NH Arabian Horse Association Newsletter
Message from the President
December 2007
Hello Friends!
2007 was a very exciting and profitable year for the NH Arabian Horse Association. Your Board of Directors met on November 3rd to go over the treasurer’s report, the horse show, membership and a review of our planned events.
Profits for the club can be attributed directly to a healthy horse show and our tireless volunteers who really came through for the club. Special thanks to Sarah Theroux, board member of the year! Sarah was elected last year and has had a huge impact on our club. She took over the Year End Awards program from Julie Dulac and Natalee Roberts who had managed this program for the past 9 or 10 years. Sarah revamped the program and tracked people’s points online. In addition to the YEA program, Sarah was always around at events, making gift baskets, coming up with creative raffle ideas and generally providing solid feedback and direction to the club. Anyone who participated in Dressage at our show this year recognized the major improvements in efficiency Sarah made with ribbons and scheduling. Thanks Sarah! You really made a difference.
Speaking of making a difference, every effort made by every board member and volunteer deserves a special thanks.
Sue Levesque hosted two events at her farm in Concord. Our Soup to Nuts Clinic in April was very informative and fun for all. She also hosted the Dressage Clinic in July taught by USDF “r” rated judge Janet Briggs.
Cheryl Crawford does a terrific job managing the membership and put on the most well attended Beach Ride to date last April.
Kathy Wilber our treasurer and webmaster extraordinaire, made some great updates to our website including the Photo Gallery and Pay Pal to make it easier for everyone to sign-up online for our club events. Be sure to check out the website and see all the exciting content.
Where would our horse show be without Skeeter Combs and Christy Balch? They really do a great job planning, running and keeping things on schedule and this year they even put the judge up at their home which saved the club money in hotel expenses.
Judy Poirier made fabulous sandwiches for our Clinics and keeps us all honest with meeting notes and agendas.
June Barber our past president did the same for me. She was always there with helpful hints and kept me moving forward on administrative tasks.
A shout out to these special volunteers! :
Linda Fish participated and volunteered for every event the club sponsored. She even took photos at the trail ride in October. She contributed food, gift baskets and her time to each event. Nancy Schroth helped at the beach ride and the trail ride by providing tasty treats for our participants. Crystal Webster spent many long hours creating the show prize list and the Dressage Clinic brochure. Melody Madison and Gale Grenier were a huge help at the horse show. They worked the gates saving the club money. They also came down to the beach ride to help. Julia Webb and Trixie Lefebre marked the beautiful trail ride in Chester. Laura Susmann provided me with help planning the trail ride and she’s planning another one for the spring, look forward to more information on that. Laura also represented our club at the Region 16 meeting this year when no one else could make the trip to Niagra Falls. Again, thanks to each and every one of you, we couldn’t have done it without you!
We still need someone to join the show committee as a Sponsorship Chairperson. Raising sponsorships is an important part of keeping the show on track. Come be part of your club! Contact me, Laurel Bissonnette, for more information.
Don’t miss our combined social event this January. We’ll have our Annual Meeting and Year End Awards Banquet together. I’ve booked The Makris Lobster and Steakhouse in Loudon for January 19th from 6-10 p.m. We have plenty of fun planned and delicious food. I hope you’ll all come out to have some great food and congratulate our award winners for their accomplishments with their beautiful Arabian friends over this past year.
Last year’s Yankee Swap was so much fun we’ll be doing it again. If you want to participate, bring something old or something new to delight or entertain. We’ll also be raffling off a beautiful blanket donated by the Equine Journal. You won’t want to miss this exciting event. We’ll be talking about plans for ’08 and looking for more volunteers!
Sign up for the Banquet and Member Meeting!
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download the form here
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- Laurel Bissonnette