Gifted Fund Information

Carol Lavell Gifted Scholarship

Please read all information and print out for your files.  You do not need to include the information pages with your application papers. 

The objective of the Gifted Fund is to enable the adult amateur rider and their horse(s) to set aside time to take some concentrated work with a trainer, for an extended concentrated amount of time, away from the pressures of job and family, to spend a week or more just to bond with their horse; to have the time to feed them, graze them, give them a spa bath, or just stand around in the stall with them, and to give the rider and horse concentrated time with their trainer. We require the recipient to own the horse he/she will train with.  This scholarship is meant for the adult amateur to have the opportunity to be in an extended training situation that is not readily available during the course of your daily pattern. We do not intend this concentrated time to include clinics, camps, or symposiums.  This scholarship is NOT meant to be used with a horse that is not the rider's own teammate.  The model we look for is a training program of 5-7 consecutive days, with the same trainer, with your teammate horse!

• We are looking for thinking riders, with strong volunteer background.  Volunteer work is to be dressage related, first for your GMO, secondly for your region. 
• We look for riders who want to work on their riding in a situation that is normally unavailable to them because of their other obligations. We encourage the rider to work with a trainer with which they have a working history. 
• It is a requirement that recipients of the Gifted Fund write an article for The Dressage Foundation for use on the Foundation website, and for the Foundation's use in other publications. The Foundation will forward your article to your GMO newsletter.  In addition to the written report, we also require that the recipient arrange to give a verbal report at a GMO meeting as soon as possible after their training is complete.
• An initial $750 of the scholarship will be sent when the recipient and trainer confirm the date of the training; the balance in the amount of $250 will be sent when the article to The Dressage Foundation is received.

Please read the following carefully before you begin to work on the Gifted Fund Application:

1. A complete application package will consist of one personal information sheet (cover sheet), and a two-page list of 9 items you need to address with detailed information. We do not put a space or page limit on your answers, but keep to the theme of the item you are answering. Check off each item as you complete it, to ensure that you have completed all items. DO NOT SKIP ANY ITEM. Double-check your work to be certain that you have answered the questions that have several parts! Key in your presentation on a computer, or TYPE if you do not have computer access.
2. Use white copy paper (20# weight), NO COLORED OR TEXTURED PAPER.
3. For your presentation, send us ONLY the material we have asked for.  Do not put your application material in binders of any kind.  We will not accept video material.
4. We will not accept your application material by fax or email.
5. Recommendations are to be sent with your application material. *** Do not ask your recommendation writers to send them to the Foundation.
6. Required: Staple all pages together in a set. We will need seven sets.

Send all material to our NEW ADDRESS:

The Dressage Foundation
1314 O Street, Suite 305
Lincoln, NE 68508

Applications MUST be delivered to our office on or before September 15, 2010.  We will not accept any material after this deadline!

After the Scholarship Selection Committee has made the decision, we will notify the recipient from each region, as well as those who were not selected at this time. A press release will be sent to the recipient's GMO, and be featured on Foundation website.