Home
News   
Sponsors
Join ARHA
ARHA Calendar
Farm Directory
*    About Reining
Futurity Results
Stallion Ads
Media Coverage
The Slide
Classified Ads
Advertising Rates
Forms-Resources
ARHA Newsletters
ARHA Store
Member Rooster
Clinics
Contact
Subscribe to our mailing list
Direct from Scottdale 2014

CELEBRATING A DECADE
The ARHA Arabian and Half-Arabian Futurity Reining Classic celebrates a tenth anniversary with this Scottsdale Show and this event is marking far more than time. Indeed, realizing ten years is a significant achievement and a credit to all who believed from the very beginning. However, from the perspective of Joe Betten, who together with Tom Redmond and Dick Ames, is regarded as one the "Three Founding Fathers" of the Futurity, the reality may well have surpassed the dream.
"The quality of the horses showing this year reflects nearly a complete change over this decade," states Betten with pride. "If you lined up the horses from that first event with the competitors here now, we've got a completely different horse. And the quality of our trainers has grown up with our horses."
"The Show this year has a much deeper group of riders than ever before," he continues. "When we started we hoped to attract some top Quarter Horse people - and this year, they're here!"
A vision come to life - what a tribute to the first decade.
As a side note to a big difference between 2013 and 2014, the desert sun is shining, the weather is beautiful and Michelle and Joe Betten are not wearing their warm jackets from last year. photo top right
FUTURE FOR THE FUTURITY
Tim Anderson of Amani Reiners in Milbank, SD, offered an instant response to what most impresses him about the 2014 ARHA Arabian and Half-Arabian Futurity Reining Classic. "The quality of the horses and the riders," he stated with no hesitation. "Two riders in this year's show boast NRHA lifetime winnings of two and three million dollars, Andres Fappani and Craig Schmersal." 
Fappani, with lifetime earnings of three million, was the youngest of all one million dollar NRHA riders. Schmersal, a two million dollar rider, is one of the youngest trainers on the NRHA's top ten list, and the third Two Million Dollar rider. 
As the new chair of the ARHA Arabian and Half-Arabian Futurity, Anderson is rightly enthused about the future of the Futurity. He reports that the committee is exploring new revenue opportunities and fundraising plans. 
"Future support may not come just from donations," he explains. "We have a lot of confidence in the popularity and growing potential of reining. The Futurity will continue to be a driving force in supporting reining. And as we look back over the accomplishments of the past decade, I see the future as equally bright."
FROM AHRA PRESIDENT
Arabian Reining Horse Association president Eleanor Hamilton of Eleanor's Arabian Farm in Rogers, MN has donated several of reining prospects as raffle prizes to benefit ARHA and the word is out this year. Friday afternoon people we