Monday June 27, 2005

United States Dressage Federation Celebrates Groundbreaking

Opening speech from USDF President, Sam Barish

What a wonderful day this is for the United States Dressage Federation! We have come a long way in our 33 years. But today, we will celebrate the ground-breaking for the USDF National Education Center here at the Kentucky Horse Park in the horse capitol of the United States. I believe that this is the most significant event in the history of USDF and I am very pleased to share it with all of you.

We are looking forward to being an important component of the National Horse Center along with the many other prominent equine associations that have their headquarters here. In our three years in Lexington, we have established a good working relationship with our future next door neighbor, the United States equestrian Federation, the national governing body for Equestrian Sport. We are making good progress to implement the Memorandum of Understanding we signed last fall with US Equestrian on joint membership, horse registration, and Competition recognition. Cooperation between the staffs of the two organizations will be even easier when a USDF staff member will be able to walk from her office to the US Equestrian building in two minutes.

Our future home at the park will give us new opportunities to work effectively with the United States Pony Clubs, the American Hanoverian Society and many other associations on site. For the first time, we will be included on a daily basis in an equestrian-community environment.