Young Rider Training Opportunities
Sue Blinks will return to Region 8 in 2006 to serve as clinician for the USDF Region 8 FEI Jr/YR Clinic. Lendon Gray will host the clinic at Gleneden Dressage Stables in Bedford, NY on June 16-17. (Please note this clinic was scheduled in July, but has been rescheduled to accommodate the clinician’s busy competition season.) The Dressage Foundation is providing financial support to help make this clinic series possible.
Sue Blinks qualified for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia by winning the State Line Tack/USET Dressage Championship in Loxahatchee, FL. Blinks and Flim Flam combined for one of their best rides at the Olympic Games in Sydney to help the U.S. win a third consecutive Olympic team bronze medal. Blinks was a member of the USET’s silver medal World Championship team at the 2002 World Equestrian Games and was also on the fourth place USET squad at the 1998 World Equestrian Games in Rome, Italy. She also rode Flim Flam to an individual twelfth place finish.
Later that year, Blinks earned the title of USOC Female Equestrian Athlete of the Year. In 2002, she and Flim Flam finished third in the USET Grand Prix Championship at the Bayer/USET Festival of Champions. A 1997 USET Training and Competition grant recipient, Blinks earned a team gold medal at the 1997 CDIO Hickstead in England and rode Flim Flam to a first place finish in the Grand Prix Special. She also finished second and third (aboard Flim Flam and Delano, respectively) in the USET Grand Prix Championship. She earned second and third place finishes in the Grand Prix, Special and Freestyle at the 1997 Bayer/USET Festival of Champions.
To attend the clinic, riders must submit applications to USDF on or before May 19. Applicants must be current USDF Participating Members between the ages of 14-21, currently riding at Third Level or above. Auditors of all ages and levels are welcome, and pre-registration as well as walk-in registration is available. Rider applications, auditor registration forms and complete clinic information is available at http://www.usdf.org/Programs/AdvancedYoungRider/index.asp or by contacting Sheila Forbes, USDF Director of Programs at (859) 271-7879 or sforbes@usdf.org.