Hey Y’all!!
Seems like we just sat down to eat dinner at our awards banquet and here we are with our first show for 2018 less than 2 months away! Your leadership team has been working hard to produce another fun, competitive show year for you. We have made some changes to our show and awards plan - affectionately referred to as the “Omnibus”! I have highlighted some of them below:
SCHOOLING SHOW NEWS: Fees for our schooling shows will remain the same this year once again we will be assessing $20/per test ridden. There will likely be some changes to our nonmembers fee to bring our show system more in line with other GMOs. We currently charge a nonmember fee per class/test, we will likely move to separate nonmember fee for those who are joining us as nonmembers.
There is stall availability for day and/or overnight use at Diamond 7. Stall prices will be listed on the show entry form. Those wishing to reserve a stall will be able to do so at the time of entry through the show secretary. IEO does not make a profit on stall rentals, we merely pass the cost through and make the arrangements as a courtesy to our members. So if its going to be a long day, consider renting a stall so you both you and your horse can relax and enjoy the day!
This year, we are planning to use a two- ring format for most of our shows. Those shows where we have historically had more than 65 rides will follow a 2 ring plan. Intro A, B & C tests will be moved to the second ring provided a second judge can be acquired. This is tricky business from a planning perspective! We are a club, and that said we do not like to “cap” or limit the number of rides per show. However, our show days become very long for everyone – judges, riders and volunteers. Our decision to move to a 2 ring format is to give everyone involved a good show experience – and avoid those 7:00pm rides!!!! The judges we have listed for 2018 will be assigned to ring #1, if a second judge is acquired it will be for ring #2. This plan will allow us to use judges more than once in a show year. To that end, we have changed one of our year end award rules. Year end awards will be based on your three highest test scores (no change) from at least 2 different judges – this is the change, formerly it was 3 different judges.
VOLUNTEER! WHO? ME? Another area of year end award qualifications is the requirement of volunteer time. Currently, members who wish to compete for year end awards must volunteer 1 full day or 2 half days at a show or club event. We have defined full day as 8 hours and half day as 4 hours. Sometimes our show days go over 8 hours so in order to be fair to those who are there from dawn till dusk we will award volunteer time and IEO bucks based on this schedule. So if you are one of those all-day troopers, you could end up with 1 ½ days of volunteer time and $7.50 in IEO bucks for your efforts!
More then likely we will be setting up 2 rings this year – this takes time and all hands on deck! Ring set up volunteers will receive 4 hours of volunteer time credit, but ring tear down will be handled by the afternoon shift of show volunteers and be tallied in with their overall time for the day. The board may award other volunteer hours for special events or projects as required.
Please note a slight change to our current policy: family members or friends may volunteer time for IEO members but members may not donate volunteer time to other members in order to satisfy award qualifications. If you have a friend or parent volunteering for you, please make sure the show manager has the appropriate information to pass along to the awards/volunteer committee as they track volunteer time for year end award qualification. Why is all this volunteer stuff so important? Because it leads right into………scholarships!!!
Want to know how to qualify for the scholarship drawing? It isn’t hard, just volunteer!!!
Training Scholarships: A volunteer can qualify to be entered into a pool for scholarships if he /she volunteers for 3 or more days. The number of scholarships that will be awarded will depend on the financial health of IEO. Typically, scholarships are awarded in $100 increments. Recipients are drawn by random, we use the “pull a name from the hat method” at the year end awards banquet. Beginning in 2018, the one young rider who tallies up the most volunteer time will automatically receive a $100 scholarship. Ties for the young rider scholarship will be broken by random drawing.
This brings us to something I am really excited about! Introducing……………….
A New Year End Award Category: Class 18 is a USEF rider Test of choice class. While we have always offered this class, it will now be an end of year awards category! Let me tell you, these tests are not for the faint of heart! They are difficult and comprehensive. I urge you to step outside the box and give them a try. This division is different from our other award categories because the points are given to the RIDER not a horse/rider combo. This means a rider could potentially ride a different horse in every show and still tally points toward year end awards! This category is limited to amateurs and Junior/Young riders. It will be scored as a combined category for shows and year end awards. Cool, right? Why not add it your repertoire? Give it a try! The Rider Tests can be found in the USDF Member Guide and on the USEF website: www.usef.org. ; In addition, here is a link to a very nice article on the Rider Tests: https://www.usdf.org/EduDocs/Competition/New_Rider_Tests.pdf
UPCOMING SOCIAL EVENTS & MORE: We will be looking into an IEO summer picnic this year. Kim Hillyer has volunteered her facility for this event, it will be a horseless event -time to kick back and visit with fellow club members. We will try to get quotes on the cost of a pig roast and get more information out to you soon.
LIMITED EDITION: Stay tuned for an exciting limited edition IEO offering – details coming soon!
LOOKING AHEAD: Some of our future agenda items are: Outfitting our trailer with shelving to optimize storage. Discussion on the purchase of another chain for our 2ndring or purchase of another ring entirely, and lastly, we need to purchase more ribbons.
BOARD MEETINGS: If you would like to attend an IEO Board meeting please feel free to do so. We meet as needed, normally toward the end of a month. We meet at Diamond 7 in the kitchen. Seating is limited so we simply ask you to let us know you will be attending so we can bring additional chairs if needed.
Thank you to the IEO Board: Cindy Mattern, Maggie Hawn, Heather Herster, Tammy Murphy, Kim Hillyer, Mary Washburn Jodi Van Sprang, and Nicole Estep for all of your hard work so far this year! Whew! Lots of good stuff in the works! We have our nose to the grindstone – all for you!
It’s gonna be the best year yet!
