YourDressage
June 2018
Tonya Bruno breeds Morgan horses and discovered a love of dressage in the process
A United States Dressage Federation Publication
Welcome to Your Wonderful World of Dressage YourDressage is compiled by the United States Dressage Federation, written by participants from throughout the dressage community. The articles in this publication are submitted by people like you to share and be shared by all. Experience their stories as they navigate through the wonderful world of dressage and become friends with your dressage community. It’s YourDressage, be part of it! If you would like to submit your story see the last page of this publication.
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What to See Inside Departments YOUNG & INSPIRED: Love for the Underdog Emmalie Hatch didn't care that she was competing against some big horse competition. Her pony Scooter will always make her proud. engagement: The Many Acts of an Active Volunteer Kris Blacklock is an active member of several equestrian organizations and she finds that the value of dressage to all disciplines is truly evident in what she does. horse tales: Willow Was the One Dana Peterson's story starts with finding her horse Willow. She feels lucky to have found a horse that tries her heart out and protects Dana along the way. Heard ARound the Arena: Fix-a-test clinic with Judge Nancy Lowey Supported by a grant in conjunction with the new USDF National Educational Initiative we hear from riders that took part. GMO SPOTLIGHT: The Dressage Company Take a look at this group member organization. USDF flashback: Seldom Seen Seldom Seen is one of a chosen few horses that have been inducted into the Roemer Foundation/USDF Hall of Fame. See how this pony-sized Thoroughbred/Connemara cross made a name for himself.
Cover story Justin Morgan Had a DRESSAGE Horse
Tonya Bruno discovered dressage because she started breeding foundation Morgan horses. She has found that both she and her horses are enjoying the dressage journey and are better for it. June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
YOUNG & INSPIRED
Love for the Underdog By Emmalie Hatch
E
mmalie, you know you’ll be competing against high level warmbloods, right?” is a statement I hear at almost every show. Yet, it’s also a statement that fuels my determination. At the age of 16, I found dressage with my now 14-year-old Morgan heart horse, On Assignment, better known as Scooter. Actually, we originally were in the western realm. He started off being terrified of any arena he stepped foot in, and I swear he had tried to kill me at least once. Then, he started to work his heart out for me and help me accomplish my dreams. Through countless natural horsemanship instructors, Scooter became a pretty cool pony. My sophomore year of high school, I joined the local high school equestrian team and, basically, poured my soul into it. My junior year was when everything
Emmalie and Scooter
changed. At the last equestrian meet of my junior year, I made dressage my “throw in” class, meaning it wasn’t something that important to me. I had spent two years eventing, while on the equestrian team, only to figure out that dressage was our gig. I found that I absolutely loved dressage, it was a game changer. The next show, Scooter knew exactly what the whistle meant, and he went down the centerline in the most stylish way. My senior year of high school rolled around, and so did the first meet. Shockingly enough, we placed first. Then the next show came, and we placed first again. Then, we qualified for the Washington State Meet. There, we placed second, which then qualified us for the Pacific Northwest Regionals. When they came around, we were named champion in our level! The vibe Scooter put off, in the dressage arena, was contagious. I think Scooter and I became addicted to dressage that instant, or at least I did. June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
YOUNG & INSPIRED
Through countless schooling shows, Scooter kept placing in the top five, against the fancy warmbloods. My 14.2 hand pony was dazzling the dressage arena and the judges. A light bulb turned on in my brain, and I went, “Why am I not going recognized?� In May of 2017, we went to our first recognized event, and placed first. I was absolutely thrilled with my pony and his recognized debut. The next morning, I woke up to an exciting surprise- I was highpoint champion of the show! The continuum of recognized shows throughout the year placed us incredibly high, either placing first or second. We qualified for the Great American Insurance Group/ USDF Region 6 Dressage Championships, placed in all three of our classes, and conquered our 2017 show year. At the end of the year, Scooter and I placed 4th in the USEF Region Horse of the Year for the Morgan breed. Emmalie and Scooter at the Pacific Northwest Regionals.
