The Southwest Quarter Horse Association serves New Mexico and West Texas with some of the biggest and best horse shows in the country!

Big change to the show schedule:  The October show has to be moved to the 23rd and 24th.  A conflict with the mounted shooters made this necessary.  Fireworks over the hill is pretty bad but shooting in the next arena would be disasterous!

The first regular meeting of the SWQHA Board of Directors was held on January 14th.  A couple of things of interest to the membership came out of that meeting.  Christine Isaacson resigned from the board and Cory Martinez was elected to fill her term.  The matter of year-end awards for the 50 & Over riders was addressed and the result is:  All amateur riders will compete for the saddle award.  Class awards will be given to those individuals meeting the requirements in two age groups; 18-49 and 50 & Over.  In other words, the amateur division will follow the guidelines of the youth division in all awards.  The board wants to continue the jackpot for the timed events at the February show.  These include Amateur Breakaway Roping, speed events and ranch sorting.  This will be a cash in-cash out deal; winner take all.  So, bring the green stuff with you to get in on the jackpot.  Farrell will not be able to add to your show tab this time.  Tamara Blaeser was at the meeting to keep the parent organization aware of the amateur associations happenings.  She reported the working cow horse clinic has had a very good response and she has a few openings left.  Contact Tamara if you are interested in attending.  It was good to see her at the meeting.  The presidents of the amateur and youth associations are ex-officio members of the board and need to take part in the guiding of the parent organization.

Our January show was disappointing on Saturday entry-wise, but Sunday made up for a lot of it.  The judges were great and the weather on both days, though cold in the morning, was beautiful after about 9:30.  Our judges this year will be staying at the Hampton Inn & Suites West located on South Desert Blouvard in El Paso.  The judges were very impressed with their accomodations.  SWQHA would like to thank the Hamption Inn and Cory Martinez for making this our host hotel this year.

If you are an amateur or youth and are interested in getting into those organizations, the officers are listed on their respective "News" pages.

It was mentioned at the board meeting that this web page does not get updated very often.  It is hard to put new information on the web site when none is turned in for publication.  If you have news or information please submit it.

As stated last month, the 2009 Board of Directors voted to exchange show points with the New Mexico Quarter Horse Association again in 2010.  The shows involved in the points swap will be SWQHA Border Circuit, May 28-31 and NMQHA Land of Enchantment Circuit, April 22-25. They also voted to exchange show points with the Ramuda Quarter Horse Association in Midland.  Their 26-29 March shows and our Border Circuit will count for the other association's year end awards. Both of these show weekends will have two split/combined shows with two judges each.

Just a reminder:  If you are figuring out show expenses for 2010, AQHA has gone up to $5.00 per show for drug fee/processing fee.