HOA Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of the Horse of the Americas Registry lived up to everything that I hoped. Vickie Ives, of Karma Farms in Texas, brought up two beautiful grandsons of the famous Choctaw Sundance. One of my stallions, Ta Sunka Witco, is also a grandson Choctaw Sundance and it was great to watch his relatives move.

The best part of the meeting was the announcement of the winners of the HOA horses that had been donated as prizes in the essay contest. One of my little riders, Jacob Anderson, is now the owner of a beautiful little East-West four year old. Tom Norush, HOA President, donated this colt. I am sure that Jacob will have him under saddle in short order. Jacob will be a first rate horse trainer and this colt will certainly be a first rate horse.

We carried seven Corolla Spanish Mustangs and Wanchese, my Shackleford stallion, over for the day. We did a training demonstration with Swimmer, a Corolla mare, captured in late August. Some of my riders have been learning drawing and painting from Kay Kerr, an experienced art teacher, and they had some of their work available for sale with all funds to go to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund. My riders rode the Bankers around the ring to demonstrate their beautiful Spanish movement. Steve Rogers, herd manager for the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, was on hand with information about the wild herd. The American Livestock Breed Conservancy had a wonderful program on the various strains of Colonial Spanish Horses. Tom Norush and Vickie Ives discussed the conformation of the Spanish Colonial Horse.

There is an organization out there dedicated to getting children on mustangs. There is an organization out there dedicated to educating the public about the amazing talents of these little horses. Most importantly, there is an organization out there dedicated to preserving all of the strains of these historic horses. That organization is the HOA. I am glad that my little riders have a chance to be part of it.