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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.
Area VI Annual Meeting
The Area VI annual meeting was held the weekend of January
6-7 at Ram Tap. Many Young Riders made an appearance there
and I think they all had a great time. They also earned a
ton of volunteer hours if they remembered to be members!
There were a lot of awards given out Saturday evening at
the banquet. Zachary Brandt, Rachel Dwyer, Madison Reeb, Max
McManamy, Kiersti Wylie and Tiana Coudray were among many
Young riders who were feted.
After dinner and the awards everyone danced!! Even the DJ
danced! He said we were a REALLY fun group and now he wants
to learn to ride! I do not remember having so much fun a meeting
before and I thank all of you who helped make it so great!
Clinics
Area VI Young Riders will host a Bobby Costello clinic on
March 24-25 at Twin Rivers Ranch. This is your opportunity
to ride with one of the top riders in the country. Current
Young Rider members will get a discounted clinic rate and
have first priority to sign up until February 10. After that
date, the clinic is open to all riders. You will still get
a discount, but I will not be able to guarantee your spot.
There will be four groups of no more than six in each group.
Bobby will teach BN through Advanced so make plans now! An
application is included in this newsletter. Print
the application here.You must be a member to receive the
discount.
Bobby Costello Career Highlights - To Date
-2000 Olympic Game with Chevalier - 6th Individual
-2001 Burghley with Chevalier - top 20
-2002 Burghley with Dalliance - top 20
-2003 Pan Am Games with Dalliance - Team Gold
-2005 Fair Hill with Wild Delight - 6th
-Many top 10 finishes at Rolex Kentucky, Fair Hill and Radnor
-Named to the USEF Winter Training Sessions in seven of the
past nine years.
Wendy Wergeles asked me to mention that Jimmy Wofford will
be teaching at Cottonwood Ranch in Los Alamos on February24-25.
You can contact Wendy at 805-344-1190 or check out her website
for more information: www.focusonsporthorses.com
Max McManamy had the opportunity to ride with the great George
Morris last month. She wrote about her experience and I have
pasted it here. If you have never watched or ridden with the
master, I encourage you to do so when you can. He teaches
in both Northern and Southern CA at least once year.
The George Morris Clinic
by Max Mc Manamy
In November, my trainer informed me that we were all going
to a George Morris Clinic in Fallbrook at the beginning of
December. I gulped and said I was nervous about the clinic
because I had heard so much about George's style of teaching.
Nervous, she said, you should be terrified! So then I was!
With that in mind, I frantically began researching all that
I could find on websites and reading articles that had been
written from former participants points of view. I wanted
to know anything and everything I could about George's clinics,
that would help me better prepare for the task at hand. We
set off for the clinic, hosted by Julie Zumstein at the beautiful
Fairbrook Farms in Fallbrook.
Every morning I started getting ready hours before I was supposed
to ride. I wanted everything to be as clean and as polished
as it could possibly be. From the keepers on my bridle to
the elastic on my breastplate, my boots brilliant, saddle
pad without a spot, my horse's coat gleaming and of course
my hair in a hair net. When I finally mounted and walked over
to the derby field to meet with Mr. Morris, I could tell that
everyone was nervous on the first day, not just me. The good
news was, I was well prepared and it showed. I think when
we show respect we receive respect in return.
For the first hour of every lesson, we did flat work. We worked
on
sitting trot, posting trot, transitions, canter, counter canter,
lateral movements and cavaletties. All of these exercises
helped our
horses loosen up and become more responsive to our aids. We
all became
more responsive to Mr. Morris's instruction as well! Quick
witted and
exacting are how I would describe his style. Nothing escaped
his watchful eye! When we began jumping, we dove right into
technical exercises like banks and bounces. We then moved
on to hedges, devil's dikes, stonewalls, ditches, skinnies,
bending lines, and grids. We also did other exercises, jumping
without stirrups, trotting fences and figure eights over jumps
to help both the horse's and rider's jumping and thinking
ability improve. By the end of the third day, after lots of
advice, laughter, sharp corrections and sound, constructive
criticism, there was a big difference in the way that everyone
of us was riding. We all rode a little straighter, rode back
to basics and learned to think through our jumps. I came away
with some great feedback and thankfully Mr. Morris kept drilling
me on my bad habits until I fixed them, which then relaxed
my horse and my overall ride got better!
