2015 Fritz Recipient: Rebecca Kuc
USDF/USEF Young Rider Graduate Program Summary
I would like to express a huge thank you to The Dressage Foundation for helping make it possible for me to attend the 2016 USDF/USEF Young Rider Graduate Program in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Captain Jack Fritz Grant allowed me the opportunity to take part in a truly amazing program for young professionals.
Being from Pennsylvania, I flew into Florida Friday, January 15 and arrived late morning. There were a few other participants who arrived when I did, one of which being my roommate for the program, and we were then able to relax Friday afternoon and get to know one another. On Friday night there was an optional group dinner as a meet and greet for the participants. It was a great first opportunity to meet some of the other girls and to begin connecting with one another. A very fun aspect of this is that most of the girls hadn’t met each other, yet by being the same age range as well as being in similar situations with a common interest, we were all able to quickly become friends and talk as if we’ve known each other for years. The girls came from all over the US and we even had a participant from Canada (who is in Florida for the season)!
Saturday morning was an early start for us as we registered and had breakfast and more chances to get to know one another. Roz Kinstler, who helped run and organize the program, gave a welcome and introduction, followed by a morning sequence of talks on sponsorship. Allyn Mann from Adequan began these talks, speaking to us about corporate and business sponsorships as well as products. Next, Kim Boyer gave a nice lecture on individual sponsorships and of the owners of the horse and how those owners have changed. Similarly, she touched on what she looks for in who she sponsors and some tips on how to get a sponsor as well as how to keep a sponsor. Finally, Rebecca Hart gave us a presentation on syndication. This schedule allowed us to hear talks on multiple facets of sponsorship.
After a quick break, we heard from Dr. Kraig Kulikowski on Equine Sports Medicine and then Yvonne Ocrant spoke to us on legal issues for the equestrian business. Yvonne was very insightful for us and taught us about liability releases, how equine activities differ from state to state, and the numerous types of contracts, such as a boarding contract. This was very helpful in seeing what precautions you should be sure to do and we were all very grateful that she offered to look at all of our liability releases to help us with them! Based on the talks we had heard earlier in the morning, Yvonne also gave us a brief talk on the legal end of syndication and the contracts she has formulated in the past. We were lucky enough to have a lecture on marketing from Chris Stafford as well as hearing about the USDF L Program from Janet Foy! Beth Baumert spoke about TDF and the opportunities they offer. She also talked to us about Roth IRAs and how beneficial it would be for us even as young as we are.
We ended the lecture portion of Saturday by having Lendon Gray and Tuny Page speak to us about training opportunities in the US and also in Europe. After a small break, we all had dinner as a group and Endel Ots shared his experience from the FEI World Breeding Championships. We closed our night by George Williams briefly speaking to us. Many of us bonded more Saturday night by watching the Grand Prix Freestyles at the Adequan/Global Dressage Festival!
Sunday began at the same time for us and we had a whole new set of presenters. At this point many of the participants were getting much closer and it was great to be building friendships with so many amazing young professionals! The first speaker on Sunday was Christine Traurig telling us about the USEF Young Horse Program. Jennifer Bryant then talked about interacting with the media and helped give us some insight about interviewing. Hilary Moore Hebert then spoke about balancing your personal and professional life which I found very helpful. I was able to realize the support system I have but also understand that to make all of what you want happen, it’s important to keep your life how you want your life to be. It was very helpful hearing others’ experiences. It also helped to hear about keeping a line between having your clients as clients versus best friends. We also talked about families, along with starting families, which was useful to hear about as all of the participants were in their twenties.
Katherine Bateson-Chandler, Jennifer Baumert, and Endel Ots gave us a panel discussion about their stories and how they have gotten to where they are today. Then Jennifer Baumert teamed up with Kathie Robertson to explain the USEF Instructor Certification Program. It was very helpful learning about the USEF Instructor Certification as well as the USDF L Program on Saturday to learn about different things we can do with our sport. After lunch, Roz gave us a wonderful talk about customer service and ethics and essentially how to deal with clients and how to be professional, as well as having a discussion on things that have worked for us in our careers with our clients thus far. We were reminded that it’s important to remember that it is OUR business and we therefore get to run it how we like. To end our day, Hallye Griffin told us about the USEF High Performance Programs and then Stephan Hienzsch spoke about giving back to the sport.
At the end of the day, we walked away having so much knowledge from both days and even felt a little overwhelmed (in a good way!). It was great to go home to see my horses and to put everything that I have learned to use, yet it was hard to say goodbye to the new amazing friends I made and to leave the program that taught me so much! I am so glad I was able to attend this program and I would recommend it to any young professional! None of this could be possible for me without the wonderful support from The Dressage Foundation.
