AHA's Fees for OEIP

Recently AHA raised their fees for the OEIP from $3 per report to $10, this is over a tripling of fees for this program. I can understand some increase in the fee, maybe to $5 but to $10 this is ridiculous!

Think about it. What is the best advertisement for the breed? Open shows show that Arabians are not crazy. I do Cowboy Mounted Shooting on a purebred mare. What better way to show that our breed has speed, athletic ability and a head on their shoulders.

She has shown people that Arabians can do this sport as we have won a national class in Cowboy Mounted Shooting.

I have also spent a boatload of time trying to get shooters involved with AHA. A recent survey of mounted shooters indicated that almost 10% of horses used are Arabians or Arabian related. That is about a 1,000 horses!!

Please contact your Regional Director and let them know that this is a great program for advertising how great this breed is. It is cheap advertising.

I have to wonder why AHA has not taken this program, looked at it as the diamond in the rough that it is, polished it, and made it shine to support and show that we do "indeed" have the most versatile family horse breed in the world! What better way to show it than too brag on our horses in the OEIP!

Hi,
I had not been aware of this program until you two began to talk about it. How does AHA promote the program outside of AHA membership? This could be a great promotional tool for the breed if it was utilized properly. Is there a difference in fees to AHA members?

By the way, the mounted shooting is a great sport. Way to go !!!!

First, you have to be a member to participate in this program.

Secondly, I think AHA does a poor job of promoting this program. I agree that this could be an excellent program to introduce Arabians to people outside of the breed shows. Further, I think it does what we should be doing - rewarding the versatility of the Arabian and recognizing those who do promote the Arabian horse beyond the same people at the breed shows.

Third, I have suggested over and over to the Board that there needs to be an effort to affiliate with discipline organizations beyond just USEF. The fastest growing equine disciplines right now are Cowboy Mounted Shooting, Ranch Horse and other working western and western speed events.

I have been working with Glenn Petty, EVP, and Jim Hitt, Region 8 Director, to publicize this program, develop an affiliate program and develop relationships with other discipline organizations. The first two being Mounted Shooting and Ranch Horse. We might also want to take a look at Mounted Archery where one of the preferred breeds is the Arabian.

Have never heard of mounted archery...I could go for that one, though I have never tried to shoot off of a horse.

There are a couple of people around here that use their arabs in team penning and team sorting.

I hope that Glenn Petty actually hears you... While I understand the board's angst about bolstering the falling show ring numbers, more and more of our folks are leaving the showring for something that they can actually do with their horses. (I know that phrase sounds odd, but I am referring to activities that are not cut and dried, same every time, show ring displays.) The hard core main ring show people are having a tough enough time with what they perceive as a dilution of "their" resources with the sport horse division, much less reaching out to the non showring activities. On the other hand, I do feel that the inclusion of sport horse by AHA was to head off the formation of a separate organization to handle those activities.....so maybe the same AHA logic will apply again for the OEIP activities. Let's hope.

Again, I agree with most of what you write.

The appeal of these other disciplines is that an amateur can do it all. For example, I took one of my mares and started to do Mounted Shooting. Could I have gotten better sooner by buying a trained horse, of course, but there is no stigma in Mounted Shooting if you train your own horse. And no one accuses you of having a back yard horse. Competitions then become relatively inexpensive - $200 for the weekend including stall. And there is a 40 - 50% payback of entry fees. I have been at shoots where I won enough where the net cost for the weekend was $1.17.

One of great things about these type disciplines is that the other riders are tremendously helpful. Even lending you equipment or their horse to ride.

Here is a link to the Mounted Archery Association website:
http://mountedarchery.org/

We have several ranch and quarter horses that we use to team penning, and sorting. I plan on doing the same with my arabian so he stays fresh for show ring. Hope that the AHA grows to include them.

Team Penning is included in the program. Here is a link to the program:
http://www.arabianhorses.org/activities/incentiveprograms/oeip.asp

If you go down the page you will find a list of competition types and organizations.

Thank you

When I "discovered" this program about 3 months ago (I've been an AHA member for 15+ years) I was both shocked and pleased! I've since contacted AHA about it and asked how they promote it. Basically, they don't, which is a crying shame due to promoting the versatility of this breed (as many of you have stated).

We are heavily involved in ranch and team sorting. FYI...even though it's not on the list, it IS an approved event. Again, it doesn't show up on the list, but if you go in to enter your points (at this time, probably only under USTPA - United States Team Penning Association) ranch/team sorting IS there and your points for this WILL count! It was pretty easy to get them to add this additional sport because USTPA was already an approved organization. I'm tryng to get RSNC (Ranch Sorting National Championships) to register with AHA, but haven't gotten them to fill out the form as of yet. If they do it, they'll be another organization where people can show.

BTW...the website says that the fee for OEIP event report forms is $5 & that's what I paid for the two that I most recently turned in, so I don't know if that's changed since the first post in here or what...