Western Dressage Camp 2026 

written by Kiera Farmer

I want to start off by saying how much I appreciated you and your team for awarding the scholarship to me. I decided to use this money for a  WD dressage camp at Hidden Oaks, in Joseph, Oregon, run by Marina and Jessie Woodhead, both FEI trainers. I learned so much from this camp, and I am so happy to tell you how it went. The camp was 3 days long, with 2 private, 45 minutes - 1 hour lessons a day. I rode my 5 year old Appalossa mare,  Annie.

Before I get into the details, I want to give you some history about my horse and I. We purchased her as a yearling, but due to a bone infection couldn't start any real under saddle work until she was 3 ½, and, boy, was she a pistol! If I made a mistake more than twice, she would just shut down. Marina helped us through some tough rides!  Annie and I are very new to Western Dressage, but I wanted to try this out. I had participated in an English dressage show before in 4H, but never had any formal training until I met Marina . 

The first camp day started with stretching, then was divided by morning and afternoon ride times, one with Marina, and one with Jess, and a classroom session on topics like competition jitters and the best pre show warm-up exercises. I learned that it’s a good idea to have a different set for home and for show. Also, collection is not bringing the horse to you, it’s you being close to them. And to always think of your scores as a gift, something I can learn from. 

For riding, I really wanted to concentrate on getting the lope correctly when and where I asked, and for her to round at the trot and canter.  I suffer with a shorter leg, so Jess had me rest my one leg on the horn to allow my seat bones to come in better contact with the saddle. This really helped Annie to round. In the next ride, I learned how to use my back when Annie gets too strong. The next couple days we spent on a series of 10 meter trot circles, to begin to get Annie rounding in her transition to canter and even maintaining it for a few strides, and leg yielding.                Annie now picks up the canter pretty well right on the fly, both directions and is rounding at the trot on circles, and has improved quite a bit on the straight walls. All in all, I feel we were very successful in everything we worked on and am so grateful to have had the opportunity to improve my bond with Annie and our Western dressage skills. I am hoping to enter more western dressage shows with Annie in the future.  Thank you so much again!