Taking the top prize in the website category was Equisearch.com; the trophy for both specialized and overall publications, as well as the across-the-board prize known as the Daniel P. Lenehan Trophy, were awarded to Primedia and accepted by Cathy Laws. Laws returned to the dais time after time to pick up the bronze Pegasus trophies awarded for outstanding achievement in media.
Among the 2006 winners were Jennifer Wood of Phelps Media Group for her news article “USA's Kent Farrington and Madison Stay the Course for a Win in KL Grand Prix in Kuala Lumpur”; Flora Hillman of Endurance News magazine for her feature article “Help My Horse: A Day in the Life of an AERC Treatment Veterinarian”; “The 2006 Rolex Equestrian Championships in Lexington" by Carr-Hughes Production in the Television Broadcast category, in addition to the awards presented to Primedia’s Equisearch.com, Dressage Today (Specialized Publication) and EQUUS (Publication of the Year).
Perhaps the highlight of the mid-day program was the presentation of the President’s Award for Overall Excellence to cable network Animal Planet for its successful television series “Horse Power: Road to the Maclay.” The series, aired in 2006, was saluted for bringing the excitement of junior riders to the masses and not only exciting those already involved in equestrian sport, but more importantly, bringing in an entirely new audience that tuned in and became new fans of the sport.
Senior Vice President of Marketing at Animal Planet Victoria Lowell accepted the prestigious award and shared her excitement for the program and the association developed with the USEF and hopes for more programming to come in the future.
After the presentation of media awards, O’Connor gave his traditional Keynote Address and touched on several topics that he said were at the forefront.
“When I look back across 2006, I see a fulfillment of promises that have been made – or at least the start of that fulfillment. One of those was the performance at Aachen in Germany,” he said, making reference to the athletic work put in by the various teams. “Outright, Aachen was the best World Equestrian Games we’ve ever been to, and it was a financial success and international sporting success. For our own athletes, I would say it was probably one of the best things I’ve been to in a lot of ways.” He noted the challenges faced by the dressage athletes and applauded their professionalism and their “classic horsemanship.”
Turning to the governance of the sport, O’Connor said that an important buzz word for him over the past year was “listening.” Having attended so many of the various affiliates’ organizational meetings and conferences, he said that one of the big realizations for him was the reason for the founding of the Federation.
“It made me ask myself, ‘Why are we here?’” he said. “And in the end, the Federation is here because of you. Because people got together and realized that the sport got to the place where there needed to be some structure and rules and regulations. It’s something inherent in all sport and in life. We are the recipients of that legacy being passed on – of having all of the different people in the sport send their best and brightest here to solve the problems…to have an overall umbrella of regulation, and what I call obligation.”
“Opportunity” was another word that was said time and again in O’Connor’s address.
“With these obligations that we have, it also creates opportunity. That, to me, is the message, and what we are here for,” he said. “We are looked at as a Federation heavy on the obligation side. We are trying to change the Federation to be more proactive on the opportunity side…opportunities of international performance, opportunities for promoting sport and opportunities in investing in our future.”
He mentioned specific programs that have provided new opportunities such as the successful grant program in which horse shows were provided additional support in the form of funding to better meet their financial challenges and needs of some of the Federation’s breed shows. It is a program O’Connor wants to see expand outside the realm of breed shows.
Another program that inspires and excites O’Connor is the newly formed Youth Council – a group of young equestrians meeting as a group for the first time at the Annual Meeting. He hopes that this group of exciting and active young riders will offer their voices and opinions about what it is they want, not what their elder administrators believe they want.
“We’re behind the curve on what kids are interested in,” he said. “The Youth Council is an avenue for them to express what is interesting to them.”
Looking toward the future, O’Connor spoke to the topic of what is to come.
“How do we take I.T. to a new place, marketing to a new place and what are our goals for membership?” he asked. “The I.T. program that is going to be asked [of the Board of Director] is very exciting, and it is going to have lot of different ramifications.” He added that there will need to be a serious investment into the I.T. needs of the Federation in order to get its message out and communicate with not only current members, but prospective ones.
Lastly, O’Connor said that the Federation must look at itself and ask the question of whether the Federation wants to be a source beyond that of horse sport, instead being one for the broader topic of equestrianism as a whole.
“Do we become a resource outside the horse sport world, or do we stay within it? I believe we should be a resource for equestrianism overall on the national stage,” he stated. “I believe that this question needs to be answered as we look forward into our Strategic Plan of what we look like in 10 to 20 years from now.”
The Keynote Address was the first in a long series of presentations and award programs that will be followed by the Pegasus Awards, presented on Friday night to the some of the industry’s most luminary figures, and the final program – the Farnam/Platform USEF Horse of the Year Awards where regional, zone and national Horse of the Year awards are presented, in addition to the exciting naming of the overall Horse of the Year.
Thursday Board of Directors Meeting
A six-point list of highlights was presented by USEF Chief Executive Officer John Long with the assistance of John DellaVolpe, a consultant from SDS Group facilitating the Strategic Plan process. These proposed initiatives were the developed by a task force consisting of representation from several USEF recognized affiliates after an analysis was held to determine areas for work.
Among the points brought forth from the analysis were a review of the Federation’s regulatory role with the need to keep the field of play sacrosanct; a desire to simplify the current USEF Rule Book; various areas pertaining to membership such as developing a new business model, working on “best practices” and developing a “tech-based” online community platform; reviewing the needs of information technology (I.T.) such as creating integrated platforms, products and technical tools for the Federation and affiliates; marketing and communications efforts to showcase equestrian sport in the U.S.; fund raising and high-performance needs; and the development of a new all-breed horse show similar to the famous Westminster Dog Show.
More discussion on the topics will be held during the board meetings over the next three days, and it is certain that many opinions and ideas will be shared and brought forth among not only the Board of Directors, but the general membership in attendance at the 2007 Annual Meeting.
Silver Stirrup Awards
Members from not only across the country, but as far away as Europe, joined together to celebrate their horses’ achievements. USEF President O’Connor along with emcee Peter Barrows and Ned Bonnie were on-hand to present the awards.
To learn more about the 2007 USEF Annual Meeting, visit www.usef.org.
One of the interesting topics discussed during the late afternoon Board of Directors meeting was the Strategic Plan Task Force Outline for future development of the Federation.
The second of two award programs rounded out the day’s events in the ballroom of the Seelbach Hotel as the Performance Horse Registry’s (PHR) annual Silver Stirrup Awards were presented to the past year’s top owners and breeders of the Federation.