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After countless shows, and being accepted into multiple clinics, Scooter and I have totally fallen in love with the sport of dressage. This year, we will be showing in six shows across the state of Washington, along with my other horse, Bear. In October, I will be going to Virginia to ride with Lauren Sprieser and, hopefully, raise or make enough money to take Scooter with me. Our plan is to travel up through the levels and earn my USDF Bronze Medal with him. My pony is often underestimated, and that’s okay. The warmbloods and fancy dressage horses are amazing, but my pony, Scooter, will always make me proud and win in my heart.
Emmalie and Scooter at the Great American Insurance Group/ USDF Region 6 Dressage Championships
June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
engagement
The Many Acts of an Active Volunteer By Kris Blacklock
O
Kris and Boon Ocean Blue
ne is never too old to learn and have fun! Although I always adored horses, it wasn’t until I turned 45 that my daughter Michelle and I jointly purchased and started riding our first horse, a Morgan gelding who’s now 23 years old (and still actively ridden)! Now, at age 60, I actively compete in western dressage, in-hand, freestyle, trail, working equitation, drill team, and obstacle challenges with Gambler’s Jackpot, my ten-yearold Rocky Mountain Horse, and Boon Ocean Blue, a four-year-old Quarter Horse. My riding goals are to use the progressive training of dressage to develop confidence, balance, and athleticism. I’m active in Region 2, serving as a USDF Participating Member Delegate, as well as being a member of NEW Dressage Association (NEWDA) and Wisconsin Dressage & Combined Training Association (WDCTA). I’m also a Region 5 WE United Working
Equitation Director, who loves to bring awareness of dressage to all ages, rider levels, and breeds by networking with equestrian groups, supporting horse/rider knowledge, skills, and goals, and recognizing personal goals and achievements of others. For the past four years, I’ve submitted video applications, organized practices, choreographed musical freestyles, coordinated breed and discipline demos, and setup hospitality displays that showcased a variety of disciplines, horses, handlers, and riders. I’ve also participated with both horses (gaited and non-gaited) at the Midwest Horse Fair – an annual four-day event held in Madison, WI, attended by 65-75 thousand attendees from across the United States and the world. As an active member of several equestrian organizations, my passionate love of dressage, and its value as a foundation to all disciplines, is evident. I try to always offer fresh ideas, actively promote horsemanship, and host a variety June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
engagement
Kris and Boon Ocean Blue
of educational activities, clinics, and events. I also coordinate live and virtual dressage shows that offer in-hand, lead line, traditional, western, and working equitation dressage tests. Working equitation employs classical dressage principles, progressive horsemanship, precision, obstacles, speed, and supportive camaraderie. I love to showcase the versatility of gaited horses. Throughout the year, during live and virtual shows and breed/discipline demos, my gaited Rocky Mountain Horse’s eagerness to learn, good-natured demeanor, and desire to excel is evident. He has demonstrated that gaited horses, with a solid foundation in correct classical approaches, can hold their own in dressage. Jackpot won the 2017 award for High Point Rocky Mountain Horse competing in Working Equitation and Reserve High Point Award for Region 5 Gaited Horses of all breeds competing in the sport. As an equine ambassador, Jackpot blazes a trail and is able to break through perception June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
engagement
Kris and Gambler's Jackpot
barriers that otherwise limit gaited horses. He inspires and encourages versatility in others by being active and successful in a variety of disciplines. He’s also a willing partner in gaited horse demos and clinics. For the past three years, Jackpot, who hauled two hours each way for weekly practices, was the first gaited horse on the Kettle Moraine EZ Riders Drill Team in Southeast, WI, and was asked to be on the Kettle Moraine Rough Riders Equestrian Drill Team in August 2016. Our newest quest is competing in working equitation. My initial introduction to it came in 2016, when I attended a five-day intensive seminar offered by the Pedro Torres Academy of Working Equitation, USA in Woodstock, IL, with Academy Head Instructor Nuno Matos. I was quick to see the potential of the sport and its link to dressage. I encourage you to dream, inspire, and achieve with your gaited and non-gaited equine partners! June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
Horse tales
Willow Was the One By Dana Peterson
I
