To: Area VII Members
From: Your Area VII Chair - Cynthia Bayles
We have so much news to catch up on as we enter another new year.
First, our Annual Meeting and Awards Dinner was held on January 26, 2019 at Emerald Downs:
Thank you to everyone who supported the Area VII annual meeting. Our annual meeting provides us with a chance to celebrate the prior year’s season, to socialize, to learn about new things from interesting speakers, to spend money on great items in our silent auction (the proceeds benefit Area VII programs) and to recognize riders, horses, volunteers and others who excelled in and out of competition during the prior year.
For a complete list of our 2018 award winners, please visit our Leaderboard.
Our 2018 year-end champions are:
Beginner Novice Junior: Jess Because, owned and ridden by Harper Padgett
Beginner Novice Senior: Clooney 14, owned by Annika Asling, ridden by Karen O’Neal
Novice Junior: Little Sure Shot, owned by Harper Padgett, ridden by Dane Padgett
Novice Senior: Apollo, owned and ridden by Tracy Stein
Training Junior: Hungarian Villian, owned by Brenda Henry, ridden by Makenna Henry
Training Senior: Normandy’s Kivalo, owned and ridden by Kelly Langerak
Young Rider Preliminary: Tucker Too, owned by Anni Grandia, ridden by Lilly Linder
Open Preliminary: Staccato, owned by Janine Jaro, ridden by Jordan Linstedt
Open Intermediate: Argentine Gaucho, owned and ridden by Amy Evans
Open Advanced: Revitavet Capato, owned by Barbara and Gary Linstedt, ridden by Jordan Linstedt
Rider of the Year: Jordan Linstedt
Horse of the Year: Staccato, owned by Janine Jaro, ridden by Jordan Linstedt
Volunteers of the Year: 1st - Rick Resto, 2nd – Cindi Carrell
As the new Area VII Chair, I’d like to extend a special thank you to the many people who worked so hard to put this year’s annual meeting together – including arranging the facility, the speakers, obtaining and organizing the awards, putting together the silent auction and so much more. In particular, John Meriwether, Lorilee Hanson, Maggie Rikard, outgoing Chair Rachel Kosmal McCart and our new Young Rider Coordinator Barb Jensen, deserve our thanks for the many hours they put into organizing and arranging the awards and speakers for our annual celebration. Many people contributed items to the silent auction, which is an important fundraiser for us. Diane Snow and Gallop's Saddlery - thank you once again for donating so many fabulous items!
Our guest speakers included Jen Verharen, who spoke to us about setting goals and overcoming setbacks and Max Corcoran, our keynote speaker and current incoming USEA National Chair, who talked to us about conditioning horses, which of course branched off into many discussions and questions. Jen always draws a crowd and as usual drew rave reviews. For most of us this was our first opportunity to listen to Max, who shared a lot of very interesting information about conditioning event horses through the highest levels based on her experience, including that of an Olympic level groom. Max also graciously doubled as our awards presenter. Max was a very engaging speaker and it was lovely to have her join our eventing family for our celebration. We hope she will visit us again in the future.
On a sad note, as most of you have heard by now, we recently lost a person who was very special to many of us in Area VII and who, although intensely private, was also extremely generous, supportive and cared deeply about our sport. Dee Strand was a very special person with a huge heart as well as endless kindness and generosity. She will be greatly missed.
I’d like to extend a very special and heart felt thank you to Greg Tryon, who joined us to share some of his memories and thoughts about Dee, her contributions to our sport and her impact on the Tryon family. Greg’s presence and words meant a lot to us – especially those of us who were fortunate enough to have known Dee.
So - the day was filled with education, socializing, celebrating each other’s successes from 2018 and remembering special horses and people who have meant and will always mean so much to us.
Congratulations to our 2018 year-end award winners and the best of luck to everyone for a successful 2019 season!
Other important topics for the new year:
Safe Sport:
If you haven’t yet educated yourself on the new requirements of Safe Sport, now is the time. This new legislation affects every one of us in some way. In a nutshell, The USEF Safe Sport Policy and U.S. Center for SafeSport Code are aimed at protecting all participants in our sport. The required training is about recognizing, reducing and responding to misconduct and abuse in sport. Effective January 1, 2019, all USEF members 18 and over with an Adult Competing Membership must complete Safe Sport training in order to be eligible to participate in USEF activities, including competitions. As an adult (18 and over) USEA Member competing at the Preliminary Level or above, this affects you. But it also affects trainers, coaches, judges, owners and since the intent is to protect our youth, I encourage parents to educate themselves on this very important issue. There is extensive information on this subject as well as links to other resources available on the USEF website at www.usef.org. Please educate yourself on this now, because the training is required to be completed prior to competing.
