United States Dressage Federation Official Page

02/13/2025

Horses have a special ability to give us a bright spot in our darkest days. In this exclusive story, an adult amateur in USDF Region 3 shares how a flashy Dutch mare, who was everything she wasn’t looking for, helped her through her husband’s deployment to the Middle East with the US Air Force, and subsequent health difficulties, becoming her sunshine during some very dark storms. Read it here: https://yourdressage.org/2025/02/11/sunny-skies-on-my-darkest-days/

Photo by Sharon Packer

02/13/2025

If you ever find yourself in the fortunate position to attend to the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®, you have an important decision to make. Do you & your horse take the long trip to the championships or skip it & wonder what could have been? In this GMO Newsletter Award Winning story from the Southern Eventing and Dressage Association, a USDF Region 9 rider share how the stars aligned perfectly to show her she NEEDED to go. She also shares some very important tips for any Finals first timers planning to attend in the future.

You won’t want to miss this quick read: https://yourdressage.org/2025/01/30/seize-the-opportunity-to-take-the-road-to-united-states-dressage-finals/

02/10/2025

In the month of February, we are celebrating flashy-splashy colored horses on ! Whether your horse is a Paint, Appaloosa, Knabstrupper, or Gypsy Horse, sports a patched or spotted coat, or wears lots of chrome, this month is for you!

We recently asked our social media followers to share their loudly colored horses for a chance to be featured on YourDressage, and we received some beautiful submissions! Check out a full gallery here: https://yourdressage.org/2025/02/05/add-a-splash-of-flash-part-one/

Drop a comment below, with a photo of your favorite uniquely marked dance partner, for your chance to be featured in a future gallery. And come back all month long for stories celebrating a ‘Splash of Color’ thriving in the dressage ring!

02/10/2025

02/08/2025

Registration is now open for two upcoming USDF Dressage Development Seminars hosted by USDF. Join co-clinicians Sarah Martin & Bill McMullin in Williston, Florida for these educational events that are sure to help you set yourself up for success this show season, whether you’ll be in the saddle or cheering on your student or horse from ringside.

The first seminar will be held March 1-2, 2025 and will focus on Riding. The second seminar, focusing on Teaching, will be March 24-25, 2025. Open to amateurs & professionals, these events are a great pathway to further your dressage knowledge with practical, interesting, & engaging experiences.

You can learn more about these seminars, as well as keep track of other upcoming education opportunities through USDF, here: https://www.usdf.org/education/instructor-trainer/

Ready to join us, as a participant or auditor? Register here: https://www.usdf.org/online-services/applications/certified-instructor.asp

📸 Photo courtesy of Christine Engel, Connecticut Dressage Association (CDA), & Weatogue Stables, which hosted USDF Dressage Development Seminars last summer. Curious to learn more about what these events are like? Check out this great write-up from Mary Moon about how valuable USDF Region 8 members found these seminars here:
https://yourdressage.org/2024/08/22/usdf-instructor-trainer-development-seminar-on-riding-and-training/

02/07/2025

The final halt was emotional at the 2024 Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 3 Dressage Championships for Jennifer Benoit and Exodus. This week’s Photo of the Week is “Thank You, Partner.” It was submitted by Jennifer Benoit, & taken by Andrew Ryback Photography, LLC.

Do you have a creative, artistic, or beautiful picture you’d like to share? Submit it to [email protected] for your chance to be featured on YourDressage!

02/07/2025

When the creative equestrian Elizabeth “Liz” Britten Hendrix’s health forced her out of the saddle, she found a new way to connect with the art of dressage.

A self-taught artist, Liz, 50, had rarely picked up a paintbrush in years – her career as a professional dressage instructor/trainer had kept her too busy – but the lingering effects of a bout with the neurological disorder Bell’s palsy drove her to seek another way to indulge her equine passion & to earn income.