found Willow in November 2015, on a Facebook group, and I can tell you now that I knew nothing about what I was looking for, at the time. I had spent a few years riding equitation at a great family barn, on the south side of Chicago. I had just moved north, to focus on learning dressage with a new trainer, but lost my horse to colic a month into the move. I was hoping to learn enough to ride in a recognized show someday. I had ridden in a few schooling shows around the area and was lucky if I broke 50% at Training Level. Coincidentally, the frequent schooling show judge became my new trainer. I can remember finding Willow like it was yesterday. She’s liver chestnut, with three white socks, a blaze, and a white spot on her right hip (that seems to have grown over time). Her name fit her perfectly, with her long legs and feminine build. I had sent my trainer the video of her, after
June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
Horse tales
a lot of back and forth via email. The horses she had been sending me were mostly showing Second Level / schooling Third Level, and I had little idea what that meant, at the time. She said no to Willow, right away. Willow had just turned six, had never been off the farm property where she was born, and was just too green for someone that had little experience in horses. I still set up an appointment to go see her because she was right down the street. I picked up my trainer, who was sick from a bug, and we headed over. For Wisconsin in November, it was your typical cold and windy day, and there was no indoor arena. I got on Willow in the outdoor arena, and the farm was next to the highway. Even in all of those elements, I felt completely safe and knew, from that moment on, she was the horse for me. A month later, I was lucky enough to be allowed to lease her. I brought her to a big boarding facility, and I knew we were starting out with a lot of strikes against
us. Willow had lived outside, in herd, at the same place since birth, but her new home meant a stall and individual turnout. She paced in her stall and along her turnout’s fence line, incessantly. The mirrors in the indoor arenas were so strange to her that she would just dead stop and stare at herself. Riding with other people and horses, in the same arena, was intimidating for her. The looks in fellow boarders’ eyes were mostly of fear, and I can remember more than one person saying I was going to get hurt with this horse. Willow lost a lot of weight over the next two months, failed her pre-purchase exam, and was so slow- going in her training that every logical thought in me said to send her back. Despite the worries of my trainer, veterinarian, and fellow boarders, I bought her in March 2016. What transpired next is still hard for me to even comprehend. My trainer and I put in a lot of work with Willow. She started gaining weight and, in August 2016, I decided to try my June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
first show with her. I was so nervous going down that centerline, but I had spent months building our trust and relationship. She was perfect that first show weekend, earning us a trip to the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Regional Dressage Championships at Training Level. Regionals was our second show, and only her second time off property. It did not go well, but it was a worthwhile experience for both of us. In the spring and summer of 2017, I took Willow to every show that I could. We quickly qualified for First and Second Level. I worked on two big things that would scare her most; strollers (especially with a baby in it), and bicycles. I spent weeks desensitizing her to these terrors. I took a lot of lessons and kept Willow in training, at least five times a week, because I knew that I was competing with people who had a lot more experience than me. If I wasn’t schooling, or if my trainer wasn’t riding her, I would take Willow on trail rides, our
farm’s obstacle course, or for a gallop through the hayfields. We placed 4th at Second Level at the regional championships, and earned a score high enough to take us to the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®, where we ended up in the middle of the class at Second Level. It still feels unbelievable to type that. My chestnut mare that I used to call “Brumby”, which everyone said no to, was at Finals with me. Not long ago, I had only dreamed of entering a recognized show. Our story has a long way to go, and not every chapter is going to be easy. I am lucky to have found a horse that tries her heart out and protects me along the way. I am lucky to have found a trainer who has become a great friend and cares immensely about my riding, as well as making Willow the best she can be. I have learned that this sport is unlike anything else, and that the bonds created between humans and horses is something we all need to remind ourselves to cherish every day. June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
Justin Morgan Had a DRESSAGE H orse by Tonya Bruno
Tonya, with her husband Ralph, and Matton Majestic at the 2016 Region 1 GAIG/USDF Regional Championship. Photo taken by her trainer, Bailey Cook.
