The following Letter to the Editor was received from Sam Hamilton of PRIDE HIO.

I have been approached by many people over the last few days voicing their concern over recent a cost comparison of affiliating with each of the HIOs that has been publicized throughout the Walking Horse industry. I was approached by the person who created the original chart and asked if the chart was a fair comparison. I stated several times that it was not fair and misstated the facts. Unfortunately paper will lay there and allow someone to scribble whatever nonsense that they choose to scribble and allow them to publish it as fact. PRIDE has tried to take the high road since its inception when working with other organizations within this industry. Our main objective is to do what’s best for this entire industry not just a select few. We are looking at this industry from a business perspective and want to see this entire industry prosper. Because of this I feel that it is our duty to this industry to correct this unfortunate misrepresentation of the facts concerning affiliation costs. The true comparison is laid out in the data below.

Comparison of HIOs
Base information	SHOW	PRIDE	KY-HIO
DQP per day charge	$175	$200	$200
DQP mileage-per mile	0.50	0.50	0.50
DQP room charge for multi night show if needed	Yes	Yes	Yes
Inspection chg. per horse		$3.00	$2.00
Affiliation fee	$50	$50	$75
Horse card-walking horses(must provide Horse number at entry)	$150 per year	none	none
or walking horses	$50 per day	none	none
racking horses	$10 per entry	none	none
DQP coordinator	Tony Edwards	Duane Rector	Eddie Ray Davis

Cost to Show Management

Cost to Show Management is $250 plus mileage for PRIDE and $225 plus mileage for SHOW. This is based on the fact that shows have not lowered the inspection fees at SHOW affiliated shows as the industry was led to believe. The inspection fees are in fact just passed on to the exhibitor. Based on this conclusion the real cost comparison is listed in the costs to the owner in the chart below.

Cost To Owner

		Times Shown						Times Shown
	PRIDE	1	2	10	50		SHOW	1	2	10	50
Horses Shown	1	$3	$6	$30	$150		1	$50	$150	$150	$150
	2	$6	$12	$60	$300		2	$100	$300	$300	$300
	10	$30	$60	$300	$1,500		10	$500	$1,500	$1,500	$1,500

As you can see above an owner who shows one horse one time saves $47 dollars under PRIDE vs. SHOW. Same owner saves $144 dollars when showing that horse twice. That owner must show his horse 50 times under SHOW to break even. An owner who shows 10 horses one time saves $470 dollars under PRIDE and $1440 dollars when showing those horses 2 times. Again the breakeven point is when the owner shows each of the ten horses 50 times per year.

Cost To Show at First Show

Example:<?xml:namespace prefix = o /><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><?xml:namespace prefix = o />
2 night horse show with 300 walking horses; 2 DQPs 100 miles from show
Cost to horse show:
	SHOW	PRIDE
DQP per day charge	$                        700	$                   800
DQP mileage	100	100
DQP room charge for multi-night show	yes	yes
Inspection chg. per horse	0	900
Affiliation fee	50	50
Cost Of Horse Cards	45000
Total	$45,850	$ 1,850

 

Cost To Show at Subsequent Shows

Example:
2 night horse show with 300 walking horses; 2 DQPs 100 miles from show
Cost to horse show:
	SHOW	PRIDE
DQP per day charge	$                        700	$                   800
DQP mileage	100	100
DQP room charge for multi-night show	yes	yes
Inspection chg. per horse	0	900
Affiliation fee	50	50
Total	$                        850	$                1,850

 
As you can see above the cost for the first show of the year is exponentially higher with SHOW due to the fact that Horse Cards must be purchased on all horses. The cost for the subsequent shows is then higher to show at PRIDE shows by a $1000 per show. Based on the fact that the first show was $44000 dollars higher at to use SHOW, all 300 horses would have to be shown 45 times a year to break even if all shows affiliated with the SHOW HIO. If this is not proof enough then below is a real example using all shows in the state of Georgia from 2010.  The largest show in Georgia last year was Perry, GA with 271 entries and there were a total of 11 shows affiliated with all HIOs in 2010. That is roughly 34 shows below the breakeven point. That assumes that you show at every affiliated show and that only horses that showed at Perry, GA and bought SHOW cards showed at the other ten shows. The fact is there were several horses that did not show at Perry, GA that would have been required to buy Horse Cards at one of the other 10 shows. As you can see the true costs of affiliating with PRIDE are much smaller than affiliating with SHOW when you take the total costs incurred into consideration. The biggest flaw in the comparison that has been published by SHOW is that they assume that the owners are willing to pay the $150 horse card fees and attend SHOW affiliated events. I would contend that based on the number of people that have contacted me angry over these cards that if a horse show affiliates with SHOW it will see a large reduction in the number of participants and greatly reduce the amount of revenue and profit to the horse show. PRIDE would encourage all show managers to contact us at www.pridehio.com or call Sam Hamilton at 859-393-4979 about affiliating your horse show.