The board of directors of the AHBA (the Arabian Horse Breeders Alliance) recently held a board meeting for the Las Vegas Show, and it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the show in Vegas caters to the “big time” horses and owners. That is not our intention, and in fact to the contrary, we’d like to do something to more fully support the “smaller” breeders and owners.

There is no getting around the fact that many of the horses that win are owned by people who can go out and spend the money to buy a winning candidate horse, send it to the best trainer, promote it, and send it to Vegas with all of the fanfare necessary to get noticed and to win.

Where however does that leave the rest of the breeders who can’t “play this game” the way it has to be played in order to have a shot at winning? And to be clear, one of the key tenants behind our organization and our show when we formed it was to allow everyone to have a fair shot at the title – to level the playing field – and to take away the power from those with the money and those with the political clout it seems necessary to win in our industry.

So, it’s time to re-group and address this issue.  And to make it happen, as Chairman of the AHBA and original founder (along with my brother Rich), I’m calling on you – those of you who are interested in helping yourselves make this industry better – to rally around the idea I posted in an earlier blog – that is to help us find a way to support the grass roots level of our industry – the grass roots shows – and the grass roots breeders and owners.

I am willing to point the AHBA in your direction, and I have some ideas on how we can achieve the support necessary to shore up the foundation of our breed.

Anybody interested in joining me?

The time is now….

(average: 3.00 out of 5)

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Author: Jeff Sloan

Website: http://www.ariaarabians.com

Other posts by Jeff Sloan

Jeff Sloan has been an owner and enthusiast of Arabian horses since 1982 when he purchased his first Arabian. He is the founder and principal of Aria International, a leading Arabian horse marketing and management firm (www.ariaarabians.com). Aria is known for acquiring, promoting, breeding, showing, and marketing some of the finest Arabian horses in the world, including the likes of *Pianissima, *Emandoria, *Elandra, Aria Impresario, LD Pistal, and many others. Jeff has also maintained a successful amateur handler show career including winning the Scottsdale Yearling Signature Colt Class in 2006. One of Jeff's current ventures is StartupNation, LLC, a media company which provides informational and “how to” content to entrepreneurs aspiring to start and grow their own businesses (www.startupnation.com). Through StartupNation, the Sloan Brothers have been featured in numerous national magazines and newspapers and have appeared as leading entrepreneurial experts on many nationally acclaimed radio and television business talk shows.