LETTER from the CHAIR in THIS ISSUE the Royal Horse Show and Our Own Marquee Event, the Jump Canada Hall of Fame
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THE WARM-UP RING The Official News of the Jumping Committee September/October 2020, Volume 16, Issue 9 LETTER FROM THE CHAIR IN THIS ISSUE the Royal Horse Show and our own marquee event, the Jump Canada Hall of Fame. Sadly, neither of these events could Q&A with Dayton Gorsline, be held this year. As we await their return Youth Development Advisor under safer circumstances, The Royal has once again impressed with its ability to Dwayne Brown Studio embody the saying, “The show must go Canadian Show Jumping Team on!” While it certainly won’t be the same Media Guide Now On-line! experience that we’ve come to love over the years with late night show jumping and all the apple dumplings you can eat, A Look Back at the Jump Canada I applaud The Royal for its ingenuity in Hall of FameClass of 2008 creating the Royal Agricultural Virtual Experience. Fans of the Royal Horse Show can get their fix by watching the “Fireside Equestrian Canada Resumes Chats” with numerous show jumping luminaires including Michel Vaillancourt, Regular Business Hours Welcome to this issue of The Warm- the first Canadian equestrian to ever win Up Ring where we strive to keep the an individual Olympic medal. Meanwhile, hunter/jumper community up to date on Canadian Show Jumping Team “Breaking Down the Round” will showcase happenings across the country as well as top equestrian personalities from around Heading to Spain further abroad. It’s a pleasure to be writing the world reviewing iconic show jumping my first letter as Chair of EC’s Jumping rounds and sharing the inside scoop on Committee. I took over the role from Success Stories their start in horse sport. Pamela Law this summer and thank my committee members for the trust they have The best part? It’s all free, beginning on shown in electing me as their Chair. Olympic Criteria Available Tuesday, November 10, through Saturday, November 14, 2020, at www.RoyalFair.org. It’s always difficult to step into a new role, In these uncertain times one thing is for and no more so than during the COVID-19 Longines World Rider Rankings sure – it promises to be a Royal like you’ve pandemic. Our sport has been turned never seen it before! upside down, never mind our daily lives. Acknowledgments More than six months into the pandemic it Until next time, enjoy your horses and stay is safe to say that horse people across the safe. country have been challenged in ways they never thought possible. During the best of times, anyone who rides and owns horses knows that they keep us on our toes with a seemingly never-ending list of things that can and do go wrong. However, as we continue to navigate our way through these Karen Sparks unchartered waters, it has been inspiring Chair, EC Jumping Committee to see so many people digging deep and finding ways to persevere. I have been impressed by the gumption, creativity, and commitment shown by equestrians across the country. This is usually the time of year that I’m making plans to head to Toronto to attend SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2020 THE WARM-UP RING 1 Q&A WITH DAYTON GORSLINE, YOUTH DEVELOPMENT ADVISOR By Jennifer Ward Originally from the Edmonton, AB, area, Dayton Gorsline has Starting Gate Communications enjoyed an illustrious career in the world of show jumping. After working as a professional rider for Spruce Meadows for 10 years, Gorsline struck out on his own in 1999. Within the first year of being self-employed, he partnered with Canadian Olympian Lisa Carlsen in both business and in life. The couple has an 18-year- old daughter, Cassie, who has followed in her parents’ footsteps as a show jumping competitor. Their Trademark Stables in Okotoks, AB, is home to approximately 24 horses. Gorsline also trains other riders in the area and often teaches in the mornings before returning home to coach clients for the remainder of the day. In 2019, Gorsline took over the role of Youth Development Advisor from Beth Underhill, who was the first person to fill the position for Equestrian Canada (EC). Gorsline acts as Chair of the Youth Development Committee, which currently includes David Ballard, Alex Grayton, Underhill, and Marni von Schalburg. Tell us a little about the role. When did you start and what are your responsibilities? I had been on the committee with Beth for about four years. Last year, she wanted to step away from Chairing the committee to focus on qualifying for the Pan American Games. (Editor’s Note – Underhill was the traveling alternate for the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru, with Count Me In.) I had done a lot of stuff to help out in the west and was one of the people that EC interviewed for the role and it went from there. Our job is to pick teams, culminating in the North American Youth Championships (NAYC). Obviously, those championships didn’t happen this year, but we are responsible for picking teams for youth nations’ cup events in Florida and here at home in Canada at Thunderbird. As the Chair, it’s my responsibility to know what is going on with our young riders and to network with people throughout the country. I have a good grasp on what is happening in the west and I talk to people in the east who train young riders like Kelly and Jonathon Millar, Beth, Jill Henselwood, and Francois Lamontagne in Quebec. Karen (Hendry-Ouellette, EC Manager of Jumping) and I have tried really hard this year to get riders to sign up and get their names into our system for tracking purposes. The most difficult thing is keeping up with everyone’s age as the Youth program comprises four age groups now and riders quickly move from one age bracket to another. We’ve worked to develop a better database of these riders going forward. We have also worked with US Equestrian to have access to its show records. It’s important to have the American results to look at, and it allows us to track the athletes better. We still struggle to get the data that we need. For example, for riders competing at the FEI levels, you can look every Monday morning and see their results from all over the world. For riders at the youth levels who are competing in 1.20m and children, junior, and amateur divisions at national shows, it’s harder to get that data. How do you communicate with the Youth riders? Are there forms of regular communication? We invite the riders and their coaches to send video of their competition rounds. This is another way we are trying to get better at tracking within our committee. But the world we live in is a little strange at this time; I want to have videos sent but in this era of Safe Sport, which we take very seriously, we ask that video footage is funneled through the professionals. We have just spent a week at Thunderbird where they offered numerous Youth divisions. One of our Youth riders, Sarah Tindale, traveled out west with Beth. It was great to see her at a show in the west, to be able to watch her compete, and to catch up with her and her mother in real life. Once you start recognizing the names of the people who have signed up, it’s easier. When they haven’t signed up and aren’t in the system, it’s very difficult to have them on our radar. It’s frustrating when we know of a Youth rider who is doing well, or someone tells us about a certain rider, and we look and see that they haven’t signed up for the program. SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2020 THE WARM-UP RING 2 There have been several Youth Nations’ Cup competitions introduced over the past few years – the Under 25 team event at the Winter Equestrian Festival and the Youth Nations’ Cups at Deeridge, both in Wellington, FL, and at Thunderbird in Langley, BC. How do you select athletes for those teams? For the events in Florida, we like to use kids from the east and we go to Thunderbird with west coast kids. This gives everyone an opportunity to get the experience of competing on a team. At Deeridge, team competition was offered at the Children, Junior and Young Rider levels whereas Thunderbird is only Children and Junior team events. After those two events, you hopefully have a good read on the riders across the country and can take that information and come up with the teams for the NAYC. Is the process for selecting athletes for youth competitions in Florida and Thunderbird any different than when you’re selecting the teams for the North American Youth Championships? There is much more conversation and reaching out to the people you chit-chat with for the NAYC. By that time, there are more results on the ground in Canada to talk about. Florida and Thunderbird are earlier in the year and it’s harder to get a true read on a rider who may be moving up divisions, for example. Florida may be their first competition moving from the Junior to the Young Rider level; the kids may be keen but they are not ready yet or they might have a new horse with no mileage yet. As the season progresses, it gets easier. By the summer, when it comes time to pick the NAYC teams, you have a pretty good read on your horses.