Even though the World Cup Show will be over before this article appears in your mailbox I would like to congratulate ODS member Jeremy Steinberg and Parocco on making it into the Las Vegas Cup Grand Prix Invitational. We are all very proud of this pair from the Pacific Northwest!

I would like to thank all the volunteers who helped run the booth at the Albany Horse Expo held March 16-18. As a first time attendee I was surprised at the size of the event. ODS had a great booth location and there was lots of traffic. We signed up quite a few new members, sold merchandise and gave out a lot of information about ODS and dressage in general. It was fun to see so many familiar faces and renew acquaintances.

It is exciting to see dressage grow so much in Oregon. Unfortunately our shows and venues are not able to keep up with the number of exhibitors who wish to compete at our shows. Several recent shows and even some of the league shows have had to resort to lottery systems for entries since they received more entries than they could handle on the very first day. It looks like we need more and larger shows. One of the biggest problems with putting on shows is the labor that is involved. Most of the show managers and secretaries in our area are handling as many shows as they can manage. We need more people training to do these jobs and most importantly we need many more volunteers.

The League show program offers opportunities to try show management and volunteer positions without the pressure of the USDF/USEF recognized shows. They are also a great place to start showing in the lower levels and cater to beginning riders and horses as well as experienced riders. The 2007 League Open and Championship Show is coming up June 9 and 10 in Salem at the State Fairgrounds. The entries do not close until May 10 so there is still time to enter. This show includes Open, AA, High School and Junior Young Rider Divisions to ODS members. These divisions require 2 scores of 55% or better in any class of the level from two different judges at two different ODS League shows between May 1, 2006 and April 30, 2007. In addition there will be divisions for Quadrille, Pas de Deux and Musical Freestyle which for this year will not have qualifying criteria.

We are trying hard to provide an alternative for people who wish to show in a less formal environment and a place to begin and learn before taking the step to recognized shows. This year we have a small r and a large R judge for the show. This is an opportunity to show and get comments from a judge who judges at recognized shows. Please support the efforts of the board and show committee to provide this opportunity for you. If you can’t ride please volunteer. Many of the riders at this show are people who work and support recognized shows all year long so this is a great chance for recognized show riders to show their appreciation.

The next ODS Board Meeting is scheduled for May 19th at the Adult Team Show in McMinnville so the next column will include a report from that meeting. At this time we are considering some by laws revisions.

Marsha