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TWHGAgal2 wrote:

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Who are you suggesting will manage this program and who will put the futurity on? You, or SSHBEA, or some other entity?
Betty

Betty, obviuosly, this needs to be an association program. It could be a Trainer's Association program, or Trail Pleasure Committe Program, or PR Committe program, but it really needs to be a SSHBEA program.

You'd auction the stud fees at the Annual meeting... maybe at the Fall show prior , or the Sport Horse Finals prior. It would be best to have it when a lot of SSHBEA members, especially those who show TP , halter and Sport Horse are there.. and when stallion owners for these type SSHs are there. At least for the first 4 auctions. After that , you could have the auction at the Futurity itself every year. This is when it would really take off, and the stud fees would bring a lot of money.

Eventually, you will have gaited horse buyers from all over the country coming to watch, and pick stallions for their programs, and to try to buy these 4 yr olds themselves. You might even add a Futurity sale to the festivities.
You know the type, Betty.. the people like we see on that Yahoo groupo we are on. 2500 members, 2300 of them women.. from all over the country... North West, California, Mid west, North East, South West? The kind I call BSTC's? ( Bitless, Shoeless, Treeless, Clueless). The ones that give ridiculous prices for barefoot gaited horses, who have never seen an "evil show barn"? Or, that they "rescue " from such? And the Baby Boomers who are just now discovering, or re-discovering, trail riding? You see yourself them post about getting such a great deal on their trail horse, $4to $8k !!!!? That want to buy gaited horses from Wyoming ranches, because they KNOW they have never been padded or sored?

Well, the horses competing in this Futurity, would be their "Dream Horse". It is every thing everyone not in the southern Big Lick show culture thinks a gaited horse should be. Versatile, agile, and smooth as glass. The Futurity competitions would be everything that the FOSH-type, Sound Horse advocates complain that the traditional., gaited horse association shows are not. This will expand the demand, and the market , for our SSHs outside of the current, traditional, regionally-based market.

And for those breeders and trainers and poor ol' brokers ( like me ), ...the horses that compete in this futurity, would bring 4 to 5 figures, and this is their first time in competition!
Stud fees would increase exponentially, for those stallions who are part of the auction. I mean their other stud fees to the public..not just the one they sell at the auction.
Breeders will have brothers and sisters and half brothers and sisters to these Futurity horses for sale.
Each year, the donated stud fees would bring more and more, thus increasing the Futurity money every year... attracting more and more entrants.....which will ,again, increase the Futurity money more and more...etc....etc....

It would be a shot of adrenaline in this market, the SSHBEA reg SSH market, when other southern gaited breeds are experiencing a slump. So yeah, Betty, it ought to be a SSHBEA program.. but it won't be.
SSHBEA members are emailing me privately.. stallion owners.. about this, but they are reluctant to post anything on here, they say, for fear of ridicule. it is a shame. But who knows? It might get "picked up" by the "powers that be". like the DSCs and Squat and Crawl discussions were!
John

SpottedInDixie wrote:

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BSTC's..... *snort* Now THAT'S funny........I read alot of those posts/forums just to giggle at them although, in the end, I usually get ticked off at the bashing ALL of us from this area get just because they assume guilt by association.........then it's no longer funny or a giggling matter.

Well, I read them to find prospects I buy them here, add a "zero" to the price I paid, and ship them out there..IF I can find some that can gait naturally, and that have not been shown in a mid-TN "performance" horse ring. I can sell any mature geldings, built like the "ol timey" walking horses were..like you find on the quail plantations down here.. that are stocky, calm, and smooth as silk. I could move 100 today if I had them, but they are hard to find.. especially around up there, where most gaited horses are concentrated. People who use them for quail hunts know to not ride 2 yr old babies,and to geld their stallions., etc, but to get them to turn loose of these takes a lot of $$$! So, this idea is a way to generate an interest in breeding for and raising more marketable horses.

We don't stand either of our stallions to the public, however, if you can get this pulled off, we will throw our hats in the ring (I am sure we will buy back our own fees and that would be fine). So, there, you have it, publically announced, two stallions.

Well, even if you don't stand to the public, and even if you do buy back your own breedings, when you take your 4 yr old to the Futurity and win, then it will make the other babies you raise from these stallions ( and especially out of their dams) bring more money. Most people who donate breedings into a program like this, do so wanting to sell more breedings for higher prices, but it can work out just as well selling the other babies. You have the kind of stock the broader market wants, Ashely. That particular Futurity program should introduce your horses to a larger market. Thanks for having the courage to jump in the water first :)

John

MsMeower wrote:

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Take the SSHBEA name out of it- make it for "Spotted Saddle Horse stallions" for those of us that won't associate ourselves with SSHBEA until the tobiano rule is overturned...and we'll add our three SSH stallions......
Wendy Morton

Believe me, Wendy, I understand your frustrations. I am so puzzled, because in talking to people, and reading forums etc., it apears 90% of the people who have SSHBEA SSHs, want gaits defined.. and the BL, squat-and-crawl look to go away,.. yet they are against the tobiano rule as well. So how did this currrent slate of yahoos get elected!!??

With all its problems, though, and assanine decisions made by assanine people, SSHBEA does have one thing going for it, that so far surpasses anything found in any other gaited association.....that there is really no comparison. This is its Sport Horse division. NSSHA does not have any kind of versatility program at all. They don't even have a means of sanctioning classes. They make you put on a slate of "core" classes, in order for it to be a NSSHA point show. So NSSHA is out. TWHBEA and United racking have versatility programs, but they are no where near the caliber of classes we find in SSHBEA Sport Horse. Plus, if these horses were in the classes, then SSHBEA would not sanction the classes. They won't sanction one if any other kind of horse is in it. The only gaited horse assocation out there that has a versatiltiy program anywhere near being on par with the level of SSHBEA Sport Horses, is MFTHBA . But they require you to have a slate of classes.. use only their judges and DQP, and like SSHBEA, you can't have any other kind of horses in the class.

So, to have a Futurity with these 12 classes in it, SSHBEA is the only game in town. It needs to be an assocation "thang" anyway.
Now, this may be the long way around to get where we need to be, Wendy, but folks said Columbus was nuts for sailing west to to go to the East, too.
Imagine with me, Wendy, this thing really taking off and really being popular.. attracting the types of people listed above... the Not-from-mid-TN show- culture buyers from other parts of the country. More and more people are rasing and entering these kinds of horses. What kind of new members will SSHBEA get? How do yo think they would view some of these issuees? Whose side would they be on? ( I guess I just killed the hell out of any chance this current BOD and officers would get behind this idea, huh? )

So, will you be showing at the spring show?

John

SpottedInDixie wrote:

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Because most of the general membership doesn't take the time to vote or sometimes even realize that they actually have a ballot or get a ballot or just vote for those (if they don't know anyone) names they have seen in the magazine. We have a few friends that call every year and ask our opinion on who they should vote for. I am sure there are others out there who do the same with their friends. Just my two cent opinion on how all of that happens........ I'm sure there is a large portion of the ballots that end up in the trash..........

I wonder if maybe it would be more fair and equitable, to have live nominations ...and then elections....at the annual meeting? I know of much,much larger organizations, with members in all 50 states and other countries, who do it that way.
John