March/April 2025 Membership Update

Latest News

Top Trail and our 2025 NATRC Virtual Mileage Challenge – Top Trail is one of our newer
National Sponsors. Just in the past year they have completely redone their website, and
they have also developed their own app that provides a seamless way to upload our tracks
to the Top Trail website. It has never been any easier to do so thanks to these upgrades
made by Top Trail.
I highly encourage everyone to sign up for this year’s NATRC Virtual Mileage Challenge. Top
Trail has been and continues to be a huge supporter of NATRC. They have invested a lot of
money to our benefit and the least we can do is increase our participation in our own Virtual
Mileage Challenge that they host for us. Go to toptrailhorse.com and sign up today!
At the end of the year, the top three riders from each region, along with the top ten riders
nationally, will be recognized at our 2026 NATRC National Convention. Pricing remains the
same ($35 for Top Trail and $25 for the NATRC Virtual Mileage Challenge group).
It is a lot of fun to participate as well as an excellent incentive to get out there and get those
conditioning miles in.
Riding Warehouse Coupons – Riding Warehouse is again providing all riders and
volunteers at each of our rides a special coupon. This year’s coupon is for an additional $30
off an order of $200 or more. This is in addition to the current 10% NATRC Member
Exclusive discount we already receive. (As a reminder: The current Riding Warehouse
discount code can be found after logging into our website and then clicking on Partner
Discounts under the Members tab on the home page.) Thank you, Riding Warehouse, for
your continued support of NATRC!
2026 National NATRC Convention – Next year’s national convention will be held in Austin,
TX, the live music capital of the world, the weekend of February 20-21 with Region 4 as our
host. Be sure to save that date.
Top Trail + NATRC in 2025 Webinar – If you missed the most recent Let’s Ride NATRC
Webinar you can still watch it in its entirety. Micah Kaza, the owner of Top Trail, recently
shared information regarding their new website and app as well as information about our
NATRC Virtual Mileage Challenge that they host for us. In a few days we will have this
webinar posted on our webpage and on our YouTube channel for you to view at your
convenience.
NATRC Clinics – Each region has been asked to offer two or more clinics in 2025. Clinics
are a lot of fun to put on. Our webpage has a lot of helpful information and clinic resources.
NATRC supports clinics nationally by reimbursing two clinics per region $100 for insurance
costs. This is determined by the earliest clinics to apply for their sanction and request the
$100 reimbursement.
Keep Our NATRC Membership Growing– Click here to renew your NATRC membership
for the 2025 ride season. Our NATRC membership saw another year of growth this past
year making it the highest since 2019. We are once again offering FREE membership to first
time NATRC members! Be sure to tell your friends and neighbors. Since 2016, when our

March/April 2025

free membership program was first introduced, 64 percent of the current renewing
memberships have originated from this program.

Hoof Print Annual Edition – The 2025 Annual Edition of the Hoof Print is now available on
our webpage. Included in this edition are all the award winners who were recognized at our
national convention in Nashville. What a truly outstanding professional publication our Hoof
Print is. Special thanks to Bev Roberts and Jamie Dieterich for all the hours that they put
into this to make this possible. Download it today to all of your devices!
Reminder: New Honorary and Appreciation Awards Deadline – Mark your calendars
now for the new deadline for regions to submit this year’s Honorary and Appreciation write-
ups. The new deadline is Wednesday, October 1 st at 10:00 p.m. CST. Write-ups go to Ruth
Mesimer RuthM9496@gmail.com
Reminder: 2026 Proposed Rule Changes – The national board of directors last week
finalized the wording for the 2026 proposed rule change proposals. The proposed rule
changes are:
 #1: Change the end of the ride year from the last Sunday in November to the second
Sunday in November.
 #2A: Combine division weight classes into adult class on a temporary basis for the
2026 ride year.
 #2B: Combine division weight classes into adult class on a permanent basis.
 #3: Return sweepstakes award to its original intent.
The proposed 2026 rule book clarification subjects are as follows:
 #1: Scheduling and fees for sanctioned events
 #2: Announcing time penalty points
 #3: Pull is final
The complete wording of these proposals can be found on our NATRC webpage under
Resources, and then under Rules, and then click on Rule Changes/Proposals. Please be
sure to visit with the national board members from your region between now and the first of
July regarding these proposals so that they know how they should vote to represent your
region. Three zoom meetings are also being planned to provide an additional opportunity for
member feedback. The date and times for these zoom meetings will be announced in April.
The NATRC board will vote on these proposals during their July meeting.
Reminder: New Sign-Up Procedure for the 2025 NATRC Virtual Mileage Challenge –
The process to sign-up for the 2025 NATRC Virtual Mileage Challenge has changed slightly.
Here is the new process:
Sign-up for Top Trail
There is a note on the registration page that lets you know that you have to join our
NATRC group after you sign-up for Top Trail https://share.zight.com/yAugrbqD
Once you are signed up for Top Trail, then you can add our NATRC group.
Go to “My Groups”
Click on name/icon in upper right
Click on “My Groups” https:///toptrailhorse.com/my-groups
Click on NATRC group
At bottom, click “Join Group” (can join multiple groups at a time)
Pay $25 for the year (valid Jan-Dec of current year only) to join
https://share.zight.com/6quArPA9
Follow NATRC on the Web: Be sure to make our NATRC webpage natrc.org the startup
page for your internet browser. When you do, each time you open your browser, your
opening tab will be our NATRC webpage. It is an effortless way to stay current with NATRC!
Stay Current: Keep up to date with NATRC by following us on social media.
a. Follow us on Instagram @natrc_ctr. There are now 444 NATRC pictures on here!
b. Follow us on Facebook with our North American Trail Ride Conference (NATRC) page.
Subscribe today to our NATRC (North American Trail Ride Conference) YouTube
channel. Be sure to check this resource out. We currently have twenty-eight videos posted
here that are specific to our sport. It is a wealth of extremely helpful information. All previous
Let’s Ride webinars are here as well.