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How Do the Judges Describe Youth Dressage Festival? Fabulous, Amazing, Inspiring
By Lynndee Kemmet for DressageDaily.com

Saugerties, New York – After spending all day judging youngsters at the Ninth Annual Youth Dressage Festival, Scott and Susanne Hassler decided it was the perfect venue for a young rider they know – their 11-year-old daughter Sara.

“The more I watched this, the more I thought that this event is really our daughter’s cup of tea. Along with the dressage, there are so many other wonderful extra things going on – dressage, equitation, the trail classes and prix caprilli. I can see her signing up for everything,” Susanne Hassler said.

Her husband echoed her view saying, “This kind of atmosphere is fabulous. I think our youngest should come here next year and ride. It’s great, just great.”

The Youth Dressage Festival is the creation of Olympian Lendon Gray, who is today probably one of America’s leading promoters of programs for young riders that emphasizes horsemanship above all else. In the Youth Dressage Festival, which draws hundreds of youngsters from throughout the U.S., Canada and several foreign countries each year, riders must compete in three phases – a written test, equitation test and dressage test. The written and equitation tests judge the rider, not the horse. Hence, kids who don’t have access to an expensive, well-trained dressage horse still have a very good chance of winning. In fact, many competitors, especially those who come from abroad to participate, compete on borrowed horses.