Half-halt The Newsletter for the Southeastern Chapter of the Virginia Dressage Association Volume Number 30 Issue Number 12 DEC. 2018 The Championship Show was Great Fun For All!
2019 Board of Directors President: Beth Rippel horsemomva@cox.net Vice President: Robyn Nunnally robynnunnall@aol.com Secretary: Kathy Rowse kathymrowse@gmail.com Treasurer:Evelyn Eidem evelyn@esecpa.com Scholarship: Janice Mumford janicemumford@gmail.com Ways & Means: Krista Bryant klbryant@vt.edu Clinics: Lora Gibson lorahowgib@gmail.com Kathy Rowse kathymrowse@gmail.com Awards: Lorna (Cookie) Parsons Ljane77@hotmail.com Membership: Carol Gonyo carolgonyo@gmail.com Schooling Shows:Toni Meranda t.meranda@charter.net Schooling Shows: Pink Hipp Pinkhipp@gmail.com Juniors: Charlene Jensen Chrisandcharlene@charter.net Webmaster: Wendy Murray Vablonde25@aol.com Newsletter: Sarah Miller ttccorporation@aol.com Members at Large: Sandy Toby omdressage@gmail.com Cindy Lang Cynthia.hall@norfolk.gov Ray Penland penlandr@cox.net Whitney Kelso horsegalwhit@gmail.com Joanne Smith Jsmith-1@Verizon.net JUNIOR CORNER This past year our Junior/Young rider team attended the VADA Chapter Challenge in Wakefield, Virginia. We used this show in lieu of the Region 1 JR/YR Team Dressage Championships for our junior riders. Our SVDA Junior team looks forward to every year to competing as a team and representing SVDA at a competition. We had eight riders attend this year: Dahlia Jensen, Emma Jensen, Louisa Murray, Ava Miller, Aryonia Croft, Hannah Stalling, Olivia Stallings and Savannah Smith. The junior/young riders did great and had lots of fun riding as a team while placing 3 rd as a team. We are hopeful to bring you news of a new location soon for the 2019 competition. Where ever this show will be held, we will still need to fundraise to pay for the show entries for the junior/young riders attending next year. We do this in part through a silent auction held during the SVDA annual awards banquet. If you have any donations or know of a business that would like to donate a service or merchandise for the auction, please have them contact me at chrisandcharlene@charter.net or 757-469-3587. Raising money is only part of requirements for the junior riders who are interested in attending the show. Donations are tax deductible and we accept donations of lessons, services, new/used tack, housewares, etc. Thanks and See you at the Banquet, Charlene VADA Reps :Robyn Nunnally Beth Ripple Sandy Toby
SVDA 2019 Calendar NEW TEST CLINIC- 2019 USEF Tests Training though 4 th LL January 6, 2019, Sarkozi Training Center 8:00 a.m. 5:00 pm. SVDA LOW COST CLINIC Sat February 2 nd, 2019 Schooling Show Schedule Date Location Judge Open Close 03/24/19 TBA TBA 2/25/19 3/11/19 04/21/19 TBA TBA 3/25/19 4/8/19 05/19/19 TBA TBA 4/22/19 5/6/19 06/09/19 TBA TBA 5/13/19 5/27/19 07/07/19 TBA TBA 6/10/19 6/24/19 07/21/19 TBA TBA 6/17/19 7/08/19 08/25/19 TBA TBA 7/22/19 8/05/19 09/22/19 TBA TBA 8/26/19 9/09/19 10/27/18 TBA @ C TBA 9/30/19 10/14/19 @ E TBA Licensed Show 2019 March 30/1 2019 March Magic, Williamston 4/13.14 Williamston Spring Dressage, Williamston NC 5/10.11.12 Dressage at the Meadow, Doswell, VA 6/1.2 Capital Classic, Raleigh, NC 7/12.13.14 Dressage @ Lexington VADA 7/27.28 Raleigh Summer I & II, Raleigh NC 8/31-9/1 NCDCTA Labor of Love I & II, Raleigh NC 9/14.15 Rosemont I & II, 10/3.4.5.6 GAIGs @ Williamston 10/11.14 CBLM Lexington, VA Sanctioned schooling shows Wakefield Airfield 4-H Center SVDA LOW COST CLINIC Sat February 2 nd, 2019 MARK YOUR CALENDER Applications will be on available on the website. Checks made out to SVDA SVDA will cover the cost of the insurance NO refunds 2 weeks before the clinic! Kelly Coyne At Wellington Farm 3125 Hungarian Rd Virginia Beach, VA 23457 $30/ 45 minute ride Applications for the clinic will be send to: Kathy Rowse 1468 Peppercorn Lane Suffolk, VA 23432
