March wheelhorse_17

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NEWSLETTER OF THE AMERICAN DRIVING SOCIETY, INC.

NL239

March 2017

Representing Carriage Driving in the United States and Canada

IN THIS ISSUE:

NOTES From the Editor ..................................1 ADS NEWS

How Rule Changes Are Made ........1-2 2017 Licensed Officials ..................3-4 Southeast Region News ....................5

OPINIONS

From Between My Blinders ...............6

Letters................................................7

NOteS

It Feels Like Spring Has Sprung

T

hey say March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, but so far it’s tame here on the East Coast. My hostas are peeking out from beneath last fall’s mulch, and I suspect the hyacinths will be right behind them. As much as I am enjoying this early spring we’re enjoying, I worry for our members in California and hope that they are able to seek high, dry ground in the deluge that has drowned their winter. Please keep us posted as to you and your horse’s safety on social media.

This issue of The Wheelhorse holds the 2017 ADS Licensed Officials list which is current as of February 20, 2017. Please note that officials may still register via our website at www.americandrivingsociety.org. The Carrolls of the British Columbia Carriage Driving Society Vancouver Island Chapter wrote to us about the unexpected but welcome carriage encounter they had on Hawaii’s big island, and we’ve got news from the Southeast region of ADS, along with columnist Hardy Zantke’s thoughts on what’s going on with the national equestrian organization and what it means for ADS. As this goes to press our designer, Cathy, and I are working on the next issue of The Whip. The May issue deadlines March 15. Please make sure to book your event advertising now. Don’t forget, all full page color advertisers get their ads blasted via email to the membership. Please email or call me to reserve your space.

Sincerely,

Abbie

abbie@americandrivingsociety.org

ADS NewS

How Rule Changes Are Made

Articles that appear in The Wheelhorse do not necessarily reflect the opinions or position of The American Driving Society, Inc. (ADS), its Board of Directors or staff, nor does publication of said articles constitute an endorsement of the view they may express. Accuracy of all material is the sole responsibility of the authors. Appearance of an advertisement in The Wheelhorse does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the ADS of the goods and services therein.

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nformation regarding rule changes is available online at the Rule Change Process Review Blog (drivingnews.us/ads/RCPReview) and is accessible from the ADS website (Events and Resources > Resources > Rule Change Proposals).

The rule change blog is intended to involve ADS members in the rules process and to encourage comments on potential changes to the ADS Rulebook. This helps the technical committees formulate final rule change proposals for review by the membership and approval by the ADS Board in October for inclusion in the next rulebook.

DEFINITIONS RCS – A rule change suggestion put forward for comment. An RCS may be made by a technical committee or an ADS member.

RCP – A rule change proposal is a previous RCS put in rulebook language form and recommended by a technical committee for inclusion the next edition of the rulebook.

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It is subject to final membership review from August 1 to September 1. Those RCSs which are not recommended remain RCSs. MAKING SUGGESTIONS To make suggestions for changes to the ADS Rulebook, begin by using the SUBMIT A SUGGESTION button on the rule change proposal web page. You will have two options: to complete a RCS form directly on that page or to fill out the pdf “Rule Change Suggestion Form,” save it and attach to an email to rules@ americandrivingsociety.org. Once a suggestion is posted on the website, it is open for comment. The REGISTER/COMMENT page gives instructions on how to do this.

DEADLINES The deadline for suggestions from members is May 31.

Technical committees may continue to make additional new and modified suggestions until June 15. From June 15 through July 15 the technical committees review all the suggestions to decide which should be recommended for inclusion in the next ADS Rulebook. The RCSs that are recommended by the technical committees then become RCPs and are sent to the rules committee for publication via the blog. The complete set of recommended RCPs (and non-recommended suggestions) is made available for final member review by August 1, and members have until September 1 to submit their comments. Members are encouraged to respond whether supporting or not supporting any individual RCP, but September 1 is the final deadline for all

comments. Technical committees review the final comments and may optionally withdraw an RCP or clarify the language before it is submitted for board approval in October.

TOO MANY RULE CHANGES? It may seem that every year brings loads of changes to the rulebook. Please concentrate on any major changes and realize that many of the others are simply to make the rulebook less confusing for all of us! Rule changes are classified into four types to help you focus on the most important: • New rules have the greatest effect and importance. There are

rarely more than just a few of these.

• Modifications may alter an existing rule to allow or

disallow a previous item or action. You should be aware of

these. Modifications may also be used to reorganize existing

rules to remove redundancies and thus make the rulebook

shorter and more concise.

• Clarifications may change the language of an existing rule to

reduce confusion as to its intent.

• Housekeeping changes such as spelling, punctuation, and

grammar mistakes are simply corrected by the rules

committee and do not need final approval by the board. Please

email rules@americandrivingsociety.org with any house keeping items you find!

Submitted by the ADS Rules Committee: rules@americandrivingsociety.org

FOR SALE Kutzmann carriage only used six times, like new. Must sell.

$4,300.

Contact Lynn Bonar: 740.501.6078 • hhhdressage@gmail.com. Carriage located in Ohio.

