There have been some questions about the recent IAMHA/MHA Seminars and Show Prospect Sale, so I wanted to tell everyone about the day and how it unfolded.
First, let me say that the horses brought next to nothing and a lot of good folks got some real deals on some horses that will hopefully be loved and enjoyed by the new owners.
The founding members had several objectives when deciding to put this sale on:
1. To expose as many new people to the American Miniature Horse as possible.
2. To offer seminars that would be educational and easy for people to learn from for as many people as possible.
3. To offer for sale as many well bred and trained for as many disciplines as possible miniatures as was possible, regardless of the price they brought.
4. To raise some money for Toys for Tots and garner as many gifts as possible for them, also.
5. Last, but not least, to try to provide direction and raise money to continue to do the marketing efforts of IAMHA/MHA.
I can tell you that all objectives were achieved, except possibly the last one. The seminars & sale were advertized in all three of the miniature magazines, on web sites such as “Lil Beginnings,” to all media sources within a 150 mile radius of the venue and to as many 4-H and FFA contacts as we could find.
But, for whatever reason -- the weather (it was cold as heck), the economy (it is not what any of us want right now LOL), the time of the year etc. etc. -- it was not attended by as many buyers as we would have wanted, but that is the least important of all the desires we had for this venue.
The seminars, though, were watched by numerous people on the web and in person. And, we suspect that many of these folks were new people. At one point, we had 90+ people on-line alone, watching the seminar presentations.
Now for the good part -- A feel good story that surely will make you laugh and at the same time know that we did indeed make some in-roads into getting the word out about the American Miniature Horse.
A lady came into the office after the sale and approached me. She said she had bought one of the horses, did not have a trailer, and needed help finding some plastic or trash bags to lay down in the back seat of her Rodeo SUV to transport it home.
I was a little taken aback, but proceeded to help her find some. She then lay them down in her back seat, loaded the horse in her back seat, her kids in the front and off she went. We are in the process of trying to find this lady to offer help in proper care etc. information and to try and get some more information. But, I think we can safely say she is hooked and that is a good thing. LOL Neat end to an otherwise good day that I really enjoyed being a part of.
Heather at Mare Stare, Double Diamond, The Expo Center, the seminar presenters (Lisa Barnes, Tuffy Acton, Carl Mitz, the AMHA/AMHR parents, the kids in the fashion show), the consignors, the attending clubs/registries and all of the founding member farms ( Cherryville Farms, MCC Farms, Goodsell Miniatures and Willowcrest Farms) all did the jobs they were asked to do in as good a manner as was possible and all is well that ends well.
I want to say a personal “Thanks” to everyone that participated and represented the Miniature Horse industry as well as they did.
Sincerely,
John Cherry
President IAMHA/MHA
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