REGION 1
By: Sara Mackenzie — Region 1 Director
Can you believe it is mid-May? The flowers are blooming, and the pastures are greening. The season is well under way. Region 1 has completed 9 USAWE recognized shows. We have 12 more recognized shows prior to the USAWE Zone 1 championships. And our championships may be one of largest working equitation shows ever held in the United States. Save the dates of September 19-22 to ride or watch in Eugene, Oregon! Still need to qualify? I found a fun way to see the 2024 Region 1 recognized shows – if you go to Leaderboards – USA Working Equitation (usawe.org), scroll to horse/rider pair ranking, click on region 1 and open the “show list”- you see the approved shows to date!
I want to give a shout out this month to Region 1 members Keri Lindquist and Lydia Friel Templeton. They stepped up to organize and host their very first recognized USAWE show – Spring Into WE in Washington May 10-12 at Appleatchee Riders in Wenatchee! Kelly Munro had hosted Washington WE shows for a few years and stepped down. Keri and Lydia picked up the reins. As you can imagine, it is not easy to do anything this complicated for the first time. It is even more challenging when you are based 170 miles away in Spokane (where they started Spokane Working Equitation). They reached out to other Region 1 members for support and help. They volunteered at the WE Oregon February show and received training from the super organized Julie Alonzo and team. They raised sponsorship and brought in a seasoned judge (our own Region 1 Cari Schwartz) and a seasoned Technical Delegate (Region 2 Mary Duffy). Volunteers came from Woodinville, Yakima, Spokane and local areas to help and experience working equitation firsthand. The double shows ran smoothly and in fact were about 5-10 minutes ahead of schedule all weekend. Well done, Keri and Lydia!
Sarah Gunderson and Rachel Vora, both first time WE competitors
Michelle Wolf (first time ever showing) and Chris Jonason
I also want to share my appreciation for Region 1 members. Everyone steps up to make newcomers (and more experienced riders) feel welcome. Last weekend at Spring Into WE was pretty cool in that, by our best guess, over half of competitors were doing their very first WE recognized show! The largest division in show 1 & 2 was introductory with 12 and 8 riders. Numbers decreased from there with 6 & 8 in Novice A, 4 & 3 in Novice B, and a single rider in each of the Intermediate A and Intermediate B divisions. The barn aisles were filled with people exchanging tips about braiding, dressage tests and riding obstacles. The warmup ring was a chatty place with people hanging around to support and remind each other to breath. The ring side seating had spectators cheering on horses and riders all weekend. And if that wasn’t enough, mother nature added in an incredible night light show (aurora borealis) that had people up late into the night.
Keep it up Region 1. This is how WE build our WE community.
