From the President

Dear FOSH Friends and Supporters,

WHOA! Stop the Press! Just as we finalized this issue, we saw the report that the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act (H.R. 5441) out of Committee by a bipartisan vote of 46-9 September 21.

So, what’s the next step? Contact your Congressperson and ask them to vote for The PAST Act, H.R. 5441, when it comes up for a vote in front of the full House. Beginning on page 7, you can see whether your Congressperson cosponsored H.R. 5441 and you can send a reminder or if they were not a Cosponsor please encourage them to get behind the bipartisan supported PAST Act and vote yes.

You may recall that the PAST Act passed the House during the last session, 333-96 so your calls are very important. Passing the House is not the end. The bill must also be passed in the Senate. As we receive advance notice on voting dates, we will update you on Facebook.

Included in this issue are two grant request forms—one for a college scholarship grant and another for an equine event or clinic. We hope you gather your riding friends around and see what sounds good for a clinic or training day in the future. We were happy to recently receive and grant a request funding support for a 4H Judging Clinic in Mississippi in November. Not only that, the clinic is being organized by Dr. Molly Nicodemus, who spoke on her scientific analysis of gait at the Sound Horse Conference. It was great to hear from her and about her efforts to promote the sound, gaited horse with youths in Mississippi.

Looking for clinic ideas? You know by now that FOSH members especially are keen on both Working Equitation and dressage—competitions that are singly judged which makes them very popular. North American Western Dressage sponsors video competition just about all year so you are able to learn from your training fairly quickly.

For those of you considering an Icelandic as your future gaited horse, the article on the Icelandic horse breed provides some good insight. After my husband I purchased our property in 2000, I was on a search for an Icelandic horse mainly due to their height. We even flew to Oklahoma to view the first U.S. Icelandic trials. Of course, sometimes life takes a twist, and in our case, there was a big lick breeder dispersing her herd right next door. I knew where Squirt and Dusty would end up without our intervention, so we bought a 6-month-old filly and 4-month-old colt (her half-brother) as our very first horses and never looked back. Icelandics will always hold a warm spot in my heart as I remember our efforts to start an equine family.

We hope you enjoy the trails as your riding window narrows due to gusts and plunging temperatures this next quarter.

If you have any Winter riding photos you can send us for publishing in the Sound Advocate, please don’t hesitate. They are so encouraging for the fair weather minded riders at FOSH!