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ADS News

2017 ADS Licensed Officials Below is our current contact information for all ADS licensed Officials.

PDJ = Pleasure Driving Judge PDTD = Pleasure Driving Technical Delegate CDJ = Combined Driving Judge CDTD = Combined Driving Technical Delegate D = Dressage C = Coaching S = Senior S-A= Senior Advanced, Registered R = Registered R = Recorded

First Last

State PDJ

PDTD CDJ CDTD C

D

Barbara Akers NY Recorded Learner Keith Angstadt MA Learner Recorded Jessica Axelsson NJ Registered Learner Recorded Debbie Banfield KY Registered Senior Joanne Bellion-Povenski PA Registered Linda Bennett FL Learner Learner Francois Bergeron QC Learner Deborah Bevan WI Registered Recorded Chris Bickford OR Recorded Learner Audrey Bostwick PA Registered Mickie Bowen PA Registered Registered Senior Registered Mary Anne Boyden SC Registered Learner Recorded Dana Bright PA Registered Registered Senior Registered Holly Brinker BC Registered Larry Brinker BC Registered Recorded Al Bulgawicz TX Recorded Dede Bushneck NC Registered Learner Nicole Cable NY Registered Ted Campbell CA Registered Registered Mary Cork ON Registered Registered Registered Anne Councill PA Registered Recorded Recorded Margaret Cutler CA Registered Senior Registered John Freiburger WI Registered Learner Karen Garrett TX Registered Ruth Graves TX Registered Recorded John Greenall VT Registered Registered Senior Registered Registered Sem Groenewoud NY Registered Rebecca Gutierrez SC Learner Sandra Guy-Fox MI Recorded Gina Handy NY Learner Steve Holm VA Recorded Registered Continued on page 4

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ADS News

2017 ADS Licensed Officials First

Last

(Continued from page 3)

State PDJ PDTD CDJ CDTD

C

D

Karen Homer-Brown KY Registered Learner Recorded Toddy Hunter NY Registered Marc Johnson MA Registered Craig Kellogg NC Registered Registered Senior Registered Learner Registered Susan Koso MA Registered Registered Recorded Wayne Kramer LA Registered Linda Latzke Recorded Recorded Anne Leck MN Registered Registered Lynn Legg VA Learner Kali Knickerbocker-Maher Recorded Andy Marcoux MA Recorded Mary Ruth Marks WI Registered Erika Matulich FL Recorded Registered Debra McCarthy FL Learner Recorded Rebecca Merritt PA Registered Ian Moller MI Registered Scott Monroe ME Recorded Recorded Merrie Morgan CA Recorded Recorded Tracey Morgan MD Registered Ken Mott ON Recorded Sue Mott ON Recorded Penny Nicely NV Senior Richard Nicoll MA Senior Jean Northrup NB Registered Doug Orr AB Registered Kail Palmer-Miller PA Registered Registered Senior Registered Registered Terry Pickett MI Registered Registered Hannah Polson PA Learner John Porter FL Learner Learner Marcie Quist NC Senior Recorded Lauren Reece ME Recorded Recorded David Remley NY Registered Registered Katy Rhinehart SC Learner Sue Rogers VT Recorded Learner Daniel Rosenthal NJ Learner Sara Schmitt NJ Recorded Linda Sewall NC Learner Lisa Singer PA Registered Rochelle Temple SC Learner Registered Registered Kacy Tipton-Fashik FL Recorded William Venditta PA Registered Recorded David Ventura CA Registered Katie Whaley KY Registered Registered Boots Wright FL Senior Ed Young NY Registered Senior Keith Yutzy TX Registered Hardy Zantke CA Senior 4

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ADS NewS

Southeast Region News Editor’s Note: This news was, regrettably, omitted from the February issue of The Whip. Our sincere apologies to new regional director Linda Bennett for the oversight.

M

y name is Linda Bennett and I am the new Southeast Region Director, following in the very able footsteps of Francine Arrington. Let me take a moment to introduce

myself.

I have been involved in the driving world since 1985 when I purchased my first pony, cart and harness and she taught me how to drive. I started pleasure driving and then became involved in pleasure driving shows. I was a member of ADS in the 1990s and competed at that time. Late in the 90s I switched focus to breeding and showing American Shetland Ponies and competed in the breed ring. About 10 years ago I came back to the carriage driving world where I started competing in combined events, ADTs and HDTs, as well as derbies. I also competed again in the pleasure driving ring.

I have done extensive volunteer work; have been office staff, assistant course designer and done every volunteer job there is.

I have helped with educational seminars on different phases of driving. I am currently the Southwest Region Director of the Florida Whips and have held many different positions in the club. I am also a Learner TD for both pleasure and CDE. I have been a horse person for all my life and been driving for over 30 years. I currently own two ponies and continue to be active competing.

I want to say how pleased I am to be able to represent our area and hope to get to meet many of you. Being in Florida, I do have the opportunity to meet a huge number of people that come here and show in the winter and plan to travel as much as I am able to meet people. I want to invite everyone to join the Facebook group for our region. The group is ADS Southeast Region. It can be a great way to keep in touch with our very large region.