In this exclusive story, learn more of the trials & tribulations of this USDF Bronze, Silver, & Gold Medalist, & see more of her beautiful works of art here: https://yourdressage.org/2025/02/05/dressage-and-art-make-life-work-out/

This original oil painting by Liz, pictured below, is called ‘Visions of Lightness’

02/07/2025

In 2024, did you & your horse earn a coveted Adequan®/USDF Year-End Award? We want to know your story!

Post a photo in the comments below telling us of your Year-End award success for your chance to be included in an upcoming gallery on . We will also be looking for stories from folks who want to share about their quest for a Year-End Award!

These highly sought-after prizes are awarded in the categories of: All-Breeds, vintage cup, adult amateur, adult amateur musical freestyle, junior/young rider, para-dressage rider of the year, dressage sport horse breeding horse of the year, dressage horse of the year, materiale horse of the year, musical freestyle, musical freestyle challenge, dressage breeder of the year, dressage sport horse breeding breeder of the year, USEF four-year-old, and FEI five and six-year-old.

Pictured: Laura Mollrich, 2024 Adequan®/USDF Para-Dressage Rider of the Year, Grade IV Reserve Champion. She made history in 2024 by becoming the first para equestrian EVER to join The Dressage Foundation's Century Club. Photo by The Framed Equestrian.

Thanks to our USDF Year-End Awards sponsors Adequan® & Dressage Extensions!

02/06/2025

Meet the USDF Team Member – Kathie Robertson has been with USDF for 22 years, & currently serves as our Education Director, where she oversees education programs for youth, instructors, licensed officials, and amateurs and professionals, as well as the competition-based programs for the North American Youth Dressage Championships (NAYC), Dressage Seat Equitation Semi-Finals, and Dressage Sport Horse Breeding. She moved from California, where she owned & operated a boarding and training facility with her mom, to the horse capital of Kentucky. Fun fact: she & her husband once owned a pistachio orchard!

Get to know her here: https://yourdressage.org/2025/01/23/meet-the-usdf-team-member-kathie-robertson/

Photo by Jennifer Bryant

02/05/2025

Horses can talk, if we know how to listen! In this entertaining USDF Group Member Organization (GMO) Newsletter Award honorable mention story from Three Rivers Equestrian Association, a rider shares about her Appaloosa cross mare, who she always suspected of having poor eyesight, saving the day with vision that turned out to be better than expected.

Read “And You Think I Need Glasses?” here:
https://yourdressage.org/2025/01/24/and-you-think-i-need-glasses/

02/05/2025

It takes a lot to keep a horse girl down! In this story of resilience, a USDF Region 1 rider shares about her horrific ankle injury, which required multiple surgeries & months of physical therapy to repair. But then, the light came along to keep her hopes up – a Morgan named Avatar’s Jazzman, who even has his own Breyer model! With the opportunity to lease Jazz, Jen G. had the motivation to continue her recovery, & together, they have now earned a USDF Bronze Medal.

Read their inspiring story here: https://yourdressage.org/2025/01/28/and-all-that-jazz/

02/05/2025

Located in Pennington, NJ, Unicorn Therapeutic Riding offers therapeutic services to children and adults with disabilities. Founded in 1988, Unicorn currently has around 25-28 riders per week and operates with an amazing volunteer staff including a physical therapist, two occupational therapists (including Erin Hurley), and two PATH certified instructors. As an accomplished dressage rider herself, Erin’s understanding of the basics and the importance of position and aids provides her a solid foundation for working with her riders and incorporate dressage and para-equestrian into their programs. Unicorn also hosts a weekly dressage clinic at the facility, featuring a Grand Prix rider/trainer.

In this new series, we are highlighting the US Equestrian (USEF) Para-Equestrian Dressage Centers of Excellence (COE), established through their COE initiative. Established in 2015, the COE initiative was designed to grow the sport of para-dressage throughout the United States. By recognizing centers of instruction and technical dressage training, COEs provide athletes with disabilities the opportunity to discover competitive para-dressage at the national and CPEDI level.

