The beautiful rotunda at the Mission Inn Riverside
The 2017 AMHA Annual Convention in the historic and beautiful Mission Inn & Spa in Riverside, California was chock full of history, useful information and the underlying idea that our equine industry is definitely on the rise in many ways.
Morgan legend Arthur Perry Jr. participated in the Awards Luncheon fashion show sporting his famous Rose Bowl Parade attire.
One of her most interesting animal stories was a call from a concerned owner of a boa constrictor who had refused to eat. Lydia visualized the snake in an aquarium. then saw in her mind blue satin sheets. She immediately smelled paint, and after asking the owner where such a smell could be coming from, she discovered her roommate had painted a rock with nail polish, and the smell was making the snake sick.
There were also several well attended seminars providing insight into the different levels of developing, growing and maintaining lesson programs, right through to the advanced levels. Lecturers included Jamie and Becky Gruenberg of Stone Ledge Farm, Susan Haberek of Fire Run Farm, Ann Miller of Miller Equestrian Services and Ann Speck of Ride RDM. These astute and successful instructors and trainers enlightened, shared their positive stories and handed out many great new ideas to attendees.
The very popular farm tours at this year’s convention were well attended by all. Visits to Miller Equestrian Services, Sterling Hill, Majestic Farms, Wallen West Farms and Rushton Stables. The visit to Rushton’s included a very entertaining mini-horse show with three drivers who had never driven before, as well as riding and driving lessons with trainers stepping out of their comfort zones for the crowd. World Champion western pleasure trainer Rick Gervasio learned to drive the right way with Gerry Rushton in the buggy seat with him, and World Champion English pleasure trainer Eric Antman learned the finer points of western pleasure in a lesson from Rick.
The beautiful interior views of the Mission Inn
The AMHA/World Morgan Futurity Stallion Service Auction was beautifully presented in one of the courtyards of the Mission Inn. With video and photo shows presented by the talented CA Lee III, we all thrilled to the enthusiastic bidding of both the attending audience as well as the telephone bidders. Certainly the healthy bids on the top ten stallions were a great window to the future of breeding in Morgan Horses. Topping the auction was a tie between two World Champion sires, Graycliff Tony GCH and Dragonsmeade Axios at $5,000 each. Both stallions are World Champions themselves and have now sired youngsters following in their footsteps. At $5,000, they provided a sure sign that our breeding industry is on the rise. Tied for second were two more World Champions who are as yet unproven in the breeding shed, at $3,100 each, current World Champion Stallion and World Champion English Pleasure horse Merriehill After Hours GCH and the exciting young son of Graycliff Tony, Jake Ryan, were impressive in their bidding draws. The third highest stallion was the incomparable Minion Millennium at $3,000. Rounding out the top five (which was actually eight) were Dragonsmeade Icon and Get Busy at $2,600, followed by JW Standing Tall at $2,550.
It was good to see the AMHA Annual Members Meeting well attended. The meeting was called to order by Jeff Gove, our outgoing president. Notable at this meeting was the changeover from our previous AMHA Regions that gave us many headaches as we tried to remember which Region number we were in, to a very simple three Region system: Western, Central and Eastern. This change took place in October of 2015 and this year’s AMHA election was the first to make the adjustment. Three Directors were elected from each of the three Regions.
Our Eastern Region includes Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia, including South America, Europe and Africa. This largest region as of the end of October 2015 included 2,664 U.S. members and 63 from outside the U.S.
The Central Region includes Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Winsconsin and includes 1,950 members as of the end of 2015.
The Western Region includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, and also includes Asia, Australia, Antarctica, Canada and New Zealand with 1,320 U.S. members and 103 outside of the U.S.
The new Regional Directors elected were chosen for staggered terms of 3/2/1 years, so as to begin a rotation process going forward. (See all new divisions and more information on MorganHorse.com.) Results of the election as follows:
Eastern Region
- 3 – Tony Lee
- 2 – Kate Kirsch
- 1 – Karen Marlin
Central Region
- 3 – Victoria Bennett
- 2 – Harlan Grunden
- 1 – Kristen Breyer
Western Region
- 3 – Carol Fletcher Churchill
- 2 – Mari Sanderson
- 1 – Linnea Sidi
Subsequently, after the annual meeting, the new board elected Vicki Bennett President of the AMHA.
Finance report: In addition to the changes in representation by moving to three larger regions, the AMHA Directors have been changed to 9 year term limits, with nomination requirements leveled out.
