It's About the Journey!
My Path to the WDAA World Show in Oklahoma Submitted by Suzanne Morisse I have had the good fortune of competing in the Western Dressage Association of America’s annual World Show in each of the past two years, 2016 and 2017. That journey, from my little farm in the northern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, to Guthrie Oklahoma, was quite a long one. It began in my barn, on a frigid, wintery day in January 2016, when I was talking to a few of my closest friends. Just that summer, 34 Fall 2017 • Haflinger Horse
I had completed the “ L” program, the USDF program for training entry level dressage judges, and I had also attended a judging school run by the Western Style Dressage Association of Canada. I was talking to my friends about what I had learned in these two programs. Without much thought, I said to my friends “Wouldn’t it be cool to take Sabreena to the Western Dressage World Championship show?” To my surprise they all looked and
me and said, “You should do it!” There was a long pause as I was processing the answer. Then I said, “Yup, I should. Sabreena would make a great little western dressage horse.” Sabreena is my twelve-year-old Haflinger mare. I knew that preparing for the World Show would be a huge commitment and that she and I would have some big hurdles to clear. But little did I know how many people would be involved to
