USDF Region 9 United States Dressage Federation Covering the Areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi
Region 9 Omnibus

Region 9 Weekly E-News

View weekly e-news archive >

For clinic, seminar information to be placed in the Region 9 e-newsletters, and on the Region 9 Website's event calendar... please email concise information - name of event, clinician, topics, date, place, & contact.

If the information is not sent in a concise format... it will not be included... due to the time constraints of re-typing or re-formatting.

Those events that are regionally recognized will be placed in the Region 9 Eblast that goes out to all Region 9 members, from the USDF office.
Email to: Bess Reineman

Deadline is approaching- Feb 1st:
Judges Seminar with Gary Rockwell -
Feb 20-21 - Georgetown TX

“Improving Your Judging Eye & Showing Skills ~ What Judges Are Looking For”, a USDF approved continuing education program organized by Austin Dressage Unlimited, with additional funding from HDS, ADA, and The Dressage Foundation's Edgar Hotz Judges Endowment Fund. Presented by Olympic judge, Gary Rockwell.

To be held at the Georgetown Library, Georgetown, TX

Contact Carol Riazzi criaz@aol.com or 512-680-7999.

Region 9 Business Meeting
February 20, Austin, TX

On Saturday, Feb 20th, following the Gary Rockwell Judges Seminar, there will be a Region 9 Business Meeting at the Georgetown Library from approx. 4:30 pm to 9:00 pm.

I will be sending out an agenda by Feb 12th. Basically we will finish up the business from the Dec meeting. C & C, & GMO reports are not necessary. We will discuss 2010 budgets, and expenses. As well as income from the 2010 Omnibus, and the 2011 Omnibus.

Host hotel for the seminar: Hilton Garden Inn - Round Rock: 512-341-8200 for reservations.
Discount is available - use Austin Dressage as the code name, for a room rate of $89.00.
Deadline for discount is Feb. 4th.

Contact: Bess Reineman

Back to Top

Jeff Ashton Moore Biomechanics II Symposium
hosted by Oklahoma Dressage Society
March 27-28, 2010, Heart of Oklahoma Exposition Center, Shawnee, OK

Saturday-Rider Biomechanics
Sunday-Horse Biomechanics
Morning lecture each day followed by demo riders in the afternoon
USDF University Accredited
contact person: Anne Kuhns 918-272-4789 akuhns@atlasok.com

Region 9 - GMOTravel Grant - Recipients
Teresa Deeter represented Fort Worth Dressage Club at the 2009 USDF - Austin Convention.
Fort Worth had applied for a GMO Travel Grant for a board member... here is Teresa's post-convention report.

Thanks Teresa, and Fort Worth for participating in the convention, and giving back to your GMO, and Region 9!

Marsha Murray represented Tri-State Dressage Society at the 2009 USDF - Austin Convention.

Tri-State had applied for a GMO Travel Grant for a board member...here is Marsha's post-convention report.

Thanks Marsha and Tri-State for participating in the convention, and giving back to your GMO, and Region 9!

Back to Top

The GMO Roundtable Discussion at the USDF Annual Convention
is one of the exchanges of ideas around. Here are some of the suggestions that came up this year in Austin ~Sherry

Miscellaneous
-Be supportive of members and make them feel like they belong to your GMO.
-Market your GMO to eventers.
-Incorporate freestyle into schooling shows.
-In organizations that are combined dressage and eventing, make sure everyone recognizes, especially eventers, that many times the money from dressage shows funds the eventing shows and educational programs.

Educational Programs
-To encourage trainers to assist and participate in clinics, give the trainer a free ad in the GMO newsletter and list the trainer’s farm/training facility in the clinic’s printed program or on your GMO’s web site with the clinic information.
-Horse simulators are great training tools for educational programs.

Benefits of Affiliation with USDF
-USDF can send e-news on behalf of GMOs (must be approved through Regional Director).
-With the increase in non-member fees, GMOs can encourage competitors to become Group Members.
-A member can compete for USDF Rider Awards with only a Group Membership.

Volunteers
-Tuff Rider has inexpensive socks you can have embroidered with the GMO’s logo and give to volunteers as gifts. Go to your local vendor of Tuff Rider to order.
-Have refrigerator and car magnets made to help advertise GMO or GMO events. Give to volunteers as gifts.
-Give volunteers calendars made specifically for your GMO that includes pictures of your volunteers at events held the previous year.
-Offer bronze, silver, and gold medals for hours volunteered.
-When logging the number of hours a volunteer contributes, be sure to calculate the number of hours the volunteer was on the computer, on the phone, and in meetings for the GMO.
-Host training events for volunteers and make it FUN! Allow each volunteer to ride, scribe, and judge throughout the day of training.
-Create a cookbook from recipes submitted by the volunteers. A cookbook can also be created using recipes submitted by members and given to volunteers as a gift.
-Take advantage of local boy scouts and girl scouts, 4-H members, the local university recreational program students, a nearby military base, or volunteer firemen. These individuals are usually very willing to help and looking for community service projects.

