The Gifted Fund

Marge Iannucci

My horse Garnet and I had been training with Debra Wiedmaier for nearly five years, when financial realities brought our successful working relationship to an end. Garnet and I were starting to do Fourth Level work. Thanks to my trainer, I had all the tools needed to keep Garnet going strong and fit for nearly an entire year so that when the time came to use the Gifted Grant both Garnet and I were up to the challenge.

Now that we won the grant, we needed a couple of things. First, an accomplished trainer far enough away from home so that we could work in an atmosphere of total concentration. Second, a way to get there, and finally, a new pair of boots! Since our own funds were limited and our grant money was dedicated to training purposes we would need some help.

I contacted Ann Guptil, an accomplished FEI rider and trainer whose training facility is in Connecticut about two and half hours from our home in New York. She graciously accepted us to train with her for an entire week in May 2003. Ann also found a student of hers that was able to trailer Garnet to and from there for us. Finally, we turned to a new pair of boots by calling the Dehner Boot Company. My original Dehner boots had lasted through twelve long, brutal years of all kinds of weather and riding, so I decided to phone them, explain our situation and see what they could do. The generously offered to create a custom fit pair of boots for me at cost. The boots are top shelf and I am eternally grateful to everyone at Dehner.

Now that everything was in place, the hard work would begin. Garnet would stay at Ann's Farm, but I would commute back and forth each day. The week would fly by of course, but during that week Ann and I would work on several aspects within the Dressage Discipline. During the early part of the week, we worked on moving Garnet forward, getting him straight without losing his outside shoulder on a circle. We went on to putting Garnet in his double bridle over the next four days, as we worked on shoulder in at the canter, to straightening him without excessive use of the curb while keeping him forward. We accomplished all of this without the use of a whip by using transition work.

It was great working with a trainer of Ann Guptil's caliber, dedication and intense work focus. Her level of experience in every aspect of Dressage gave Garnet and me the much needed and very sorely missed focus and enjoyment that only working with a top dressage professional can provide.

When I learned that I had been awarded the Carol Lavell Gifted Fund grant in 2002, I felt honored and grateful. Like many others, the tragic World Trade Center event and ensuing financial debacle led to the loss of everything we struggled our whole life to create. The Gifted Grant represented for me not only an opportunity to train with an accomplished trainer again, but also was a ray of hope in an otherwise darkening financial situation. Thank you Dressage Foundation for the Gifted Fund Grant. You can never completely understand how important receiving this grant was to me, and how profoundly grateful I am and always will be for receiving it.