General Info

2022 PNER CONVENTION!!

Quick link to book your hotel room 

We are narrowing in on convention!  It’s less than 2 weeks away!  January 28 & 29 at the Embassy Suites at the Portland airport!

A few important reminders:

HOTEL:

You may still be able to reserve a room at the Embassy Suites, but not through the PNER link.  We have terminated that avenue so that PNER does not have to pay for unused rooms.  If you want to stay at the Embassy Suites, you may be able to reserve a room by use of their website at https://www.guestreservations.com/embassy-suites-portland-airport/booking?gclid=CjwKCAiAxJSPBhAoEiwAeO_fP6bD8vwaRQQUcEC9niSpM9RIxLGuZ3n83kWkWsZAAvzwhP3_akeYhBoCDboQAvD_BwE

or by use of the various on-line reservation sites. 

Remember too thatthe Embassy Suites continues to experience staffing and supply chain difficulties.  For that reason, they have restaurant services in the restaurant available only for breakfast and dinner.  There will be NO LUNCH SERVICE IN THE HOTEL RESTAURANT DURING OUR CONVENTION.  And our contract prohibits PNER bringing other organized food into the hotel.   Though lunch catering is available, the prices are prohibitively high.  So, for all those reasons, I ask that you plan ahead to assure that you can get something to eat and still attend as many sessions as humanly possible. I’m trying to eek in a few extra minutes between presentationsto allow you a little latitude, but we have a jammed agenda, and I don’t want you to miss a minute of these excellent presentations.

REGISTER TO ATTEND (SPEAKERS, TRADE SHOW, RAFFLE, USED TACK SALE, ETC.):

If you have not yet registered for convention and you plan to attend, please submit a registration form so that we have a swag bag for you!  Details at pner.net/convention-sign-up.

BANQUET:  URGENT—TIME CRITICAL!

If you want to attend the banquet, you must register for that no later than noon on Tuesday, January 18, 2022 and pay the $50 adult charge of $25 junior charge.  Again, details are at pner.net/convention-sign-upWe will havea buffet style meal with vegetarian options available. 

 

EVENING GOWNS:

Juniors will again have gowns available!  Please support them and look spectacular at the same time!

Awards – 

If you are anticipating receiving an award at the banquet, please be in touch with Jessica Huber to be sure she has a photo of you and your beloved pony for the slide show.  

VENDORS: 

I’m happy to list the vendors for you below.  The vendors have also endured a tough Covid 19 pandemic, so please be generous and support our endurance vendor community.  You can support their business and enjoy your ride season by patronizing these folks!

American Trail Gear

Swiss Gallopers

Miller Trailer Repair for Hoof Grip

Custom Equine/Specialized Saddles TW Saddlery

Badland Equine

Cascade Custom Tack

Hold Your Horses

Kerrits Diamond in the Rough Saddlery

Hit Air

Select Saddlery (Representing DP Saddlery)

Griffin Wellness Solutions, LLC

Trailer Eyes

PNER Ride Photographers

NW Horse Trails/Ponderosa Press

Connected Riding

Art by Christa

OET

Arabian Horse Rescue & Education

EDRA

AERC

Lora Bannan

Sharke Shoes

 

SPEAKERS:

Here is the current list of speakers and the schedule.  Again, this is subject to last-minute change.

Friday - January 28 

8:00am Registration Opens

8:00-10:00am Structured Chat with Air Vest Demo

9:00am Used Tack DROP OFF ONLY

10:00am Trade Show Opens

11:00am Used Tack Sale Starts 

10:30-11:30am Stevie Delahunt, Fitness and Balance 

LUNCH BREAK 

1:00-2:30pm Judy Auble Bits 

2:45-3:45pm Catch Riding 

Kristen Grace, Jamie Hughes, Stevie Delahunt, Alexis Berryman, Heidi Talbott, Bianca Chevalier 

4:00-6:00pm Hoof Boot Fitting Information, Lindsey Sears, Laura Spear, Helga Grimsrud 

6:00pm CASH BAR

7:30pm AWARDS 

8:00pm Trade Show closes 

Saturday - January 29 

8:00am Registration Opens 

8:00am Trade Show Opens

8:00-9:30am Structured Chat with Air Vest Demo

8:00-9:30am Ride Managers Meeting JotForm, Calendar Brainstorming 

9:00am Raffle Tickets go on Sale

9:00-3:00pm Used Tack Sale 

9:45-10:45am Randy Grace, Solar Power Installation for RV's 

11:00-12:15pm General Meeting

LUNCH 

1:30-3:00pm Robert Long, Mongol Derby: Extreme Endurance 

3:45-5:30pm David Lewis / Stace Moss, Ride with GPS 

3:45-5:30pm Art Priesz, USEF Endurance Discipline Advisor, New Programs 

5:00pm Trade Show Closes 

6:00pm Cash Bar

7:00pm Awards Banquet

 

