THE LENDON GRAY SCHOLARSHIP AWARD RECIPIENTS

The mission of the Dressage 4 Kids NE JR/YR International Dressage Championships is to encourage riders under 21 to become true horseman with correct position, competitive skills and knowledge of all aspects of riding and horse care; to offer scholarships to enable competitors to further their education, to have fun and develop good sportsmanship throughout.

The Scholarship Award Committee is delighted to announce the recipients of the Lendon Gray Scholarship Awards for 2002–2003.Our congratulations to you all!

The Lendon Gray Scholarship recipients for
2002 (after the 2002 show)–present, 2003
 

Past Scholarship Winners - 2000 - 2002

2000 recipients – Amanda and Katherine were presented with their awards at the dinner to honor Mrs. Migi Serrell at the 2000 Championships at Ox Ridge Hunt Club, CT.

AMANDA GERDTS – Amanda came to dressage after competing in short stirrup, hunter and equitation classes and with much encouragement from her trainer Darlene Wilcox Raynor. Amanda and Darlene found they had a problem with one particular pony who suddenly started refusing but some dressage work turned him around! So much so, that not only was he jumping everything in sight once again, but they were high scores of the day at their first ever dressage show! Look out everyone as their goal is to qualify for the 2001 Championships!

Amanda braids, grooms at shows and babysits to help support her riding and wants everyone to know how proud she is of her pony and how grateful she is to her trainer. Amanda used her scholarship award for extra lessons on other horses and she is keeping a journal on all three horses that she is currently riding, describing the various techniques she uses with each. She is also making a video of her lessons to enable her to review them and also to use as an adjunct to her college applications.

KATHERINE NORKUS – Katherine initially wanted to improve her knowledge of dressage as a way to improve her pony’s jumping but like everyone else she found she loved it! After outgrowing her pony she is now using all she learned with her new horse and he has already won at the Wilton Pony Club Show!

She used her scholarship award to take lessons with Lendon and her goal this year is to apply for a spot at the USCTA Young Riders Camp at GMHA in South Woodstock, Vermont. She has also cliniced with Carol Kozlowski and Mark Weissbecker at Stonegate Farm and also works with Janet Black. Katherine volunteered as a groom for the Association International des Etudiants Cavaliers Student Riding Nations Cup and with only two other grooms tacked, mucked out, cleaned tack, fed and watered for 24 guest horses for two days!

Katherine has made copious notes after each lesson with Lendon and has pictures to accompany them. She suffered a slight setback when her horse colicked in the fall but thankfully he is fine now and she will resume her lesson program once the weather improves.

EMILY LASHER – Emily applied for her scholarship from Germany where she is working for a year before going to the University of Findlay in Ohio. She is training with Burkhard and Ingrid Wahrler at their farm "Klosterhof Medingen" which lies between Hamburg and Hannover. She is kept very busy as a working student at the barn and rides up to six horses a day!
Emily has never owned her own horse and showed Training Level at the Championships last summer. The barn where she works in Germany has over 200 horses and most of them are Trakheners. Dressage is the main focus but there is also breeding and show jumping too. Emily will use her award to help with costs of training and clinics while she is in Germany. She is compiling a journal with entries charting her progress and photographs that record her experiences. She is also going to write a piece comparing showing in Germany to here in America. Good luck Emily and we can’t wait to see your journal!!

CODY WARROW – Cody lives near Cooperstown, New York and she applied for a scholarship award to attend the series of six clinics to be given by Lendon this summer as a prelude to annual Championships which she looks forward to so much each year. .She trains with Kathy Howard and is bringing on her young mare Oneida Silver. They are working towards First Level this year. Cody completed the challenging testing program of the ARICP this year and is one of the youngest IT’s in the country. She has her C1 Pony Club rating and coaches her local Novice 4H Horse Bowl team in the evenings, preparing them for competition in the theory and management of horses.

Dressage is Cody’s first love and she knew that she wanted to do nothing else but train and teach people to ride from a very early age. She has been accepted into the Horse Science and Equine Studies Program at Cobbleskill College and hopes to go on to finish a 4 year degree at Cazenovia College unless she becomes a Barn Manager first! Cody also raises and shows sheep! She wants all first timers at the Championships to know that she had a very difficult ride first time out as her horse had never seen anything like it but Dr. Gahwyler’s comments made it all worthwhile!

The Lendon Gray Scholarship Committee would like to encourage everyone to work towards developing themselves as horsemen by taking advantage of every riding opportunity, furthering their knowledge through reading and applying to scholarship programs like this! We would love to hear from you!!!!