Dressage News Notes Brought to You by Back on Track Products

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California will be dressage central this weekend, with three shows scheduled around the state. And two of America’s top dressage riders who were injured this past year continue to show improvement as they work their way back into the saddle. Watch for news coming out of the Global Dressage Forum, held this past weekend in the Netherlands. A Tennessee stable uses the Halloween season to promote riding. The final visitor numbers to this year’s World Equestrian Games are released. And, an equine escapee sets off a mad chase in Australia that included police and private citizens.

It’ll be a big weekend for dressage in California this weekend with three shows taking place. Dressage at Mission Pacific will be held in Somis. In Clovis, Dressage in the Valley will be taking place this coming weekend and in Livermore, the Greenville Equestrian Center Dressage will be held. Down in Newberry, Florida, there will be the Arabian Sport Horse Challenge. Batavia, Ohio will play host to the Majestic Farm Dressage XV. And, in Shelbyville, Tennessee, there will be the Tennessee State Dressage Championships at the Harvest Classic.

The good news coming out is that Courtney King-Dye is getting more and more involved in the dressage world as she continues to improve. She’s now gone solo in her sessions with therapy horses and is even up to trot work. But, even more importantly, she’s becoming more active as a teacher, which Courtney reports also benefits her speech therapy. Courtney is definitely gaining ground in her goal to be back in the show ring. You go girl.

And the other good news is that [#23996 override="Guenter Seidel" title="Guenter Seidel"] has now returned home to the U.S. to continue recovering from a riding accident he had while training in Germany last June. He’s not yet back in the saddle, but is working toward it.

For the dressage world, the big event that just passed is the Global Dressage Forum, held in the Netherlands. The event draws many of the world’s top dressage riders, trainers, judges and breeders who gather to debate issues of importance to the dressage world. One of the key organizers of the event, now in its tenth year, is Joep Bartels. Watch for news coming out of it this week. One of the hot topics was aimed at helping stewards better understand their role in monitoring the warm-up rings for banned techniques like the rollkur.

So here’s a great idea to mix the Halloween season with riding promotion. The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee reported on the Mid-South Dressage Academy’s “Spooktacular.” The event, held last weekend, gave people the chance to learn more about the non-profit academy while having some Halloween fun. The event mixed riding with other fun seasonal activities such as face painting, trick-or-treating, as well as hay and pony rides. The riding academy offers programs for riders of all levels and it’s been quite clever in drawing new riders. Last spring, the Academy held the Easter-themed Eggstravaganza, a similar type of carnival that drew about 200 children and adults.

Well, the numbers are in and the 2010 Alltech/FEI World Equestrian Games sold 411,023 tickets according to accounting records. WEG officials announced that 507,022 people attended the WEG. Those numbers, however, included volunteers, media, staff and children under 12. The number of tickets actually available was 600,000. The number of tickets sold is perhaps not bad considering the economy and the data show that spectators came from 63 different countries and all 50 U.S. states. It hasn’t yet been reported if the WEG finished in the black or the red. That won’t be known until about late November.

And from Australia comes the story of a chase that, before it ended, involved not only a good number of police cars but private motorists as well. What the press called a “rogue” horse sent police on a high-speed chase through the community of Moss Vale, Australia. The horse had police and passing motorists on a high-speed chase down roads and across lawns. The Southern Highland News reports that the renegade horse fled its paddock, leaving behind its friend neighing in protest. Police were aided by a motorist who was an experienced horsewoman who attempted to corner the horse, but he showed his talent for jumping the fence and running on. The horse was eventually caught and reunited with his pasture mate. You can read about the whole escapade Here!