The University of Findlay will host the Intercollegiate Dressage Association (IDA) national championships this weekend, April 18-19, at the James L. Child Jr. Equestrian Complex, located on Township Road 201. The public is welcome to attend; there is no admission fee.
   
Twelve teams, with four riders on each team, will compete on Saturday. Nearly 50 individual riders will compete on Sunday. Also on Saturday, spectators can watch a dog agility demonstration by Golden Collar School for Dogs during the lunch hour. In addition, a variety of vendors will be on site, including several area businesses, as well as an equine art show.
   
This schedule is as follows:

Saturday, April 18
•    7:30 a.m., Parade of Horses
•    8:45 a.m., introductions and opening ceremonies
•    9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., competition
•    12:30-1:30 p.m., dog agility demonstration
•    1:30-4 p.m., competition
•    4:30 p.m., awards ceremony/parade of teams

Sunday, April 19
•    7:30 a.m., warm-up
•    8:15-11:30 a.m., competition
•    11:45 a.m., warm-up
•    12:15 p.m., end of Pick-a-Prize auction
•    12:30-3 p.m., competition with awards after each division
   
The University’s dressage team, which includes UF students Amy Sims, Ashley Parsons, Audrey Busby and Alicia Sauers, earned grand champion in Region E competition and will compete for the national team title. Several UF students qualified to compete at the national level in individual competition: Josh Czapiewski, Becky Agnew, Ashley Parsons and Audrey Busby.
   
Several students also placed at regional competition: Josh Czapiewski, Amy Sims, Becky Agnew, Ashley Parsons, Mark McKone, Lindsay Carmack, Audrey Busby, Jennica Bradley and Alicia Sauers.

Dressage is a sport in which riders train horses to use their natural movements in a more balanced, supple and obedient manner. In dressage competition, the horse’s natural movements are repeated as exercises in the show ring, and judges score the performance, giving each rider a gauge for their quality of the performance. The rider must compete using an unfamiliar horse, drawn at random. In a true test of skill, the rider is given just 10 minutes to become familiar with the horse before they enter the show ring.
   
There are many levels of dressage competition that range from the low levels within the reach of any horse and rider, to Olympic-level competition. Dressage emphasizes the role of the rider to be as correct as possible in his or her poise and flexibility, as the horse will act as a mirror of the rider’s strengths and weaknesses.

The University of Findlay’s Dressage Program — the only program in the nation in which students can take a dressage emphasis all four years — operates out of the James L. Child Jr. Equestrian Complex, a 72-acre facility located on County Road 201 on the east side of Findlay that accommodates more than 130 horses and features two indoor arenas.

Since beginning team competition in 2004, UF’s Intercollegiate Dressage Association (IDA) Team has qualified for the IDA Nationals both as a team and with individuals. UF’s IDA team was first in the region in both 2008 and 2007 and second in the region in 2006 and 2005, and finished eighth in the nation in 2008, fourth in 2007 and 2006, and seventh in 2005.
   
For more information regarding the IDA championships at Findlay, please contact the Child complex at 419-434-4364 or www.findlay.edu, KEYWORD: IDA Championship.

For more information on the program, please visit www.findlay.edu, KEYWORD: Dressage.