Lisa Acey
IEO President
Seems like we just sat down to eat dinner at our awards banquet and here we are with our first show for 2018 less than 2 months away! Your leadership team has been working hard to produce another fun, competitive show year for you. We have made some changes to our show and awards plan - affectionately referred to as the “Omnibus”! I have highlighted some of them below:
SCHOOLING SHOW NEWS: Fees for our schooling shows will remain the same this year once again we will be assessing $20/per test ridden. There will likely be some changes to our nonmembers fee to bring our show system more in line with other GMOs. We currently charge a nonmember fee per class/test, we will likely move to separate nonmember fee for those who are joining us as nonmembers.
There is stall availability for day and/or overnight use at Diamond 7. Stall prices will be listed on the show entry form. Those wishing to reserve a stall will be able to do so at the time of entry through the show secretary. IEO does not make a profit on stall rentals, we merely pass the cost through and make the arrangements as a courtesy to our members. So if its going to be a long day, consider renting a stall so you both you and your horse can relax and enjoy the day!
This year, we are planning to use a two- ring format for most of our shows. Those shows where we have historically had more than 65 rides will follow a 2 ring plan. Intro A, B & C tests will be moved to the second ring provided a second judge can be acquired. This is tricky business from a planning perspective! We are a club, and that said we do not like to “cap” or limit the number of rides per show. However, our show days become very long for everyone – judges, riders and volunteers. Our decision to move to a 2 ring format is to give everyone involved a good show experience – and avoid those 7:00pm rides!!!! The judges we have listed for 2018 will be assigned to ring #1, if a second judge is acquired it will be for ring #2. This plan will allow us to use judges more than once in a show year. To that end, we have changed one of our year end award rules. Year end awards will be based on your three highest test scores (no change) from at least 2 different judges – this is the change, formerly it was 3 different judges.
VOLUNTEER! WHO? ME? Another area of year end award qualifications is the requirement of volunteer time. Currently, members who wish to compete for year end awards must volunteer 1 full day or 2 half days at a show or club event. We have defined full day as 8 hours and half day as 4 hours. Sometimes our show days go over 8 hours so in order to be fair to those who are there from dawn till dusk we will award volunteer time and IEO bucks based on this schedule. So if you are one of those all-day troopers, you could end up with 1 ½ days of volunteer time and $7.50 in IEO bucks for your efforts!
More then likely we will be setting up 2 rings this year – this takes time and all hands on deck! Ring set up volunteers will receive 4 hours of volunteer time credit, but ring tear down will be handled by the afternoon shift of show volunteers and be tallied in with their overall time for the day. The board may award other volunteer hours for special events or projects as required.
Please note a slight change to our current policy: family members or friends may volunteer time for IEO members but members may not donate volunteer time to other members in order to satisfy award qualifications. If you have a friend or parent volunteering for you, please make sure the show manager has the appropriate information to pass along to the awards/volunteer committee as they track volunteer time for year end award qualification. Why is all this volunteer stuff so important? Because it leads right into………scholarships!!!
Want to know how to qualify for the scholarship drawing? It isn’t hard, just volunteer!!!
Training Scholarships: A volunteer can qualify to be entered into a pool for scholarships if he /she volunteers for 3 or more days. The number of scholarships that will be awarded will depend on the financial health of IEO. Typically, scholarships are awarded in $100 increments. Recipients are drawn by random, we use the “pull a name from the hat method” at the year end awards banquet. Beginning in 2018, the one young rider who tallies up the most volunteer time will automatically receive a $100 scholarship. Ties for the young rider scholarship will be broken by random drawing.
This brings us to something I am really excited about! Introducing……………….
A New Year End Award Category: Class 18 is a USEF rider Test of choice class. While we have always offered this class, it will now be an end of year awards category! Let me tell you, these tests are not for the faint of heart! They are difficult and comprehensive. I urge you to step outside the box and give them a try. This division is different from our other award categories because the points are given to the RIDER not a horse/rider combo. This means a rider could potentially ride a different horse in every show and still tally points toward year end awards! This category is limited to amateurs and Junior/Young riders. It will be scored as a combined category for shows and year end awards. Cool, right? Why not add it your repertoire? Give it a try! The Rider Tests can be found in the USDF Member Guide and on the USEF website: www.usef.org. ; In addition, here is a link to a very nice article on the Rider Tests: https://www.usdf.org/EduDocs/Competition/New_Rider_Tests.pdf
UPCOMING SOCIAL EVENTS & MORE: We will be looking into an IEO summer picnic this year. Kim Hillyer has volunteered her facility for this event, it will be a horseless event -time to kick back and visit with fellow club members. We will try to get quotes on the cost of a pig roast and get more information out to you soon.
LIMITED EDITION: Stay tuned for an exciting limited edition IEO offering – details coming soon!
LOOKING AHEAD: Some of our future agenda items are: Outfitting our trailer with shelving to optimize storage. Discussion on the purchase of another chain for our 2ndring or purchase of another ring entirely, and lastly, we need to purchase more ribbons.
BOARD MEETINGS: If you would like to attend an IEO Board meeting please feel free to do so. We meet as needed, normally toward the end of a month. We meet at Diamond 7 in the kitchen. Seating is limited so we simply ask you to let us know you will be attending so we can bring additional chairs if needed.
Thank you to the IEO Board: Cindy Mattern, Maggie Hawn, Heather Herster, Tammy Murphy, Kim Hillyer, Mary Washburn Jodi Van Sprang, and Nicole Estep for all of your hard work so far this year! Whew! Lots of good stuff in the works! We have our nose to the grindstone – all for you!
It’s gonna be the best year yet!
Lisa Acey
IEO President
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