So many wonderful and exciting things are happening for WDAA and Western Dressage that I don’t know quite where to begin! Every day brings new opportunities and challenges. There is never a dull moment!
My thanks to our extraordinary staff who held the fort while my husband and I spent two weeks in Switzerland. It is a lovely country; the food and the people were delightful. I did learn firsthand that Climb Every Mountain is not just a song in a musical as we did climb mountains almost every day. Wow, did I need a horse!
Dini and I are just back from a trip to the Lazy E to work with Stacia Wert Gray and Nora Wert on details for our show and Annual Meeting. Once again, we were so impressed with the lovely setting, the functionality of the facility, and the positive attitude of the marvelous management team at the Lazy E! July is hot and humid almost everywhere, but the trees, the breeze, and the wonderful cooling system kept us very comfortable. A brief but heavy rainstorm allowed us to shelter in the shed row stall area where we stayed nice and dry. I can’t wait to see you all for a great show and a fun Annual Meeting.
I hope that you have had a chance to check out the Lifetime Points and Awards pages. After a long search, the Executive Board decided that we would have to have custom software to meet the needs of this program, which follows a horse and its achievements for a lifetime. It has taken quite a bit of time to get this right. Our staff has been “test driving” the software, looking for problems, and our software designer has worked with them making many adjustments. I made a contribution by not touching anything, so I did not crash the entire program! I think that there may be an age limit on IT ability and that I reached my “sell by date” quite some time ago!
This year our Annual Meeting will be held at the Lazy E in a lovely room, the Roper’s Cantina. This allows WDAA to charge much less than in past years because we do not have any hotel minimums. I think that horse people want and need to be near horses; that is what this association and its members are focused on. Once again, USEF has provided a generous grant to support our Honors Luncheon. I hope to see you there!
We are delighted to see so many of our members stepping up to sponsor our World Championship Show at every level. Please visit the World Champion Show site to see a list of ever growing supporters of our wonderful competitors and their equine partners. I hope that each of you will join in and step up to be an important part of this show whether you can be with us at the show or at home.
My apologies for a long letter. I did warn you that your Executive Board and staff are really busy!
Go hug a horse!
Ellen DiBella WDAA President
Mark your calendars! Our 7th Annual Meeting & Convention will be held on Sept 28th-29th at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, OK. All meetings and the Honors Luncheon will be held in the Roper's Cantina at the Lazy E so we can all stay close to our horses!
Cost - $60.00 (includes meetings and Honors Luncheon sponsored by a grant from the USEF)
This event will be a great opportunity to meet your WDAA Board of Directors and learn what WDAA is planning for the future. Ann Marie Avensino will be speaking on the topic of fundraising tips for Affiliates and Youth groups with her
presentation entitled, "How To Ask For Money and Get It!" The Honors Luncheon, which is sponsored by a grant from USEF, will honor our top horses in the WDAA Horse Lifetime Points and Awards program. Register of Merit and Register of Achievement titles will be awarded to the top earners in the Awards Program. The coveted Top Hand Award will also be presented to the year's top WDAA volunteer.
Custom Tracking Software for Lifetime Points & Awards Program
The Western Dressage Association® of America is proud to announce the roll-out of the online publication of up-to-date standings of horses in its Horse Lifetime Points & Award Program. A program designed to recognize the accomplishments of the horse’s progressive training as they travel up the levels on their journey in western dressage. This is exciting news for those of us who are goal oriented and for all of us who wish to celebrate our horse’s level of achievements by the milestone awards that this program will provide (see levels below).
The new tracking software utilizes a sophisticated database reporting system that has been developed to process horse enrollments, update their annual recording status each year, and convert all test scores and rail class results from WDAA recognized shows. The test scores and rail placings are tabulated according to the conversion chart, while taking into account any other special factors such as triple pointing for all WDAA World Shows.
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Register of Merit Awards
It is with great pleasure that the Board of Directors of WDAA would like to recognize and honor the first horses to have achieved the first level, their Register of Merit in the Horse Lifetime Award Program.
Our hats off and sincere congratulations to the leading horse in this program who has achieved their Register of Merit and the second milestone in the program, their Register of Achievement:
Larks Home Run, American Quarter Horse
Thank you to all of our members who honor the partnership between horse and rider. Following the training principles of western dressage, we are able to improve our horse’s balance and natural way of going by following a systematic education that develops the horse’s physical and mental abilities. A result that is measurable in their performance, recordable by the WDAA, and to be celebrated by each horse owner with every level of achievement within the WDAA.
An Ounce of Prevention: Equine Drugs and Medications
We all want the best for our wonderful horses when it comes to nutrition, supplements, and veterinary care. When you have older horses who may be on a second or even a third career, we turn to supplements and medication to keep our equine partners sound, safe, and comfortable.
Our WDAA World Championship Show is a USEF show this year. USEF is a wonderful and proactive partner for WDAA in terms of horse welfare. USEF has Equine Drugs and Medications Rules that apply to our horses. It is really important that each of us understands these rules and that we fully comply with them. The drug rules have been created in response to studies about the effect of medications on our horses and are intended to protect our horses and to ensure a fair and level playing field for competition.
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Safety First
The WDAA World Championship show is partnering with USEF to be proactive for Equine Health and Safety. In 2010, an equine competition in Utah had one or more horses on the grounds who had the Equine Herpes Virus. The repercussions of this extended across the country and a number of horses became sick and some died. Horse competitions around the country and horses from around the country were endangered.
The WDAA World Championship show and USEF,our partners in equine welfare, are committed to ensure that our celebration of Western Dressage is safe for every horse.
Our show management team, headed by Stacia Wert-Gray, is in contact with the head Oklahoma State
Veterinarian to create a proactive plan to respond to any disease outbreak. This includes isolation of any affected horse at a veterinary facility as well as isolation for a stall occupied by an affected horse.
USEF is our partner in this; they are committed to keeping our horses safe and well at competitions. In 2010, the infectious agent that created a crisis was the Equine Herpes Virus. As a response this, USEF now requires that any horse that comes on the grounds of a USEF show be vaccinated for this virus. You can read about this at:
https://www.usef.org/documents/drugsMeds/2016/2016GR08845VaccineRule.pdf For a USEF report form go to:
https://www.usef.org/documents/drugsMeds/EquineVaccinationRecord.pdf Our goal is for every horse and every competitor have a wonderful show!
presentation entitled, "How To Ask For Money and Get It!" The Honors Luncheon, which is sponsored by a grant from USEF, will honor our top horses in the WDAA Horse Lifetime Points and Awards program. Register of Merit and Register of Achievement titles will be awarded to the top earners in the Awards Program. The coveted Top Hand Award will also be presented to the year's top WDAA volunteer.