June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
I
discovered dressage because I started breeding foundation Morgan horses. That is probably not a normal sentence, and you were probably expecting a more natural transition such as, “I discovered dressage because I started breeding Andalusians or Hanoverians.” However, as a teen, I fell in love with Morgans, and the rest, as they say, is history. Of course, the story is longer than that, as it always is when it comes to horses. I did not have any formal riding training until I was in my thirties, but I have ridden for as long as I can remember. I was a typical, horse-crazy girl, whose mother did not have the means to buy me a horse. What she did do was haul me all around our rural county, in central Virginia, so I could ride the ponies and horses that other children had outgrown or lost interest Tonya and Matton Majestic at the 2016 Capital Dressage Classic Show in Raleigh NC
in. I was a teenager when I fell in love with Star, a beautiful, bay Morgan gelding at a local school barn, and my copy of Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry was worn. The notion of “America’s Original Breed of Horse” appealed to the patriot in me. When I was 26, I finally had my own means to buy and care for a horse. I decided that horse would be a Morgan. It was not as easy as I hoped to find one that looked the way I envisioned a Morgan should. Purely by accident, I did end up buying two Morgan geldings that were foundation-bred, as I had no idea of bloodlines at the time. Now that I finally had my own horses, I started learning as much as I could about the foundation bloodlines. I subscribed to The Morgan Horse magazine and supplemented with old copies, from the 1940s through the early 1990s, on eBay. I joined the Yahoo Chat Lists, a precursor to June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
Whippoorwill Felicity In-hand champion
Facebook, and discovered the passionate foundation Morgan breeders. One thing became clear to me, and that was that I wanted a Whippoorwill Morgan. Mary Jean Vasiloff, of Old Lyme, CT, bred Whippoorwill Morgans since the 1950s. Her advertisements in The Morgan Horse magazine showed me the beautiful type and temperament I was looking for. In 2001, I went to Connecticut and met her and her horses, and bought my first Whippoorwill Morgan, Whippoorwill Electra. Mary Jean, who died in 2016, was a talented
breeder and an incredible salesperson. She somehow convinced me, against all my common sense, that I needed to buy her three-year-old stallion, Whippoorwill Aristocrat, who was in training with Catherine Echternach, in nearby Dickerson, MD. Not only did I acquire Whippoorwill Aristocrat, but I also bought four more Whippoorwill mares (all at least half-sisters) to start a foundation Morgan breeding program. And finally, we come to dressage. When I bought my stallion, I started riding with Cathy Ech-
ternach and began my first real riding lessons, at the age of 32. Cathy is a USDF Bronze, Silver, and Gold Medalist and has her USDF Gold Freestyle Bar. Cathy took two Morgans, Whippoorwill Ebony and Whippoorwill Dorado, to Grand Prix. She had a barn full of dressage students and many of them rode Morgans. It never occurred to me that I couldn’t ride my horses in dressage, but I quickly discovered that it was hard to learn a new discipline! My personal dressage training went with fits and starts. It did not begin in earnest, until we moved to Hillsborough, NC, in late 2013, and I started riding with Bailey Cook, a USDF Certified Instructor, USDF Bronze, Silver, and Gold Medalist, and USDF Instructor Trainer Senior Faculty member, in 2014. For the first time, I was able to dedicate the time and energy to my horses and dressage. The pieces were falling together. In 2017, my eight-year-old, 14.2hh, homebred and trained
Matton Majestic (Whippoorwill Aristocrat x Whipoorwill Echo) and I earned a Second Level Adult Amateur wild card spot, with a 65%+ score at the Great American Insurance Group/ USDF Region 1 Championships, to go to the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®. We scored a 65%+ in our Second Level Adult Amateur Championship class, and were only .06% out of the ribbons. Many well-intentioned people offer their opinions on my dressage partners. My non-horsey husband, who is wonderfully indulgent of all of this, has asked more than once, why don’t I get a warmblood, since that is what he sees everyone else riding at shows. I had a clinician, who I rode with regularly, tell me that when I rode one of my older mares, I needed to “breed her to a really nice warmblood stallion.” Another well-known and highly respected trainer recently said to me, “If you are serious about dressage, you must get a warmblood.” Maybe June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
so, and who knows, maybe one day I will. However, I do not ride Morgans in dressage to prove a point. I ride my Morgans in dressage because we enjoy the mental and physical challenge. I love the breed, and I love riding horses I have bred and raised. I have never felt handicapped by my Morgans, I am sure they would not say the same about me! The greatest thing about dressage is that, if you have a horse with three good gaits, a good mind that likes the work, and a quality instructor who will help you and not cut corners, you can do dressage. You can be competitive. You can enjoy the dressage journey, and both you and your horse will be better for it! I know I, along with my Morgans, am truly enjoying the journey. eTRAK Extra
Learn more about the Morgan breed in the June 2017 issue of USDF Connection.