USED TACK SALE: 

Darla & Sierra Westlake and Donna Lacy-Bacon have kindly agreed to spearhead this effort. Start cleaning up your excess tack now, fill out this form, and bring it with you to the convention.  Please note that 10% of the used tack sales proceeds will go to PNER.  Also, as in years past, unsold items MUST BE PICKED UP NO LATER THAN 3 pm on Saturday, or they will be donated to a horse rescue. 

 

SADDLES FOR SALE, HORSES FOR SALE, and STALLION SERVICES: 

We will have an area for you to place flyers to hype your saddles and horses for sale or stallion services.  Please limit the size to 8.5” x 11”.

 

WALL OF INVALUABLE INFORMATION: 

We will have a place to display your inventive ideas that may be helpful to other riders.  Please bring a photo or drawing or description of your favorite product, electrolyte recipe, trailer parking aid, whatever, to display for others to see.  Share your great ideas and what you have learned over the years.

 

WHAT ELSE TO BRING:

  •        Bring your address labels to make filling out those raffle tickets easy and fast!
  •        If you have any old issues of Endurance News lying around that you want to rehome, bring them for green beans/others who may want them.
  •        Bring all your friends who want to learn about endurance riding—we love new members!

 

WHAT WE ARE DOING ABOUT COVID:

First, we will be adhering to the State of Oregon requirements in place at the time of convention.  At this point, the requirement is that people wear masks indoors.  That will be the expectation.

Secondly, we will be asking attendees to sign the typical COVID waiver that is similar to those that you all sign for all PNER-endorsed rides.

Further, I have asked the hotel to use the greatest amount of fresh air possible into their HVAC air mix while our function is happening at their venue.  They have agreed to do so.  I hope this helps reduce the Covid potential, but it also means that it will likely be cold in the meeting rooms and the other convention areas.  So please dress accordingly.

I have also asked that they reduce the number seated at each banquet table so that we are not elbow to elbow.  This may cause challenges to the usual arrangements where teams try to sit together at the same table.  We leave it to your creative thinking to work that out, but please be respectful of your fellow riders and adhere to spacing the seating out a bit. 

We will have the traditional DJ and dancing following the awards presentation.  Please know that the mask mandate continues through that activity.

The hotel has agreed to provide hand sanitizer at various locations throughout our venue.

 

That’s the latest.  I hope to see you there!  If questions, dash me an email at superrocketpilot@gmail.com

Becky Osborne

Below is older convention info

****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

First, we’re not going to be streaming the presentations from convention, or offering recorded versions in the future.  The equipment needed to do so is prohibitively expensive, and we have opted to forego it this time around.  It may be something that PNER chooses to do in the future, but we’ll decline that kind of investment at this point.

Secondly, we could use a volunteer to step forward to help Jessica Huber with the slide show that runs concurrently with the awards presentations.  Anyone familiar with PowerPoint who could step up?  If so, please contact Jessica.  You need not be in geographic proximity—this can be done remotely.  And THANK YOU.

Next, you may recall that a couple of juniors have stepped up this year to handle the raffle.  I am so grateful for this because the raffle is an enormously-popular portion of our convention.  All of the proceeds from this year’s raffle will go to the Mary & Anna fund, for future ride entries for juniors.  If you have donations for the raffle (think of items that you would like to win!), please contact Kristen Grace and make arrangements for getting that item to her.  And if you have a child who has benefited from this fund and would like you and/or your child to participate in this year’s raffle, please contact Kristen Grace. 

Vendors are reserving their space, and I’ll have a list of those for you in my next update! 

And now for the part where I beg:  PLEASE make your room reservations soon.  I know you hear this year after year, but it’s important because if we do not sell the number for which we contracted with the Embassy Suites, PNER will have to pay for those unused rooms.  And if you make your reservation using one of the on-line reservation firms (like Expedia or Priceline, etc.), let me know that you did so.  The hotel is allowing us to count those against the number of rooms for which we have committed, but the hotel has no way to make that connection—so I am happy to gather names and provide them to the hotel. 

