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Katrina Sadis: 2015 Carolyn Van Cise Fund for Michigan Youth Grant Recipient

This winter, thanks to The Dressage Foundation, I had the opportunity to take lessons with Lendon Gray. I rode my five-year-old German Riding Pony mare, Iridesse SVS (Tess), in my lessons.

I hope to develop Tess into a competitive FEI Pony, who can give other youth in the U.S. the experience of riding a trained pony who can teach them the movements and compete internationally. I was lucky enough to benefit from such a pony when, almost three years ago, I was able to lease Poldy 10 from Dressage4Kids. Poldy, an experienced 18-year-old German Riding Pony, took me from struggling at First Level to competing internationally at the FEI Level Ponies in just a few short months. I learned so much from Poldy and experiences I had and overall knowledge I gained from him made me the rider I am today. Tragically, Poldy died at the end of my year of leasing him. He was, unfortunately, unable to give more youth the opportunities he gave me and therefore, I want to develop Tess to give back to the sport while improving my knowledge of riding young horses.

In my lessons, Lendon helped me work towards my end goal of FEI Pony, (2nd-3rd Level movements) while keeping Tess happy and interested in the work. One of the biggest things we worked on was maintaining a forward desire and self-carriage while developing collection in her gaits. While working towards a higher degree of collection, Lendon cautioned me not to help Tess too much. "Organize or correct her if you have to, then leave her alone if you can." She explained that always telling Tess to keep cantering and not break to trot was worse than letting her make the mistake of breaking and then bringing her back to the canter and letting her know that wasn't what I wanted. Lendon didn't mind if Tess, or I, made a mistake, as long as we learned from it and kept making different ones.

For young horses, Lendon taught me that it is imperative that they stay challenged but still enjoy the work. She encouraged me to teach Tess the movements but to be careful not to drill them. "Make sure you spend more time telling her what to do then telling her what not to do." Although Tess needed to learn that certain things such as jogging in the walk and getting distracted were not acceptable, Lendon instructed me to give her something to do, such as shoulder-in at walk, instead of punishing her.

Overall Lendon and I were both pleased with Tess' development as she kept working hard and stayed focused when we increased the intensity and difficulty of the work. Lendon encouraged me to keep giving her new experiences such as hacking and cavalettis.

I am very grateful to The Dressage Foundation for awarding me the Carolyn Van Cise Memorial Fund and allowing me to continue my own and my pony's training.