Youth President’s Message

Reese Pekny, PHBA Youth President 2023-2024

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! With 2024 here let me share with you what your Youth Board has been doing and what we are planning for this new show season.

Once again, we will have the Leadline class at a reduced price at our World Show! This was made possible again because of two amazing sponsors. We are all so thankful for the support of our active members, we could not do it without your support. Hopefully, some of those youth entrants will grow up to follow in the footsteps of our greatest supporters.

Next up on March 6th – 11th, we will have our PHBA National Convention. The convention will be held in Tulsa Oklahoma, where all Youth, Amateur, and Open PHBA members are welcome. Year-end awards will be presented for the 2022-2023 show season and adjustments to our rule book will also be made here. If you haven’t had a chance to attend, you’re missing out on a good time.  The convention is a great way to meet new and longtime members, share ideas, work through suggestions to better our show experience, and recognize accomplishments. The convention is ALWAYS a fun time! So step away from work or school schedule for a few days and hang out with your horse show family. Plus, this year there will be live music on Thursday night so do not forget your dancing shoes!

After the convention, we will once again be returning to the Mid-West Horse Fair April 19th – 21st. Attending this event is a fantastic opportunity to show off our amazing palomino horses and our organization’s history with over 60k attendees. I am very excited to attend again because we had so much fun last year. One change we made this year will be the addition of awarded scholarships to youth who want to attend this event which will help ease the burden of rising costs associated with travel. To be considered for a scholarship please submit a short essay on how this scholarship will help you at the Horse Fair. For more information go to our PHBA Youth Facebook page.

Our Youth Board and our amazing Youth Advisors have also been working on a new type of outreach this year. We are crafting materials about our organization to be shared with 4-H extension offices and FFA chapters across the country. Our goal is to reach a group of youth who have never crossed the PHBA boosting numbers, sharing talent, and further expanding the growth of our organization. If you have any contacts that can support our effort, please reach out.

A special thank you to my Youth Board and our Youth Advisors. None of our success would be possible without you. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let us know on our PHBA-Y Facebook page, and don’t forget to stay up-to-date with content on palominohba.com.