Information coming out of the USDF Convention Salt Lake City Nov 2018 Kathy Rowse There is always a lot of information and discussion at the USDF meeting and I am proud to attend every year as a member of the L faculty and the Youth Committee. There is much education provided as well. Consider attending in Savannah, GA Dec 3-7, 1019, It is a fairly easy drive for us in SE Virginia and Eastern NC! Region 1 Meeting Thursday Nov 29 (did not get to attend on Friday Nov 30) Change to CBLM rules were going to be voted on Friday morning as to whether or not to require to close the ring for CBLM championship classes. The general consensus was whatever was decided, it would be mandated regardless of where the championship was held. Adult Team Competition will be hosted again by PVDA in Upper Marlboro, Dates TbA. Eastern States in NJ will run a Youth Team competition on Oct 5/6 2019. We realize that this conflicts with our regional championships but the thought is that the youth who attend these championships will most likely not attend regionals in Williamston, NC Safe Sport it is now a yearly requirement for all Licensed officials, riders over 18, owners, coaches and trainers and most likely parents. It is currently free for members though USEF. However if you are not a USEF.member it could cost money to do the program and exam. The solution that they are working on is to have a free FAN membership thorough USEF and once you sign up for the free FAN membership you could take the program and exam for free. The Safe Sport requirement is being mandated by the International Olympic Committee which is over USEF and as subsequently USDF. Equine Sports are ranked 4 th highest for sexual abuse due to the large acreage we cover. Safe Sport is more used to dealing with a gymnasium or pool, whereas we cover acres in farms, cross country courses, spread out competition venues etc. Dressage Today is being rolled into Practical Horseman. Dressage today will only have a strong website. That leaves Dressage Connections as our only devoted dressage trade journal. DUES INCREASE: USDF has not increased their GMO dues n 10 years. At the Board of Governors meeting on Sat, there would be a vote to increase dues to USDF by $4.00 per GMO member. If the increase is not approved the following cuts will be necessary for a balanced budget: National Educational Grants, Sport Horse forum including the Youth Sport Horse grants, Regional Schooling show intiative awards among others. I canvassed Vada and their chapters and both VADA and VADA-CC have voted to increase their dues by $4.00 per person. The new Regional Schooling Show Initiative came out of discussions about how USDF can better serve the membership at large. It should be noted that USDF does NOT sanction or recognize schooling shows but acknowledges that many USDF members (PM and GM) are mainly interested in schooling shows. Awards will be given at the REGIONAL level for schooling shows. This will start in 2019 If the budget is approved with the membership dues increase. There will be a regional ranking list of schooling show competitions, shows and members will have to send in their results. Schooling shows and riders will pay a nominal fee into the initiative. The Shows must be judged by any licensed or retired USEF judge, CURRENT L grads or L grads with distinction. They are not restricted to GMO run shows. However any shows interested in this need to understand that an L Grad or L Grad with Distinction must be CURRENT meaning they must have done their 8 hours of Continuing
Education each year and are up to date on Safe Sport or they are not current. Riders will have to join as a PM member not just as a GM member. More details TBA. L grads if you have not done your 8 hours of CE for 2018, you can do them any time but they will count towards 2018 and then you need to do 8 more for 2019 to be current. Glossary of Judges terms is updated on the USDF website, as is the Pyramid of Training. E-trak is being transferred to the Educational Library on the USDF website. There are some credits here towards L grad continuing education. The new tests start Dec 1, and since we start a new cycle of tests, the USDF test writing committee wants comments on the new tests throughout this year. In the new tests, in all lower level tests both the Medium Walk and Free walk will both be double pointed to emphasize the importance of both of these walks. In 3 rd LL all flying changes will have a coefficient of 2. The timing of the tests is more appropriate and accurate for shows to use in their scheduling. Musical freestyle has introduced new scoring sheets which mimic the FEI score sheets and are much easier to read and use. It is clear what is considered to be above the level in each test (which requires a deduction). Judges