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REGION FOUR EXPERIENCE, JULY 17-20, 2008

BY HOLLY CLANAHAN 

OQHA Executive Vice President and Regional Experience Show Manager Denny Hales helps the ground crew tear down jumps to transition from working hunter to hunter hack classes on Thursday.

The All American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio, is the largest single-breed horse show in the world, with more than 16,000 entries. So, one would assume that its organizers – members of the Ohio Quarter Horse Association – would know what they’re doing when it comes to putting on a horse show. And one would be right.

When it comes to planning the AQHA Region Four Regional Experience, also held in Columbus at the Ohio Expo Center, the folks at OQHA have even more help. Each affiliate in the region – Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana and Ontario – assigns two representatives to a planning committee that meets monthly via conference call.

And it’s that team effort that OQHA Executive Vice President Denny Hales credits with the success of the Regional Experience, which this year drew more than 2,400 entries. In fact, before Denny sat down with The Journal to talk about what goes into planning a show like this, he first arranged interviews with other key players. He believes in spreading the credit around.

“I honestly believe that any show, and I don’t care what show it is, there’s always a lot of variables why one works and one maybe isn’t working as well,” said Hales, sporting a “Chill Out” T-shirt. “But the bottom line, usually, is that if you’ve got the right team of people that are exhibitor friendly – which is always a key – and also the kind of people that enjoy working with each other so that you don’t get into worrying about ‘Well, it’s his job,’as opposed to ‘It’s our job, let’s just get it done,’ I think that’s what makes it work.”

Bruce Brown of the Kentucky Quarter Horse Association says the year-round conference calls – as well as the nonstop work during the event – are actually quite fun.

“The whole group’s just really good to work with,” he said. “All of our committee meetings, the phone conversations, are fun, because everybody’s working toward this goal. It’s all volunteers, so these people all want to be here. There’s nobody forcing them, nobody paying them. They’re here to try to benefit the Quarter Horse, so that’s really neat.”

Brown, who was a judge at last year’s Congress, enjoys the chance to come to Columbus and relax, which is a relative term when you consider that he’s manning the gate at the coliseum for four days.

“Normally, people come here for the Congress, and everybody’s tense,” Brown said. “Here, everybody’s just kind of having a mid-summer break, and it’s neat to see the people. They’re relaxed and laughing. You know, if they screw up, it’s not a big deal – because it’s not a big deal – but yet, they have nice awards.”

And he’s also thrilled to see people he knows from the hunter circuit who are trying out their first Quarter Horse show.

“They’re getting neat awards and kind of an introduction to AQHA. Normally, they would be doing the hunter world. They wouldn’t even see this world. And so I really enjoy people from outside our normal Quarter Horse family being able to come in and see what they can do, and of course, they’re great ambassadors once they go back to the hunter shows. So it’ll build on itself.”

Carly Williams is one of the OQHA staff members on site at the show, and she has also noticed some new faces, as well as ones that are familiar from last year.

“There are so many Ohio people here that I’ve never seen at a weekend Quarter Horse show. There are people here this year that were here last year and said it was their very first Quarter Horse show, and I never saw them the rest of the year, but they came back here because they love this show,” Williams said. “So it’s a little different than what the original goal was, but it really works. Especially with the economy, if this is what people can budget, then that’s great. It plants the seed that maybe in two years when the economy’s better, they may have more money to go show, but if this is all they have the money to do right now, then that’s great.”

Williams, who has worked for OQHA since last May, doing the affiliate’s Web site and its publications, enjoys being part of such a good group.

“We have the best people come help. They all volunteer. Nobody gets paid for being down here,” she said. “Everybody is just coming down to help, and probably half of our directors come. Their families come, their kids come. Everybody just volunteers their time to work the gates or whatever, and they just have a good time doing it. Everybody gets along really well. It’s very relaxed.”

Hales said there are a total of 56 volunteers from all the participating affiliates, plus eight OQHA staff members.

“It’s a team effort,” said Keith Bode, president of the Indiana Quarter Horse Association. But then he points a finger back at Hales, the show manager.

“We try to help Denny all we can, because I tell you what, he’s got a load. I can’t say enough about Denny. He just does so much. … Denny is the kingpin.”