Learn all about Unicorn Therapeutic Riding here: https://yourdressage.org/2025/02/04/a-unique-opportunity-unicorn-therapeutic-riding/

02/04/2025

USDF proudly presents the Adequan®/USDF FEI-Level Trainers Conference each January, providing two days of intensive learning through demonstration rides and question-and-answer style teaching. We asked our social media followers who attended the 2025 edition of the event to share some of their most valuable takeaways with us, and they offered up a plethora of tidbits and photos!

This year’s event was hosted January 20-21. See what attendees were sharing on social media here, including some key takeaways that will make you feel as if you were ringside at High Meadow Farm in Loxahatchee, Florida, learning from clinicians Christine Traurig and Monica Theodorescu: https://yourdressage.org/2025/01/29/adequan-usdf-fei-level-trainers-conference-provides-valuable-education/

Did you attend the 2025 Trainers Conference? Let us know what you thought in the comments below, and share your favorite photos from the educational event for others to see!

02/04/2025

We are celebrating Splash of Color throughout the month of February on YourDressage! Whether your horse is a registered breed of color, sports a painted or spotted coat, or wears lots of chrome, this month is for you!

In our latest story on YourDressage, learn about some of the many unique color patterns that exist in the equine world and how some breeds developed these interesting coats beginning thousands of years ago! Read on here: https://yourdressage.org/2025/02/03/the-color-corner-painted-ponies/

All month long, we will be looking for photos of flashy horses to be included in galleries on YourDressage. Drop of photo of your favorite colorful horse in the comments below for your chance to be featured!

Did you know that many dressage riders who choose a flashy horse as their dressage mount are eligible for special awards through the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program, as a variety of our participating organizations recognize these breeds?

02/04/2025

During the cold and bleak midwinter, we’re dreaming about the upcoming show season and reminiscing about the excitement of heading down the centerline dressed to the nines! In 2024, competitors at the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan® displayed the culmination of hard work, dedication, and skill it takes to dance down the Centerline of Champions. But they also showcased a vibrant and chic array of show outfits that turned heads and gained compliments, escalating their beautiful rides into color-coordinated works of art!

See a full gallery featuring a few of the best turned-out pairs that caught our eye here: https://yourdressage.org/2025/01/30/smart-chic-and-centerline-ready/

Let’s see your favorite show styles in the comments below!

Photos by Katie Lewis, Chelsey Burris, and Amber Wiseman

02/03/2025

In this new series, filmed at the 2024 Adequan®/USDF FEI-Level Trainers Conference, we focus on going ‘back to basics.’ Video topics will work their way up the Pyramid of Training through Rhythm, Suppleness, Contact, Impulsion, Straightness, and finally to Collection. The Conference featured Sven Rothenberger and Sabine Schut-Kery Dressage, and was hosted at High Meadow Farm.

In this week’s featured video, we focus of rhythm in collection. Watch it here:

In this series, we focus on going back to basics. Video topics will ascend the Pyramid of Training concepts.

02/03/2025

“It has been the best feeling showing people that not only can gaited horses do dressage, but they can do it exceptionally well. We have had our fair share of struggles with people who don’t believe gaited horses should be in dressage, but I think Red has shown everyone that gaited horses do belong here. The equestrian community has been overwhelmingly supportive, and it has been wonderful showing the dressage community how successful gaited horses can be.”

In this exclusive, a USDF Region 2 rider shares about how gaited dressage introduced her to a whole new side of the sport, and how it helped develop her first gaited partner, a Tennessee Walking Horse!

Read her story: https://yourdressage.org/2025/01/31/red-finds-his-balance/

01/31/2025

Our office in Lexington has been buried in snow lately, which has us dreaming of warmer weather! We asked our social media followers to take a little break throwing hay, breaking iced over buckets, and putting on blankets to share their favorite wintertime photos with us. ❄️ Enjoy a full gallery of winter cheer here: https://yourdressage.org/2025/01/24/dreaming-of-warmer-days/

Do you have a winter photo you’d like to share? Drop it in the comments below for your chance to be featured in a future gallery on .