Last month the New England Miniature Horse Society celebrated another fun and successful show season with our annual Awards Banquet. This year the banquet was held at the The Hills restaurant in Waterbury, Connecticut. Thanks are due Lorraine O’Connell and Danielle Dupuis for organizing the banquet, and to Darlene David and Tom O’Connell for putting together the year-end awards. More details and some pictures in the next issue.

Sincere thanks go out to Jane Phillips for serving as Show Committee chair for 2008. Jane and the committee were bold and served us with an especially ambitious show schedule and class lists based on the input from members. The class list really reflected the unique needs and interests of our club; unfortunately the AMHA did not approve of all of our class combinations and the resulting compromise was approved but made some of our shows a little longer than everyone would have liked. The positives outweighed the negatives as we were able to have Championship classes in youth, novice, and driving. And thanks to extra effort from Jane and also David Goble – we were able to have the popular and exciting Liberty class at nearly every show this season. So, thanks again to Jane, our show management team, and to everyone who went above and beyond the call to help make 2008 such a great show season.

We also thank David and Lisa Goble for contributing the beautiful digital SLR camera for the fundraising raffle, which was won by Jean St. Denis. Congratulations, Jean, and thanks, too, for being our points keeper for the season.

And of course we extend our sincere gratitude to the anonymous donor whose significant contribution to the NEMHS made it possible for us to try some new things and take some chances. With this deeply appreciated support, we were able to make scheduling and venue choices that broke out from our usual routine and were still able to fund a dazzling selection of year-end awards.

More NEMHS members have made the 2008 AMHA Honor Roll with their horses. In addition to those reported previously, both Lisa and David Goble and Jean St. Denis have been recognized at this special level of accomplishment. Congratulations!

The New England Miniature Horse Society had a booth at the Equine Affaire in W. Springfield Massachusetts in November. We represented the Miniature Horse breed for the 11th year in a row, with some of our members’ Minis on view in the Breed Pavilion as well as an informative breed demonstration event. Many thanks to Lisa Goble for coordinating for us this year, and to all the other members who pitched in to help with this important opportunity to promote the breed and our club.

The New England Miniature Horse Society is the premier Miniature Horse club in the Northeast. We’re affiliated with the American Miniature Horse Association (AMHA), the world’s leading Miniature Horse registry. Membership is open to anyone interested in Miniature Horses. You can find more information about our club, our activities, pictures of our horses, and a list of our officers – any of whom would be happy to talk to you about the American Miniature Horse – on our website at nemhs.org.