AHYA President's Corner

Silvia Otabachian - AHYA President

Contact Silvia at S_otabachian@yahoo.com

AHYA President's Address to General Assembly
     2003 Convention

Good morning. My name is Silvia Otabachian and I am here today as President of the Arabian Horse Youth Association. I would like to inform you that the Arabian Horse Association's youth are continually striving for excellence with their horses, and they envision their participation with Arabian horses long after they've made the transition to adult membership.

Currently, we have about 5,000 youth members , which means we're about ten percent of AHA membership! And we're not going anywhere but up… We, the youth, are here to stay!

I can report to you that we had strong participation at the AHYA Convention last July. Our youth participated in well-planned activities, successful committee meetings, and the general assembly with guest speakers. The support and participation we received from your executive board, Regional Directors, judges, stewards, show commissioners, breed professionals, and parents is very much appreciated. And for that, I extend a big thank you!

The AHYA board is known for our ambition and we are trying to make our goals a reality. We look forward to a day when we can sit alongside you at events like this and help guide the future of this organization. It is our desire to work closely with the AHA board because we crave knowledge and want to prepare for the future. The youth- like you- are energized and motivated and we share your passion for Arabians.

If you think about it, we already have much in common. How many of you have loved horses since you were a child? Raise your hands…

How many joined the Arabian Horse Association as a youth? Raise your hand if you were a member of AHA when you were a youth…

Arabian Horse Youth Association is honored to call you alumni. These are involved, motivated, and dedicated adults who help shape our industry- and who, not so long ago, were youth members such as AHA Vice President Gary Dearth, Shannon Beethe, Crystal McNutt, Chase Harvill, Brittany Schmidt, and so on.

We thank AHA for supporting the youth who will become the leaders of tomorrow.

Finally, how many of you dream of a bright future for the Arabian horse? The youth and adults have this point in common, too. Like you, the youth have dreamed of horses as long as we can remember. The love of horses is what brought us to this association, and what will keep us here.

Your ongoing commitment to the evolving merger between the former IAHA and Arabian Horse Registry is to be commended. On behalf of AHYA I'd like to thank you all for taking on this challenge in the hopes of strengthening our association. Your dedication is exceptional and we will all benefit from your farsightedness for years to come.

The AHYA Board will focus our energy in several directions. We will continue to improve communication and encourage participation in all activities. At times, AHYA members must overcome communication and even geographical barriers to have a voice in youth activities. That is why we require youth directors to communicate with their members through newsletters and emails. At the association level, we communicate with mass mailings and broadcast youth emails.

The youth association feels strongly that outreach programs like the Arabian Horse Judging Contest highlight our breed to outsiders and have the potential to help grow our association. We'd like to continue to develop outreach programs like this.

At our October board meeting we made several revisions to 2004 Youth Activities. We decided to hold the AHYA Convention over two partial days rather than one full day. This will help distribute the time demands on our youth members at Youth Nationals and allow discussion of issues during social times- just like the adult board-- only no cocktails!

Lastly, we would like to provide more support to those youth members transitioning from youth to adult membership. I encourage our senior youth to look ahead in their Amateur division. We want to keep these college-bound youth as members even if they are not actively involved for a few years.

I should tell you that I have embedded in all my activities the importance of sportsmanship and its character attributes such as integrity, honesty, diligence, and respect. As a whole, it is our board's structure that we emulate great camaraderie, because we understand that we are ambassadors for the Arabian horse. We want to be strong and productive. This motivation and spirit is evident at all our board meetings.

Let's take a lesson from a basic rule of physics. An object in motion tends to stay in motion. If you place a ball on a table and push it, it rolls- and keeps rolling. AHA is that table. The rubber ball is Arabian Horse Youth Association. Where does the beginning push come from? The energy that sets everything in motion comes from you. Your guidance, experience, and support provide the vital push which sets the youth association in motion, rolling along the foundation of AHA. Once we get started, there's no stopping us. Your investment as mentors will propel Arabian horse youth into Arabian horse adulthood, keeping us rolling along in AHA.

I am proud of the young, responsible leaders we are developing for our breed. As a third generation Arabian horse owner, I hope that when you hear me say "the youth are here to stay," you're encouraged- because we're the future of the Arabian horse industry. Feel pride in our ambitions and have confidence in our ability to create a bright future for the Arabian horse!