Back to Top

PM Delegate Nominations - 2010 USDF Convention in Jacksonville, Florida

Time to nominate Participating member delegates to represent Region 9.

Any Participating member can nominate any other participating member or you can nominate yourself.

PM delegates must attend the USDF annual board of governors meeting in December 2010- Jacksonville, Florida, and remain the representative of Region 9 thought out 2011.

The deadline for USDF to receive the letter of acceptance for the nominee is April 15, 2010, so I need the information by April 5, 2010.

Nominations are also open for the positions of USDF Vice President (3 year term), Secretary (3 year term) and Region 9 Director (3 year term). Again any participating member can nominate any other participation member for these positions or you can nominate yourself. The deadline for these executive board nominations to be into the USDF office is June 1, 2010.

Please send nominee information - name, address and email to Kathryn Kyle

Show Update:
Topsider Farm Dressage One, March 28, in College Station, TX is offering Intro to FEI Test.
Contact: Ginni Cifelli

Region 9 Teaching Excellence Award - New Guidelines
Nomination period Jan 1st to July 1st.
Current year nominations will not be accepted after July 1st.
This allows nominees the time needed to work on applications... which are due to Regional Director Sept 1st.

World Equestrian Games
A new page on the Region 9 Website. Send any notices, tickets for sale, hotel room needed, hotel room available, etc... and we will post it. Will not post advertisements, just personal notices.

Back to Top

USDF Region 9 Instructors Certification Course

March 6 & 7, 2010 Teaching Workshop with Vicki O’Neil
May 14, 15 & 16 Lungeing Workshop with Gerhard Politz
Place: Diamond M Dressage Park, Marion TX
Riding workshop dates being discussed with Faculty Ann Guptill

There will be a pre-cert and testing at the end of this program for both levels of Instructors to give our participants every chance to get certified without having to go all over the country.

Eight participants will be accepted with a mixture of training to 2nd and 3rd to 4th level instructors.
The Workshops are now more auditor friendly, with question and answer periods if time permits.
Contact person: Vera Muckleroy, Region 9 Instructor/Trainer Coordinator, for more information by e-mail.

See application and send to Vera Muckleroy, 998 Hard Luck Road, Marion, TX 78124.
Applications will be accepted on first-come first-served basis.

Report from Faith Morris - Youth Region 9 Rep

The USDF Convention -YEB meeting went really well. We discussed the youth board bylaws, attendance, and resignation policies. This past year we had a hard time keeping attendance up during our meetings so we talked about possible ways to improve attendance on our monthly conference calls. In following that we discussed other alternatives to communicate with each other in between our monthly calls. Facebook, google groups, and twitter were among the main ideas the youth board thought would be great tools to use.

With these websites, we brainstormed ideas on how to reach out to the youth in our regions. one of our goals is to improve our interaction between the youth and their youth representative. We want to use these websites and blogs to interact with the youth whether its asking questions about up coming shows, volunteer, opportunities, fundraising, or blogging. With that, we are in the process of improving these webpages and coming up with ways to better advertise the Youth Board.

A lot of the regions did not know they had a youth representative, so we were thinking of maybe designing a poster type paper to pin on score board at shows where people can see how to reach us and know we exist :) that way the regions can use us more for their advantage.

Finally, we were told that the structure of the youth board was going to change starting the beginning of this year. The USDF Executive Board has made the decision to change the structure to better address some issues and so that we may betting accomplish our purpose. Now.. I am a little unclear how this is all going to work.. this came up towards the end of our meeting and we were in a time crunch, but we are no longer going to be called the "youth executive board" and we are not going to have officers anymore... but I not sure what our official name is exactly.

Two recently established funds are now available to USDF GMOs and dressage riders!

The Dressage Foundation is proud to announce the latest additions to our funds and programs. If you would like to make a donation to either fund, please contact our office at 402-434-8585, melissa@dressagefoundation.org, or visit our website www.dressagefoundation.org.

Trip Harting Fund was created with donations from friends, students and admirers of Trip Harting, a beloved coach and clinician. The Fund's purpose is to provide $500 Scholarships to a United States Pony Club current or graduate B or A, to assist in attending the USDF "L" Education Program, or USDF Instructor Certification Program. The application form and procedures are available at http://www.dressagefoundation.org/The_Trip_Harting_Fund.htm

The Sally Swift Memorial Fund provides financial assistance to USDF GMOs to conduct Centered Riding® educational clinics and seminars for riders at all levels. Grant applications are due at least 90 days prior to the scheduled event, maximum amount awarded will be $1,000. Grants will be awarded to the first qualified applicant(s) as determined by the Selection Committee. The application form and procedures are available at http://www.dressagefoundation.org/Sally_Swift_Memorial_Fund.htm

Melissa Filipi
Development Director
The Dressage Foundation
(402)434-8585

Back to Top

 

©USDF Region 9. All rights reserved. Site design courtesy of Millermark Creations. Contact the webmaster