Important Summit News
This week, the Best Horse Practices Summit Board of Directors, along with executive director, Maddy Butcher, agreed to suspend the 2023 conference until further notice. It will likely be held in 2024.
From Director Maddy Butcher:
Last fall, we produced what many described as the “best ever” Summit at Spy Coast Farm, in Lexington, Kentucky. It was full of enthusiastic attendees, hard-working volunteers, and engaged and generous presenters. What a great time!
At Spy Coast, we featured a full, extra day of electives on stockmanship, women’s leadership, and saddle fit. The additional offerings increased our presenter numbers by 30 percent. These electives, along with the main presentations on equine digestion, bits, body work, and other topics, were exceedingly well-received by our audience.
Horse owners and riders traveled from all over the country (nearly 40 states!) and Canada to join us. After one presenter came down with Covid just before the conference, we scrambled to fill his two-hour time slots. The resulting Question and Answer sessions may indeed become a regular feature at our event because they were so popular and allowed attendees and presenters to have even more opportunities to interact.
Our fifth annual conference last October found Summit presenters collaborating and referencing each other’s offerings in a way that made everyone feel that they were at a symbiotic, holistic event.
In other words, ‘Hooray for the Summit!’
Since October, we have responded to many requests to move the conference to the southwest US. With time passing, and with ‘sure things’ that ultimately fell short, we have been unable to secure a suitable venue for our great event. Rather than produce a subpar experience for attendees and presenters and rather than rush to book a venue with less time to organize, the Board and I made the difficult decision to delay the Summit until some future date. This will allow us to find the perfect spot, to cultivate our community of presenters, attendees, and sponsors, and to celebrate the growing library of presentations already on our video platform.
See you soon and stay in touch.
The BHPS Board of Directors and Steering Committee
I am sad to hear no summit this year in Kentucky, but I understand. Last year was amazing and I wondered how you could make it that great again. I sure hope you do it again in 2024 in Kentucky, if you do my friends & I will definitely be there.
Thanks, Kim! Hope to see you next year!
It would be great if you could move the summit to the Southwest. If not fully understandable.
Thank you for the heads up. I have read about all the opportunities to learn at the Summit and a friend had planned to attend the 2022 event, but had conflicting schedules and could not. I would love to attend, along with my husband in 2024. I am sure my friend will want to as well. I hope you will be able to keep it in Kentucky so we can.
Thanks for all that you do!
I sure do admire your commitment to excellence! Will be looking forward to 2024!
Good luck with organising the 2024 summit. Locating it near to an International Airport with good Europe connections would be wonderful.
What about rotating locations year to year, or every couple years? Loved having it in KY the last couple years. I’m not sure I’d be able to attend a SW summit. But by rotating, it’ll be the most fair to get the most people to attend.
Thanks, Nicole, for your comment. We have indeed traveled around the US, with the first two in Durango, then one in Maine, and two in KY. Hope you can make it to our next one, wherever we land.
Looking forward to it, whenever it happens!
Feather Tippetts and I have attended ALL 5 of the BHP Summits. It is the highlight of a wonderful Fall trip to where ever you may hold the next Summit, though, obviously we are sorely disappointed in the decision to skip 2024. Sigh! The Summit gives us so much to share with our friends and family.
Stephanie, thank you so much for your kind and enthusiastic comment. As the Terminator would say, “We’ll Be Back!” and hopefully closer to our California people.
I have only been able to physically attend the summit in Maine. It was excellent and the location is close to an international airport. We on the east coast don’t seem to have many events of this quality, so hope you will consider Maine again. Also really really appreciate all the virtual ways to experience the summit and all the quality information from Cayuse Communications.
Thanks, Catherine!