MUST time these tests as we are still seeing at Regionals and Nationals, tests that are over 5 minutes which require a deduction in the score. The Time starts when you move after your salute and stops when you halt. If you go over your times (there is no minimal requirement) you should also only receive a 5.5 on choreography and a 5.5 on Degree of Difficulty as well as a -4 points on the artistic side. BE ATTENTIVE RIDERS! There are now ERRORS for Musical Freestyle for basically only 2 things Posting when sitting is required and failure to salute there is a 2 point error deduction for each and every occurrence. for example if you posted the entire trot work ( 2 nd level and above) the judge must also go down in Degree of Difficulty and harmony) There is now only 1 collective mark on the technical side. Judging: There are 325 r judges, R are the least and about 125 S judges. Only 50% of our S judges have attended a Musical freestyle forum and have that designation. For 2019 you must have a MF designation to sit at C for a regional or national Musical Freestyle. In 2020, all judges will be required to have the MF designation to judge at any place for both regionals and nationals. The hottest discussion occurred about raising the qualifying score to ride a musical freestyle from 60% to 63% for the highest test of the level and this rule goes into effect Dec 1, 2018. Riders who have qualified with less than a 63% will have to requalify. It is assumed that many riders move up a level so they must requalify at another level. The reasoning behind this is a Proficiency standard to continue to improve the sport. Gary Rockwell laid down a great line of reasoning. 20 years ago, the Festival of champions was won with a 62% at Grand Prix and that rider was at the bottom of the scores in a European competition. Now a days you won t even qualify for Festival with that score. The USA is now the #2 team in the world and we have the #1 rider in the world in Laura Graves. If the basics are correct, average horses will easily be able to get scores in the mid 60s. The message was Embrace basics and education over showing if you are having less than successful competition scores. We must always have a respect for the training scale. USDF is no longer a club membership, it is taking on a much bigger role in guiding the sport as a whole. Freestyles are a showcase and hence they are highly visible to the dressage community and the public as a whole. In order to be artistic, they must be technically correct so that the audience will appreciate the artistry because it is overall pleasing and demonstrates the harmony and correctness of training. IN 2018 the data for freestyles shows that across all levels TL to GP shows that only 9% (116 horse/rider combos) of freestyle rides would not need to re-qualify. In 2019, 63% is considered to be a proficiency and of the 116 riders that would need to requalify, 51 of those already had a 62%, so all that is needed is 1 more percentage point. The committee
will closely be monitoring the results to see if its too exclusionary or decreasing the participating of freestyle riders overall. You can also qualify by riding at a higher level than you wan to compete in freestyle. This new rule is intended to raise the technical proficiency and also reflect the training and welfare of the horse. It should be considered a benchmark of what the freestyle is about. Youth committee Meeting: There is a greater push to better establish the FEI children s division. Youth recognition (pins) was big the first year but the interest has tapered off significantly om recent years. We need to make this information easily assessible for all kids involved. The kids in attendance greatly agreed that Instagram (over facebook and twitter) was the best way to get information out about youth programs. There is a Youth Newsletter that goes out quarterly to all youth in the database. The youth database includes PM members but not always GM members b/c GMOs don t need to submit a birthday with a GM membership. If you are a youth GM member you should call USDF and give them your information to be included in the database. We shared many ideas for getting more people involved. SVDA should be proud we have such an active Youth Committee Chairman, my observation is that many clubs do not cultivate