Celebration To Activate SHOW On April 1
Friday, March 27, 2009

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The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration (TWHNC) Board of Directors met on March 26, 2009 and approved the recommendations made by its Horse Industry Organization (HIO) committee to activate SHOW, the HIO of The Celebration on April 1, 2009.  Chairman Charles McDonald had appointed a committee of Pat Marsh, chairman, John T. Bobo, David Howard and himself to aid in establishing the new HIO as soon as possible.

The committee met with the NHSC staff on Monday March 23, 2009 and had subsequent meetings and conversations with the various organizations involved, including the United States Department of Agriculture.   The committee recommended activating SHOW on April 1, 2009.  Andy Messick, Rachel Reed and Penny Isaacs will be come the office staff  of SHOW.

SHOW is an acronym for Sound Horses, Honest Judging, Objective Inspections and Winning Fairly.  SHOW will ultimately be under the direction of an independent board that oversees policy and takes the necessary steps to bring credibility and accountability to the inspection process.

As earlier stated by The Celebration, SHOW will accept all shows that have affiliated with the NHSC. SHOW will also recognize the licenses granted to judges by the NHSC.

The activation of SHOW on April 1 culminates the past several weeks of negotiations, meetings and votes across industry organizations.  The NHSC, Walking Horse Trainers’ Association (WHTA) and Walking Horse Owners’ Association (WHOA) all voted to dissolve the NHSC and request The Celebration activate SHOW.

The process began on March 2, 2009 with the unanimous vote of the WHTA Board of Directors to recommend to the NHSC to dissolve and turn over functions to SHOW.  This vote came after two days of meeting with industry representatives from the WHTA, WHOA, TWHBEA and TWHNC.  Next came the general membership meeting of the WHTA on March 9, 2009 and an overwhelming majority vote to support the recommendation of the WHTA board. 

On March 12, 2009 the WHOA board voted on a conference call 19-6 in favor of dissolving the NHSC.  On March 16, 2009 the NHSC voted unanimously to dissolve and turn over their assets and records to SHOW.

Celebration representatives will meet with the NHSC board on Monday, March 30, 2009 to finalize the many details of this historic change.

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