September 07, 2008
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Youth Nationals Journalists Dish on the 2007 Show!

AHYA Elects Kim Leubcke President By Sean Thurm
CONVENTION 2007 By McCamey Kimbler
Ice Cream Social By McCamey Kimbler
Get Your Drive On! By Kirsten Kimbler
Hippology… what the heck is that? By Kirsten Kimbler
Stoppin' and Spinnin' Out the Competition By Kirsten Kimbler

AHYA Elects Kim Leubcke President

By Sean Thurm

Solid campaigning at Youth Convention paid off for Kim Leubcke of Peoria, Illinois. She was elected President of AHYA. Why did Kim want to be President of AHA? Kim stated," I wanted to be president so that I use my passion and leadership ability to make great changes in AHYA."

Kim has tons of new ideas and goals for AHYA for the upcoming year. Some of them include: Increase spectator attendance at shows by creating a generic public service announcement for each region to distribute to television and radio stations to inform the community about the show, increase AHYA membership through providing incentives to draw in new members and keep the current ones, get AHYA members involved by creating events at each national show for youth of all ages to have fun, start scholarship funds by getting donations from companies to start a scholarship in their name for AHYA members, motivate Regional Youth Directors by giving fundraising and activity ideas and direction on how to accomplish those goals, Improve communication by pushing for communication between AHYA Directors, coordinators, the AHA, clubs, and the community, and start new fundraisers and improve the old ones by holding "fun classes" and provide incentives to sell trailer raffle tickets.

This November Kim will be speaking at the AHA National Convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Kim seems very enthusiastic about attending AHA Convention. Kim says, "Attending the AHA Convention is going to be a blast! I am very excited it is going to be in Oklahoma, so that I can see the future home of U.S. Nationals. I have always wanted to go and observe this event. I never thought I would be speaking there; however, this is a great opportunity to meet some individuals I have looked up to for years."

CONVENTION 2007

By McCamey Kimbler

Lights, Camera, Action….The youth convention was quite enjoyable. There were lots of great candidates and many great speeches! If you were there you got to be part of some really fun ice breakers, learning more about our friends and other Arabian horse lovers. At the convention they had Liz Carlile as the guest speaker and as an added bonus she sang lots of her songs off her new album. She is a famous Country Singer/Songwriter that recently graduated from Harvard, now that is pretty cool. There were a lot of crafts; like making a picture frame to remember youth or making a bracelet. We listened to talks about what great activities the board had planned for the rest of the week; like the dog costume contest, the stick horse contest, the parade of regions and many other activities just for us…the YOUTH. I had a great time and it was a really good experience. In the years to come I hope that you'll go and learn lots of fun stuff and most of all be involved in the greatest breed in the world…………………...the ARABIAN.

Ice Cream Social

By McCamey Kimbler

The ice cream social was so cool in more than one way!!!!! Of course there was the ice cream; it was so refreshing on a hot day. But also just as cool were the games you could play with your friends such as tennis, volleyball and hula-hoop. The amazing prizes like an AHA Youth Nationals drawstring bag, breyer model horses and the coolest of them all the breyer truck and trailer!!! All you had to do was come get some ice cream and a raffle ticket and wait to have your number called out while you were playing games. I think everyone there won something and lucky lucky me….I won the truck and trailer!!! I think the ice cream social was one of my favorite memories of youth this year. If you didn't make it this year you will have to be sure to mark it down next year as the cooool activity not to miss.

Get Your Drive On!

By Kirsten Kimbler

2006-07 AHYA Vice President

That is what many Arabian youth were doing from 7:30-10:30 on Wednesday evening. Liz Carlisle opened the concert with some of her favorite numbers. Liz graduated from Harvard and is now starting a music career which is sure to go far.

Then the real partying began when Emerson Drive ascended the stage. They put together an amazing act including many of their hits such as "I should be sleeping", "Good Man" and their number one hit "Moments."

During the concert one lucky youth got to sing the chorus of "I should be sleeping." Everyone was enjoying themselves, jammin' to the music. The lead guitarist threw two of his guitar picks to the audience and several coveted "sweaty towels" were given away too.

After the concert, the AHYA Board of Directors had the wonderful opportunity to meet the band! (The perks of being an AHYA Board Member.)

Overall, the concert was a ton of fun and a great way to relax for a couple of hours. It was so cool to get to see the band that you always hear at the barn!

Tell us how much fun you had at the Emerson Drive concert at Youth Nationals! Email us at youth@arabianhorses.org

Hippology… what the heck is that?

By Kirsten Kimbler

2006-07 AHYA Vice President

Hippology, it sounds like some complex medical term. Well, it's really not. When you break it down "hippo-" is a Latin prefix for "horse" and "-ology" is a Latin suffix for "study of" so put it all together it means "study of the Horse."

Competitors were given the opportunity to test their equine knowledge in a variety of stations and a written test. During each station contestants had two minutes to answer ten questions on a variety of equine of categories including horse colors, tack, saddle parts, etc. The written test had an array of equine questions to answer.

The Top Ten winners in each category got the coveted maroon Top Ten Ribbon. Reserve and Champion of each division received tri-colored ribbons and a plaque. The winners of each division are as follows: 9 years and under-Cody Chamberlain, 10-13 years-CC Chalupsky, 14-18 years-Kirsten Kimbler, 19 years and over-Marie Taylor. Congratulations to everyone who participated in the hippology contest. A big thank you goes out to the sponsor of the hippology contest, Region 10, who made this event possible!

Stoppin' and Spinnin' Out the Competition

By Kirsten Kimbler

2006-07 AHYA Vice President

The Freestyle Reining Exhibition was a sight to see this year. We saw everything from Pirate, to Jungle, to Baseball themed reining rides. There were some amazing stops, spins, rollbacks and lead changes.

One reining pattern that I will remember looked like a cross between Cruella D'ville and Zombies. They had amazing robotic choreography and each of the supplemental freestyle reining members gave the announcer a single rose… zombie style. I was officially creeped out. But in a good Arabian way. All the roses later went to the show commissioners… so I guess its okay.

Each reining performance was phenomenal, from the amount of work put into the costumes to the reining talent that was in the ring. Our Reserve Champion, Lily Meisner aboard Rancounts Rezus, got 228½ points as Reserve Champion and Brittany Marshall aboard Twist N Shoutt scored 244 points which won her the Freestyle Reining.

Lily did a moving tribute to army soldiers-she even looked like a fighter jet waiting to take off when she took her hands off the reins for one of her spins.

The winner of the freestyle reining, Brittany Marshall, did a "remake" of Michael Jackson's Thriller. A lot of thought went into this one as they had dry ice, and dead people dancing to the epic Thriller choreography. Not to mention the reiner was pretty hot stuff too!

Basically the freestyle reining was a blast and I hope everyone has the opportunity to see it someday.

Questions?
Contact Youth Programs Coordinator Angela Mannick by clicking here or call 303-696-4505.