We organized the National Hunter & Jumper Association more than 15 years ago to deal with the issues and concerns related to showing hunters and jumpers, through all stages of competition–from the entry level exhibitor to the Olympic rider. Our mission is to function as an independent national discipline association.

Many people have asked why we’ve never before applied to the federation to become the national affiliate. In my opinion, we weren’t ready for the job at that time. We needed more experience, and we needed funding. For all of our 15 years, we’ve published three or four newsletters per year, and we’ve done at least one survey on rule changes and other pertinent matters each year.

No other national organization for hunters and jumpers has stood this test of time. In addition, we’ve conducted educational forums and have made donations totaling many thousands of dollars to educational and charitable organizations. We’ve done all of this with a $10-per-year membership fee. At one point we had members from every state in the union, more than 1,200 in number.

 Today we have many fewer members, but more than 100 are life members. The hunter/jumper community is tired of being left in the dark about matters that concern either our business or our sport. The members hear that they have representatives in the U.S. Equestrian Federation, but many of them don’t even know who they are. The majority doesn’t understand our election procedure, which is changing as we speak. They do not know how to make a rule-change proposal, and many don’t even understand the rules under which they show. If we didn’t require them to be members of USEF, most of them wouldn’t join.

This is a sad commentary for our discipline. The USEF’s leaders have decided that there must be a “hunter” affiliate, and we are one of two groups that stepped forward to seek the title. The United States Hunter And Jumper Association has been formed just for this purpose. This is not a totally new group of people, but many of the same people who were on the old National Hunter/Jumper Council, now called the National Hunter Committee. Their directors may have different titles, but they’re still mainly big-time professionals who are judges, stewards, riders or trainers.

We didn’t incorporate until 2004, when we began to write bylaws to replace our guidelines. We’ve spent the first several months of this year writing bylaws to fit our current situation, which can be read on our website (www.NHJA.com). They cover a great deal and have a lot of detail. We’ve tried to make our organization as democratic as it can be. If we get the title, our board will consist of three different groups, all elected from different sources. We have 12 directors, electing three each year to serve a four-year term. We will add to this group one person from each of the 12 USEF zone committees. These people will be elected by the current committee and will serve a two-year term.

The members of each zone committee are elected from within their zone and thus elected by the actual membership. We will then go to each of the five hunter committees and have them elect a representative, again for a two-year term. And the National Jumper Committee will have two representatives. None of these people can serve more than two, two-year terms. We will elect our three NHJA directors in an open meeting. We have a Nominating Committee, but we’ll also take nominations from the floor. The members of the various hunter committees get their seats from an entirely different system.

Each Zone Committee now nominates two persons for each hunter committee. Then, when all of the nominations are in, the representatives from the zones who are on the National Hunter Committee elect the new committee. It sounds complicated, but it really isn’t, and I think the representation will continually change. That will give us a Board of 32 members, none of whom are appointed. We are guaranteed geographic balance, and we are guaranteed representatives for each hunter group.

 No system can be perfect, but we think that this board will represent many different interests. We have nine committees that will be manned by the zone committees and the chairman. These include show managers, show secretaries, show standards, licensed officials, clinics and education, amateurs, safety, professional riders and trainers and veterinary/drugs. On the jumper side, we have committees for junior/amateur-owners, children’s/adult, pony jumpers and a National Jumper Committee.

Our vice president for jumpers is Margie Engle, and Jimmy Lee is in charge of our hunter committees. When a zone includes more than one state, we have a zone subcommittee for each of those states. Each zone will be allocated $1,000 to give some sort of educational clinic within their zone, free of charge, to all USEF/NHJA members. This money is in addition to the zone’s regular allocation, based on the number of members in each zone. It is the intent of the NHJA leadership, if selected, to ask for control of the zones. We would like to do this in conjunction with the federation, leaving most of the jobs in place at the federation office in Kentucky.

While our board would have regular meetings to make decisions on rule changes and policy, the executive director would stay in place, as well as the other hunter department employees. Money from the current dues structure would be allocated to the zones and for telephone, postage, salaries, etc. USEF members who designate “hunter/ jumper” as their primary discipline would automatically become NHJA members. There would be no additional forms to complete or checks to write.

This is the plan that I like best, because it doesn’t duplicate services or expenses. We all want a national affiliate that will represent us fairly and serve the sport well. I believe the NHJA has the better plan. Still, whichever group gets the nod, the job isn’t going to be an easy one. Volunteers have less and less time to devote to projects such as this, and those who hold up their hands already have more to do than they can possibly do well. The best of all worlds would be a merger of both organizations into one, but the USHJA’s leaders have rejected this idea. I don’t think this is a good beginning. Only by working together and supporting one another will we succeed at this very big task. W. Gary Baker, of Middleburg, Va., is the chairman of the NHJA. He is also a show manager, R-rated judge, and breeder of ponies and horses.