Hello! I am running for President of WPDA because I feel a strong need to unify the club with all the stables and members in the Western PA area. I think we have a great club and I have been a member for over 20 years. I served on the board for nine years for nearly every position offered except President. Even when I was not on the board for a few years, I still worked behind the scenes.

Dressage is my passion, and it has been for over 25 years. Since 1978 I have been learning about dressage, applying dressage, teaching and training dressage, reading and writing dressage and, thank God, not dreaming about dressage. I think that now our club needs a strong President to maintain all the good qualities our club's committees have developed over the years. I want to see the WPDA branch out and communicate with other local horse clubs. I think we should network with other organizations to make dressage a foundation for all horse organizations. In other words, we need to cross train with our neighbours who ride but do not understand that the word dressage only means training!

I also would like to promote additional USA Equestrian dressage shows in this area. I think we need more shows in the area not just the spring and fall shows. In order to do this, we need to maintain our strong foundation and not let single issue problems demise our volunteer organization. To stay a successful club, members need to support their organization and not clutch to negativity spoken in their barns. Instead, come to our board meetings - let your voice be heard. Your WPDA board wants everything that the members want, too. Help us be the best we can be.

The WPDA has more money in its accounts than ever before. This is because of its supportive members. Let's keep it going; let's support one another. We do not all have to have the same philosophies about our approaches to dressage whether French, German, or Spanish, we just need to support our common denominator which is dressage!

Also, our club needs to get more involved with our Region 1 representatives. How many of you know that one of our very members is the secretary for Region1? I have an agenda, and anyone who would like to talk with me after I am voted in as President, please call or email me: kristin@coventryequestriancenter.com.

How do you train horses? Well, if you follow this famous German Training Scale, you will succeed. However, I have my own beginner's version of the Training Scale. I call it the three Rs. Does that sound familiar? So, instead of having to remember another new system, just remember that your three Rs stand for Relaxed, Rhythmic and Round (instead of Contact). Voila! Your horse must first be relaxed before you can influence it, then it must have rhythm before you can ask it to round. But, if you ask your horse to go round before it is relaxed and has a good rhythm, you will likely short circuit your communication with your horse. In other words, not be able to communicate with your aids. After you acquire your three Rs with training (relaxed, rhythmic and round) - the hardest part of training - then you ride your horse forward (impulsion) and straight. Out of those ingredients, with a lot in between, comes collection. Your three Rs are the most important - they are the foundation.

A question that is often asked is, "does rhythm mean forward?" There is no doubt that a lot of riders confuse rhythm with forward. What is forward and how does it differ from rhythm? Well, we will save that for another newsletter, but I will tell you that forward is not rushed or hurried. Hint: a horse should go rhythmically forward. The 2003 USDF Directory has a Glossary of judges terms. In this little gem, The Glossary of Judges Terms states: "Forward indicates the direction in which the horse goes...it does not indicate how he gets there. References to specifics such as impulsion, energy, reach, length of stride, in front of the leg, and tempo more accurately express how the horse should proceed in a forward direction."