Dressage Letters December 2019

CALIFORNIA DRESSAGE SOCIETY DECEMBER 2019 V. 25, I 12 Cross Country Journey by Jocelyn Towne Going to the Nationals was exciting and nerve-wracking. I’ve never been good in cold weather and I was worried that my nerves combined with the freezing temperatures would render me totally useless. Luckily, my coach, Kristina Harrison, kept me focused. I started to have a sense of humor about the cold, told myself I would always have this as a memory of “that time” I rode in 20 degree weather. And Kentucky Horse Park is just beautiful and sprawling. Inside the All Tech Arena there were five screens simultaneously playing all the rides in the outdoor arenas. My horse, Bandini, was a little shocked by the cold and he hadn’t yet grown in his winter coat. Thursday morning we had our warm- up class. It was raining and about 40 degrees out. Everyone was A Long Journey Pays Off Source: By Yellow Horse Marketing for the US Dressage Finals Every day, people make a multitude of small decisions that in the moment may seem relatively insignificant, but sometimes the culmination of those choices can be life changing. As was the case for Ruth Shirkey when she made the fortuitous decision to purchase a Hanoverian foal in utero, and again nearly a decade later to pack up a truck, camper and horse trailer and drive four days across the country from California with her husband to chase a dream in CDS Members In Kentucky JOCELYN TOWNE / BANDINI PHOTO BY SUSAN STICKLE CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 RUTH SHIRKEY / WYLEIGH PRINCESS PHOTO BY SUSAN STICKLE

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