NHSC dissolves in favor of SHOW

The National Horse Show Commission may soon be no more. Rachel Reed, secretary and treasurer for the organization, confirmed Tuesday that the 8-member NHSC board voted Monday to dissolve the organization and to turn its assets and responsibilities over to the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration's Horse Industry Organization, SHOW (Sound horses, Honest judging, Objective inspections, Winning fairly).

The move, said Doyle Meadows, CEO of the Celebration, was an effort to remove trainers and owners from the inspection process.

For 38 years, NHSC's main purpose has been the operation of a USDA-certified Designated Qualified Person (DQP) Program, which includes training, licensing, monitoring, supervising and administering DQPs to officiate at commission-affiliated shows and sales, as well as the affiliation of horse shows and sales, the formulation and issuing of a rule book, and the training and licensing of judges. It was established after the Horse Protection Act of 1970 passed, and its board consisted of four representatives from the Walking Horse Trainers' Association and four from the Walking Horse Owners' Association.

Earlier this month, the WHTA board of directors voted to withdraw from the NHSC and to request the organization be dissolved. The Celebration was asked to assume its duties and met last week to discuss the possibilities, the same day the WHTA membership meeting voted to uphold the board of directors' decision.

WHOA took longer to come on board. At a meeting Friday, one report stated members voted 19-6 to follow the trainers' example. WHOA president Frank Neal, who had earlier in March sent a letter in support of the NHSC, expressed reservations at Monday's NHSC meeting, questioning whether the Celebration had actually agreed to activate SHOW and assume those inspection and training duties.

In an interview last week, Meadows, the Celebration CEO, said, "We can't make a decision until other decisions are made. We are not the holdup here."

Now, some of those decisions have been made. With the NHSC board passing a resolution dissolving itself, everything else is in the details -- what entity gets what money, who has what responsibilities, and what happens to the staff ... all aspects the Celebration and SHOW personnel will be evaluating.

Today, Meadows said a closed meeting has been planned for Thursday morning at Calsonic arena.

"What we're going to do now that we finally have a proposal -- we didn't have anything to act on (before) -- we will evaluate the proposal. I assume we're going to move right on with that."

Meadows said the Celebration would probably vote to "act expeditiously," getting everything in place soon for the 2009 season.

"I'm real optimistic," he said.

That one particular decision may make the transition from NHSC to SHOW easier -- the resolution stated "that all employees of the NHSC become the employees of SHOW at the same salary and benefits ..."

"We were glad to hear that," said Penny Isaacs, the penalties coordinator. She, Reed, and Andrew Messick, the newly appointed executive vice president and director of animal welfare/DQP services, work out of the Shelbyville office, which would also be retained by SHOW until the lease details could be worked out.

"We'd love to have them, but will they come?" Meadows asked. "We haven't spoken to them yet. It makes total sense for those people to be there -- we have to get somebody."

The resolution states that the NHSC will be dissolved on a day of Meadow's specification, based on when SHOW would be ready to operate in full HIO capacity, and that Meadows would send that date to both Neal and trainer Link Webb, who is the president of WHTA as well as the chairman of the NHSC board.

The resolution had other specifics besides those pertaining to employees:

• All records, equipment and other assets and supplies will become the property of SHOW for the price of $1. There are exceptions -- excess cash over the amounts paid by future show affiliations less than $5,000 and all accounts receivable arising from shows already completed.
• SHOW will also assume all liabilities, including the lease on its current office.
• Any contracts arising out of show affiliations will be assumed and honored by SHOW and until the notification date issued by Meadows, NHSC will continue to perform its duties to all the shows affiliated with it.
• Any funds remaining in the NHSC will be divided equally between the WHTA and WHOA.

  The motion to dissolve the organization passed unanimously.