June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
Heard around the arena
What interesting or fun thing have you heard lately? Send it to us using #aroundthearena
This year’s Fix-a-test clinic with Judge Nancy Lowey was supported by a grant in conjuction with the new USDF National Educational Initiative (NEI). This grant enabled CDCTA to keep entry fees lower and to host the event at the fabulous Sprieser Sporthorse indoor arena, which was greatly appreciated due to the very cold and occasionally snowy weather. The clinic was held on March 17, 2018. Here are comments that were "heard around the arena."
Thank you Miranda, Nancy, Sprieser Sporthorses and CDCTA for putting on such a great event. Nancy was absolutely wonderful. Her positive attitude was so refreshing and her guidance immediately beneficial. I came away from it invigorated and ready to go home and continue the good work! The food was delicious too ;) I’m so excited to be a member of CDCTA!
I was experiencing a few problems with my horse (of course all my fault) Nancy Lowey gave me clear and easy solution, this helped me ride my horse in a better way. I learned a lot and was glad I participated. Thanks to Miranda Kettlewell for organizing it, she did a great job.
I had a very educational and fun experience at the fix a test with Judge Nancy Lowey. First, it was a great beginning of the season opportunity to see what kind of mood my horse had (too excited: flying changes way too crazy), and to find out how much warm up he needed. Second, the fix a test was great. Nancy was so generous in sharing training advice and in giving us the real deal of what a judge sees. I have lots of things I can improve and Nancy gave me great advice on how to get it done. I rate this CDCTA training opportunity as a 10.
Hannah Scholfield
Bobbie Jankauskas
Wendy Bebie June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
Heard around the arena
What interesting or fun thing have you heard lately? Send it to us using #aroundthearena
I loved participating in the clinic! Nancy was so incredibly nice, complimentary of Prince and helped me understand some things I suspected I was doing wrong and some I didn't even know. We worked on correcting those things the very next day in our lesson and I am absolutely sure that Prince and I will do so much better the next time we run that test at our next show! The whole experience was great and I would definitely do a repeat. Thank you so much for organizing the event,
Marlene McGrath
Nancy first coached me in the ring BEFORE I rode the test. She asked me to do perform a few very basic movements-walk and trot and a bit of canter. She then honed in on what was the "obstacle" in our work. For us, on a circle, it was my horse constantly falling in on his inside shoulder. Or falling in or out on either shoulder when going straight. And me not properly correcting it. She then instructed me to use my leg aid to correct this issue. It became obvious that this aid needed to be consistently applied. It also became obvious that I did not know when it needed to be applied--as she would say "Whoops there he goes again!" I had become "dull" to knowing when my horse's shoulders were impeding our movements. Within 15 minutes, I became acutely aware that I needed to be more active with my legs (and feel) to correct my horse's shoulders. Almost every stride. I then began to feel him take more of the outside rein which had been a major challenge for me, especially tracking left. We then rode our test. She then reviewed the test with me and pointed out how I could have been more accurate with my figures to improve my score. Totally worthwhile, I would do one of these once a week with Nancy if she was available. Love it, highly recommend it to all.
Sandra Brannock June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
Heard around the arena
What interesting or fun thing have you heard lately? Send it to us using #aroundthearena
I so enjoyed the clinic and will plan on doing it again. I loved the format of riding your test, getting feedback and working on your weaknesses and then finishing on riding your test again. I was able to review my 1st and 2nd tests and see where I did improve and also where I still need to work on improvement. For me that means geometry in the large dressage court and a marching walk. Nancy was very positive and I drove home thinking about my homework before our next competition. Thank you for lunch. The corn beef and cabbage soup was delicious!
Cindi Moravec
“I truly appreciated the guidance and the useful critique Nancy Lowey provided Kui and me. While I aware of some of the things she shared; Nancy was able to say them in such a way that I was able to really visualize and understand the concepts! I look forward to another opportunity (and hopefully show her the progress Kui and I have made)."
