Christel Carlson: 2015 Continuing Education Recipient

Dear Dressage Foundation Board and Committees,

I want to thank TDF for their scholarship to help defray costs of attending the Oregon Dressage Society USDF Instructor Workshops. Pursuing educational opportunities at distant locations is quite expensive and the generous scholarship was greatly appreciated. We were located outside the Portland, Oregon area at two different facilities. Both facilities had classrooms for the lectures. Our instructor was Heidi Chote from California. She was fantastic! She was very organized in her presentation, encouraged and then answered questions succinctly, very professional in her demeanor and appearance, as well as a lovely rider for mounted demonstrations.

Each of the three sections (horse evaluation and riding ourselves, training riders and lunging) were very well presented. I learned better ways to teach -observe, wait and evaluate, question then comment, instruct in positives (what to do, not what not to do). I learned to be even more precise in my lunging of the horse or rider for a seat or confidence lesson. Active in Pony Club instruction, I was fairly comfortable and adept (I thought anyway) at riding a horse, evaluating training and designing a training program. Heidi had many more approaches and exercises and I absolutely loved watching all the other instructor candidates perform. I believe I learned more from watching than I did even participating. I will encourage students and others to be a participant as it is an excellent learning experience for them! In fact I brought my teenaged daughter along as a rider for the lunging and teaching session for others to teach. She had a super time also watching as well as riding.

It was an excellent and congenial group of candidates. Everyone participated in discussions, was respectful of others and guinea pig horses and students, and appreciative of the excellent education. I believe we all became more confident and capable as we progressed through the program. Due to logistics and costs most of us have not pursued official certification yet. Thank you for your scholarship support that allowed me to participate in this wonderful educational opportunity.