IEA January 2021 Newsletter

WATCH VIDEO: IEA Marketing & Social Media Intern, Montana McKnight takes a look back at 2020 through IEA Social Media.

Dear IEA Members and Friends,

Well, we made it to 2021. We are now officially half-way through our 2020-2021 season and are looking to the future with anticipation and hope for brighter months ahead. IEA has been very busy planning post-season shows, meeting with our Member Partners, discussing lots of "what-ifs" and making plans to help our members have the best possible outcomes despite the challenges we are all facing.

You have been remarkable.

As Montana's video above states, "We made it through, because of you. Our IEA Community." You have literally hosted more than 800 horse shows across the nation over the last five months. During a world-wide pandemic. And raging wild-fires. While wearing masks and social distancing. Remarkable, indeed.

As we head into the remainder of the season and post-season competitions, we will continue to lean on our members to keep up the outstanding work of safety, good communications, flexibility, enthusiasm and support you continue to show us week after week. Thank you for joining us this season.

2021 - We are ready for you.

Mark your Calendars for an exciting opportunity to attend “A DRESSAGE DIALOGUE WITH LENDON GRAY” on MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2021 at 5:30PM (Eastern Standard Time).

This FREE Zoom webinar will feature Professional Equestrian, Dressage Olympian and Owner of Dressage4Kids (www.dressage4kids.org) LENDON GRAY along with IEA host Megan Taylor.

Here’s your chance to submit questions about Dressage riding, becoming a Dressage professional, or how you can improve your IEA Dressage rides and scores.

Attendance is limited to the first 500 registrants and while content is geared towards Dressage riders, the webinar is open to all IEA members. An archive of this webinar will also be posted on the IEA website for viewing at a later time.

Questions are encouraged and may be submitted with registration or during the live webinar.

You can READ MORE about Lendon Gray in her full bio at:

https://dressage4kids.org/about/lendon-gray.html

IEA is proud to announce that the United States Dressage Federation (USDF) has become the organization’s newest Member Partner.

With this alliance, USDF will be named the title sponsor of the IEA Leading Dressage Rider at the IEA Dressage National Finals through 2023. Along with shared advertising opportunities and membership benefits, USDF and will provide IEA their expertise and experience for IEA’s newest and most rapidly growing program, as well as other mutual benefits to both organizations.

“USDF is excited to see the development of a Dressage program in IEA. It is encouraging to see the growth in this program and USDF is looking forward to our growing relationship with IEA,” shares Katherine Robertson, USDF Education Department Director...

READ FULL PRESS RELEASE

What can $5.00 buy you these days? A cup of fancy coffee? A birthday card? A drive-through cheeseburger. A bottle of hand sanitizer?

Five dollars. Five bucks. One dollar for each finger on your hand. Five.

It may not seem like $5.00 can buy much these days, but what would your five dollars mean to IEA? With thousands of IEA members nationwide – if ONE THIRD of our membership donated just $5.00 each – we would reach our fundraising goal of $30,000 this season for replenishing the IEA Benevolent Fund.

The Fund that sends money to help IEA coaches who have lost horses in a tragic barn fire. The Fund that allows a talented young IEA rider whose family struggles to keep their heat on participate in riding lessons. The Fund that helps a coach get back on their feet after a life-threatening illness has set them back a year. The Fund that gives opportunities where there may otherwise be none.

That Fund.

Five dollars. Will YOU lend us a hand?

PLEASE DONATE $5.00 (or more) to the IEA BENEVOLENT FUND

IEA is pleased to announce the continuation of its partnership with Bob’s Custom Saddles. Since 2018, Bob’s Custom Saddles, the Official Western Saddle of the IEA, has provided educational tools for IEA riders in addition to prizes for the IEA online Horsemanship Program, IEA Semi-Finals and IEA Western National Finals.

“We at Bob’s Custom Saddles have always felt young riders are the future of the equine industry and are proud to support youth and scholastic equestrian programs. We think it’s a great fit for us to be the Official Western Saddle of the IEA and we’re very excited to continue to support the IEA and its western riders,” stated Chris Weaver, Vice President of Bob’s Custom Saddles.

“Bob’s Custom Saddles goes beyond just providing prizes for our IEA riders and teams, they provide us with valuable resources and connections within the western industry. These associations have been beneficial for providing opportunities for our youth to learn and compete.” Roxane Durant, Co-founder/Executive Director of the IEA explained. “We are grateful to have Bob’s Custom Saddles continue as the Official Western Saddle of the IEA.”

The IEA Covid Task Force wants to bring to EVERYONE’S ATTENTION an update/clarification on FACE COVERINGS for ALL IEA SHOWS….

Effective immediately and until further notice from the IEA, the following updated protocol is MANDATORY at all IEA events in the 2020-2021 Season:

FACE COVERING (mask) MUST BE WORN AT ALL TIMES while attending an IEA show as a SPECTATOR, PARTICIPANT or OFFICIAL.

