Southern Saddlebred: Supporting Grassroots Lesson Programs
Monday, November 23, 2020
Southern Saddlebred, in partnership with Equine Sports Council, has granted two lesson programs with a lesson horse each, provided by either Saddlebred Rescue or Dreamscape Rescue.
The first recipient is Brian and Susan Reimer of Reimer Stables in Turin, GA. Susan is a veteran instructor and demonstrated a need for an additional beginner horse for her lesson program. “The Reimers are located outside Atlanta, which is an ‘underserved’ area for saddle seat riding. We hope an additional beginner horse will cultivate new riders for them,” said Jackie Hale.
Daybreak Farm & Riding Academy in Mt. Juliet, TN is the second recipient of a rescue lesson horse. Carmella Menolasino is the stable owner and Sarah Wood assists with training and instruction. “The Southern Saddlebred shows are located in Middle Tennessee, so it certainly makes sense to assist a ‘hometown’ lesson program,” Jackie said. Daybreak is currently teaching 70+ lessons a week and also needs an additional beginner horse to accommodate the new riders in their rapidly growing program.
Both recipients are located in geographic areas where saddle seat is not the primary discipline, but the demographics are there to support owning a show horse. “We hope we can help these barns promote the American Saddlebred and grow their program, which will eventually support our horse show. It’s a longer-term investment, but one that we believe will pay us back ten-fold in the years to come,” said Jackie.
Southern Saddlebred announced this program at the Fall Finale horse show in mid-October and accepted applications from lesson programs until November 15th. “We received a number of impressive applications and we plan to continue to grant one or two lesson horses each year to deserving riding programs in the Southeast, with preference given to stables who support our horse shows,” offered Jackie.
Saddlebred Rescue, Inc. is the flagship ASB rescue program – well known for their excellent program of rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming American Saddlebred horses that they select from auctions where they may be at risk of going to slaughter. While the home base is located in New Jersey, Christy Parker, a founding member, is located in Georgia and is assisting in identifying a lesson horse for one of our stables. Dreamscape Rescue is located in Eagleville, TN and their mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and repurpose American Saddlebreds who are bound for slaughter. Kelly Reason will be working with us to locate a suitable lesson horse for one of these lesson programs. Jackie added, “Saddlebred Rescue and Dreamscape regularly work together to save and place horses, so they will be teaming up to fill these orders as quickly as possible.”
Southern Saddlebred shows are governed by Equine Sport Council – a non-profit, non-member organization that offer rules, standards and guidelines for non-Olympic level horse shows. Each participant pays an affiliation fee at each show, and 25% of the monies collected is granted back to the show to use as a managed marketing grant. “We give the shows leeway to choose how they spend the money to promote their horse show,” said Shane Darnell of ESC. “Some shows may need the money for advertising, or to offset the cost of awards. Southern Saddlebred was granted $2,495 which will be used to pay the adoption fees for two lesson horses from ASB rescue programs.”
To find out more about how a show in your area can join the ESC Network of shows for 2021, visit www.EquineSportsCouncil.org. To learn more about the Spring Fling and Fall Finale horse shows next year, visit www.SouthernSaddlebred.com.
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