Columbus, OH — On Monday (Nov. 16), Chairperson Sam Beegle and Directors Barry Brown, Mark Loewe, Rich Gillock and Russell Williams hosted the annual USTA District 7 meeting. For the first time ever, all USTA District Meetings are being held virtually online.

The meeting included opening messages from USTA Executive Vice President/CEO Mike Tanner and USTA President Russell Williams. The remainder of the agenda included a discussion of and voting on 17 rule change proposals.

Following are the results on the 2021 rule change proposals from District 7:

Rule Change Proposal-Result
Proposal #1 (Yearling price in program) — Approved
Proposal #2 (Prohibit seeding of any divisions) — Rejected
Proposal #3 (Showing the number of claims on a horse) — Rejected
Proposal #4 (List of claimants; reason claim lost) — Rejected
Proposal #5 (Electronic draw details) — Rejected
Proposal #6 (Publish entry sheets online) — Rejected
Proposal #7 (Electronic draw guidelines) — Rejected
Proposal #8 (Driver choices prior to draw) — Approved
Proposal #9 (Position of handholds) — Rejected
Proposal #10 (Hobbles – accurate program information) — Tied
Proposal #11 (Nerved horses reporting) — Approved
Proposal #12 (Gelding/spaying of horse reporting) — Approved
Proposal #13 (Increase horse name – 18 to 20 spaces) — Rejected
Proposal #14 (Outside source approval of horse names) — Rejected
Proposal #15 (Ownership percentages recording) — Rejected
Proposal #16 (Syndicate member requirements) — Approved
Proposal #17 (Sulky change submission requirement) — Approved

Following the vote on the rule change proposals, there was a discussion about microchipping.

The meeting commenced at 2 p.m. and was adjourned by Chairperson Sam Beegle at 2:58 p.m.

For the schedule of remaining USTA District Meetings, click here.