Dressage News Notes Brought to You by Back on Track Products

This week's News Notes for December 1, 2011 is brought to you by Back on Track Products. The REEM Acra FEI World Cup dressage qualifier in Olympia will be including some big  superstars including Carl Hester, Hans Peter Minderhoud and Catherine Haddad! The U.S. lost an ambassador of dressage when Lowell Boomer, founder of the USDF passed away at 100 years old! Isabell Werth retired her Olympic partner Satchmo at age 17. The KWPN conducted a study on OCD and plan to release the findings in January 2012. Two Christmas happenings have a little minature horse that rings the bell for the Salvation Army and a movie from Steven Spielberg about a horse the serves in World War I that will debut Christmas...It is very quiet on the competition front as people are enjoying the upcoming Holiday season and some are getting ready for the trip to warmer climates and the winter show season ahead (lucky!). There are two USDF shows this weekend and they are both in the "sunny" south (where some experienced snow this weekend!). The Holiday On Horse show will be held in Aiken, SC and the Dressage On The First Coast will be held in Jacksonville, FL. Internationally the next leg of the REEM Acra FEI World Cup dressage qualifier will be held December 13-19.

The stars will be coming out at Olympia for the next leg of the REEM Acra FEI World Cup dressage qualifier December 13-1, 2011! British Champions Carl Hester, Charlotte Dujardin and Laura Bechtolsheimer will contest the event along with foreign threats Hans Peter Mindehoud, Helen Langehanenberg and Catherine Haddad to name a few! Check out info on Olympia here!

On a sad note, shortly before Thanksgiving - USDF, The Dressage Foundation and the legions of dressage enthusiast lost one of the biggest advocates and innovators of U.S. dressage - Lowell Boomer who passed away at 100 years old. Lowell was the founder of the USDF in 1973 which now has grow to over 30,000 memebers nation wide. In 1989 he then went on to establish The Dressage Foundation which today supports dressage riders from AA to Professional and everything in between with scholarships, grants and learning opprotunities....Read more about Lowell here.

Isabell Werth retired her Olympic partner Satchmo at the German Dressage Mastersheld in Stuttgart. Satchmo is a 17-year-old Hanoverian gelding by Sao Paulo out of a dam by Legat. Isabell reports on her website, www.isabell-werth.com, had this to say after the Kuer - "And then it was there - the moment of the last salut with this wonderful horse who carried me to such great success and who will enjoy his retirement at our place. While 8000 spectators clapped and honored him with standing ovation I shed tears. I remembered a moment eleven years ago when we say goodbye to Gigolo at the same place." Check out more on Isabell's insight here!

Eurodressage.com reports that in January 2012, "the KWPN will publish the first results of the structural offspring inspection for osteochondrosis (OC). The heritability of OC will be published together with the sport breeding trait (dressage or jumping) and the traits for conformation, free-movement / free jumping, and height so that breeders can evaluate OC health relative to other traits." Read more about this story here!

In the Christmas spirit - have you ever walked right past that traditional bell ringer at a Salvation Army bucket? I bet you couldn't do it if you saw Tinker, the minature horse doing the ringing!! In his second year of bell ringing, Tinker can usually draw a crowd for photos and a little Christmas cheer! Who could resist! Check it out at JSOnline!

Steven Spielberg's adaptation of the novel War Horse is aiming to make its debut in the Holiday movie rush and there is already huge talk of potential Oscar glory. In addition, the onstage play "has struck a nerve with the many military veterans who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan." These veterans after seeing the show have stated "Even though it’s told through the perspective of a horse, you’re telling our story.” Very touching and please read the whole story here at the Calgary Herald....