Amateur Status:
Another subject many of us as adult riders need to make sure we understand going into the new competition year is the answer to the question, “What is an Amateur and what do I have to do (or perhaps more accurately NOT do) to hold an Amateur Card”? This goes under the subject of know the rules. For the definition of Amateur Status, please refer to the U.S. Equestrian Federation Rules for Eventing, Appendix 3.1.3 Amateur (A). You can also email amateurinquiry@usef.org and request assistance if you are unclear about whether you qualify as an amateur or professional. Amateur v Professional is not as clear cut as one would think – so if you are an adult and competing as an “Amateur”, please educate yourself so you don’t run afoul of the rules.
Information resources - Area VII Website – www.areavii.org :
Please note that although there are a number of Facebook pages out there that sport the name of “Area VII” somewhere in the title, FB is a social platform and is not controlled by the Area (hence the posts that have zero relation to our area and the plethora of advertising). Although much good and timely information is shared on Facebook, it is not all-inclusive and often the good information gets buried.
Please visit the Area VII website to stay up to date on important happenings in our Area, including but not limited to, USEA approved educational activities including clinics, Young Rider Activities, Adult Rider Activities, Instructor Certification Program Clinics and Testing, important announcements including those from the Area VII Council, calendar updates and other news that the Area Leadership deems important for our membership. By periodically checking into our website www.areavii.org and the US Eventing website at www.useventing.com we will all keep informed about what is happening in our sport and in our Area.
Happy New Year to everyone and wishing you all the best for a successful 2019!
An Introduction to our new Area Chair -
February 2, 2019
Hello Everyone. I’m Cynthia Bayles and I’d like to introduce myself as your new Area VII Chair.
Having been involved in many different aspects of our sport for so many years, it’s my turn to step into the role of Area Chair. You might wonder, as I used to, “why do we have an Area Chair and what does this person actually do?”
In a nutshell – Area Chairs are appointed by the USEA Board of Governors upon the recommendations of the local USEA Area Councils. Area Chairs actually have an extensive list of duties, including acting as a communication liaison with the national USEA office and overseeing all Area programs. Along with the Area Council, Area Chairs are responsible for developing a competition schedule for all recognized USEA events that meets the needs of competitors and organizers; promoting the sport of Eventing via educational activities in the Area’s Young Rider and Adult Rider Programs; communicating with Area membership; promoting USEA membership; providing for annual Area Awards; providing for an annual Area Championships competition and more.
As the incoming Chair for Area VII, I will periodically publish a newsletter that will be posted to our website. You may also periodically receive an email from me with Area news. Sometimes we also include news in the “Club News” section of Flying Changes Magazine. Area VII has an excellent website and I encourage everyone to visit our website on a regular basis to see “what’s new” in our Area. Our website is the primary source of information pertaining to our Young Rider and Adult Rider Programs, approved USEA educational activities, links to our competition calendar and much more. Yes, there are a number of Facebook pages out there relating to our area, but Facebook is a social platform with a life of its own and is not managed by Area leadership to disseminate information regarding our sport and Area. So – if you want to know what’s going on in Area VII, please visit the website!
Who is Cynthia Bayles? I’ve been eventing for over twenty years and have successfully brought a handful of my own horses up through the levels through Prelim and one through Intermediate. Currently I’m competing one horse at Prelim and bringing up another youngster. I am an active volunteer, was Treasurer for Area VII for several years, am active in the Adult Rider Program and have also been active at the national level. Whether assisting in organizing clinics, fundraisers or competitions, I’m just about always out there somewhere doing something in our sport as a volunteer or a competitor. I also dabble in the jumper and dressage worlds, but am an eventer at heart because, as we all know, our eventing community is fun, supportive and values good horsemanship and sportsmanship.
I encourage all of our membership to keep informed about our sport by utilizing the various resources available to us – including but not limited to our website, the USEA national office website and the USEF website.
Your Area VII Council and Area Chair welcome your feedback and suggestions. We can be contacted as noted on this website and welcome your comments, concerns and feedback.