. The ardmore facility may not have been perfect,but it was a far cry better than gordyville. Which is a good thing. You could not have asked for a better facility staff that jumped anytime someone needed something. They wanted us there which is also an improvement over the previous few years. Yes more ventilation, showers etc would have been nice but we all survived and it was a fun show.

2. Shetlands deserve a permanet home, somewhere in the central part of the country and with room for the show to grow.

3. The facility needs to be world class and have the amenities that go with that type venue.

4. Dates that have historically been used for Congress may have to be altered to get in with a world class facility, but there again the Shetland breed deserves a chance to be all they can be.

5. Web Casting was a great thing and I was glad to have helped sponsor it and would again if ask to. The amount of exporsure shetlands got, even within our own registry (AMHR/ASPC) will only help to grow the breed. We need this to bring us into the world wide web picture.

6. The cost of the facility is more than likely going to increase and therefore the cost to us exhibitors. I personally am okay with increasing the costs to the levels of the R national show as long as we can put Congress in a place befitting a National, world class show!!

7. Having the youth classes on days encompassing a weekend is a good thing for the kids as the miss less school and even if it means we are rushed with the grandkids, we are willing sacrifice a little breathing room for the kids ability to attend as versus not being able to attend due to school constraints. Just FYI 6 of our 10 grandkids show!!

Bottom line is that in my opinion the Okalahoma club, the selection committee, the area five people all did a much improved job of putting on the show. I appreciate their efforts immensely.

Now lets all decide at convention this year to have Ardmore one more year and in the meantime find a facility for Congress, such as Tulsa is for Nationals a permanet home, with great facilities and an overall venue we can all be proud of.

If the BOD is going to make the decision, I am okay with that and intend to write my BOD members and the EC what my suggestions are. If they decide to let us all vote on it, that is even better if they will give multiple facilities and date options to go along with the options. There a lot of things that go into picking a site other than location, dates and price. Those are important factors, but there are others that have more long term and profound effects on everyone even those that choose not to ever show!!

I sincerely encourage folks to think about changes that are needed, suggestions you may have and things you are willing to pay for. Then send it in writing to the BOD and EC for consideration. They have sheparded us as a registry into building one of the nicest National shows in the country with our R Nationals. Given the support and direction of the membership I trust they can do it again with Congress. My sincere advice to them is summed up with the following saying. "Build It and the World will come" Congress 2011 "The Start of Something Wonderful For Everyone"

The topic was why is Congress so different than Nationals. Well- we came and then they built it, no one was handing out money to go to Tulsa if we couldn't pay for it. I hope we are in the black this year.

I am going to edit this because I got to thinking that I sound so stingy and mean. I guess I am stingy. However it just seems like to have a show the caliber of Nationals provided for you, those taking advantage of it should at least have to support other local shows too. And I am sure that many do, but I think that it should be mandatory for horses to support local shows and qualify their horses in order to get there. Everyone says well if they had to qualify the numbers would even be lower. Well if that is true, that tells me something.

I think that every year at Convention there is talk of making Shetland Congress a qualifying show. I know in the past (say ten years ago) there were not enough areas even offering ASPC classes for qualifying to be possible. Times have changed though with more and more clubs now offering ASPC classes so I feel like the qualifying issue will come up again and may have a better chance of passing. That said I did haul a pony that was recently purchased to Congress and that was his first show, his owners chose to put him in three classes. If he would have had to have been qualified then that would have been one less pony and three less class entries for Congress.

Like John I do believe that if Congress was to find a permanent home that it would grow. As a member of the classic sweepstakes committee we are finding that some stallion owners are reluctant to place their stallions in the program because they do not know where Congress is going to be held two years from now (which would be where their foals would show for money). Before long it becomes a cycle, less people attend Congress because they cannot plan well in advance for it, less people support programs that show at Congress (like the Classic Sweepstakes) and the Congress continues to be a less than National "wow" level show.

I will be attending my third AMHR National show this year and it is different than Shetland Congress. It is like a normal National level show. I do very much enjoy Shetland Congress for its atmosphere which is more "homey", for lack of a better way to describe it. People seem to be friendlier at Congress and the show in general is more "laid back". I would not like to lose that "feel" but I would certainly like to have a National level venue.