As I am writing this, the Florida driving season is about to get into full swing and will continue for the next four months. There are many events coming up and I will go more into those in my next column.

Please contact me with anything you would like featured in this column and if there is anything I can do for you as your representative. Thanks for giving me this opportunity.

Advertise in Advertise your horses, tack, events and more in the May issue of The Whip.

Deadline March 15.

Email abbie@americandrivingsociety.org or call 608-729-0234.

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OPINIONS

From Between My Blinders

I

By Hardy Zantke

believe most of you are aware that our national federation, USE (formerly USEF), has cancelled the affiliate status of the ADS. If you are not yet aware of it, you can read up on all the details at h t t p : //a m e r i c a n d r i v i n g s o c i e t y. o r g / M y A D S /A D S M a t t e r s / USEFLettersreADSAffiliate Recognition.aspx. Make sure you also click on the link at the end of that letter which opens the links to more details and read those.

So now many ask, what does all that mean in practice? I have no crystal ball, so I don’t know how it will all play out in the long run, and I am addressing only combined driving as I don’t know how this will affect pleasure driving. Perhaps Jeff Morse can speak to that. For this year not much should change for most of us. I think our organizers will continue organizing their events much as before.

Contribute to our Publications Do you love to write?

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Consider writing for our publications.

Please submit writing samples to abbie@americandrivingsociety.org.

The CDEs for the lower levels, e.g. training level through intermediate II will - as long as the organizers want to do so - continue to run under ADS recognition as before, while the upper level, e.g. advanced CDEs, as well as FEI events, will continue to do so under FEI and USE. For this year they are allowed to continue running the lower levels at their events without requiring those competitors to be USE members. So this year you all may continue competing at the lower levels of USE events without any extra expenses nor burdens as well as of course our ADS events as before.

But as it stands now, the USE part will change next year.

They will no longer be allowed to run their lower levels without having them also completely under USE rules, which will require competitors to be USE members (or pay non-member fees), as well as paying USE drug fees and being subjected to USE drug testing. The good news is, the way I see it, there will be no change on the ADS events, and let’s face it, those are by far the majority of our events.

All this means also that in the long run, we’ll probably see slightly different rules - as we can’t expect to have future rule books in sync anymore between FEI / USEF and ADS. Many of you on the lower level see as a positive. In the past, I saw it as a negative, splitting the sport and losing our connection to the rest of the world. But I have come around over the years - as by now, I, too, would like to see our rule book simplified, but the splitting of the sport is unfortunately now a sad fact.

Next year organizers, who have been running advanced level events, will need to decide if they want to continue doing so. They might be risking fewer entries in their lower levels, as probably some of the lower level competitors won’t be willing to pay the extra USE member or non-member fee, as well as drug fees, and accordingly might not enter such USE events.

Or, as an alternative, if organizers want to keep all their lower level competitors as before, they might need to decide to drop the USE Advanced level, and just concentrate on the lower levels - but might lose some of the top competitors who want to compete at FEI level.

On the other hand, there might be organizers who prefer to run even just lower level events under USE rules and recognition, which then also would require competitors to become USE members or pay non member fees, but they would not need to be ADS members anymore. So it’s really going to be up to the organizers under which organization they will want to run their events, which again, unfortunately, will split the sport.

Faced with that split, I think it is time that the ADS CDE Committee should now re-instate the rules for advanced level also at ADS events, so ADS organizers can offer that level also at ADS events. I hope the committee will.

Hardy

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Letters

Thank You!

W

e wanted to publicly give our thanks to the Hawaii Driving Society for being very hospitable to us while visiting the big island of Hawaii. We are drivers from Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

While touring the big island we ran into Gary Grisham, president of the Hawaii Driving Society. He was just setting up for their AGM at a local meeting room in Waimea, a beautiful ranching community on the west side of the big island and home to the famous Parker Ranch. As the driving world is a small one, we ended up having some common connections.

Gary invited us out to his place at the Waikii Ranch on the old saddle road, to go for a drive with his team of Friesians. Not one to miss a golden opportunity to drive through some of the most beautiful ranching area on the big island, we rearranged our itinerary and met Gary and Shea at the Waikii Ranch a few days later. The ranch is a wonderful community of horse

enthusiasts. From well manicured 20- to 30-acre properties with architecturally designed houses and barns, to a polo field, roping arena, club house and wonderful meandering paved roads all set on the grassy, rolling, southern slopes of the old volcano of Mt Mauna Kea, the highest point in Hawaii.

Our hosts gave us a wonderful overview of the area, from the history of the area to the present day issues. Blue skies, gentle winds and willing horses adorned the day. It was very special for us and we wish to thank Gary and the club. They are very interested in educating people in what driving is all about.

Anyone visiting the big island should contact the club to see what their up too.

Thanks again, Doug and Sue Carroll British Columbia Carriage Driving Society Vancouver Island Chapter

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The American Driving Society, Inc. P.O. Box 278, Cross Plains, WI 53528

Phone: 608-237-7382 • Fax: 608-237-6468 E-mail: info@americandrivingsociety.org www.americandrivingsociety.org RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED