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President's Note -- April

It’s spring and dressage activities are in full swing. It seems as though our dressage calendar got an early start this year due to the good weather in March. I know that I have to make choices regarding which events to attend. I hope that you also are enjoying the variety of activities available. The April calendar has nine shows, clinics and events listed for ODS that don’t include the two fantastic auditing opportunities below.

I’d like to remind everyone of the Region Six Adult Clinic that will take place April 16th and 17th at Devonwood Equestrian Centre, in Sherwood, Oregon. You’ll get a chance to watch international competitor, trainer, author and clinician Lendon Gray work with adult riders from Region Six for two days. Lendon has a reputation for training a variety of breeds of horses and working with adult amateurs. Auditor registration is available on-line at http://www.usdf.org/Programs/AdultClinics/.

For the past two years, Walter Zettl was the featured clinician for this clinic series sponsored by USDF. This year, three different clinicians--Lendon Gray, Betsy Steiner, and Kathy Connelly will be featured in different parts of the country. My understanding is that they will rotate among the various regions in future year.

Congratulations to the demo riders who were selected. The selection committee often has difficult choices in selecting riders that will be the best “guinea pigs”. It often depends on the applicant pool depth, the breeds, and what the audience might be able to take home from watching a clinician work with a certain pair. . I hope those that weren’t selected will apply in the future—It may be that you didn’t have any issues to resolve! Thanks you to the selectors, as well as to Devonwood for hosting this clinic.

The second educational opportunity is World Cup Dressage in Las Vegas. Top international competition is not likely to get much closer! Those of you fortunate enough to travel to Las Vegas in late April, please share your experiences. I’m sure your chapter newsletter, or possibly Flying Changes, would be interested in an account of your trip.

Please watch www.oregondressage.com for updates to the 2005 Omnibus. There are some revisions that have been made at the request of USDF, as well as to correct some errors. The individual pdf files are on the site connected to each show on the “Show and Clinics” page. If you can’t access the files, please contact Corinne in the office.

Thanks for your helps in making these things happen. Good Riding,
John