January 2009

Hello and Happy New Year! I hope this letter finds you well and that each of you had a wonderfully blessed Christmas Season and are looking forward to a prosperous 2009. 

Our Membership meeting was held on December 6, 2008 and it was a very energetic and enjoyable time. As you will see we had a lot of things to consider and I feel that the members present made some very good decisions in order to keep NCPEA an active and responsible affiliate with PHBA. 

At this time we have a show scheduled for June 20-21 at Arden in the lower arena. This will be a 2-day double judged show. I am Currently waiting on an answer from AQHA as to whether or not they will grant us approval for an Introductory Show on that date in Arden. I am in hopes that they will approve the application since adding the quarter horse classes helps to offset the cost of putting on our shows. 

We also have an open show scheduled for May 9 here at my farm. This show has been approved and will be sanctioned by Piedmont Horseman’s Association and we are expecting a great turnout and will need lots of volunteer’s to make this show a success. The open show will be a fundraiser for the Open as well as the youth to help pay show and awards cost throughout the year. 

The August show in Raleigh is pending at this time. I have been in touch with the Appaloosa Club and hopefully we will have an answer in a few weeks. The Southern Gold Group, which we are a part of, will have that show on Labor Day weekend in Unadilla, Georgia and I will get you more information on this and the August show just as soon as I have it. 

The final points for 2008 are included in this newsletter along with the list of awards to be given and the recipients. Remember when looking over the two lists that in order to qualify for any year-end award the horse/exhibitor must have shown to 8 of the 12 judges at the 3 shows sponsored by NCPEA. All the shows in NC, SC, VA and the SGG show count toward year-end awards but if you or the horse did not show to a minimum of 8 judges at our 3 shows then you will not qualify for year end awards. 

In addition, it takes a minimum of 15 youth points and 20 open/amateur points in a division to qualify for an award. The awards banquet will be held on March 7, 2009 at my house in Asheboro. There was much discussion at the membership meeting as to how to encourage our members to come to the banquet and the members felt that this would be a less expensive and more relaxed atmosphere for everyone. We have tried many different avenues for this banquet over the years and my hope is that each one of you will come, relax an enjoy an evening with friends. 

I do not have the particulars for the menu at this time but as you will see on the sign up sheet we are attempting to make this a very affordable event for everyone to attend. In closing I want to thank my board of directors for all the hard work and time they put in last year. We met with many challenges and persevered through them all. I would like to thank each and everyone for all the help and encouragement that you gave me and the board throughout the year. I don’t have words to tell you how much it means to me to have your support. I look forward to seeing each of you at the banquet! 

Lowanda McDowell

November 2008
Hello Everyone

Show season is winding down and it has been a tough year all the way around. We have managed to survive it through a lot of hard work on your part at each show and fundraisers we held. So many of you helped out in so many ways that I continue to be overwhelmed. 

As I look back over our show season this year, we have again had small numbers but BIG fun. We had new challenges this year but at our Lake Waccamaw show the weather was great, we had a pizza and ice cream party on Saturday night (Thanks to Eddie & Carolyn Brown and Ken McDowell for that) . The June show again this year did not bring the numbers that we had hoped but we had good numbers in our classes and most classes were held. After the show on Saturday we had a cookout that brought us all together for some great food and fun. Thanks to all of you who participated in the cookout. On Sunday after halter we closed our silent auction. This auction was very successful and offered a wide variety of goodies to bid on. Thanks to all the bidders and those who donated items this was instrumental in offsetting expenses for the show. 

The week after the Arden show NCPEA held an open show at Flintrock Farm in Reidsville. This was a lot of fun and a lot of work. Thanks to Barbara Prather for donating her time to judge the show for us and thanks to all the members that came and worked the office, gate and concessions. It was a true team effort. 

NC had several members make the trip to Tulsa for the World Show and again they made us proud!! Then the second weekend of August we went to Raleigh for a true adventure. We held an AQHA Introductory show in conjunction with our show and WOW what a couple days. It was a very exciting and successful show. I believe that most everyone seemed to have a good time and I have gotten lots of good response and comments since the show. This is a good location and the facility is affordable when we can share arena costs with another association. Thanks to Kurt Wagoner again for working with the appaloosa club to share this facility. 

Labor Day weekend was the first Southern Gold Group show “Reunion at Unadilla”. This was an “A” show all 3 days and was a huge success. Everyone that I have heard from was excited about this venture and looking forward to an even bigger show in 
2009. NCPEA owns 1/6 of the SGG and even though it will be held outside our state it will be counted for our year end awards as long as we choose to continue our ownership. 

We will be holding our annual membership meeting on December 6 at my home in Asheboro (see notice for address and directions). The Youth will have their meeting at 12 noon, the Board of Directors will meet at 1 pm and the general membership meeting will start at 2pm. Following the meeting we will have a time of fellowship and a complimentary dinner will be served at 5pm. Please try to come and take part in the meetings and enjoy some time of fellowship. If the weather permits maybe we will have some basketball or football competition. Complete details are in this newsletter and on our website. I would encourage each of you to attend our meeting as we will be electing officers, planning the awards banquet, yearend awards, 2009 circuit awards and the 2009 show season. If you cannot be present for the meeting please email or write me with any ideas or concerns that you would like to have addressed. I look forward to seeing everyone at the meeting. 

Lowanda

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