their youth members like we do! USDF dressage Finals 2018 was the 2 nd largest attendance ever. Travel grants are provided to the those in the farthest away states (Think CA, WA, OR with CO, AZ, ID next). There were 114 Open Freestyle, 95 AA Freestyles, 147 overall Open competitors 188 overall AA competitors. Now in its 6 th year, the executive committee will be discussing if and how to include the JR/YRs. ) They currently have to compete in OPEN if they attend) There were 25 hours of network coverage -with commentary by Kathy Connelly (who is AWESOME) is still available on the USEF network. It was a busy few days! Respectfully and Gratefully submitted Kathy Rowse SAVE THE DATE NEW TEST CLINIC- 2019 USEF Tests Training though 4 th LL 8:00 a.m. 5:00 pm. Sunday, January 6, 2019, Sarkozi Training Center, 1492 Pleasant Ridge Road, Virginia Beach, VA Please mark your calendars to attend our New Test Clinic where riders will demonstrate new tests effective December 1, 2018 from USEF. Assisting us with instruction will be Debbie Rodriguez, Williamsburg, VA USEF S Judge and FEI 3* Fudge, former USEF TD, USDF Bronze, Silver and Gold Medalist. We will be seeking volunteers to demonstrate new tests at each level. If you wish to demonstrate a test, we will be providing further details and applications in the very near future. This is a great opportunity for members to see tests ridden prior to showing in 2019 and riders to utilize their skills to get a jump on the 2019 show season. Clinic information will be posted shortly on Facebook, SVDA website and invitations will be distribute via email. If you have any immediate questions, or wish to volunteer please contact Lora Gibson at lorahowgib@mail.com or Kathy Rowse at kathymrowse@gmail.com. We are looking forward to an exciting 2019 season! There will be no cost to either ride or audit this seminar.
Ravel Education Grant My name is Dahlia Jensen, and I am 15. I have been riding horses since I can remember, although I have only been showing dressage since 2014. I am always happy when I get the chance to learn even more about these wonderful creatures, and thanks to the Ravel Education Grant I received, I have been able to ride in three clinics this year, when I usually only get to ride in one. I learned so much over the course of this show season from the trainers I rode with. I first rode with Jerry Schurink in January. With him, I worked on making my walk-trot transitions smoother, which has helped me immensely improve my test scores, and getting my horse to use his hind end, which has helped him be more balanced, resulting in him staying on the bit. I then rode with Pati Pierucci in September. She worked with me on posture and making my aids clear. She especially worked on me sitting on my hip and pubic bones. My canter transitions have since become clearer to my horse, and we as a team have been able to communicate better. The next weekend, I rode with Becca Vick. With Becca, canter was a big detail in our ride. She had me using my inside leg to support my horse, to keep him from throwing a fit in the up transitions, and to keep him from cross firing in the down transitions. These three people have helped me improve my test scores greatly over the past year, and I am grateful to have received this opportunity to ride with so many amazing people.
More Pictures From The Championship Show
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2019 calendar 3/2.3 3/9.10 3/16.17 3/23.24 SVDA Schooling Show TBA 3/30.31 March Magic, Williamston NC 4/6.7 4/13.14 Williamston Spring Dressage, Williamston NC 4/20.21 SVDA Schooling Show TBA 4/27.28 5/4.5 5/10.11.12 Dressage at the Meadow, Doswell, VA 5/18.19 SVDA Schooling Show TBA 5/25.26 6/1.2 Capital Classic, Raleigh, NC 6/8.9 SVDA Schooling Show TBA 6/15.16 VA. Summer Dressage 6/22.23 6/29.30 7/6.7 SVDA Schooling Show TBA 7/12.13.14 Dressage @ Lexington - VADA 7/20.21 SVDA Schooling Show TBA 7/27.28 Raleigh Summer I & II, Raleigh NC 8/3.4 8/10.11 VADA CH @ Culpeper, 8/17.18 8/24.25 SVDA Schooling Show TBA 8/31-9/1 NCDCTA Labor of Love I & II, Raleigh NC 9/7.8 9/14.15 Rosemont I & II, 9/21.22 SVDA Schooling Show TBA 9/28.29 10/3.4.5.6 GAIGs Williamston, NC 10/12.13 CBLM Lexington, VA 10/19.20 SVDA General Membership Meeting 10/26.27 SVDA Schooling Show TBA 11/2.3 11/9.10 11/16.17 11/23.24 11/30 12/1