Hampton Green Farm EDAP Clinic and Lendon Youth Dressage Festival Midwest

    This year was my third participating in the EDAP Clinic and Lendon Youth Dressage Festival Midwest held at Hampton Green Farm. Absolute and I really benefited from the clinic. Lendon helped us improve the flow of the movements in our tests, improve the expression in the trot half pass, improve the riding of our centerlines, and helped with the canter work. One of my favorite things about these clinics is hearing all of Lendon’s interesting stories and words of wisdom.

    

Day 1 of clinic

     The clinic and show had lots of great lectures. On the first day of the clinic we had a lunch lecture with Vanessa Gesierich-Voltman on horse shopping in Europe. One of the most important things I learned from the clinic is to find someone you know well and trust, and a person that knows the area of Europe you are shopping in. I hope to use this new found knowledge one day horse shopping in Europe. I also got to learn interesting new things about the shipment and quarantine processes. On the second day of the clinic we had a lunch lecture with Dr. Jeff Bunn on hooves. I gained more knowledge on how the hooves work, and on some unfortunate hoof problems such a laminitis and founder. I felt this lecture was very helpful to help me understand more what goes on in the hoof, especially because Absolute has problems in his front hooves. On the last day of the clinic we had a dinner lecture with Ken Braddock of Dressage-News.com. This was one of my favorites; it was a cool look into the world of high performance dressage. I loved hearing the experiences of being a journalist for all the top dressage events. I also enjoyed his opinion on youth dressage in America.

     The Youth Dressage Festival didn't go quite as well as the clinic but  Iworked through the bumps. Despite the down falls in the canter work I was very impressed with the progression absolute has made in the trot work and the scores showed. We placed 6th overall in our division with a 5th in equitation, and 4th in the written test. I am also honored to have been awarded the Sportsmanship Award. Plus I tied for first in the Turn out division. I was happy that my friend Nicole Gallant got the upper end of the tie and won the Turnout Award. Also new friend Katelyn Mosle was Overall grand champion, and friend Madelyn Guthrie was Reserve overall champion. Congrats to everyone who was successful at the show! 

Group picture after the awards ceremony 

   Finally I would like to thank all the people who made the EDAP Clinic and Youth Dressage Festival possible. Thank you to Kim Boyer for donating your gorgeous facility. Also, thank you to Fred Boyer for the wonderful healthy and delicious food. A big thank you to the organizers Marilyn Fahringer, Lyn Kendall, Joan Mack, Mary Herbst, and Jodey. Thank you to the judges, speakers, and commentators Marilyn Griffin, Bernadette Radke, Rhianna Pankhurst, Ken Braddock, Vanessa Gesierich-Voltman, Andrea Landis, Dr. Bunn, and Rosalind Kinstler. Finally, a big thank to Lendon Gray and Dressage4kids. Dressasge4kids, run by Lendon Gray, has many amazing programs like the EDAP Clinics and Youth Dressage Festivals. I strongly encourage you to visit their website and participate in their multiple youth programs. Another huge thank you for everyone who supported this year’s EDAP Clinic and Youth Dressage Festival, it is by far one of my favorite experiences of the year.