If you have questions, please contact me right away.  I’m at superrocketpilot@gmail.com.  Happy to help and looking forward to seeing you all at the end of January.

* * * * *

Hey there PNER members and the rest of you riders out there, too!  We have updated information about convention, which is fast approaching!  January 28, 29, and 30th, 2022 will be upon us soon.  Just a few fun holidays and then we’re into convention season.  There is a whole lot of information to share, so we have put together the following index to take you to the specifics, BUT PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THROUGH IT ALL.  There is important info there and action you need to take in order to be in on the fun. Click on the blue links below to go directly to the related details.

SIGN UP TO ATTEND (please register even just for free speakers so we have a count for goodie bags)
HOTEL
SPEAKERS AND SCHEDULE
NEW - LUNCH INFORMATION!
USED TACK SALE
TRADE SHOW
BANQUET
EVENING GOWNS
AWARDS
2 NEW CONVENTION FEATURES  (BULLETIN BOARD INFO and STRUCTURED OPEN CHAT)
COVID 19

PLEASE SIGN UP TO ATTEND:  We want to be sure that we have enough swag bags for all of you, as well as seating room for our presentations, not to mention FOOD if you opt for the banquet!  So please go to https://pner.net/convention-sign-up and register to start or renew your PNER membership, let us know that you will be attending the convention, and/or to attend the banquet.    

Hotel Information

WHERE? The Embassy Suites (Portland Airport)
7900 NE 82nd Avenue
Portland, OR 97220
Book here!
WHEN?
January 28, 29, 30, 2022

WHO? 
Everyone is invited!  Need not be a member to attend, but we would love it if you would become a member or renew your membership! And everyone can learn from the speaker sessions for free as well.

HOW (to register)? You can click on the Registration link on the previous page or go here to sign up for the Awards Banquet since everything else is free.

GUEST ROOMS:  If you plan to attend and want to stay at the convention location, you need to reserve your room early.  You may set up your room reservation directly, via the hotel link.  

The rate for the blocked rooms is $149 and there are two types of rooms available for that price.  Please check the link and make your choice. As usual, there is a 16% tax from the City of Portland added to that $149.  There is also a fee that operates like a deposit, for incidental charges that may assess to your room (mini bar, for instance) or for damages to the room that are discovered post-check out.  That charge will be $70 per night, subject to a $350 per visit maximum.  Embassy Suites assures me that this has been in place for several years, that other hotels make this same charge, and that the unearned money is refunded to your credit card within ten days.

Additionally, some of you have noticed that the other hotel booking on-line companies are offering these same rooms at the Embassy Suites for a few dollars less.  You are welcome to book through those services.  Obviously the same 16% tax will apply to those rates and I have verified that the $70 per night/$350 maximum per visit incidental deposit, will also apply to those bookings.  I inquired to the hotel about these other on-line companies offering the rooms at a lesser rate than the rooms that PNER has blocked.  And when I say “blocked” that means that PNER (as an organization) pays for the rooms if you all don’t reserve them and pay for them individually.  The hotel has assured me that any rooms that are purchased through the on-line companies will nonetheless count against our room reserve. If you reserve a room using one of these other, on-line methods rather than the PNER blocked rooms, please let me know so that the organization can count your room against the number for which we are responsible.

Parking at the venue is $7 per day.  If you are staying at the hotel, that amount charges through your room.  Otherwise, vouchers will be available so that you pay only the $7 per day regardless of whether you leave the parking lot more than once.  NOTE: The daily parking fee will display as $16 when you register online but when you get to the hotel, it will be $7. IF YOU ENOUNTER ANY PROBLEMS, CONTACT BECKY OSBORNE at (503) 810-7203, AND SHE'LL GET IT FIXED!

View the Schedule of Events!

Other fun details! (some of this is also presented on the Schedule page)

Lunch - The Embassy Suites continues to experience staffing and supply chain difficulties.  For that reason, they have restaurant services in the restaurant available only for breakfast and dinner.  There will be NO LUNCH SERVICE IN THE HOTEL RESTAURANT DURING OUR CONVENTION.  And our contract prohibits PNER bringing other organized food into the hotel.   Though lunch catering is available, the prices are prohibitively high.  So, for all those reasons, I ask that you plan ahead to assure that you can get something to eat and still attend as many sessions as humanly possible. I’m trying to eek in a few extra minutes between presentations to allow you a little latitude, but we have a jammed agenda, and I don’t want you to miss a minute of these excellent presentations.

