DRESSAGE

NEW PROGRAM RECOGNIZES QUARTER HORSES IN DRESSAGE.

BY MEGHAN MACKEY

A top-10 year-end recognition program for American Quarter Horses competing in dressage was approved during the Executive Committee’s April meeting.

The top award will go to the Quarter Horse that earns the highest score in the highest level of competition at an approved United States Dressage Federation or Federation Equestre Internationale event. The top award will be a saddle. Second place will receive a belt buckle, and third through 10th place will receive certificates.

AQHA Professional Horseman Lynn Palm is excited about the program.

“For me as a horse trainer, dressage is a wonderful progression that’s been used for centuries and centuries,” she said. “It’s a great progression for teaching riders to become good, skilled, effective riders. And it’s a natural way to train a horse, it promotes good ethics of horsemanship.”

Palm said about 2,500 USDF competitors recognize that they ride registered Quarter Horses, but about 6,000 people who show Quarter Horses don’t, and are not members of AQHA. She thinks the program will help draw those riders to the Association.

She said the program will have a positive affect on not only AQHA, but the discipline of dressage itself.

Qualifications:

• Horse and rider must have eight scores under four different judges at four different competitions.
• FEI levels must score at or above 58 percent.
• Horse must compete with AQHA name and number.
• Exhibitor must be a member of AQHA.
• Eligible events must be judged by United States Equestrian Federation judges.
• Ties will be broken by the average of the horse’s best eight scores.

For more information about dressage, please visit http://www.usdf.org.