
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 15, 1995                   TAG: 9511150042
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FROM STAFF REPORTS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

HORSE SHOW DOESN'T CLEAR MAJOR HURDLE

Ultimately it took two votes separated by a period of weeks, but the Junior League of the Roanoke Valley made its position on the Roanoke Valley Horse Show abundantly clear Tuesday night.

The membership rejected a motion to continue co-sponsorship of the show beyond 1996, leaving the future of the largest multi-breed show in the state very murky indeed.

Until another co-sponsor is found, that will leave the Roanoke Valley Horsemen's Association, which has a 25 percent sponsorship to the league's 75 percent, to go it alone on a show that has an estimated economic impact of $11 million on the Roanoke Valley.

``It was not a close vote,'' said Sue Given, the league's president.

Needing a two-thirds majority to adopt the motion to continue association with the show, the motion was routed 90-20, Given said.

Thus the 1996 show will be the last in which the league will fully participate. It is expected a transition year will follow in which the league will contribute a token force of volunteers.

The league and the horsemen have collaborated since 1982, but it has become increasingly clear as profits have declined in recent years that the league was becoming disenchanted with its take.

Proceeds from the show and other league fund-raisers go toward charitable projects in the community. The faction that supported severing ties with the show argued successfully that the amount of time and effort the league contributed did not justify the money it made.

by CNB