Celebrating Progress - Website Launch & Association Updates

Welcome to our 'new look' website - this has been on the wish list and a work in progress for some time now.

Over the past few years, we've faced many challenges. One of those was discovering our website agent had passed away months earlier, and his business had quietly passed away with him..... including our website and online studbook. We were at a loss as to what to do, but with help from friends, we rallied a cost effective temporary measure which has now served its purpose. We are thrilled to present this vibrant new platform that is more intuitive, informative, and inspiring.

It also provides us with this opportunity to share all the ‘behind the scenes’ happenings with you. Let us break these down for you:

Status

With all that has happened over the past five years, we're all aware the world changes around us whether we like it or not - all we can do is ride the wave as best we can. Our current President, Charleen Allison, was appointed literally days before our first lockdown in 2020 at the Nationals in Christchurch. The next two years were a volatile time and brought more challenges with other council members. The council, and primarily Charleen, has dealt with picking up the pieces and moving the association forward. From broken computer equipment, missing information, and damaged files, to declining members and little in the bank - Charleen has volunteered a huge amount of her time and patience to keep the lights on. Now in our 50th year, we're so happy to be here with hope and excitement for the future. This is the first year the association has been in a financial position to reimburse Charleen for expenses she has covered personally (i.e. printing, postage, software subscriptions etc). There has been no remuneration for secretarial services - all work has been voluntary, purely for the betterment of the association. Thankfully, this puts us in a better financial position, and we proceed with caution so as not to undo this hard work...one step at a time.

Studbook

We're all disappointed this is no longer available on the website for public search. As mentioned, this was managed by our past website agent who no longer exists. We've made enquiries about reintegrating it, and quotes came in upwards of $10,000 plus annual fees - which is simply not feasible for us. We've also heard that other breed associations are in the same boat with software and technology upgrades needing to be made. We still hold the original database in Microsoft Access and continue to update this with new registrations, backing it up to the cloud regularly. We're more than happy to manually carry out any pedigree searches for you via email request. We'll continue searching for solutions, however for now the most credible option available is to utilise the www.allbreedpedigree.com service, which is a public online register and may just be the way of the future. We've now made over 4,833 entries! We've entered the basic details and invite you to check it out and search your horses. If you'd like to add more information, you can do this yourself, or email aphanzsecretary@outlook.com to request changes or attach photos you'd like added.

Shows

We know everyone is screaming out for more events, especially a National Show in the North Island. We'd love to make this happen and are definitely working towards it, however we need to do more research to ensure it will be viable. We need to be confident we'll have the entrant numbers and human resources to pull off an amazing show and get-together. The South Island shows have been made possible on a shoestring budget by utilising local contacts, sponsorship by Ileen Hunter of Kopanui Stud, and combining it with the Western Riding Club. If you're a show aficionado in the central North Island with a positive attitude, event management skills, local contacts, and time to give, please get in touch with Charleen or Dianne. We're also organising a demonstration and classes at the Tauranga A&P Show in February 2026, with more details to follow. If you're interested in displaying or competing with your Appaloosa, please get in touch with Dianne.

Newsletter

Another thing we are pleased to announce is the reintroduction of our newsletters. This will now be a Seasonal E-Newsletter sent directly to our members inboxes. You can expect the first issue to be delivered on 1 December 2025 to welcome summer in!

AGM

It was fantastic to see so many faces 'virtually' at the latest AGM. We had 17 members tune in, compared to only 8 the previous year. We used Messenger as the platform which, while not the most professional, is the easiest for most members. There were a few connectivity and sound quality issues for some, but how cool is it that we can come together from all over New Zealand, literally from Southland to Northland - without travel costs and time away from our properties. Yes, we miss the personal connection, but we feel it's the next best thing for this economic climate. We know we can do this even better and will trial an alternative platform for future meetings, and work on our housekeeping and introductions for new faces.

Incorporated Societies Act 2022

There have been law changes made for incorporated societies with the new Act 2022 coming into effect on 5 April 2026. In preparation for this, we've had to make some updates to the constitution and our operational processes, and apply to re-register under the new Incorporated Societies Act 2022. This is all in motion with the last step currently being completed - we'll be up to date and compliant well before the deadline.

Group Chats and Feedback

We're aware there has been a lack of communication with members over the past couple of years. We understand that from the outside, this may have been interpreted as the council not being transparent and open. We apologise for this and assure you it comes down to a lack of manpower - willing helpers who have the relevant skills and time to donate. We want to encourage an inviting community where we can all express our opinions with kindness and honesty for the intent of positive change. Sharing our different perspectives respectfully is an opportunity for growth and learning. We're open to constructive feedback and invite you to approach us directly with any concerns or questions so these can be addressed through the correct channels.

To sum it all up, we are not perfect but we are doing all that we can. Finding the problems is the easy part, but finding solutions, that takes a lot more hard work. Finding those with good character, that will help without expecting in return and do what they say they will - is absolute gold!

We are here to serve our members, the breeders and competitors, so that we can collectively preserve and promote the Appaloosa while uniting over this shared passion. People and relationships are at the core of every successful organisation, let’s make sure we stay connected.

We hope you enjoy this website as much as we do, and thank you to all those that contributed their images to be used. There are more ideas to come and tweaks to be made, but for now let's celebrate this progress!

For the love of Appaloosas,

Your councillors

Charleen, Liz, Dianne, Ileen, Judith, BJ and Jessie