Here is my rough draft for the 8&U W/T class proposal that we
discussed at the International. I'm asking everyone to look over it
and tell me what they think about both the concept of the class and
the wording of the proposal. I will submit this and the Team
Competition Proposal (posted on this forum somewhere already) to the
BoD agenda for the meeting in October, and I will hopefully send them
in by the end of this month.

Shane

-----------

Proposal for Nationally Pointed 8&U Walk/Trot Pleasure Class

Submitted by the Youth Advisory Board to the Board of Directors,
October 2006

There has been a lot of talk recently about an 8&U Walk/Trot Pleasure
Class. The Youth Advisory Board discussed this issue at the
International meeting and came up with the following plan.

A new nationally pointed class would be created, called 8&U Walk/Trot
Pleasure, for both English and Western divisions. Conditions would be
placed on these classes such that any one exhibitor would not be
allowed to participate in both the traditional 3-gait 8&U Pleasure
and the new W/T Pleasure during the same show. However, it would be
possible for an exhibitor to show 3-gait Western Pleasure and
Walk/Trot English or vice-versa.

This class would benefit novice and young riders by providing an
additional pointed class for them to gain show experience before they
are ready to begin loping.

Concerns were raised in the course of the discussion that an 8&U
child could technically graduate to 9-12 without any experience with
loping in the show arena. To ease these concerns, the following
options could were considered and are presented as alternatives or
supplements to this proposal:

1) A warning or notice that 8&U riders should have experience
with loping in the show arena by the time they age out of 8&U
inserted in the rule book with the rule for this class.
2) Instead of a nationally pointed 8&U class, a state-points
only (not submitted to national office) 7&U Walk/Trot Pleasure class
meeting the same specifications as the 8&U class described in this
proposal could be defined in the rule book as an option for
individual state clubs to add to their show programs.