UDS Newsletter: April 2025
- sian9590
- Apr 4
- 7 min read
The 2025 UDS Banquet
We were delighted to honor the 2024 award winners at our annual banquet, which took place this year at Forty Three Bakery in Salt Lake City. The food was amazing and the company even better as we celebrated the milestones achieved by so many of our members. This year’s silent auction raised just shy of $3,200. These much needed and much appreciated proceeds help fund our awards program and support educational events for the coming year.
A list of award recipients and our event auction donors, sponsors, and Omnibus advertisers are included at the end of this newsletter. Thank you and congratulations to all!
A Taste of the L Program
Our very own Utah Dressage Society was selected to host the inaugural in-person Taste of the L Program at the exquisite Diamond Equestrian Center in Lehi, Utah, which went off beautifully on the first weekend of March. The program brought dressage judging gurus Dolly Hannon and Debbie Riehl-Rodriguez to teach sixty dressage enthusiasts, including some who traveled overnight more than six and a half hours from Colorado to attend. Day one included a classroom session, in which our esteemed judges lead participants through the fundamentals and nuances of dressage scoring, after which these concepts were applied to riders and their horses in the sandbox. Day two continued building on this scaffolding, as riders demonstrated tests from training level to Intermediare 1 for the crowd and the judges walked us through what they noticed and how the various aspects of movement and riding would reflect in the scores.
The L Program Now Open for Applications!
Thanks to the seemingly tireless Katie Lorens (who has already devoted more hours to this project than I can count) and her many unsung helpers and supporters, the Utah Dressage Society will host the L Program starting this fall and look forward to having a new group of certified judges for our schooling shows and short tours.
Be sure to save the weekends of Oct 18-19, 2025, Feb 28-Mar 1, 2026, and April 25-26, 2026. All three weekends will be offered as a bundle to UDS members for a total of $750 to participate and $150 to audit. (Nonmembers can enroll for $1,000 to participate and $200 to audit, so if you know of nonmembers who want to participate, encourage them to secure a UDS membership to save added fees.)
Our application for the program has just opened. We will be accepting our first round of applicants through June 1, 2025. The board will then make its initial selection and send those to USDF for approval. If there are additional openings, we will open a second round. Any applicants not selected have the option to receive a refund or change their role to auditor. We are limited to 30 participants, but we hope to have as many auditors as possible, so if you are not selected, we encourage you to audit this round.
With the huge popularity of this program, we anticipate having to make some truly difficult decisions, but we remain committed to serving as many members as we can with as much transparency as possible. USDF has asked us to give preference to applicants who
are committed to attending all three sessions of Part 1 of the L Program
are committed to completing Part 2 within 5 years of completion of Part 1
want to become an r judge
are USDF members
Once those applications are sorted, we will give preference to Utah applicants. We will then give preference to applications in the order in which they are received.
If you have any questions about applying, please contact Katie Lorens for more information.
For more information and to apply, please visit our L Program page.
Start Planning Your 2025 Show Season
Many of our 2025 shows are already listed on our website and more are being added every week. As you plan your season, be sure to keep checking the Competitions page for upcoming opportunities. We look forward to seeing many of you and your fabulous horses hitting new highs this year!
Like a Small Banana: A Weekend with Christophe Theallet at Revel Ranch
By Lori Barrett
For those of you unfamiliar, Frenchman Christophe Theallet is the rare International
level trainer based on the west coast who chooses to focus on coaching, rather than judging or his own competition horses. A graduate of the National Academy of Saumur, Theallet went on to ride under German trainer Rudolf Zeilinger, before emigrating to the US. Under the tutelage of US Chef d’Equipe Anne Gribbons, Theallet coached US Team member Kasey Perry-Glass onto an Olympic medal and continues to develop top US Team riders and Young Horse trainers around the country. In short, we are excited to bring another key coach out to UT for the first time!
Anyone who listened for the two days (thanks, auditors!) would tell you the focus of
every session, from my 3yo with 60 days under saddle, up to our horses schooling the Grand Prix work, was about bend. The most commonly heard phrase begat the title of this article: bend him around your leg “like a small banana.” While it never ceased eliciting a laugh each time we heard it delivered with a rumbling French accent, we understood the purpose in our daily training perfectly.
A concept with which most of us are familiar, the purpose of the shoulder fore in the
horse (in addition to straightening,) is to subtly shape the ribcage of the horse around the rider’s inside leg. In doing this, we create room for the inside hind leg of the horse to step through and begin to carry weight, which is the foundation of collection. Making this room in the barrel is what allows us to ultimately develop not just collection, but self-carriage, as the horse gets stronger and needs decreased support from the riders’ aids. As riders, it’s important to learn the difference between neck bend and the beginning of curvature in the horse’s barrel; we used both shoulder in and haunches in (for increased bend behind the saddle,) to create the needed bend as we worked the horses.
