This August, we are celebrating youth riders on YourDressage!
From features on remarkable young dressage enthusiasts across the country, to articles about some of the opportunities USDF offers to youth, we want to hear from the future of our sport!
Here, a USDF Youth Convention Scholarship recipient from Region 7 shares his fun and education-filled experience attending the 2024 Adequan®/USDF Annual Convention.
By Ryder Mosqueda
I was so excited to be selected as one of the USDF Youth Convention Scholarship recipients for the 2024 Adequan®/USDF Annual Convention in Houston, Texas. We arrived at the hotel on Wednesday afternoon and were able to check into the conference and visit with some friends that I don’t always get to see in California. Thursday was filled with open forums in the morning and our Region 7 meeting in the afternoon. I really enjoyed talking to people at the welcome reception in the evening and meeting a few of the other youth members that I have known through social media, but had not officially met in person before.
On Friday, I got to experience my first Board of Governors (BOG) General Assembly, as well as attend two really great education sessions. The first one was with Lilo Fore and Sarah Geike on the flying change. We got to see some great videos of flying changes and talk about ways to improve the change through training. She had some great exercises that she shared with us to work on at home as well.
The second education session I attended was “You Be the Judge.” We got to go through the process of scoring a test with Mike Osinski and Janet Foy to see how our scores compared with theirs. I really liked this session, and it gave me a good idea of what the judges are seeing and how each score is given.
That evening, we attended the on-site party. The food was really good, and they had line dancing, which I did not do with my broken leg!!! But it was a fun evening where I got to meet the other youth members who would be at the Youth Assembly meeting the next day. During the Youth Assembly, we learned about different organizations and opportunities for youth members. We were also taken to the BOG and introduced on stage. The best part was the educational time with Lilo Fore and getting to interact with the other youth members. I would encourage everyone to attend the USDF Annual Convention in the future.
