2023 Cynthia Aspden Youth and Young Adult Development Fund Recipient: Mackenzie Brown
Last fall, I received news that I had been selected as one of the recipients for the Cynthia Aspden Youth and Young Adult Development Fund grant. I was absolutely elated, and now having attended my week of training with Regina Agren, I am so grateful for the work of The Dressage Foundation and all of their generous donors. Without the support of this grant, I would have had a much more difficult time attending this training camp and I feel that would have distracted from my experience. Without the financial burden of attending training, I was able to focus my mind solely on learning and absorbing as much information as I could possibly contain.
Over the course of the week, I rode three horses in lessons with Regina. The first was my mare, Romantic Rose. We spent a lot of our time focusing on developing greater activity and engagement in all three gaits, with a specific focus on the canter work. I have always had a difficult time maintaining an uphill canter, especially in preparation for flying changes, but with the help of the exercises introduced to me, I was able to greatly increase my chances of getting clean changes. Regina taught me the importance of using body weight and positioning to help manage different parts of the ride, like turning my shoulders slightly out and weighting my inside leg to help stand my horse’s shoulders up when traveling on the more difficult lead. It was really encouraging to see significant improvement from ride to ride with Regina. Having now spent a few weeks at home, I have been able to implement the training and exercises into my daily riding routine, and I have seen even more progress being made.
In addition to my mare, I took two other horses. One was Golimbria DG, a mare owned by a friend, and the other was my project pony, Cinnamon. Both horses are currently working at a lower level, and the focus of our week of training with the two horses was developing correct contact, and steady gaits throughout our rides. With Golimbria, we especially focused on implementing half-halts, as she has a tendency to get quick when she becomes unbalanced. When we reached the end of the week, I was able to give very light half-halts, and I even began to achieve a bit more of an uphill balance. Lessons with Cinnamon focused on being forward, as he can be a bit naughty if he gets behind the leg. We found great success in adding lots of transitions to our work, and Cinnamon became more and more obedient as the week went on.
Not only was I able to ride my own horses, but we spent the whole day, every day of the week, at the barn. Regina has a strong training program, with horses in training and students that ride and take lessons on a frequent basis. It was immensely helpful to watch Regina ride a number of different horses, varying in age, level of training, breeding, and background. She was able to explain what she was doing as she rode each horse, and it was helpful to identify exercises that could help my own horses. Additionally, I watched as she taught many lessons, and it was helpful to see how she approaches different issues in training different individuals. Most of all, I left feeling very inspired and motivated to really commit to my riding and training, both in and out of the saddle. My week of training with Regina is not one that I will soon forget, and I am beyond grateful that I was able to be a part of this program.
I am truly grateful from the bottom of my heart for the support of The Dressage Foundation and the donors who support the Cynthia Aspden Youth and Young Adult Development Fund. It is my dream to continue in this sport, and become a professional in the next few years. Being able to attend training sessions like this does a great deal to enhance my knowledge and ability to ride. My hope is that with the help of the generous donors, such as those that support The Dressage Foundation, more and more young riders will be able to achieve their goals through the support of learning experiences, such as the training camp that I attended.