For eight consecutive months we’ve had positive gains in all areas of the registry, including registrations, color coats, DNA, transfers, etc. All transactions were up. We’re on a roll! Positive trend has continued first two months of this year.
The Young Adult Alliance report was presented by our new Executive Director, Carrie Mortensen. Highlights included the awarding of the judging school scholarship to Jordan Cusamano. The YAA also did trivia night at two shows, and hosted a horse protection act meeting at the Grand National.
AMHAY: Aline Bodine was our Youth of the Year out of a large group—16 under 13 juniors in the judging contest, and 26 participants in the AMHA/UPHA learning center at OKC. Badges were earned, and the 2016 USEF Youth Sportsman Award was won by our own Alexandra Ferris, identifying her as a potential future leader in the equine industry. Lexie is a fourth generation horsewoman from Ispwich, MA and is an 18 year old senior in high school with an admirable GPA. We are very proud of Lexie’s accomplishments and recognition with the USEF.
USEF was well represented at our convention, with CEO Bill Moroney and Lori Nelson, Senior Director, National Affliliate, Competition & Alliance Partner Relationships presenting at seminars as well as giving us a great overview during our annual meeting. They have recently launched a new USEF.org website, began implementing a new strategic plan, the first they’ve had in 10 years. It launched a new direction for the organization based on customer service, which happens to be a directive of the AMHA as well. Part of the process at the USEF Annual meeting was the senior staff team got up and told membership on what they did on a day to day basis and how much they do, especially their people behind the scenes. 2017 will focus on implementation of phase 2, which includes a valuable learning center on the new website. The board approved the plan and invested in their own organization for the first time and set aside reserves to grow our sport, and by the beginning of January they hope to include a learning center with 50 videos (35 went live recently, more are being added constantly), new internal processes, and are now finishing “getting our house in order” plans. One of the underlying themes of the USEF presentation was that we have to get our policies and procedures in order and need to be transparent and we need to follow them.
USEF regarding the USDF Horse Protection Act: The final ruling was put in limiting the breeds that the new regulations affected to racking horses and TN walking horses. They removed spotted saddle horses and road horses. A question came up in final ruling that they had used a small r and small h in Racking Horses (designating a breed as opposed to racking gait). They came back, confirmed and made the correction. They also filed this very close to the change of administration in Washington, so the new administration is holding these regulations in the HPA, now put on hold for further review. But there were two additions that we’ve heard caveats moving forward, and they are looking for confirmation. For every one new regulation coming forward, they will need to remove two regulations. If it has a financial impact, when they remove the two regulations to let this go forward, they will have no change in finances going forward. So this may impact us. It may stay as is, which effects TN Walking horses, Racking Horses, Spotted Saddle Horses and some Road horses.
USEF was thrilled that the USDA noted the federation’s efforts to self-regulation and oversight and the expertise that we’ve applied. It’s very important to let the public know and understand that USEF exists and that we are designated as the experts in the equestrian events in the U.S. and is recognized by the federal government through Ted Stevens Sports Act. We are recognized as great guardians of safety of humans and animals in our sport, which is a great tool to build consumer confidence, which grows our industry.
USEF also met with American Horse Council (now headed by former AMHA Executive Director Julie Broadway), which is important because they have not communicated well with them before. They have 5-6 initiatives they would like to see move forward. One of them is the transportation of horses nationally and internationally. The regulations from Canada to U.S. are much stronger than European horses going back and forth. A global entry system for horses needs to be built.
They also announced that a Depro Provera workshop is being held on March 13 in Orlando, FL. (Medication) This is being used in some breeds and disciplines to make mares less aggressive when they are in season. The normal dosage is 5cc once every 28 days, and provides the same effect as keeping them on regumate. It’s not actually an equine medication, it was developed for women. Now they’re using it on geldings and stallions to control their dispositions. In mares, Depro Provera does not interrupt estrus. However, it does appear to modify behavior in the same way regumate does. A question posed was why stallions and geldings? Now it’s being used outside of original intention. A vial is being given 2-3x week in H/J. Done a lot of research, scientists, veterinarians, trainers, etc. are going to be at this workshop. Definitely something to watch in the future.
The train the trainers meeting (western) had a short discussion on supplements. The USEF’s position on supplements is that you should go into them with caution. We don’t know what’s in them. Feel free to call the USEF office and read the ingredients off the container, and they will tell you if they’re all approved and safe. But they cannot guarantee that a supplement doesn’t have something in it that’s not on the label, so be careful!
