I had the opportunity to travel down to College Station, Texas for one of my favorite events of the summer, the AQHYA Youth Excellence Seminar and Youth World Cup! The YES Conference is held each year to elect the AQHYA Leadership Team. The American Quarter Horse Youth World Cup is an educational, leadership and competition-based event for AQHA youth members from around the world. This international event is hosted every two years by a different country. This event hosts teams from 16 nations around the world! Throughout this competition, each country will ride for gold medals in cutting, reining, horsemanship, ranch riding, trail, western riding, hunt seat equitation, hunter under saddle, and showmanship.
I flew down a day before the YES conference started to get one of the Region 5 Directors, Sylvia Speelman, down for her leadership team prep day. I was able to enjoy the hot Texas sun at the hotel pool, read some of my book, and visited a nearby coffee shop! That evening my mom and I enjoyed an Italian dinner with the Texas Youth Advisor, Amy Lee.
Thursday was the first day of YES, which is always interview day for the new AQHYA leadership team candidates! I had the honor of being one of the interview judges for these accomplished youth. I was impressed with the professionalism and vision these youth had for our association and industry. I can assure you our future is bright with these young leaders! After interviews, I hosted the kickoff workshop with 2022-23 AQHYA President, Adriana Totten. Our workshop was called “Time Well Spent” and we talked about the steps to take to plan a regional youth leadership conference. We made it an interactive session with the kids and had them brainstorm their own regional conference. After the youth presented their creative ideas, I then gave a short presentation on queening and representing the All American Quarter Horse Congress. It was so exciting to see interest amongst some of the older youth to get involved in queening for their states! I also made a fun AQHA Rulebook Kahoot for everyone to test their knowledge and they all enjoyed some friendly competition.
That evening we had a great dinner and fun dance for all the youth. The Youth World Cup Teams were invited to our dance, too! Team Luxembourg’s advisor, Jim Stors, was on the AQHYA Leadership Team when I was back in 2016, so it was great getting to catch up with him and meet his team of riders! I also had the opportunity to meet Team Germany!
Friday morning started out with directors campaigning, and then we all went to see the opening ceremonies for the Youth World Cup. There were 22 countries represented for this year’s competition. Everyone from YES and Team USA’s families surely showed lots of USA pride when Team USA made their walk for the ceremony! It was an honor to see all the talented riders from all the countries come together as one to represent the Quarter Horse and the values of leadership, horsemanship, and teamwork. After the ceremonies, we transitioned into regional director elections where I moderated candidate speeches and impromptu questions for Regions 1 and 2 and 5 and 6. Again, I was so impressed with the poise and ideas these youth had for their regions! What a job well done.
It was a pleasure getting to return to the YES Conference and be a part of the conference as an adult, not a youth. This event could not be as successful as it is without the youth and their parents and advisors that support them! The youth are our future and events that develop and educate our youth, like YES, are planting the seeds for a bright future for our industry. I am AQHA Proud!!