It was an honor to ride for the legendary George Morris and
I am grateful that I was able to participate and benefit from
his experience. His bark was louder than his bite but I was
glad I was prepped and polished which made him able to focus
on my riding and not my turnout! Who knows, maybe next time
I won't even be terrified, just nervous!
BIRTHDAYS!
Allegra Aiuto - 10/28
Josh Barnacle - 12/3
John Durr - 10/13
Fiona Graham - 12/17
Drew Hofbauer - 11/18
Casey Hoffman - 10/19
Ari Lopez - 10/18
Madison Loving - 12/7
Sierra Mathias - 1/14
Jessica Montgomery - 11/3
Jessica Rice - 1/21
Tory Smith - 12/4
Samantha Ashley Stewart 10/2
Samantha Valentine - 10/9
Zachary Brandt - 1/23
CAMP
Camp will be held at Kingsway again this year. The dates are
June 17-21. Camping is mandatory unless you have a pretty
darn good reason for being "off campus." The format
will be much like last year - two group lessons per day and
one lesson during the week will be a private dressage lesson.
Everyone will school cross country at Galway. Terry Paine
may be persuaded to take a group out for Hound Exercise .
Not to be missed! Instructors include Debbie Rosen, John Camlin,
Gina Miles, Bea and Derek di Grazia and Loris Henry. Space
will be limited, so sign up as soon as the information comes
out.
As usual, there will be significant discounts if you have
completed your volunteer hours, and are a member in good standing.
The deadline to receive a camp discount will be June 1.
Camp is mandatory for all NAYRC candidates and grooms.
NAYRC
What would a newsletter be without mentioning NAYRC?
I have spoken to about 20 of you who have expressed an interest
in either the CCI* or CCI** this summer. We will be able to
take a team plus two individuals for each division. My math
comes up with 12 horses and riders going to Virginia plus
at least six grooms.
If you are not qualified now, you will have to compete and
qualify at Galway Downs for the CIC and at Twin Rivers in
the CCI. As the NAYRC competition is a championship there
will be NO SPECIAL PERMISSION GRANTED IN EITHER DIVISION.
Briefly to compete in the championships you need to be qualified
to compete at the CCI level you plan to ride in (please read
the FEI rule book section 506 for qualifying info.) for the
championships your championship qualifying rounds must be
obtained in the calendar year in question or the preceding
calendar year. Again please read the FEI rulebook which is
available online at www.horsesport.org. All the qualifying
information is in section 506. Additionally read the Annex
8 which is specific to Young Riders and Juniors.
We have rooms reserved at the Best Western Inn on the corner
of Maury River Road and the Lee Highway which is about 1 mile
to horse center. If you have parents or other support people
who want to be at the championships it would be a good idea
to make reservations now as rooms will be scarce later on.
Other info. Plan to fly in to Roanoke, VA. Most airlines
have flights via Chicago, Wash. DC or Atlanta. All the teams
and grooms will fly to Roanoke on the same day planning to
arrive within an hour or so of each other. This usually means
one group flies from LAX and one from SFO. I will let you
know what flights to book later this summer.
This is also the time to make sure your vaccinations are
up to date and your passports are current if applicable. One
Star horses do not need a passport, though I do recommend
one and they do need a vaccination record that will be accepted
by the FEI Veterinary Committee. All horses will need a 6
month Coggins Test and a Health Certificate which is only
good for 30 days.
I encourage you all to get a conditioning schedule set up,
implement it, make it your Bible and send it to me. Derek
and Bea will review it and if necessary will make some suggestions
about tweaking it. As always get out to some dressage shows
and some hunter jumper shows. If you can find a place where
the jumping is on grass - GO THERE!
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