Lexington, KY - The American Saddlebred Horse Association (ASHA) has announced that the ASHA Regional Championships have been discontinued, effective in 2011.

This change allows for more focus to be placed on the new ASHA High Point Awards program being implemented in the 2011 competition year. The ASHA High Point Awards program, an initiative of the Charter Club Council, recognizes Saddlebred and Half Saddlebred achievement, not only in the traditional show ring, but also in a wide range of open breed competition including dressage, combined driving, eventing, endurance/distance/competitive trail, hunter/jumper, and other disciplines.

In order for the ASHA High Point Awards program to be as comprehensive as possible, ASHA encourages management of all competitions where Saddlebreds and Half-Saddlebreds compete, to register their competitions with ASHA and be included on the ASHA Competition Calendar. The competition registration form can be found here. All ASHA members are urged to notify ASHA if a competition in their local area is missing from the ASHA Competition Calendar.

Full details of the ASHA High Point Awards program are posted on the ASHA website, www.asha.net.

For questions about the ASHA High Point Awards program, contact Brenda Newell, Senior Program Administrator, at 859.475.1461 or [email protected], or Susan Harris, Registry Associate/Competitions, at 864.293.2741 or [email protected].

ENDS