Used Tack Sale - Darla & Sierra Westlake and Donna Lacy-Bacon have kindly agreed to spearhead this effort. Start cleaning up your excess tack now, fill out this form, and bring it with you to the convention.

Please note that 10% of the used tack sales proceeds will go to PNER.  Also, as in years past, unsold items MUST BE PICKED UP NO LATER THAN 3 pm on Saturday, or they will be donated to a horse rescue.  We are unable to display saddles, but those of you with saddles to sell are welcome to bring a photo of the saddle to pin on the “Invaluable Information” bulletin boards.

Trade Show - Vendors are signing up with a cornucopia of products for you to touch, consider, and hopefully purchase.  The vendors have also endured a tough Covid 19 pandemic, so please be generous and support our endurance vendor community.  The commercial vendors are getting their spaces reserved, (due date of December 15, 2021 is fast approaching)  but it also appears that we’ll have some amount of room for up to 10 of what we call “non-commercial, member artisan booths”, as we had in 2020.  If you are interested in having such a booth, there are two prerequisites:  1.  You must be a PNER member on January 28 & 29 (the dates of the 2022 convention), and 2. These must be hand-made, horse-related wares.  A 10’ x 10’ booth will cost $60.  If you are interested, please PM me for details. 

Banquet - We will again have a buffet style meal with vegetarian options available.  Please be sure to register for the banquet early to make it easier on those of us who are estimating the number of meals needed.  So please go to https://pner.net/convention-sign-up and register to start or renew your PNER membership, attend the convention, and/or to attend the banquet.   

Evening Gowns - Juniors will again have gowns available!  Please support them and look spectacular at the same time!

Awards - If you are anticipating receiving an award at the banquet, please be in touch with Jessica Huber to be sure she has a photo of you and your beloved pony for the slide show.  

Two New Convention Features! 

1) The Great Wall of Invaluable Information!

We will have an area set up with several bulletin boards and banners to communicate your products/services and ideas. For example:

  •      SADDLES:  Since you can’t bring used saddles in, prepare an 8.5” x 11” sheet for each saddle.  If you find a buyer, deal directly with them and no portion of those proceeds go to the organization.  Please be sure to secure saddles as we cannot guarantee that items left in your car are safe, and PNER is DEFINITELY NOT responsible for these items, and neither is the Embassy Suites.     
  •      STALLION OWNERS:  For PNER members who are stallion owners, there will be space to post photos and information of your magnificent stallions.  8.5” x 11” maximum size. You can discuss services directly with people who may be interested.  (And don’t leave your stallions in the car either.) 
  •      HORSES FOR SALE AND WANTED:  As above for stallion services, PNER members who are looking to sell or buy horses may post a document, not to exceed 8.5” x 11”.  We love matchmaking! 
  •      IDEA BOARDS:  We’ll have another area for random, helpful ideas, products, hacks, reference material, etc. that have worked for your endurance needs.  Please bring a written description, photo, a diagram, link to a YouTube video, website, or whatever may direct someone to this information.  You are also welcome to send it to VP Becky Osborne (superrocketpilot@gmail.com), and it’ll be posted ahead of time. Please keep each submission small in size so we have a chance of pinning them up.  But if you have 1 or 100, BRING THEM ON.  And if you’d like to add a label with your name and phone number, you’ll be able to answer any questions from those interested in your contribution.  We’re hoping that it’s a great way to get to know your fellow riders. 

2) The Structured Open Chat Both Mornings

You’ll notice on the agenda that on both Friday and Saturday mornings, we’ll start each day with STRUCTURED OPEN CHAT:  This will be a new opportunity for general discussion of rider concerns.  This is open to green beans and longer-term riders to ask and answer questions and share ideas.  I’m hoping for a “this worked for me” kind of encouragement that we can extend to potential newcomers as we welcome those into our sport.  Of particular concern/interest has been the “how do I control this fire-breathing monster at the beginning of the ride?” We look forward to hearing your questions and solutions.  And for those of us who have been around a while, please bring any excess copies of Endurance News that you may be willing to hand off to new riders or those considering our sport and want a flavor of what this is all about. 

COVID 19 - We hope COVID 19 will cut us a break by convention, so we can all relax and have fun.  But we WILL be following the applicable State of Oregon Health Authority’s guidelines at convention time. Masks that cover both mouth and nose may be required.  If this is not workable for you, we ask that you join via the electronic broadcast method planned and discussed on the Schedule page.