California Dressage Letters February 2022

February 2022 ~ Dressage Letters ~ Page 3 California Dressage Society www.california-dressage.org CDS Central Office Paula Langan • manager/editor [email protected] P. O. Box 417 Carmel Valley, CA 93924 (831) 659-5696 • fax (831) 659-2383 Tue, Wed, 2-7pm • Thur, Fri, 1-5pm Dressage Letters: February 2022,Vol 28, Issue 2 Publishedmonthly by the California Dressage Society, . Periodicals #5940 at CarmelValley, CA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to POBox 417, CarmelValley, CA93924-0417 Printed byAPi-Marketing President Joan Williams (408) 512-2890 Vice President Pat Hart (714) 299-6507 Scholarship Committee Chair Nancy Szakacs (408) 476-4743 Treasurer Diana Muravez • (951) 201-0686 [email protected] Insurance Equine Insurance Donna Parker 800/321-5723 [email protected] Junior Rider Sara Mosqueda • (909) 203-9290 Mari Naten • (916) 798-5844 CONTENTS Articles CDS Annual Meeting / Masterclass............................. pages 1-2 CDS Adult Amateur Clinics......................................... pages 10-11 CDS Junior/Young Rider Clinic...................................page 14 Memberships ................................................................page 6 Regional Adult Amateur Competition .........................page 7 Monthly Departments Activities Calendar ......................................................page 16 Bulletin .........................................................................page 8 Classifieds ..................................................................... pages 18-19 Membership Renewal Form ........................................page 20 Monthly Clinics ...........................................................page 15 President’s Column .......................................................page 3 Show Calendar ............................................................. pages 12-13 USEF, USDF, FEI ........................................................ page 4-5 President’s Column Happy New Year everyone! by Joan Williams 2021 was a big show year with members and competitions on the rise but a difficult year with the introduction of new Covid variants. Most of us had wildfires and smoke to deal with as well. Our CDS board had a difficult situation arise recently with a trusted board member. A financial crime was committed against SLO and CDS. It was a serious situation with a misuse of funds over a 5 year period of time discovered by the chapter. The funds have since been recovered. No further recourse other than suspension is currently being taken. The board did not make this decision to suspend lightly. We agonized over it and I personally lost sleep as I was so upset. The decision was unanimous but not given lightly. I am so ready for a good 2022! Our preparations have been made, memberships secured, horses trained, we are ready to take our group and hit the shows! We learned our lesson to get our scores early as the future with Covid and natural disasters could be a concern later in the year! I was able to attend the USEF townhall meeting, the judge’s roundtable discussion and the Dr. Hilary Clayton’s Biomechanics seminar via Zoom this month. There are so many more modern cuts and colors of breeches, coats, vests, helmets, short coats, shadbellys and Helmets this year available to the riders. No longer will you be required to wear white or light color breeches. Dark colors are allowed as well as browns, greens, greys etc. It was a super presentation. Modestly patterned shirts with some really beautiful helmet designs are also available to ride in. Gorgeous boots with matching stunning helmets coordinating with the color and trim on your short jacket or shadbelly will be stunning! I can’t wait to see how all the riders are turned out in 2022! If the presentation is available online, I highly recommend you watch it as I was busily writing down names of short coat manufacturers as well as some matching boots and helmets. The selections were modern and lovely. We went over all the rule changes for this year as well. These changes were expected as they are the same as the proposed rule changes we watched last year. If you would like to see the changes you can find them on the USEF website. I loved Dr. Hilary Clayton’s seminar. I had seen some of the information before on previous seminars I have attended, for instance, positive DAP (Diagonal Advanced Placement) where in an uphill horse the hind hoof is on the ground while the diagonal front hoof is in the air is a positive thing. She had familiar information about the COM (Center of Mass) of the horse. We are of course wanting it placed further back but with each forward step it continually moves forward. She had some wonderful information on kissing spine, great diagrams explaining what it is, what vertebrae are more likely to be affected (under the saddle) as well as really interesting statistics on the speed and suspension of Piaffe, Passage and Extended Trot. If you can ever attend one of her presentations they are thorough and highly technical but easy to understand. It was great to have our first in person annual meeting in a long time. I sure hope you all joined us for the educational portion and joined us online for the Sunday regional roundtables and awards presentation.