Presidents Message by Margo Urad

Another show season and year have come and almost gone with the SWHBA Fall Finale Horse Show being our last high point show in Texas for the 2011 season.

As you know, our President Lisa Weaver had to resign her position from the Board in September, due to her work schedule. I was asked to take over as President and complete the year.

This year’s show was a success with the generous assistance of the entire SWHBA Board of Directors, volunteers and staff multitasking to get the jobs done. I cannot thank the office staff, volunteers, Board of Directors our photographer, and judge enough for all they did. We had over $ 2,700.00 in sponsorships, the 50/50 raffle raised $ 1,564.00 , with Ann King being the lucky winner of half the pot. It was Ann’s lucky night at the banquet as she walked away with 6 great door prizes as well! The show itself was down $ 1,917.00 in revenue over last year. Most of this was due to being down 16 horses from 2010. Some could not make the trip due to illness and others brought fewer horses.

The 2011 SWHBA Banquet and High Point Awards were held Saturday evening @ the host hotel “Laquinta”. Mary Kirton and Jim Engel did an outstanding job coordinating the event, also providing the appetizers and the happy hour which was sponsored by them as well as Dodi Speece and Rosalee Manning for the donations of the wine and beer.

The general membership meeting began around 7:15pm with the Call to Order, first thanking everyone for coming to the Fall Finale Show and SWHBA banquet. Mary Kirton gave the financial statement with our balance (prior to the 2011 show) being $ 13,828.24. Old business was next with the need to update our By-Laws. Discussion was held with the decision to bring the changes the BOD determines, mailed and to be voted on by the general membership. New Business was next on the agenda with the Election of the 2012 Board. Attached you will find the 2012 Board of Directors with the email address and phone numbers. Please remember, this is your Association. If there are changes you wish to have made, contact one of your Board Members! Following the election, we went into the High Point Awards which I have attached the results. I congratulate not only with High Point winners, but all that have shown and supported our Texas and Louisiana show circuit. Without you all, our shows would not exist! Quite a few categories this year were extremely close this year with the Champion and Reserve Champion being 3-5 points’ difference. The meeting ended around 10:00 with the next BOD meeting being held at the Marshall Horse Show in the spring.

I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart for supporting our Tennessee Walking Horse and the SWHBA.

Margo Urad, President

A horse drinks about 10 gallons of water per day. He can produce up to 10 gallons of saliva a day as well.