2010 Season
A few details need to be finalized before information on dressage championships is sent out “officially”, but this is the basic outline.
For 2010 Saskatchewan Regional Pony Club Dressage Championships will be awarded based off of points earned at shows throughout the year by members who have nominated. There will be a form on the page for nominating when this is all sent out.
At SDC Cadence Classes shows points can be earned up to First Level. Members competing at Training through Fourth Level can earn points at the SDC Bronze and Gold shows in June and August, and the Ebon Dressage Festival in July.
There will be a Champion and Reserve Champion for each level. Championships will be determined by the sum of the rider’s two highest scores obtained at one level. For riders with marks from competing at more than one level the marks from the higher level will be used to calculate their final score (towards Championships).
Pony Club tests will be used for Entry, Starter, and Pretraining. Equine Canada or CADORA tests may be used for Training and First Level. EC tests only will be used for Second through Fourth Level.
Participating shows will have an area on the entry form for nominated Pony Club members to indicate that their scores should be forwarded to the Regional Dressage Chair.
Nominating for points would have to have a small fee ($10.00) to go towards the year-end awards. Tatiana, our showjumping chair, and I have spoken about having a reduced fee ($15.00) for riders to nominate in both disciplines.
This year I would like to try to organize something different as a Regional clinic for some of our senior members. It would have to be limited spaces (probably six) and would initially only be offered to C2 riders and up.
A two-day clinic. Day one: semi-private in the morning on rider’s own horse, private in the afternoon on a borrowed horse. Day two: semi-private in the morning on own horse, private in the afternoon on a different borrowed horse.
Reasons:
1. At National Dressage Finals riders are riding borrowed horses. Our Saskatchewan riders need to be confidant and capable doing dressage on an unfamiliar horse.
2. Obtaining borrowed horses can be difficult. Hopefully we can ease some owners into being more comfortable lending their horses out in a more controlled clinic environment before it becomes necessary to try and find horses for Saskatchewan’s turn to host Nationals Finals.
3. Increase in participation/ enthusiasm for dressage. While everyone is not the same, I found that for myself I had zero interest in dressage before I got my horse Kansas (who already had much more dressage training the day I bought him than I have at this time). Having a horse that knew how to do much more than just walk, trot and canter, and learning how to do some of these other things myself, made flatwork much more fun.
4. Help riders have better “feel” on their own horse. On a horse that’s more schooled in dressage, a rider is able to learn how to ask for the different movements on a horse that will perform them correctly when asked correctly. Schooled horses help a rider know what things are supposed to feel like, and how they need to ask for them.
If the clinic doesn’t fill when initially offered to C2 and up it will be offered to C1s as well. Ideally if it goes well this first time with the senior students I would like to organize one later on open to Cs and C1s.
Zoë MacDougall