Leslie Page June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
GMO SPOTLIGHT
Tell us about your GMO. #GMOSpotlight
The Dressage Company Group Member Organizations (GMOs) are the foundation of USDF and integral in bringing dressage and dressage education to the masses. Stay connected with your local dressage community and support dressage at the local level by joining a GMO in your area today! USDF GMO Established: 1980 Locality: Region 2, Ohio Website: www.dressageco.org How many members does your GMO have annually, on average? 35 members Tell us about your GMO. The Dressage Company is greater Cincinnati's GMO. We may be small, but we are very active. We have monthly business meetings, and quarterly educational events. Our club participates in the Queen City Dressage Circuit, which is a group of local farms that host schooling shows. We are proud to be able to partner with one of our local farms to host our own annual show, as we do not have a physical "home" location. We try to rotate our meetings to different parts of town, so that we are never too far for our members to attend. Our members get reduced prices and early entries to many of our educational events and clinics. We have a Year End Award program, and always take time to honor our hard-working volunteers. Does your GMO offer unique classes or activities that cater to youth, adult amateurs, or professionals? If so, please provide a brief description. Our club offers year end awards for Youth, Adult Amateurs, Novice riders and/or horses, and Open riders. At our show, we also offer separate classes for Juniors and Seniors in Introductory and Training Level. We also offer western and gaited dressage classes, suitability, and equita-
tion classes. We also have year-end award divisions for eventers. What type of educational events does your GMO offer? Every four years, our club hosts a New Test Seminar to learn about the updates and changes in the new USEF dressage tests. We typically have an ‘S’ judge and demo riders, so we can see the movements as they are discussed. This is one of our most popular events. We also offer an annual Judge's Clinic at the beginning of the show season. This usually features a panel of three USDF L graduates offering tips on a variety of ways to maximize the rider's test and improve scores. Other educational activities vary, and may include topics such as horse wellness and care, pasture management, Cavalletti training, product presentations from various companies, and biomechanics updates from one of our own well published members.What type of “fun” events does your GMO offer? What type of “fun” events does your GMO offer? Our club offers potluck meals during our educational events that are always enjoyable. We are in the process of planning a weekend dressage camp for 2019, which should be a blast! Our Year End Award Banquet is also always a lot of fun, and includes a lovely dinner, auction, raffles, and guest speakers. June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
USDF FLASHBACK
Seldom Seen By Jennifer Bryant
sized Thoroughbred/Connemara cross would easily capture any Reprinted from the June 2016 award for cuteness, but the geldUSDF Connection magazine. ing (1970-1996) was never on a US Olympic or World Championship any horses make successful team. Although he won an imprescontributions in the show sive share of ribbons and titles, his ring or in the breeding shed, but achievements are eclipsed by many precious few of those are ever others. Yet the American-bred selected for induction into the Seldom Seen became a powerful Roemer Foundation/USDF Hall ambassador for the sport of dresof Fame. Why? sage. In an era that saw American To be considered Hall of riders importing huge warmbloods Fame material, an individual— from Europe as fast as they could human or equine—must have load the planes, the 14.2-hand achieved something extra-special: pony proved that the smaller, helping to shape or expand our non-warmblood equines could sport in America. And the ones hold their own—and win—against that make the most indelible the big guys. He was adorable and marks aren’t always the ones that fun to watch, and he was a mount win the top medals and prizes. audiences could imagine actually A perfect case in point is being able to own and ride, unlike this month’s American Dressage the imported warmbloods with the Legend: Seldom Seen. The ponyintimidatingly huge movement and the price tags to match.
M
Click here to watch the humorous and heartwarming video of Seldom Seen’s retirement ceremony at Dressage at Devon 1987—complete with jumps!
