Straight Up Any Age Reining event

The Straight up any age Reining

 

\A drug free reining
for horses who are in their first year of competition

Some of the issues we hope to address with this project. 

1. With the exceptional trainers the Reining industry has, developing a horse to the level needed for a event finalist in its 3 year old year can be taxing and stressful for many horses.
2.  With the age limit of 3 for a  event horse, many horses and owners miss out on the value a event aged horse has. 
3. With the current nomination rules and fee's many horses are left out of the reining horse futurity pool, we hope to add value and reason for a trainer to train any horse to be a reiner based on talent.
   - We expect this to increase the gene pool of reining horses and actually increase the horses nominated to the current nomination systems.
   - If a horse by a certain stallion is trained for the straight up event and it proves successful, nomination to the other reining aged events will be more likely for stallion owners.

This project is being offered as something many reiners and reining enthusiasts have historically voiced a desire for.
If this concept is one many will support here is how this venture will proceed.

Eligibility for the straight up event.

All of these rules are suggestions at this time, if there is enough financial support committed to proceed, we will form a committee to organize and set the final rules. Even the eligibility of any age could be switched to 4 year olds if people feel it is best.

1. All horses will be shown with no drugs 
2. All horses must be in their first year showing.
    - Eligible horses can not have any points or money won in any national or international association before January first of the year they are entering the straight up event.
   - We allow any age horse that has not started it show career.
   - By allowing any aged horse, we hope to encourage trainers to train horses based on potential instead of just age.
   - This will also allow the horses and trainers to take as long as they want to develop into a competitive Reiner
3. Any Horse will be eligible, we will not require any nomination of foals or stallions.

Purse and entry fee's

1. We will keep entry fee's at or under a $800, anyone who pledges $2500 or more to the purse will receive one entry fee 
2. We will offer the same cat 2 divisions NRHA offers.
3. Purse split 50 - 50 with open and non pro
4. Purse splits in Divisions will be 10% less each level down
   - Example  -  level 4 has $30,000 added, level 3 would have 10% less, or $27,000 added

Who will host the Straight up event?

1. We will approach  the NRHA and ask them to host this event at one of their major events.
    - It will require a special event status as they do not currently have a class similar.
   - We will allow the NRHA to collect fee's and memberships and competition licenses
   - We want to support the NRHA as well, by offering the money to fund a class that many  reiners say they want and currently is not offered.
2. With the added money we are expecting, and many reiners showing support for a large pursed all aged event, ran drug free we imagine will be receptive. If the NRHA is not receptive we will approach any association with a drug testing capabilities to host it for us allowing them to collect and keep the fee's associated with running a class.
   - Other associations capable of this are the USA Reining Association, AQHA and any other breed or colored association.
3. We are doing this to promote the sport of reining and offer a lucrative alternative to trainers and owners. Our first choice will be the NRHA but there are other options so if the financial and infrastructure support is there then this can happen.
   - We will not waste anyone's time asking if they will host this for us, before we have the money and infrastructure help pledged. 

We will aim for the fall of 2015 for our first straight up event.

Gathering the funds and the infrastructure.

We will start with the cowboy code of - my word is my bond - 
People wanting to support and assist this project can pledge support in the comments of this page.

Things we will need committed help with:

1. Financial pledges,  - we are aiming for a minimum of $200,000 from corporate and individual donors. Please pledge an amount in the comments of this page.
   - Pledged and actual donations when the time comes, can be anonymous,
   - We know by allowing anonymous pledges we are creating an environment where people can mess with our system. - -- We ask those types to please, go mess somewhere else, we are trying to do a good thing, whether they agree or not.  
2. Organizer, we will need an individual experienced in dealing with associations on a show / event organizing level.
    -  We will also need someone experienced in setting up and running the trust for when we start collecting pledges.
   -  We will need individuals willing to act as an organizing committee.
3. Advertising pledges, We will want industry media commitments to advertise the event and our major donors.
4. Participation pledges, If you will pledge to showing in the straight up event please say so. 

At this time when making a pledge to the Straight up event please also offer your views and opinions on the suggestions for eligibility.

If we are going to put in the effort to organize this,  then the support must be there.

We will not waste our time and effort, if the interest and support is not as much as it sounded during the drug issue discussions.

If this is Straight up event is going to happen 

We need the support of all Reiners, and Reining Horse enthusiasts. 

Please pledge your support and let us get this event going!