The 2017 Annual Awards Banquet recognizing the year-end high-point winners is being moved from the 2018 AQHA Convention to during the 2018 Lucas Oil AQHA World Championship Show in Oklahoma City.
“We feel holding this awards presentation as a separate event will allow us to appropriately celebrate these exhibitors and horses for their hard work and dedication to win the top honor of being named an AQHA year-end high-point winner,” said AQHA Executive Vice President Craig Huffhines. “This move was based on exhibitor input and a desire to have the greatest participation during this very significant awards celebration.”
AQHA conducted a survey this spring to determine if open and amateur year-end high-point winners would prefer to modify the current awards banquet to better showcase the Association’s top athletes. The survey was sent to the 2014, 2015 and 2016 open, amateur and Equestrians With Disabilities high-points, in addition to the Justin Boots Intermediates and exhibitors of the year.
“We feel it is important to regularly evaluate our programs to make sure we’re providing the best service possible to our members and customers,” Huffhines explained.
Overall, the survey, which had an excellent response rate of 44 percent, showed that high-point winners would prefer the banquet to be held later in the year to ensure the winners had enough time to plan to attend and make travel arrangements. Due to the quick turnaround between the Association’s compilation of year-end award winners and the March annual convention dates, previous award winners felt there was not enough time to make travel plans and take vacation from work to attend this banquet to accept an award they had worked hard to earn.
After compiling the data, the information was presented to the AQHA Executive Committee at its July 2017 meeting with various suggestions by the convention planning committee. Based on the survey results, the Executive Committee agreed it was time for a change.
AQHA will present the awards in November 2018 in Oklahoma City during the Lucas Oil World to the 2017 open, amateur, Equestrians With Disabilities year-end high-point winners. At the banquet, AQHA will also recognize the Markel Insurance AQHA All-Around Youth, AQHA All-Around Amateur, AQHA All-Around Junior Horse, AQHA All-Around Senior Horse, Most Valuable Professional, Professional Horsewoman of the Year and the Don Burt Professional Horseman of the Year.
More details about the awards celebration will be released at a later date.
The 2017 racing year-end high-point winners will be recognized in January 2018 at the Racing Champions Ceremony at Heritage Place in Oklahoma City. The 2017 youth year-end high-point winners will continue to be recognized during the Parade of Teams at the 2018 Built Ford Tough AQHYA World Championship Show.
For more information on AQHA year-end high-points, visit www.aqha.com/highpoints.