Seldom Seen—so named because as a newborn he was so tiny he wasn’t visible over the tall grass—and his lifelong rider and June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
USDF FLASHBACK
trainer got their start in Alabama, where an event rider from Maine named Lendon Gray was working at the farm of Peg Whitehurst. Whitehurst’s daughter, Kim Whitehurst, was a Pony Clubber and had been riding “Brillo,” as the family nicknamed their pony for his resemblance to an oversized steel-wool pad as a fuzzy foal. In 1975, Gray took a fiveyear-old Seldom Seen to a novice-level horse trial. They won. Eventually the jumps got too big for the pony, and a year later he and Gray began focusing on dressage. (Hilda Gurney, who would win an Olympic team bronze medal that year, reportedly told Peg Whitehurst: “If you don’t let Lendon take that horse to Grand Prix, I want him.”) The Gray-Seldom Seen partnership proved to be a perfect match, despite the fact that both horse and rider were new to dressage, particularly to the upper levels. “Since he was the first horse I trained to Grand Prix, we had to do things along the way,
and I made a lot of mistakes,” Gray recalled. “He was very, very forgiving. You could not have had a more patient, understanding horse.” The pair was soon established as a competitive force, progressing at the rate of two levels per year. From 1977 to 1987, Seldom Seen was highly ranked in the USDF Horse of the Year standings from every level from First through Grand Prix, capturing Horse of the Year titles in 1981 at Prix St. Georges and in 1982 at Intermediate II. He ranked in the top six in the annual USDF Grand Prix Horse of the Year standings three times. And in 1981, he won the individual gold medal at the US Olympic Festival in Syracuse, NY. “People would buy big, fancy horses, and I would come trucking in on a pony and beat them,” Gray said. Gray is famous as a champion of “nontraditional” breeds in dressage, and her success with Seldom Seen was a launching pad for her platform. June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
USDF FLASHBACK
“When he became a Grand Prix horse,” Gray said of the pony, “it was great to compete him since he attracted a lot of attention because he was an average horse. He was not a special mover, and he was small. He was just a horse that was trained and competed well. He developed a huge fan club because of this. Seldom Seen brought dressage to everyone and showed it was for anyone. “He had such a huge fan club wherever he went,” Gray continued. In 2005, the year that Seldom Seen was inducted into the Roemer Foundation/USDF Hall of Fame, she said: “I still receive letters from people telling me how Seldom Seen gave them encouragement to try harder with their own horses.” So popular was Seldom Seen that, in 1987, thousands of fans were on hand for the 17-yearold pony’s retirement ceremony at Dressage at Devon in Pennsylvania. (He went out on top, having just swept the Grand June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
USDF Store Prix, the Grand Prix Special, and the Grand Prix Freestyle at the competition.) His competitive career may have ended, but Gray continued to ride him in dressage exhibitions, including a memorable pas de deux with a reining horse. “The everyman of American dressage,� as former USDF president Sam Barish called Seldom Seen, died in Florida in 1996 at the age of 26.
Podcast Alert
PODCAST
Check out podcast 121 where Lendon Gray talks about Seldom Seen at usdf.podbean.com.
order online at
www.usdf.org/store June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE
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We Want Your Story
Learn More About Dressage
YourDressage is a chance to share your story with the dressage community. We are looking for personal stories about you, your horse, or horse-related experience. Your story should be 600-1000 words and should be sent as a Word document. We will need photos to go with the story, with a preference for candid shots that are clear and well composed. Please submit photos as JPEG formatted files. Also, if you have any video(s) that we can use, related to your story, make sure to include their hyperlinks.
Have questions about dressage and the United States Dressage Federation, use the following links to learn more.
usdf.org/calendar
Youth
Please send your submission or any questions via e-mail at epubs@usdf.org
Membership
usdf.org/education/youth.asp youth@usdf.org
About Dressage
Education
usdf.org/about/about-dressage
education@usdf.org
About USDF usdf.org/about/about-usdf
Calendar
usdf.org/join membership@usdf.org
Group Member Organizations Note: USDF strongly recommends all riders wear protective headgear when mounted. For complete rules regarding helmets refer to the USEF Rule Book. Click here.
Disclaimer: The United States Dressage Federation does not guarantee that all submitted stories will be published. Any opinions expressed in the pages of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Dressage Federation
Find a GMO in your region Search for a GMO by zip code gmo@usdf.org
USDF Podcasts usdf.podbean.com
Online Learning/eTRAK usdf.org/e-trak
Store usdf.org/store merchandise@usdf.org
Horse Registration usdf.org/faqs/horse-registration.asp horseregistration@usdf.org
For more information, check out the USDF Member Guide available on the USDF website and app. June 2018 Z YOURDRESSAGE