Click the logo above and go to episode 43 to listen to an interview with NEDA President, Paul Cormier.

June 2010

Greetings NEDA Members,

Well it looks like we have gotten off to a good start this spring. We’ve been able to have something to meet the needs of our members all in the first 3 weekends of May.  The first weekend NEDA conducted our Spring Symposium with Clinician and Trainer Bettina Drummond. This was an amazing 3 days of dressage from a different perspective than we are used to. The nearly 200 auditors were given a glimpse into the classical French method of training. We saw 26 horses and 20 riders being taught to work in harmony with each other to accomplish classical movements for use in the modern form of dressage. For such a great educational experience I want to thank organizer Linda Mendenhall and the 20 plus volunteers as well as the management and staff of Apple Knoll Farm who worked so hard behind the scenes to make this an enlightening weekend.

The second weekend of May went in a little different direction. Sally Davenport put together a fantastic Handling Clinic for anyone who wanted and needed some help with future sporthorse competition horses or maybe just a little help in knowing how to control
your competition horse at an FEI jog. Pineland Farms Stallion & Young Horse Manager Bobby Murray  did a wonderful job of showing the 21 participants, nearly a dozen horses and 50 plus auditors the proper way of dealing with a horse from a different angle , that of being on the ground and not in the saddle. Our thanks go to Lyn Spinella and Brookside Equestrian Center in North Smithfield, RI for hosting this event.

And finally weekend number 3 was the NEDA Spring Dressage Competition held for the third year at the Marshfield Fair Grounds in Marshfield Ma. The gods were with us this year and the sun was shining for the entire 2 days of the show. I was finally able to fix the switch on the wind machine and Sunday was considerably less breezy than Saturday but all in all it was a stupendous show. Thanks to our Secretary extraordinaire, Sue McKeown, the show ran like clock work and with the help of the nearly 50 volunteers the horses and riders were all happy campers. We would also like to express our gratitude to George Yered for the loan to the trailers used as judge’s boxes, Heritage Dressage Association for the loan of the solid arenas and also a thanks to the staff of the Marshfield Fair Grounds for maintaining a wonderful horse show facility.

Three great events in three weekends and it all happened because of the VOLUNTEERS.
And we appreciate our volunteers and what they do is noticed by people around the dressage community as you can tell by this email I received after the show
“Dear  Paul
I am  really  the one  to  thank you,  and  your  great  volunteer staff  for one of  the  absolutely  best  run  shows!
It is  a  hard act  to follow for  other  shows,  it  is  also  great  to see how  much  fun you  all have  together,
Thank you for including me,
Susanne

Sincerely,
Paul Cormier