2009 AMHA European Championship show

The ICAMH is honoured to have been the host of the first ever official AMHA European Championship Show, as announced by the American Miniature Horse Association in USA.

This most important event of the year 2009 was held at “Manege Het Zwarte Water” in De Mortel, the Netherlands. This lovely indoor venue is rather familiar to many of the exhibitors, as the annual ICAMH Miniature Extravaganza show takes place there also.

The European Championship show started on Saturday 5th September, from 14:00 PM on, with the color classes and the performance classes (driving, obstacle, jumping, liberty).
On Sunday 6 September, from 08:30 AM on, the halter classes youth, amateur, and open took the ring.

In the evening between both showdays, one could join in a Western Buffet & Dessert Buffet at the show venue. This presented a lovely occasion to catch up and enjoy each others company in a relaxed atmosphere.

Just like at all regular ICAMH shows, there was free entrance for spectators. This is very good for introducing the breed to the audience, and it was nice to see the public enjoy the show.

Qualification

Usually, horses must qualify to attend an AMHA Championship Show. For this very first AMHA European Champion show, the AMHA decided to drop the qualifying requirements! This meant that participation in Europe’s most important event of this year was possible with every AMHA horse, without any prior qualification.

The judging

A panel of three AMHA carded judges had been invited to officiate at this show:

• Mr Bill Fairchild,
  
• Mr Jim Havelhurst
  
• Ms Judith Warner.

All three of the judges’ cards/scores were used to determine class winners. Three sets of points were awarded. Points were tabulated as set forth in PA-015 in the 2009 AMHA Official Rule Book.
Total points earned at the European AMHA Championship Show are valid for the 2009 World Championship Show qualification and for all AMHA titles and awards.

Impressions judges

Judith K. Warner:

“As one of the judges forthe AMHA EC Championship show in September, I was happily surprised and totally impressed with the quality of miniature horses exhibited! The winning horses were definitely competitive with winners back in the United States and I think very significant is that a European bred stallion received the “supreme champion” title, awarded with a beautiful trophy designed and donated by one of the judges from his business.
Generally, the horses were groomed and presented well and the exhibitors seemed to be enjoying themselves. What I particularly noticed was that the onlookers cheered and were happy for their fellow competitors!
But as important as the quality horses was the most pleasant atmosphere at the show. There was a feeling of “comradeship” among the small number of staff, mostly made up of board members with a few helpers, who did everything to make the show run along without a hitch. And indeed it did run smoothly!
This very first European Championship show was a great success and I was honored to be one of the judges judging such a lovely show!
I wish all the exhibitors and members much good fortune with the show in 2010.”

Bill Fairchild:

“Never having been to Holland before other than in and out of the Amsterdam airport, I had no idea what to expect. My experience in Holland was incredible. The facility was a complete delight with special offering of things to do for the kids and first class stabling for the horses. I was impressed with the quality of the horses I judged including their condition and training. After the show I was told that entries came from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Holland, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain and Switzerland to compete. The breeders and handlers can be very proud. They would be competitive anywhere. We as judges felt it would be fitting to add the supreme halter horse. To see the emotion and joy of the winner was a moment I will never forget.
Everyone I encountered was helpful; totally willing to share their knowledge of the country and give advice on where to go and what to see during my stay.
From food (especially the desserts) to the lodging, nothing could have been better. I hope that I will be able to bring Corky one day on a trip or maybe she will have the opportunity to judge sometime in the future. In which case, she will have to take me with!”

Impression of the board

After months of preparations, it finally happened: the very first official AMHA European Championship in Europe.

This show was held under the ICAMH flag. After the ICAMH president, Roswitha Boensma, upon AMHA invitation had spent some time in the USA to learn about the finetuning of show-management, it could all be put into practice here. Of course, Roos was already experienced in the field of show management, but for us as committee, this show was an extra special one indeed.
We truly felt very honoured that our club had been chosen to organise this championship for AMHA.

Everybody pitched in to look for sponsors. Something that was absolutely necessary, as ICAMH had to finance the whole show. Much support was the result, especially from the USA, thanks also to Roos and Maurice for networking during their stay there. Also Claudia worked very hard and managed to persuade a wonderful number of sponsors.
Thank you very much to everybody who supported this show, without you this event could not have been held!

Then, the 4th of September arrived. All the staff came to De Mortel to prepare everything for the weekend. The show ring had to be set up, the tents build, the ring decorated, with in the middle a nice spot for taking photos of the winners. All in all, quite a job.
Claudia had arranged many things, like a completely furnished judges tent and much decoration material, because of which everything looked wonderful.

The show itself ran fine, we didn’t come across really major problems.

It did take some getting used to working with the AMHA computer system, however. All results from the 3 judges had to be fed to the computer, after which it took a while for the computer to give the final result. This was new to the people waiting in the ring, as well as for us. Only now and then the printer didn’t work right away, or something else went wrong, but if so, that could be solved rather quickly.

Thanks to the sponsoring and support of Tina Fisseler, there were wonderful prizes for the youth classes. Also, all entries in the youth classes were presented with an ICAMH youth membership till their 18th birthday.
All this to stimulate the youth to go on showing - after all, the youth holds the future.

At this show for the first time, prizemoney was awarded to the gelding classes.
The sponsoring of Sylvia Moll-Niessel helped in setting up a Gelding Fund.
The geldings cannot be missed for the youth, nor for the performance classes. And not every stallion is a good stud by definition.
To make it more attractive to people to have their stallions gelded, we want to maintain this Gelding Fund in the future shows, and the prizemoney that is to be won because of that Fund.

All in all, we as committee look back onto a wonderful weekend.
We are very proud of how the show as a whole ran, and very pleased with the people’s reactions to it.
Also after the show weekend, still many e-mails came in from people wanting to thank us for this great show, which is very rewarding.

We are already working on the preparations for the shows in 2010. And... we have been informed that we may also organize the 2010 AMHA European Championship! We are very pleased and honoured about that, and we will do our utmost, with your support, to equal the success of the 2009 edition and improve it where possible!