December 7, 2020 (Columbus, Ohio) – The Interscholastic Equestrian Association (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. “We have been encouraged and delighted by the continued interest in our Dressage program, especially this season,” says IEA Co-founder /Executive Director Roxane Durant. “Under extraordinary circumstances, this year we welcomed 14 new Dressage teams stretching from Maine to Washington. We are excited to deepen our relationship with USDF and its members as we work to support our shared goals of providing opportunities to young Dressage riders across the nation.” “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. The IEA Dressage program was initially introduced to the IEA membership in 2016 as a pilot program in response to increasing interest from the dressage community. The program was developed over three years with the intent to combine the standards and expectations of the competitive dressage community with the IEA objective to offer organized competitions for young equestrian athletes who do not own their own horse. The program ran alongside the current offerings of hunt seat and western competition and became an official program in 2019. IEA offers dressage classes for riders and teams in grades 4-12 in both Dressage Test and Dressage Seat Equitation. The 2021 IEA Dressage National Finals will take place on May 15-16, 2021 at Fairgrounds Showplex in Hamburg, New York. ###
About United States Dressage Federation (USDF) Founded in 1973, the USDF is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to education, recognition of achievement, and promotion of dressage. For more information about USDF membership or programs, visit www.usdf.org, email usdressage@usdf.org, or call (859) 971-2277. About Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) Now in its 19th year, the IEA has nearly 14,000 members across the United Sates riding and coaching Hunt Seat, Western and Dressage disciplines. The non-profit 501(c)3 was organized to promote and improve the quality of equestrian competition and instruction available to middle and secondary school students (grades 4-12) and is open to public and private schools and barn teams. There is no need for a rider to own a horse because the IEA supplies a mount and tack to each equestrian for competitions. Its purpose is to set minimum standards for competition, provide information concerning the creation and development of school associated equestrian sport programs, to generally promote the common interests of safe riding instruction and competition and education on matters related to equestrian competition at the middle and secondary school levels. For more information, please visit www.rideiea.org
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