This year marks the inception of the Tristanne Weber Childress Memorial American Morgan Horse Association (AMHA) Youth of the Year Contest Sportsmanship Award. A Morgan horse trainer, Tristanne Weber Childress of Siler City, NC, passed away March 17, 2008, following a short illness at the age of 34.

This award, funded by donations from friends and family, will be presented to the AMHA Youth of the Year contestant who best exemplifies the ideals of sportsmanship. The winner will be selected by his or her peers at the Grand National & World Championship Morgan Horse Show, which will take place October 4-11, 2008, in Oklahoma City. The winner will receive a $500 gift to be used toward educational endeavors and a beautiful silver engraved photo album, and the winner's name will be placed on a plaque to be displayed at the AMHA headquarters in Shelburne, VT. The plaque and photo album are donated by alumnae of Ohio State University's Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter.

The Morgan Horse Youth Program was an instrumental part of Childress' education; her Morgan horse education and showing career began in Colorado and Oklahoma and went on to North Carolina. She contributed greatly to others throughout her involvement of developing and running youth programs, including the AMHA Youth Program. She was an active member of the Virginia-Carolinas Morgan Horse Club and was the longtime youth coordinator for the club. She helped start the Youth of the Year Contest at the Southern States Regional and ran this successfully for many years.