Fort Worth Dressage Club News


Our low cost clinic was a fun, educational day –this is


something we do for our members every year – a local professional donates her time and expertise to FWDC members for a full day of lessons at a much reduced cost. Riders brought pot luck for lunch – and Tricia and David Scott donated their beautiful facility Four Friends Farm in Valley View. Gretchen Aycock of Clear Creek Dressage was our clinician this year and has quite a resume! FWDC is thankful she was willing to donate a day to our club and its members to fur- ther their dres- sage education. This is a very popular event and always well attended and lots of fun. We held our


FWDC Donation to Wings of Hope


schooling show June 4th at Wil-


low Draw in Weatherford - “L” gradu- ate Kristin Currie was our judge and we offered gaited, eventing and Western dressage. It was a relaxing day with no pressure of a Recognized show! We were full with a waiting list. A big thank you to all our fantastic volunteers who made the show successful, many compliments from exhibitors about how friendly and welcoming everyone was at this schooling show. Coming up in July is our ever pop-


ular pool party! The Fort Worth Dressage Club


(FWDC) is a club devoted to dressage and dressage activities for its members. We work throughout the year to pro- vide educational opportunities and fun activities for our members. FWDC holds monthly meetings at


Szechuan Chinese Restaurant off Bryant Irving the 4th Monday of every month at 6:30PM. Everyone is wel- come. FWDC’s membership form can be found on our website at www.fort-


worthdressageclub.com. Please join for a year filled with dressage activities! We welcome all levels of riders on all breeds of horses. w


COMPETITIVE TRAIL NEWS IN THE SW TOO HOT TO HANDLE?


With temperatures soaring and humidity bearing


down like a wet blanket, trail riding in the southwest does not sound very appealing, even to the most dedi- cated horseman. Add demonic horse flies and swarming mosquitoes and the sofa and Netflix sounds much more attractive on a hot July day. Yet early morning and late evening hours offer ideal


conditions to work with your competitive trail horse on obstacles and manners. In North American Trail Ride Conference (NATRC) and Texas Trail Chal- lenge Club (TTCC) competitions, a horse that calmly approaches and executes backing, side-pass- ing, and standing quietly is sure to finish in the rib- bons. Hours and hours in the saddle in the heat are not needed to work on these skills. While mounted or unmounted, practicing mov-


ing one foot at a time in any direction does not take much time nor much physical effort. Ground tying is an enviable skill, and can be mastered in just a few hours over several days. YouTube videos abound on mastering any number of tasks, such as standing next to any object to enable a safe mount. With minimal creativity, but maximum resolve,


the competitive trail horse can enter the fall riding season with its perfect weather ready to win. w


TIME TO PLAN FOR FALL TRAIL COMPETITIONS July is not too early to get out the calen-


dar and select the trail competitions to enter. Information on events that will appeal to every horse and rider team from every background is available on sponsoring organizations’ web- sites and Facebook pages.


NATRC offers six divisions in competitive trail


where horse and rider teams traverse a minimum of 15 miles per day with 3-4 observations in a pre- scribed time and are evaluated by veterinarians and certified horsemanship judges. TTCC events also have multiple divisions and teams ride 5-8 miles with 10 obstacles judged by certified judges. Amer- ican Endurance Ride Conference (AERC) compe- titions are races covering 25 or 50 miles and are monitored by veterinarians. Introductory events of 12-15 miles are also offered by AERC. Coming up in September are the AERC Uni-


corn Hunt in Kennard on Labor Day weekend and the TTCC Pony Pilot in Killeen on Sept 9. From that time, there is something for everyone nearly every weekend through the end of the year. w


July 2017 SouthWest Horse Trader 25


Affiliate News


new horse, Scotty


Claunch and her


Donna


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32