Notes From a 2023 Youth Convention Scholarship Recipient

By Marley McCourt

I am incredibly grateful, once again, to be a recipient of the USDF Youth Convention Scholarship. In 2022, the scholarship allowed me to attend the USDF Annual Convention held in Lexington; I had such a wonderful and extremely educational experience, so I decided to reapply for 2023 to go to Omaha, Nebraska. During the 2022 convention, I was so intrigued when learning about the governance of our sport that I decided to run as a Participating Member (PM) Delegate for my region, USDF Region 1, for the 2023 Annual Convention. 

As a PM Delegate, I am required to attend the USDF Convention to represent the members in my region and vote in the Board of Governors (BOG) meeting. The convention is packed with wonderfully educational and informative meetings, filled with discussions, questions from the people, and answers from the committee chairs. 

The 2023 Adequan®/USDF Annual Convention started November 30 with the Administrative Council. It started strong with discussions on how to grow dressage involvement, Group Member Organization (GMO) leadership, and historical moments, such as the Hall of Fame and Lifetime Achievement Awards. 

I am a member of my local GMO, the Eastern States Dressage and Combined Training Association (ESDCTA), so it was very intriguing to hear how the GMOs are involved in SafeSport, and that they are also responsible for looking out for their members and competitors. There were also many ideas of how to target participating members and get them into GMOs.  

The next meeting was the Technical Council Open Forum, which contained information from the Freestyle Committee, Competition Management Committee, and Judges Committee, as well as information about the Instructor/Trainer Certification Program, the L Education Program, and Technical Delegates.

It was wonderful to hear about all the educational opportunities that USDF offers, including a remote Zoom webinar program, the Instructor/Trainer Certification Program sections available as education for everyone, riding and training workshops, lungeing workshops, judges educational opportunities for all levels, and many more. Education is essential, as there is so much more to this sport than just riding, and there are many educational opportunities available that many people are unaware of. 

Once again, it is incredible to be able to see how much thought and care goes into every part of this sport. There is so much to be learned from behind the scenes that can be seen at the Convention. 

The Activities Council comprises the Adult Programs Committee, the Awards Committee, the FEI and National Youth Committee, the Regional Championship Committee, and the Sporthorse Committee. This meeting covered a wide range of topics that are important to the sub-committees, from how to support adult amateurs and how to reach out to them, to how best to bring up the future generations of the sport, including educating the youth membership and providing them with more opportunities at every level of the sport, giving credit to breeders, and youth breeder ambassadors, among many other topics. 

The smaller regional meetings are also a wonderful way to meet some new people in your region and reconnect with some familiar faces! Many great ideas are shared in the regional meetings, from fundraising ideas, to how to get more people involved at the barn, youth, etc. 

My favorite meetings at the convention are the educational sessions. This year, there were some informative and useful meetings, one of which was on the biomechanics of the horse’s neck. This session, presented by Dr. Hilary Clayton, went into lovely detail about the neck joints, muscle functions, neck support, hyperflexion, and the strongest points of the neck.

I also enjoyed the session on improving athleticism in the off-season, presented by Jec Ballou. This meeting was informative on how a horse can be de-trained in time off, how to properly ease them back into work, and how moving on different surfaces can improve training. It also talked about how groundwork can also be used to keep a horse’s fitness from completely going away, and not just by constantly lunging. There were very detailed exercises that were explained and that can be done in-hand to help our horses stay in shape in the colder months.

The other two educational sessions that I was able to attend were “Finding Harmony in Sporthorses,” presented by FEI 4* dressage judge Kristi Wysocki, which was on the topics of conformation and what the judges are looking for, and the other session, also presented by Kristi Wysocki, was about incorporating video lessons in your lesson/training program, and a demonstration of how video lessons work. 

Overall, it is amazing how much sincere effort goes into making things work with USDF, and knowing there is extreme thought and consideration for all parties behind every single decision. It provides comfort to be able to know that there is truly the best interest of the riders at heart in this sport. 

Attending the Adequan®/USDF Annual Convention is a wonderful opportunity, and I highly recommend it. The USDF Youth Convention Scholarship is more than worth it, especially for those who may not otherwise be able to afford an opportunity like this. I am extremely grateful to USDF for receiving the Youth Convention scholarship the past two years. I look forward to attending the Convention next year, hopefully serving as a PM Delegate for Region 1 once again!