Genesee Valley Pony Club

by Jessica Hainsworth, C-1, Genesee Valley Pony Club What a year, and what a journey I have had. I am Jessica Hainsworth, a C-1 in the Genesee Valley Pony Club. I love dressage, and have had a great partner in my 10-year-old paint mare named Monday's Child. We have been competing together for a few years and this year our goal was to compete at the USPC Championships in Virginia. I qualified, and had a great time there, but that was just the beginning of my journey. I found out that I had been selected to represent USPC at the Youth Dressage Festival in early summer, and what an experience it was! I want to thank Pony Club for sponsoring a team to go to the Youth Dressage Festival held at the HITS grounds in Saugerties, NY. It was one of the best experiences of my life! I met wonderful riders from all around the country. I had a great time being part of the USPC team, setting up our tack room, meeting everyone's family and hearing where they were from... it was all so much fun! I had an amazing time. My favorite memory was of riding with one of the roving trainers who like us, were young dressage riders too, but most are now top national level Young Riders. The work that I did with my roving trainer led me to a 4th place finish in my division overall. The experience of meeting great people like Laura Aiken, Lendon Gray, and so many more who have a real love of dressage and are so tremendously supportive of young riders and their dressage goals was so moving. Even though it was my first time there, I felt like family it was such a great, kind, supportive environment. Everyone was so nice throughout the entire week, from the judges to the other competitors; it was just one of the best experiences of my life. The end of the weekend was the special awards and special classes like dressage trail, Prix Caprilli, and lead line. It was a great way to end the weekend helping my little sister Faith, a D1 in Pony Club, get my horse ready for their lead line class. She was judged by Lendon Gray and was asked lots of questions about horse knowledge, which thanks to what she has learned in Pony Club, she knew them all from where the pommel was to that my horse was a piebald paint! She came in 2nd out of about 10 kids and it was so much fun to see her enjoy the weekend as much as I did.