Anecdotally, as we worked in this vein, we saw each horse evolve and improve. The 3yo who tended to hold in her neck while lightly dropping onto the bit began reaching more honestly out through the topline and making a more correct connection from her springy hind legs to the bridle. The FEI gelding who needed increased engagement in the piaffe benefitted from an exercise of trot shoulder-in directly into a gently straightening piaffe, as the hind legs stayed better placed underneath. And the in-betweeners: our young mare schooling 4th level work used shoulder fore within the medium trot to keep the hind legs more honest, to correct her tendency to push too much out behind, while staying extravagant in front.
We could write whole chapters about other take-aways, but long story short, we are
bringing Christophe back again at the end of February. Since he’s based a short 1.5h flight from the SLC airport, the goal is to have him here several times per year to continue developing Utah dressage. Onward into 2025!
Two Days with David Wightman
By Taylor Lemmon
I am thankful to the UDS Educational Scholarship for providing support for continued development in dressage. I utilized the funds to attend a 2-day clinic with David Wightman. My horse, Mardi, is coming 6 this year and we are developing 2nd level skills. David coached us through exercises to improve lateral suppleness and collection, which greatly enhanced my horse’s ability to bend more fluidly through his body. The targeted work on movements like shoulder-in, travers, and simple changes also helped refine the quality of his gaits, particularly developing greater elasticity in the trot and more balance in the canter. Some of my favorite exercises were the following:
10-Meter Circle to shoulder-in: The rider begins by riding a balanced 10-meter circle. This smaller circle requires the horse to bend uniformly through the neck, body, and hindquarters while staying rhythmical and forward. The inside leg maintains impulsion and helps the horse engage the inside hind leg, while the outside rein regulates the bend and prevents the horse from falling outward. Upon completing the circle, the rider smoothly transitions into shoulder-in down the long side of the arena. The inside rein establishes a slight flexion at the poll, while the inside leg asks the horse to step forward and slightly sideways, maintaining the same inside bend as on the circle. The outside rein and outside leg control the degree of angle (roughly 30 degrees) and keep the horse moving straight down the track while staying parallel to the arena wall. This transition encourages the horse to maintain the engagement of the inside hind leg developed on the circle. It builds lateral suppleness and strengthens the horse's ability to carry more weight on the hindquarters. It also improves connection, straightness, and the rider's ability to maintain control over the horse’s bend and alignment.
Simple changes on the quarter line: The exercise involves transitioning between canter, a few strides of walk, and canter again on the opposite lead. Begin with a balanced and straight canter down the quarter line. Straightness is key, as the horse should not lean toward the wall or drift into the arena. Prepare the transition by engaging the hindquarters with half-halts, ensuring the horse stays active and light in the bridle. Transition smoothly into a clear, rhythmic walk for 2-3 steps, avoiding any loss of forward energy or alignment. From the walk, use the rider’s aids (outside leg slightly behind the girth and inside leg at the girth) to ask for the new lead. The transition must be prompt and balanced, with the horse stepping into the canter without swinging the haunches or losing straightness. Performing simple changes on the quarter line, away from the support of the wall, demands that the horse stays aligned through the rider’s aids rather than relying on external guidance. The walk-to-canter transitions encourage the horse to step under with the hind legs and develop carrying power, which is essential for flying changes. The horse learns to listen closely to the rider’s aids, transitioning seamlessly between gaits without resistance.
Thank you to the Utah Dressage Society for awarding me this educational scholarship, which made this invaluable learning experience possible and has greatly contributed to my development as a dressage rider!
Sponsor Shout Out
The UDS would love to send a massive thank you to the donors and sponsors who supported our 2025 Banquet, Omnibus, and Silent Auction. We could not do what we do without your support! This year’s sponsors included Alexandria Duncan, Amelia Newcomb, Animal Health VIPs, Anna Amis, Anna Buffini, Anna Marek, Aurora Elkins, Bella Stables/Equipe, Bellwether Farm, Bluebell Knoll, Cloud 9 PEMF, Diamond Equestrian Center, Engleby Images, Equestriëss Atelier, Golden Horse Counseling, High Altitude Saddlery/WhileAway, Hilltop Farm, Horse Crazy, Impulsion Images, In the Loop, JAAW Equine, Jenny Powers, K1 Kouture, Lexi Beckstead, Lori Barrett, Lorri Karpinski, Lumiere, Millbrook Farms,Mountain Point Equine, Redmond Salt, Reposa MedSpa, Revel Ranch, Rocky Mountain Equine, Rural Ave, Sage Creek Equestrian, Salty Mare Equine Nutrition, Simply Eden, Solo Equine Bridles, Southern Belle Riding, Snowbasin, Spay & Neuter of SLC, Sydni Cook, Team Tate Academy, Tailored Saddle Fit, Triple Crown, Uinta Sporthorses, Veronica Miluk, Winter Farms
2024 Award Winners
