The President’s Dad
Since I was a child, I always thought that it was important to be active in the breed associations of the animals that you were breeding. I wanted my dad to take part in the AQHA (American Quarter Horse Association) and the ASPC (American Shetland Pony Club) because he made a living for our family breeding and selling both breeds. He, however, had no interest in the "politics" of both association business and showing.
So, when I grew up and began breeding miniature horses, I decided to practice what I had tried to preach to my dad, and took an active part in AMHA (American Miniature Horse Association). After serving as a volunteer Executive Secretary for five and a half years, I was elected to the Board of Directors and served in several offices including Secretary and vice-president. Then I decided that it was time, after all the experience to run for President. It was a time of "political unrest" in the association and when I ran for President, I lost by one vote! Several of my friends decided that I must be an officer that year and nominated me for vice-president, again, losing by one vote! Then not to be outdone, they nominated me for Secretary and shortly thereafter, for Director at Large, and I succeeded in losing each of those offices by TWO votes!
After that year, my time on the Board expired and with quite a bit of prodding by my supporters, I ran for the Board after three years. I was approached by several of the current officers after my election to the Board while attending the National Show. They asked to have a meeting with me where I learned that the President was resigning from the Board and the rest of the officers wanted me to run again. I explained that my wife, Carol, did not even want me to run for the Board again, and that she had said that if I ran for office again, she was going to leave home. After much arm twisting on the part of the Executive Committee, I finally said that I would talk it over with my wife and let them know later.
After the meeting, Carol joined me for a walk around the horse show barns to look at the displays, horses, and to visit with friends. While we were walking around she asked me what the meeting was about. I took a deep breath, fearing her response to the news, and told her that they wanted me to run for President and asked her opinion. Her reply, "Don’t guess I can stop you."
So with that "blessing," I ran for President, and this time, rather than losing by one vote, I won by acclamation that year and the next two years, before having to leave office because of term limits. After over fifteen years of active participation in AMHA politics, I suppose that I have made up for my dad’s lack of interest.
The President’s Daughter
Ever since eighth grade when I had first spoken to Jackie McGinnis about her dreams for a separate miniature horse youth association, I had been excited about running for an office. The American Miniature Horse Youth Association: an association of our own. What a dream! From that night on I was always conversing with whomever our current youth coordinator happened to be, trying to change things for the youth, and anxiously awaiting the arrival of this new association.
It still amazes me that my first plan was to let my good friend, Jeff Jenkins, run first. I’m not sure if I was afraid of running against him or if I just didn’t want to see one of us lose, but I was ready to step down and let him go first. Of course by the time the association really got going, all the big dreams Jeff had thought up had been forgotten and he was already out of showing the horses and into showing cattle instead. So I decided I’d run for President. The more I thought about it, the more exciting it became. At the time I was crazy about Legally Blonde so naturally my colors were going to be white and pink.
Every day after school I’d busy myself painting "VOTE FOR LAUREN" in large white letters across fluorescent pink poster boards. I think I might have gotten three done before I started giving up on that idea. I had bought twenty poster boards, and the first poster alone had taken me an hour to finish. Luckily for me, my mother took over that job so I could move on to other things.
So with that spare time, I decided I wanted to have buttons. I got on my computer, opened paint, and went for it. It was pink with black lettering saying "Vote for Lauren" and had a large "G" encircling the writing and tracing the edge of the button. Fabulous! I was getting even more excited. I then went and had my picture made (wearing pink and white, naturally) so I would have a matching picture to put on my campaign table and at the top of the bio sheets.
Finally the time came for us to go to the show. The elections were to be held on Saturday at our World Championship Show in Fort Worth, Texas. Friday night they had a welcome reception for the youth, and all candidates for office were to give campaign speeches at this time. Now sometimes I tend to be a bit of a procrastinator. So naturally, when Jackie called my name to come up on stage and give my speech, I had just decided to start writing it. When I heard my name called, I froze, looked up, made a conscious effort to not look like a deer in the headlights, and then slowly rose to make my way up to the stage. I tried to keep my knees from shaking as I walked up the stairs with other candidates following behind me and for the first time ever, wished I wasn’t wearing my trademark flip flop heels.
Finally Jackie was through with her introduction, and I was up. All I remember saying is the line that my dad had suggested I say: "I’ve always been known as the President’s daughter. Now I’d like him to be known as the President’s dad." I fumbled the line at first, but then made a clean recovery. There was laughter from the audience… and then a little relaxation on my part. The rest of my speech was short and sweet which thankfully was what everyone’s ended up being.
The weekend was worlds of fun for me. My campaign table had a pretty pink table cloth, little pink roses in a pot for decoration, one of my pictures in a pink frame, a pink photo album with pictures of my horses, my fliers, pink campaign buttons, and two clear jars holding nothing other than pink and white candy. Only now am I realizing that the only thing that wasn’t pink in my campaign were my fliers. But had I thought of that, they would have been too.
Finally the night of the elections came. Since some people had to leave the show early to be home for school the next day, they had been allowed to vote early. Jackie informed my dad that with early voting alone, I was already winning by a landslide. I was still nervous, though.
They went through the entire process of the youth team tournament parade and handed out awards for anything and everything you could possibly imagine before finally getting to the election results. All I remember is standing frozen, next to my team leader, ready to smile if I faced a defeat when I heard my name called and cheers throughout the arena. I had won. And the upcoming year was going to be my biggest adventure yet.