More News (2002)
TVDCTA Riders Compete is Region 3 Championships
Sue
Kirkpatrick Earns USDF Qualified Rider Award
June 15-16, 2002 - The Tennessean Dressage Show
– Franklin, TN
September 7, 2002 - Dressage At The Kentucky Horse
Park – Lexington, KY
Virginia
Moon Receives USDF Awards
TVDCTA
President Virgina Moon has earned her Bronze Medal with the USDF.
Her horse Gucci (Custom Apparrell) has also received USDF All-Breeds awards again this year. In the AQHA division, Gucci was first at Second Level (AA) and third at Second Level (Open) with a score of 63.421%.
Click here to see a picture of Virginia Moon and Gucci.
Congratulations!
Judith Fiorentino Appointed National Chairman of USDF Adult Ed Council
Judith
Fiorentino has just been appointed by Sam Barish, President of USDF, and the
USDF Board as the national chairman of the Adult Education Council. She
previously served as the Region 3 Adult Education Coordinator. Her first
thrust is getting the council organized to focus on providing riding
opportunities for adult USDF members. Members can watch USDF Connection to
see how the new Adult Education program is going to unfold.
TVDCTA Members Assist With Special Olympics
Several
TVDCTA members were on hand at Auburn University on the weekend of May 18, 2002 in
order to help with the equestrian events in the state Special Olympics
competition. Over 1100 athletes competed in swimming, track and field,
golf, and other disciplines, with 18 riders participating in the equestrian
events.
Diana Moore and Lois Macintosh provided leadership, planning and judging for the equestrian events. Linda and Craig Sumner took their horses Apache and Comet to the event in order to support four riders from Madision County, all of whom did quite well.
According
to Craig Sumner: "This has to have been one of the most rewarding
activities that Linda and I have ever been associated with in my life.
We loaded two horses at our farm in Union Grove, Alabama and drove to
Auburn University early Friday Morning on May 17, 2002.
We arrived at the Horse Unit across the street from Auburn's College of
Veterinary School of Medicine. Apache
and Comet were stalled in a really nice paddock for the weekend.
Special
Olympics opening ceremonies were held Friday evening with some 1100 athletes
marching into the Auburn coliseum. Linda
and I were privileged to be with the group from Madison County as we entered the
coliseum. Our "horse
handlers", Joni and Scott Haas were seated in the audience and took several
pictures of our group. Fifty police
and sheriff officers lined our path as we were led to our seats.
Dignitaries gave speeches and the athletes were challenged to the Olympic
Events that would take place on Saturday. The
Olympic Torch was lit, songs were sung and the band played!
A great time by all.
Rain
and cold weather was forecasted for Saturday... But the rain stopped by our
starting time of 10am and the sun poked it's head out and then stayed out for
the rest of the day. Our four
riders did extremely well! They all
finished the course and ranked well in each of their divisions.
Here are the results:
Lynette - Gold in Equestrian, Bronze in Trail and Bronze in the Relay Race.
Baxter
- Gold in the Relay Race, Silver in Trail and Bronze in Equestrian.
Danny
- Gold in Equestrian, Gold in Trail and Gold in Relay Race.
Phillip - Gold in Equestrian, Gold in Trail and Silver in Pole Bending.
Be
sure to check our website
for some pictures! The pictures for
this event start on about page 12.
Thanks again to all of you that supported this event, we are looking forward again to next year!!!!"
Natural Hoof Care Presented at March 2002 Meeting
Debi Broadway gave an excellent presentation on natural hoof care, also known as "barefoot shoeing", at the March TVDCTA meeting. She is hoping to continue with this type of program at some point later this year. Go here for details.
Debi recommends the The Horse's Hoof, News for Natural Hoofcare web site for additional information. Also you can email Debi if you have any questions or wish to provide feedback on the March presentation.
Equine Neglect Presented at February 2002 Meeting
Donna Bogar of Athens, AL gave an informative talk at the February TVDCTA meeting on the incidence of equine neglect in the Tennessee Valley. Ms. Bogar provided brochures with much needed information on how to determine abuse/neglect and what to do in such situations. She said TVDCTA members could be stewards and take action when needed. She mentioned a chart called the Henneke Chart that is used as a reference to determine if there is a case of neglect. Some generic rules in approaching a neglect case follow:
Get Help--Call a trusted veterinarian such as Dr. Nelson at Country Clinic (who has worked extensively with abuse cases), State Inspector, or the Sheriffs Department. On the Internet you can use search engines to get further information on equine abuse.
Dressage On Television
From
the USDF comes word that RFD-TV, located on channel 9409 of the DISH Network
System and soon will also be available on DirectTV, will be offering several hours of dressage will be available each week on satellite television.
This is a joint project with the United States Dressage Federation (USDF) and
RFD-TV
RFD-TV is the nation's first 24-hour television network dedicated to serving the needs and interests of rural America and agriculture. It is a nonprofit 501(c) corporation, which provides informational and educational programming as a public interest channel.
The dressage presentations are aired each Friday at 4 & 10 p.m. eastern time, with three repeats over the weekend. "Dressage is the #1 request from our viewers of horses on RFD-TV," said Patrick
Gottsch, President RFD-TV. "The USDF has been instrumental in providing programming that will begin to fill this need. We look forward to working with the USDF to continue to expand this programming block on RFD-TV to showcase, and promote, dressage to millions of homes in North America."
"We are very excited to be able to present dressage training through RFD-TV. With this technology, we have the capacity to reach over 17 million homes," explained Beth Wood, USDF's Director of Sales and Marketing.
RFD-TV features 56 hours of programming each week to serve the entire equine industry. Training, events, and informational videos are featured each day
in two-hour blocks. Broadcasting originates from Dallas, Texas, and the network
is supported through sponsorships of its programming. For further information,
go to www.rfd-tv.com.
This month, the presentation features renowned German trainer Conrad Schumacher filmed at the 1999 USDF National Dressage Symposium. Viewing schedules are posted at
www.rfd-tv.com/daily_schedule.htm, then look for the word "Dressage".