• Competitors MUST wear face coverings (masks) at all times except when mounted on a horse.

• If an individual needs a reasonable accommodation to the face covering (mask) requirement duet to a verifiable disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a FACE SHIELD should be worn. Any alternative accommodations to the face covering requirement must be confirmed by the membership office at least 48 hours before the event.

Overall, IEA Members have done a great job at following the COVID-19 Safety Rules this season and we are proud and appreciative of your efforts. As we head into post-season showing during these winter months – it is VITAL that we keep up this effort for everyone’s safety.

For a complete list of MANDATORY SAFETY PROTOCOLS, visit the IEA COVID-19 RESOURCE HUB at https://www.rideiea.org/iea-covid-19-resource-hub/

IEA CONTINUES VIRTUAL HORSE SHOW OFFERINGS

During the month of December, IEA offered two more educational opportunities for our riders with virtual horse shows for DRESSAGE and WESTERN members.

Riders from across the country had the opportunity to submit videos of patterns, rail work, and tests that were critiqued by judges Janet "Dolly" Hannon "S" for Dressage and Charlene Carter (AQHA, NRHA, NSBA) for Western.

IEA was fortunate to partner with two professional companies that made the work of hosting online shows easy for us. SPOTLIGHT HORSE SHOWS (SpotlightHorseShows.com) hosted the IEA Dressage show and the AMERICAN PAINT HORSE ASSOCIATION (APHA.com) hosted the Western show. Both of these organizations were great to work with and the feedback we received from riders and coaches is that they would like more opportunities like these in the future - so stay tuned.

DRESSAGE RESULTS

WESTERN RESULTS

DONATE TODAY

USHJA Recognized Riding Academy Program

LEARN MORE

The USHJA Recognized Riding Academy Program acknowledges lesson programs, riding facilities, equestrian schools, and other types of educational equestrian programs that emphasize horsemanship and sportsmanship, promote safety, and offer introductory hunter/jumper lessons. These programs create a foundation for well-rounded equestrians who benefit the entire sport, and this recognition is designed to encourage the continued development and growth of these types of programs across the country.

Junior Contributing Members in Grades 4 – 12 are eligible to participate in the IEA's program that emphasizes horsemanship skills and knowledge.

The IEA Horsemanship Program is open to any youth member of the IEA.

Participants in the program will complete online quizzes on a variety of topics from Colors and Breeds to Equine Nutrition. The quizzes are released throughout the season, from September through February.

Members who also participate in the riding program will find that the online quizzes will help prepare them for the Region, Zone and National Horsemanship Tests given in person at the competitions.

In May of 2021, each participant will receive a Final Quiz which shall be a collection of questions from various quizzes offered throughout the season. Participants who complete all aspects of the program, and complete the Final Quiz with a passing score of 75% or better, will receive a certificate of achievement and a commemorative shirt.

The horsemanship program also offers a TEAM COMPETITION for teams of 3 or more riders who participate in the program. These riders will have their Final Quiz scores averaged and the team with the highest final score will win BONUS GIFTS provided our generous sponsors.

Contact Jennifer Eaton at Jenn@rideiea.org with questions.

Attention Facebook and Instagram Users:

As with most things in life - things are always changing. And social media platforms are in constant change. Facebook and Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) have recently undergone some major changes in not only their look but in how they function. We've taken a closer look at these changes and how they affect IEA.

For example, with over three BILLION followers on Facebook, there is only so much room for viewers to see content from small businesses like IEA. That means that even though IEA has nearly 25,000 followers on Facebook page, currently only about 2% of those people actually see any given post. That's a lot of work for 2%.

And Facebook algorithms pretty much decide who gets to see it and who doesn't.

So, what can YOU do to help IEA with social media?

Here's a couple of things we've learned to help us spread our information not only to more of our own members, but potential new members, coaches, horse providers, and equine enthusiasts:

Like, Share, Comment, Tag, or interact in some way with the IEA posts that you see. A simple nano-second of time to click the "like" button or share with your followers or write a comment helps send a mathematical equation to Facebook/Instagram to let them know that this content is interesting and therefore should be seen by a wider audience.

Make sure you are FOLLOWING the @rideIEA and @IEADressage Facebook pages, as well as LIKING the page.

You can also set your Facebook FOLLOW SETTINGS to "Favorites" for @rideIEA and @IEADressage so that you don't miss important content, opportunities, and news updates, photos and videos from IEA.

These three simple things can make a BIG difference when it comes to our content being seen. Thanks for your help. We LOVE our dedicated social media followers!

IEA Official Facebook Pages - @rideiea (main page) and @IEADressage (dressage page)
IEA Official Instagram Pages - @rideiea (main page) and @IEADressage (dressage page) and @RideIEAWestern (western page)
IEA Twitter - @rideiea
IEA Snapchat - @rideiea
IEA Pinterest (NEW) - @officialrideiea