They described an incident where they had an exhibitor send in a tube of a supplement to check and one of the ingredients had a trademark, with a TM, so it didn’t have the ingredients of that item listed. It’s a proprietary “secret” ingredient and they will not tell you what’s in it. Therefore, we don’t know whether it’s approved or not. The moral of this story is Don’t use supplements with proprietary ingredients!
When you call the USEF Drugs & Medication office, they will ask for your name. It’s to make a log book to know when the calls come in. They verify that you called to ask about something.
Lori Nelson, Senior USEF Director, noted our tagline, “Bring the joy of horse sports to as many people as possible”. We have a great partner in the horse. One of the significant pieces of the strategic plan is the Learning Center. There are a lot of videos, they will be working with AMHA to produce Morgan videos. Everyone should login to USEF and look at the ones now available. The hope is that they will draw in horse enthusiasts and will promote different breeds in the videos. We have 122,000 USEF members and our exposure is great outside of our breed.
USEF has a significant social media presence. They have a very aggressive marketing team and they need lots of “feed” for the social media. and also need content for magazine, so they requested that we send them great stories, news and information whenever possible. They have gone to a quarterly magazine, and are working on calendar for next year.
As a result of their partnership with AMHA, on the national side USEF provides grants related to memberships. They are giving a grant to AMHA every year based on the number of people who select Morgan as their primary breed in membership. Our Morgan Youth candidate, Lexie Ferris, won out of 19 youth USEF members from all breeds represented in 2016, and as the winner gets $1,000 grant towards education, and AMHA gets $1,500 toward youth programs.
Saddle Seat Team: USEF took over the team in 2011, and they’ve had ASB, Morgan and Arabian members on the teams. Two teams will compete in April. The 2018 SS WC selection criteria will be released soon.
Competition Light is something USEF has talked about for years. A different type of competition structure for shows that are not currently USEF affiliated, the criteria is less restrictive than full USEF shows. The prize list is looser, and learner judges can work at these shows, stewards might be able to do these shows and get credit—it’s a work in progress. They are working with AMHA on this template. They might be able to have a show that has Competition Light for Morgans and none for ASB. They are also working with ASB for the same thing.
There are a lot of things going on with driving lately and Morgans are really excited about it. They want to promote driving more. Media people are looking toward the competitions. They’re shopping ads around to driving magazines.
USEF Network is open for business and is currently livestreaming popular events across all breeds. If you have an event you want streamed, contact their marketing department. They’re looking for content.
Microchips: USEF is currently looking into registering microchips for identifying our horses. DO NOT USE CHIPS THAT START WITH 900 (there are duplicates in this group).
AMHA feels like with Bill and Lori they have a true partner in USEF. All in all, it was great news in spades from our horse show and events governing organization.
Our new Executive Director, Carrie Mortensen, returned to give us an overview of activities at the AMHA.
2016 Choices, Chances & Change
AMHA is currently working on a new software transition and is planning to go live in July. There are lots of positive accomplishments over the past year, including major registry and magazine growth. Carrie distributed a listing significant member and Morgan accomplishments from 2016 and the list is impressive! Our Youth of the Year program has grown. Our Champions title program has had increased in participation. Last year, 36 promotional grants were awarded.
AMHA has several new projects in 2017:
The Day of the Morgan
Ohio had a great open barn day across the state, which was organized by Sandy Sessink. We are going to try to do this on a national scale this year. AMHA will support Sandy’s effort and this is currently in the works and information is available on the AMHA website. There is a sign up sheet there and October is the target month. There will be press releases, media kids, materials to download and print, etc. Watch the FMHA Facebook page and website for more information on our plans to support this great month of Morgan promotion!
Carrie also noted that AMHA has a number of affinity sponsors and there are great discounts to be had by members. Call the office for more information, or read about them on the website.
Awards noted at the annual meeting included:
AMHA Club of the Year: Wisconsin Morgan Horse Club, Reserve: Arizona Morgan Horse Club
Local Newsletter of the Year: Missouri Valley Morgan Horse Club, Reserve: Cornerstone Morgan Horse Club
National Newsletter of the Year: Rainbow Morgan Horse Assn
Club Promoter Award Recipient: Mary E. Brown & Curtis J. Merritt of the Sacramento Valley Morgan Horse Club
This was a fabulous convention and I encourage all AMHA members to consider planning their attendance for next year’s event in Lexington, Kentucky on February 13-17th!