Perhaps, I should go to Congress before I keep shooting off my mouth.

LaVern said:

Perhaps, I should go to Congress before I keep shooting off my mouth.

Click to expand...

LaVern, I fear that if you attend Congress you just might get interested in Shetlands! I've never met anyone who's been to Congress and confirmed to themselves that they didn't want them.

Leah very well put! It is the Homey feel that I love about Congress - but one thing I know, the more you go, the more people you know, the more fun it is. Even with the blasted heat this year, I still laughed, cried and had some good talking time with my pony friends. It was harder to keep that continuity of homey feeling this year, but by the time the barn party hit, I felt much better about that.

txminipinto said:

LaVern, I fear that if you attend Congress you just might get interested in Shetlands!

I've never met anyone who's been to Congress and confirmed to themselves that they didn't want them.

Click to expand...

LaVern and all,

We did attend Congress a few years back in Gordyville, it was at a time when we were seriously thinking about showing some of our double registered horses/ponies as Shetlands and we were building a small string of Shetland only driving horses. We were so "not impressed" that we have not been back in the Shetland showring since! My Shetland show harness, two pleasure carts and pony viceroy have not been out of storage since then.

I understand that the facility has changed but our unimpressive experience has stuck with us. Nothing has happended in the breed yet to make us reexamine our position or get enthusiastic about it again. A nice, permanent location, could go along way towards getting people like us to give Congress another try which would bring ponies back to the Shetland showring.

I think the association would benefit from making significant changes now to take advantage of the AMHR people who for the first time now have horses/ponies registered as Shetlands also, when they come to Congress they expect something like AMHR Nationals. I fear if they don't take advantage of the current climate the opportunity will be missed and not present it's self again.

I wish Congress and the Shetlands all the best, am not opposed to spending association money to get it up to the next level, but without ponies being shown on the local level I'm not terribly optimistic.

Jacki Loomis

[email protected]

Jacki Loomis said:

LaVern and all,

We did attend Congress a few years back in Gordyville, it was at a time when we were seriously thinking about showing some of our double registered horses/ponies as Shetlands and we were building a small string of Shetland only driving horses. We were so "not impressed" that we have not been back in the Shetland showring since! My Shetland show harness, two pleasure carts and pony viceroy have not been out of storage since then.

I understand that the facility has changed but our unimpressive experience has stuck with us. Nothing has happended in the breed yet to make us reexamine our position or get enthusiastic about it again. A nice, permanent location, could go along way towards getting people like us to give Congress another try which would bring ponies back to the Shetland showring.

I think the association would benefit from making significant changes now to take advantage of the AMHR people who for the first time now have horses/ponies registered as Shetlands also, when they come to Congress they expect something like AMHR Nationals. I fear if they don't take advantage of the current climate the opportunity will be missed and not present it's self again.

I wish Congress and the Shetlands all the best, am not opposed to spending association money to get it up to the next level, but without ponies being shown on the local level I'm not terribly optimistic.

Jacki Loomis

[email protected]

Click to expand...

Jacki I am sorry to hear that. But most people who get into shetlands do not do so due to the level of our national show but for the love of the pony. While I would love Congress to be more in line with Nationals, that's not why I love the shetland.

txminipinto said:

Jacki I am sorry to hear that. But most people who get into shetlands do not do so due to the level of our national show but for the love of the pony. While I would love Congress to be more in line with Nationals, that's not why I love the shetland.

Click to expand...

Carin,

You may be right that "most people who get into shetlands do not do so due to the level of our national show". But, those of us who are AMHR National & Local Show exhibitors may be a unique subset. Unique and important because we already know the association, many of the people, and are proven spenders of dollars on shows and animals. I feel like we are a built in customer base that ASPC and Congress could really benefit from. A little catering to this subset could do great things for the Shetland pony breed and ASPC and I think there are ways to do this without alienating the traditional Shetland exhibitor.

I wish Congress and ASPC well and hope they can attract and keep many of us AMHR exhibitors to the Shetland breed now that the ranks of us with horses/ponies that hold ASPC and AMHR papers is growing. In business you only get one chance to gain a customer, I hope they don't miss this chance.

Jacki Loomis

[email protected]