April 2004

April Events

Greetings!

We hope this newsletter finds everyone doing well. Show season is here! Our first show is this month. Prize lists and entry forms have been mailed, they are also available on the website in the show information section. VOLUNTEERS are needed for the show (scribes, scorers, runners and paddock stewards). Please call Mary Anne 972-5408 if you are able to help out.

Junior Benefit Tack Sale. There will be a tack sale to benefit Junior Membership of SNC at our first show on April 25th. We are looking for tack items for donation. If you have an item(s) to donate please contact the Christensens at 972-5408. Arrangements for drop off of items can either be made by contacting the Christensens or items can be brought to the April 19th meeting at Joans house.

JUNIOR VOLUNTEERS are needed for the Tack Sale and concession stand. Please call Mary Anne 972-5408.

Attention volunteers! There will a volunteers "getting organized" meeting in conjuction with the regular monthly chapter meeting April 19th at 6:30pm at Joan's House.

Mark your calendars for Saturday May 15. There will be a CDS * show at UNR Equestrian Center. More information to come. Contact Barbara Boatman (775) 851-3210 or Lou Christensen (775) 972-5408.

2004 CDS Amateur Clinic Winner!

A HUGE congratulations to Carol Spreckelsen, who will be attending the 2004 CDS Amateur clinic with Kathleen Raine. The northern clinic will be held April 22-25 in Santa Rosa, California. To be considered for selection for the amateur clinic, applicants were required to submit an essay describing what they are currently doing in their dressage training, what their goals are, and why they feel they should be the member from our chapter who should have the opportunity to attend the clinic.

Have a great time Carol! We hope to get a report when you get back.

Awards Dinner Highlights

The awards dinner at Cattleman's restaurant was a huge success. Many thanks go out to Madeline Zook for making the arrangements with Cattleman's to put on the affair. Madeline also played "hostess" to guests as they came in, greeting people and providing free drink passes - Thank you Madeline!

Thank you's must also be extended to Joan Wright and Susan and Margo Ward for organizing the award presentations and for announcing and distributing awards throughout the dinner. Another Thank you to Susan and Margo Ward for their work in collecting donations for and running the Silent Auction associated with the awards dinner. The Silent Auction proceeds are a big part of fund raising for the chapter each year and they did a fantastic job. Finally, to the generous members of our chapter…I have to say this was only my second awards dinner, and I was truly impressed at the generosity shown by the members of this chapter. Members donated some absolutely incredible items to the silent auction. I cant remember them all but here are a "few"… There was a saddle, tack cleaning supplies, polo wraps, several very nice jackets, books, videos, ski passes, lesson certificates, shoeing certificate, certificates to The English Shoppe and Bensons Feed, a matching horse themed dishware set, horse ornaments, stuffed horse toys, various wines, several beautiful watches, a 1988 Dressage in the Sierra poster, an original horse painting by Amy Fulstone, and a donation from West Valley imaging for a procedure such as a virtual colonoscopy! Thank you so much to everyone who donated to the chapter. Your membership and contributions are what makes this chapter so successful!

Onto the awards…
Susan started the awards presentation with thank you's and an announcement of a new award category for show managers. Show managers are volunteers that organize and run the various SNC shows each year. They are vital and tremendously appreciated. Awards for show managers for the 2003 show season went to Jennifer Smith, Lou Christensen, Amy Fulstone and Joan Wright.

Perpetual trophy's went to:

Charlotte Jorst and Calypso for Amateur and Troy Christensen for Junior.

The 2004 SNC Club Awards were as follows:

Training Level
Junior Division
Troy Christensen Pacifica 67.162
Erica Ward Talk to Me 63.741
Leah Plaugher Tiza 61.88
Amateur Division
Ann Magee Willy Wonka 69.66
Michele Ting Faramir 66.729
Chris Krissoff Dubonnet 65.392
First Level
Junior
Troy Christensen Casper the Friendly Horse 67.162
Delaney Chambers RS Victory Bey 66.067
Katie Cumming Anastacia 63.186
Amateur Division
Charlotte Jorst Kalypso 70.424
Steve Ting Dutch 62.595
Maureen Lyons Gwenhwyfer 62.56
Second Level
Madeline Zook Landus 58.995
Third Level
Madeline Zook Killarney 58.965
Fourth Level
Susan Ward Landitos 63.202

"Hello" from the 2003 SNC president Maureen Lyons

March 2, 2004

Hi SNC members!

