Reining
The NRHA and the NRHA futurity were created by trainers and breeders, over the years they have grown the sport to a point where it is very difficult to make changes that benefit both the upper and lower levels of the sport, this can be seen by the split opinions of the new futurity plan.
The following idea is to create an event that will promote the smaller breeders and encourage participation by all levels of Reiners. It will award all levels of Reiners with purses dependent on participation at each level.
I am not going to develop this event I am only offering a suggestion and my help in promoting and organizing it. If you are interested in exploring this type of event let me know and I will organize a brainstorming session with all interested parties.
Below is an example of the concept no numbers are set in stone only given as an example.
The event
A futurity held in the spring of the horses 4 year old year.
This will be a nominated futurity, The amount of entry fee / nomination fee will be tied to the amount of time ahead of the show that you pay the entry/ nomination
Entry/ nomination fee's
To enter the event held in 2012 the nomination /entry fee's would be:
Entry fee for a weanling in 2008 $200
Entry fee for a yearling in 2009 $400
Entry fee for a 2 year old in 2010 $800
Entry fee for a unshown 3 year old in 2011 $1600
Entry fee for a previously shown 3 year old in 2011 $2500
Entry fee for a unshown 4 year old in 2012 $2500
Entry fee for a previously shown 4 year old in 2012 $4000
Exhibitors would be required to pay a show fee prior to showing to cover the cost of producing the event, The amount of the show fee would be calculated using a estimated number of exhibitors and dividing cost equally.
Divisions
This event would have no non pro division past the entry level, the divisions would be split based on past performance.
We would pay equistat to use their database of earnings,
Level 1 riders with lifetime earnings of less than $200
Level 2 riders with lifetime earnings of less than $1000
Level 3 riders with lifetime earnings of less than $10000
Level 1 and 2 would be open only to riders who hold a breed association show amateur card.
Level 4 riders with lifetime earnings of less than $20,000
Level 5 riders with lifetime earnings of less than $40,000
Level 6 riders with lifetime earnings of less than $75,000
Level 7 riders with lifetime earnings of less than $150,000
level 8 riders with lifetime earnings over $150,000
Purse distribution:
All non showing nomination fee's would be split equally between all divisions,
The nomination / entry fee's of all exhibitors would go into the purse of their lowest eligible division
Exhibitors would have the option of entering levels above their lowest eligibility for an separate fee. For discussion I would suggest $200 per division payable before the draw deadline. This extra entry fee would go into the purse of the entered division.
Financial Impact and justification
If we had only 500 foals pay the first year, without any entries after weanling year there would be a purse of over $100k when they became 4 year olds, .
Possible numbers and substantiating data:
* Most horse owners have incomes less than $100,000 year. paying large entry fee's and showing costs are prohibitive to most of these exhibitors and breeders.
* There are over 6000 foals born each year sired by NRHA sire and dam nominated stallions,it is feasible to estimate that there are at least another 3000 foals born each year by stallions that are used to raise reiners for the foundation and breed and color association reinings.
* The NRBC has 2500- 3000 nominations per year or less than 35% of all foals that are raised with hopes of being a reiner,
* of the 6000-7000 eligible horses each year for the NRBC less than 400 show
* The large percentage of people that enter these large events do not have a chance of ever breaking even, and they know it, they participate because it is fun and exciting
* The estimates for NRHA participation is similar to that of the NRBC and could actually get higher as it is not closed to stallion nominated.This shows that for some reason, 60% of all foals raised by breeders that are using reining type stallions are not participating in these lucrative yet expensive nomination plans.
I am going to suggest that given the average income of most horse owners it is very likely the reason for this is cost of participation.
If this is true then it is very possible that a program that allows for affordable entry ahead of time and requires no further payments but reasonable show fee's would encourage more people to participate.
When we combine the low entry fee for early payment with the divisions paying according to participation this becomes an event that could realistically attract 5000-6000 nominations, and increase participation by at least 50% over the other nomination programs in the reining business, if that is the case then the amount of money available for this show becomes a minimum of $1,000,000, and by encouraging extra participation this allows the show to split the costs of hosting over many more entries which keeps those fee's lower as well.
Implementations idea's
This event could be held earlier than 2012 by setting up a graduating entry fee / nomination based on the time frame needed.
For example if it is decided that an event should be held in 2010 we could split the above payment structure in to months instead of years.
Example the show to be held April of 2010,
Nomination by December of 2008 $200
Nomination by July of 2009 $500
Nomination by December of 2009 for unshown horses $750
Nomination by December of 2009 for previously shown horses $1250
Nomination by the event date for unshown horses $1250
Nomination by the event date for previously shown horses $2000
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