PRESIDENT’S REPORT  MAY 07, 2016

First and foremost a hearty welcome to all for coming out and attending our Annual General Meeting. Thank you for your dedication to the Canadian Registry of the Tennessee Walking Horse.

I am honoured to be the first CRTWH President from Ontario. I am very sorry that I can not be in attendance to meet you all in person. Many of you know me through the internet and telephone conversations, but I have not met a single one of you in person. Imagine that for a minute. (Pause). Indeed, it is a new world. The logistics of travel along with the absence of quality horse babysitters these days makes it quite difficult for me to attend. Instead of looking upon the situation as a weakness we, as an organization, must look and build upon it as a strength, that People from all across Canada can participate fully on the Board of Directors is a milestone.

This is the strength of an organization conceived more than thirty years ago by people with a vision. The founders of the CRTWH had a vision of what they wanted a Tennessee Walking Horse to be, and what they wanted a registry to do. It is a great testament to the vision of a naturally gaited walking horse that the organization thrives more that three decades later.  The Canadian Registry of the Tennessee Walking Horse has blossomed from modest beginnings in Alberta to an organization that has spread through out Canada and throughout the world. As an organization we are growing, diversifying, and modernizing. 2015 was an important year in that evolution and I look forward to where 2016 takes us along that path.  

Again this year the Gait From the Ground Up clinic is being held in conjunction with the Annual General Meeting. We are very lucky to have a clinician like Bill Roy to conduct these very popular clinics. The rider positions are always filled months before the event. We hope you have had a chance to participate in the clinic or watch a bit of it before this meeting. And thank you to Bill, to Dianne, to Leslie, to the riders and auditors, and to all others who make the clinics possible. And a thank you to Klondike Victory Farms for the use of their facility.

The events of the past year saw the CRTWH  sponsor a booth at the four day long 2016 Mane Event in Red Deer, Alberta. The booth proved again to be a popular stopping point for attendees. The 2016 booth looked fabulous decked out with many photos of our spectacular Canadian Registered Tennessee Walking Horses.  A big thank you to Karla Hansen for her hard work and dedication to the CRTWH booth, and to all of the volunteers who helped make the booth another successful venture. Your help is greatly appreciated and we hope you will come out and volunteer again next year.  

The Canadian Triple Challenge Program is unique in the world of Walking & Gaited horses. The CRTWH has now evaluated horses in the US, Switzerland, and Germany as well as in Canada. The awards and evaluation become a permanent public record of the horse’s achievements. We are very pleased to see the popularity of this Program growing with more members taking part every year. In many cases horses have been transferred to the CRTWH in order to participate in the Triple Challenge Program.  We welcome them!  The Canadian Triple Challenge is comprised of the Program For Excellence – to evaluate conformation, gait and breed character; the Training Levels – to show trainability and versatility, and The Ride/Drive Your Walker program -for the sheer enjoyment of your horse!  Thank you to those who have participated in the Program. The immense amount of work you have put in has not gone unnoticed. We are pleased to recognize your achievements and you should be very proud of your awards.  

In particular Alberta, along with British Columbia and Saskatchewan, continue to be the nucleus for interest in the Canadian Registry of the Tennessee Walking Horse in Canada and we want that to continue.  I would like to recognize the efforts of our breeders which have been historic and remarkable in many ways. A shout out to them all. We have conscientious breeders who are working hard to improve the breed, preserve old bloodlines, and develop a good versatile naturally gaited walking horse that is easy on the eyes. Our breeders are carrying out their due diligence to the point that some breeders have decided to withhold breeding for a year or two due to market conditions in the horse industry. I applaud the breeders for always putting the welfare of each individual horse ahead of pursuing selfish personal goals and producing unwanted horses for a current market place that can not absorb all of them.. What more can we ask of our breeders than responsible breeding practices.  Yet there has to be enough horses on the market to satisfy demand. As we work hard to promote the Canadian registry we envision a greater demand for the unique Canadian Registered Tennessee Walking horse.    

So in closing, I would like to thank the wonderful Board of Directors that I have had the privilege of working with over the years of my involvement with the CRTWH. It is no accident that I ended up working with this marvelous group of like minded people. You have all been “straight shooters”, concerned foremost with ethics and the welfare of the horse. Indeed I hope that with hard work and dedication I can serve you well as the President. Suffice to say that I am with you in spirit today.

Respectfully submitted,

Sue Gamble

Your virtual President.

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