So far (it's Friday afternoon now) this is a very energetic and well attended convention. An awesome trade show, seems like excellent attendance. Speakers have been good so far - nutrition, colic and digestive system, National Park Service. And it seems very centralized - easy to get to the tradeshow and talks (without having to navigate a zillion slot machines) - so far, very good!

I'll publish a few morning photos, then head back down. stay tuned - tonight is regional awards and the dance.

later, Steph

Friday night: the awards were fun - I've put up some photos . It's been a very friendly energetic convention so far, maybe the best I've been to. The layout is perfect - tradeshow and meeting rooms are close, lots of socializing. Tonight there was a Tevis reception in the same room (adjacent to the tradeshow) that had the International hosted reception last night. Really good food, no host bar, lots of talk and laughter. The tradeshow is fantastic too - and folks are buying lots of stuff. Everybody seems happy!

later, Steph

Saturday afternoon:
I just left the tradeshow, everything is winding down, some last minute shopping going on. Still very busy there, so it must have been a successful trade show. The NATRC and AERC both held their conventions and I think that makes a huge difference on attendance - this was one of the largest trade shows I can remember.

I met with a few hardy Ridecampers for breakfast - I have to say that one good thing about having the convention in the west, is that the time zone works to the advantage of those of us who are morning challenged... It was fun to meet more faces (the names I'd already known!). Then I went over to the Hot Topics session hosted by John Parke. This is really an amazing thing that he's put together. A MODERATED (stick to the topic!) discussion - everybody has a chance to be heard, but in the interest of time and efficiency, John managed to keep folks from wandering too far from topic, or taking too much time to make their point. The topic was the discussion of a proposed rule change: require horses to pulse down within 30 minutes of the finish, rather than the current 60 minutes. There were many good points made to support pros and cons. John had broken the discussion format down into 12 or so issues that this rule change might impact - from ride managers perspective, non-arabian horse perspective, International perception perspective - it was quite valuable to be able to disect an issue in this manner. Kudos to John.

There were some good speakers on Trails issues. The new AERC Board of Directors were sworn in during the general session, 2010 officers elected: Connie Caudill (president), Laura Hayes (vice president), Jan Stevens (secretary), Roger Taylor (treasurer).