Susan Ward asked me to write a letter to the chapter about what I've been up to, what with my move to Santa Rosa and everything, so that Michele and Steve Ting could put it into the SNC e-newsletter. So, here goes…

First of all, I miss you all and it will be weird not to see you during the spring and summer at the SNC shows, meetings, clinics, etc… I hope to see you at Dressage in the Sierra, though, as I plan on riding at that show!

If you didn't already know, we are now living in a fixer-upper 1916 farm house on 5 acres in Santa Rosa with 5 outbuildings (a sheep barn, chicken barn, workshop barn, horse barn and another ??? barn). We also have the original outhouse still on the property (but fallen over). It's an absolute adventure living here… like stepping back in time!

It's quite soggy and very muddy over here, especially after that big storm early last week, but the winter rains should be ending within a couple of weeks. Spring is supposed to arrive by mid-March. All of the moisture, along with the warm temps, does have its benefits as everything is green, green, green, and the flowers are starting to bloom. Our pastures are mostly knee-deep in beautiful grass. I'm considering having someone come in and cut and bale the first cutting for my use. I wonder how many bales you can get from about 3 acres? We could leave the other 2 acres for Gwen, my mare, Ed the goat and Brighty the burro to graze on at first.

I haven't ridden Gwen in at least 3 months! She is a limp noodle out there, as I am, I'm sure. I've been so busy with the whole move thing, leaving my Reno job after 13.5 years and training my replacement, and then getting everyone settled in over here at our new place and trying to squeeze all our stuff into less than half the size house that we used to have (we're going to rent a storage unit… right now, we're storing stuff in one of the barns, but I don't need mice and dust infecting it all!)

Did you know that Pat Garecht, an SNC member, and her husband bought a place here on Olivet Road, just down from Lilo Fore's place? They haven't sold their Reno home yet, so are kind of going back and forth. Pat and I are spending the entire day tomorrow "barn/trainer touring." We've got about 8 barns to go to. I think she's looking to board. I'm just looking for places that I can trailer in and pay a ring fee to ride a few times each week. I'm pretty sure I'll do dressage lessons with Lilo. I'm also going to check out Oakridge (Yves Sauvignon's place), which is an eventing training facility, for jumping lessons. They hold events there and have a fantastic x-country course. I want to get back into doing some jumping after a few months, now that Gwen's canter is getting more balanced and she's more comfortable with it.

Laura Gregersen is coming over here for the Lisa Wilcox symposium to be held the first weekend of April at Lilo's. I'm going to audit it, too. Is anyone else coming for that? I'm also going to audit the CDS Northern Amateur Clinic at Lilo's towards the end of April - Kathleen Raine is the clinician. Who from SNC will be riding at that clinic?

I attended my first Sonoma chapter CDS meeting on Sunday evening. It was the distribution of the year-end awards meeting. They have like 10 perpetual chapter trophies!! I'm on the Education Committee, of which Bobby Keville is the Chair (9 members). I'm helping with the big 3-day chapter show at the beginning of June, at which they have lots of fun events going on during the show like fun dog competition stuff. My husband, Jeff, wants to help with that, as he and I do agility with our dogs. I'm also going to be involved with "Dressage in the Wine Country," of course. Anyway, I'm really getting my foot in the door with the chapter and it's a great way to make friends in a new place.

Jeff loves his job with Clement, Fitzpatrick and Kenworthy. He does litigation for them. They are the most well-respected real estate law firm in Northern California and have been around for 30 years. All the employees are long-timers, which usually means it's a good place to work. They really respect his work and he is loving working on cases involving winery and vineyard owners... how fun!

I'm liking not doing the 8-5, M-F thing anymore, but am keeping quite busy! I'll probably have to start working part time in April, so that I can afford my horse and other hobbies.

Well, that's about it for now! Drop me a line sometime and let me know how you're doing and what's going on over there: lyonsjm@sbcglobal.net or 707/584-3478 or 981 Todd Rd, Santa Rosa, CA 95407. If you're ever in the neighborhood and need a place to stay, we have guest quarters available, and you're more than welcome!

Have fun at the SNC awards banquet at the end of the month and good luck this show season,

Maureen Lyons

P.S. Please mail my CDS awards plaque to me… thanks! :o)

Classifieds

Elegant, sweet, uphill moving, 15.3 h liver chestnut, 9 year old TB mare. Was shown twice at training level last year. Scored in the 60"s with 8's on gait and walk. Schooling lateral work. Has evented Beginner Novice. This is a fancy looking mare. She has good ground manners, easy to train. Excellent for the amateur rider with some experience. Contact Heidi at (530)993-1333 for further info.


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Directors of information,
Steve and Michele Ting