Greetings NEDA Members,

I am thrilled and honored to be your next president.  I have some seriously large shoes to fill.  Paul Cormier is very well known throughout the dressage community, as a technical delegate, spring show manager, head grounds volunteer and showman.  Paul brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to his presidency, and he came into his leadership position of the NEDA board at a time when leadership was needed.  In addition to his public persona and outgoing personality that kept NEDA in the forefront of GMO’s nationally, he brought board members together into a cohesive and cooperative unit, working effectively to make NEDA a stronger and more effective organization.  He leaves behind a legacy of warmth and good will and an organization running at peak performance.

As I am considerably less well known, I’d like to use this space to introduce myself.  I have been involved with horses nearly all my life, but came to dressage only 15 years ago.  Before that chronologically, I rode western, saddle seat, hunt seat, eventing and trail riding.  In dressage, I found what seemed like a saner sport than eventing, more consistent with my other roles as a mother and wife, although recent tragic accidents remind us that there are no safety guarantees in any sport where horses are involved.  I also found a fascinating, rigorous, detail-oriented, demanding and all-consuming discipline into which I have sunk most of my discretionary time and treasure.  After all these years of lessons, training, coaching, and hard work, I am a barely-above-mediocre adult amateur rider, trying desperately to get my silver medal before my aging body gives out.

The rest of my background is far less interesting.  I trained as a lawyer and maintained a civil trial practice in Boston for 12 years, after which I migrated into philanthropy, where I have been since, with a few interruptions for other things.  I am currently the executive director of a family foundation in Boston.  I have served as a trustee of Northeastern University for 27 years, and I have also served on a number of other nonprofit boards.

I joined the NEDA board in 2003 and was elected Secretary, offering me a good vantage point to learn about NEDA’s many activities and the workings of the board.  I was elected Treasurer last year.  In addition, I am a member of the Central Vermont Dressage Association, have served as a PM delegate to the USDF convention, and currently serve on the USDF Awards Committee.  I asked to join that committee because of my belief in the value of the rider achievement award system of USDF and its importance for the vast majority of dressage riders who will never be competitive for national or regional awards.  The bronze, silver and gold medals – based on achieving certain scores at different levels - recognize the progression of a rider’s skill without regard to competitive placement at any recognized show or any specific time period.  This gives part-time riders like myself whatever time it takes to progress through the levels, demonstrating competence (finally) before moving on.

The USDF medal program reflects another facet of dressage that I love:  when you compete, whatever other goals you may have, you are always in competition with yourself.  Even if your hope is to win the class, your greater goal is to get the score you hoped for, to improve your scores in a certain movement or group of movements, and/or to successfully complete a movement that has been sticky for your horse.  You can reach those goals without winning (although winning is, of course, nice).  Finally, you take home with you a blueprint and work plan, in the form of the detailed comments you receive from your judge(s).  In all my years of competitive riding as a youth, there was nothing but the ribbons.  I find dressage competition to be a much friendlier, more inviting and more rewarding environment for all these reasons.

As your president, I bring the viewpoint of the adult amateur as I work with NEDA’s outstanding board members to improve and build out NEDA’s offerings and activities.  Adult amateurs are the backbone of NEDA, the vast majority of its members.  We amateurs can learn so much outside of our personal training to improve our riding and the care of our horses by watching outstanding clinicians and riders, reading about new and proven approaches and techniques, and participating in competitions that are fair and well managed.  In return we ask you to help NEDA be not just the biggest single chapter GMO in the country but the best.  We are a volunteer run organization from top to bottom, so every hour you give us as a volunteer will be returned to you in more and better programs and activities to support our shared passion.  I look forward to serving you.

Sincerely,
Kathy McHugh