Head of breeders' group sees better days ahead

Related: New TWHBEA head understands rural lifestyle

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From a champion-less Celebration to costly lawsuits and bad press, the last few years have been hard on the Walking Horse industry, including its oldest organization, the international Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' and Exhibitors' Association.

Stan Butt, the new TWHBEA executive director, has every intention of turning those hard times around -- and has already begun to do so.

Butt was named the new executive director in April, but he was already comfortable in the role since he'd been the interim director since December 2007.

"Basically, I was brought in to restore financial and fiscal responsibility to the association," he said.

Although he has Walking Horses of his own for pleasure riding, Butt has never trained or ridden in shows. The only horse he had he considered worth showing was sold before he took the office because he was concerned about conflict of interest.

Butt has enjoyed the breed for most of his life -- he refers to Walking Horses as "Our horses" frequently -- but the majority of his experience has been in journalism and business. Before he was named to the interim post, he had been the editor of The Voice, TWHBEA's official publication.

Before that, however, Butt worked in the automotive industry as a dealer and owner of a car dealership, and it's those business basics he brings to the board.

Butt, along with eight other TWHBEA/Voice employees, was laid off in October due to the financial crisis the organization faced. More than a third of the TWHBEA staff has been laid off.

THWBEA was embroiled in a lawsuit recently with the National Walking Horse Association over copyrights.

"It was to protect the pedigree and intellectual property of the registry," said Butt. "We won that part of it, but it was a costly victory."

He said the settlement ended up being about $180,000 -- about a fourth of the legal fees incurred. Payment and settlement negotiations are still under way.

According to the State of the Association address by TWHBEA President David Pruett, "Briefly, the magnitude of the National Walking Horse Association lawsuit has depleted our reserves to a point that our outstanding expenses are greater than our reserves."

Pruett noted that, at that time, the reserves had fallen from $1.5 million to $150,000 --the amount it costs to run the association for one month.

In the four short months Butt has held the office, he has already made a difference in those numbers.

"Our money comes from memberships, lifetime and annual," he said "and registration and transfer fees of individual horses."

Because of various issues within the industry, and perhaps a little uncertainty on the part of the breeders and exhibitors, registration numbers had dropped in recent years. Butt and TWHBEA offered an amnesty program to allow previously unregistered horses to be registered with no penalties.

"The new executive committee wanted to bring people back in," said Butt. "As a result, we were able to get a large influx of outstanding registrations and transfers that members were holding back."

Butt's editorial experience has helped him improve the association's image, but it's more than just positive spin.

"I think it's important that the registry be recognized as being in competent hands and caring about our membership," Butt said. "We want to restore the faith and integrity that's expected of a breed registry.

"My responsibility is to implement decisions and programs that the executive committee and international board feel are important for the promotion of our horse."

In the April meeting, Mike Inman, the administrative/fiscal/audit vice president, reported that registrations were up $38,000 as a direct result of the amnesty program, and revenue from The Voice was more than double what had been projected.

"Year to date," Inman reported, "the Association has garnered a $61,000 gain as opposed to the budgeted $148,000 loss."

The turn-around is due to many factors, and Butt has been heavily involved.

"His untiring efforts to represent TWHBEA at shows, sales, and breed functions everywhere [are] a breath of fresh air," said Pruett in the press release announcing Butt's move from interim to executive director.

Although the suddenly-limited budget has put a halt to many public relations plans, Butt continues to market the breed everywhere.

"Our horse has taken us worldwide," he said. "Russia ... we have a pretty good contingency in Israel, the Netherlands, and just his spring, we exported horses to Thailand. We will be going to a major horse expo in Australia this year."

While the Tennessee Walking Horses in other countries may not be shown performance style as they are here, Butt said that doesn't matter -- one of the tools he uses to sell the horse is its versatility. "There is a large segment of our membership who use them other ways," he said. "Barrels, over the fences, endurance ..."

Butt and other members of the executive committee are excited by the new season. After abandoning its own standards plan, TWHBEA is working hand-in-hand with the USDA and other horse industry organizations, and its Futurity will once again be held in conjunction with the Celebration, with the points earned there counting toward championships in the big show. The 2007 Futurity was not affiliated with the Celebration.

"Nominations are coming in and I think it's going to be an exciting Celebration," said Butt. "We are working with all USDA-certified HIOs (Horse Industry Organizations) to protect and promote our horse."

As far as the financial situation, Butt sees a much brighter future.

"Contrary to what may have been the perception -- at one point, we were threatened (financially) -- but the money is coming in. Members are registering their horses. They are getting more confident and working hard to help stabilize by contributing to the cause."

Even other horse industry organizations are contributing. Just last month, the Florida Racking and Walking Horse Association issued a challenge to donate to TWHBEA. Several groups have done just that; information about the challenge can be seen on the TWHBEA website at www.twhbea.com.