Dressage Letters June 2021

June 2021 ~ Dressage Letters ~ Page 4 for all who attended and focus was made on Freestyle creation. The format was quite unique and Melissa’s positive and correct teaching style was extremely helpful and super fun for all who attended.  Our annual fund raiser competition, Foothills Fall Classic was a raving success held at Pacific Equestrian Center. A Piaffe/Passage clinic taught by Ana Gilmour raised over $1,000 in the fall and riders from all over the Northern California region enjoyed learning new things with their horses at Clay Station Ranch.  Our new board members will be gathering by zoom to have an annual planning meeting this coming Saturday, January 23.  We are looking forward to a wonderful year of 2021 and have much in store for our members.  Lake County Chapter Report 2020 Liz Rohnstock ~ Chapter Chair 2020 proved to be a challenging year. We had high hopes for many activities, shows and events for our Lake County Dressage Chapter until the pandemic changed everything. Our Lake County Dressage Community remained committed to keep riding and advancing our knowledge and skills. We had several socially distanced lessons clinics with wonderful clinicians, Alex Clerc Fitt, Audrey Brennan and Jaki Hardy. In between clinics, we helped each other on our riding homework, always safely distancing. Our group also tried something new and different by entering the Virtual Trial Rider Challenge! Juliana Vidich of Highland Spring Equestrian Center graciously set up obstacle courses according to the instructions and then riders sent in videos of their rides! Members Liz Rohnstock and Katy Sommers made us all proud by bringing home ribbons (virtually of course!) It was great fun for all, humans and horses! The horses gained new confidence learning to walk over bridges and through scary flapping obstacles. Good practice to remain calm in the show ring when the unexpected happens. In addition to the Trail Trial obstacle courses, we conducted some exciting soccer games and had many relaxing trail rides. Our plans for 2021 include a schooling show, the Friends and Family Musical Rides and of course other clinics. Naturally it all depends on the virus and the vaccines so we can remain safe and healthy. Looking forward to 2021! Marin Chapter Report 2020 Kathy Goldstein ~ Chapter Chair We are a small Chapter with about 50 or so members – It’s been a challenge for us to survive like other small chapters but, there are a few of us that are determined and do as much as we can to keep our Chapter alive for the history. We have had a couple hard years, our only real money maker is our 1-day May Chapter Show. Unfortunately, we got rained out two years ago and had to cancel and then last year we were canceled due to COVID – 19. So, this year we have decided to jump into the deep end and have taken on a Summer Chapter Show as well as our May Chapter Show. Both of our Show’s will be held at the lovely Woodbridge Farm in Petaluma May Chapter Show – Sunday May 23 2021 Judge – Heidi Gaian (S) Tr. – Grand Prix we will also offer Para tests for one of our members who show’s Para. Summer Chapter Show – Sunday July 25 2021 Judge – Jaki Hardy (R) Tr. – 4th Level we will also offer people to school the FEI tests with her also if there is time. We are hoping that both our shows are a success so we are able to continue to offer 1 day shows for the people who can’t attend or afford a multi-day show and to keep showing open so everyone can enjoy getting out with their horse and have fun. San Francisco Chapter Report 2020 Michele De Luna ~ Chapter Chair 2020 has been positive for SFP/CDS chapter. The pandemic has given our chapter time to get involved. We had much better attendance of our members at our Zoom meetings. With this attendance we were able to accomplish many more things. 2020 Activities -Member survey -Pilates class in person before COVID -Zoom Pilates class -Zoom Rider Remedy class -Junior meeting-with just juniors discussing goal and things they want to do with the chapter -Social Media engagement campaign -Secured The Horsepark at Woodside for 2021 Annual Show -Sent 2 AA to AA clinic -Elected new board members and filled all 8 seats on our board We are very excited for 2021!! Shasta Chapter Report 2020 Cindy Madden ~ Chapter Chair 2020 Started out with high hopes, however we only had two meetings before the Covid 19 shut down hit our community and the country. We did not have any functions or meetings between March and October of this year. We then had a regular meeting in October at a private home, that had a wonderful meeting place on the property where we could all social distance. We set up zoom at that meeting and the November meeting was by zoom. It actually went well for our first one. Planning more zoom meetings until we can safely meet in person again. Our pick for the Amateur Clinic in 2020 was Barbara Fogarty. She attended the clinic at the end of October. We elected a new board for 2021 and that was about it for the crazy year of 2020! We are all looking forward to some normalcy in 2021 with showing and clinics hopefully!