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BELOVED FOUNDER OF
"CENTERED RIDING"
Sarah Rodman Swift known to her worldwide following as “Sally Swift”
passed away on April 2, 2009. Sally was less than three weeks away
from reaching her 96th birthday. She was born on April
20, 1913 in Hingham, Massachusetts to Rodman “Tod” Swift and
Elizabeth Townsend Swift. She had one sister, Agnes,
who died in 2004.
Sally Swift was known all over the world for her innovative
horse-riding methodology known as “Centered Riding.” She was the
author of two books Centered Riding and Centered Riding II
– Further Explorations which, together, have had sales of more
than 860,000 copies worldwide in 15 languages. Sally was the
founder of Centered Riding, Inc., which is the non-profit
organization that oversees the worldwide membership of instructors
and horse riders. Sally began Centered Riding at the
age of 62 upon her retirement from the Holstein Association in
Brattleboro Vermont. Her first book, "Centered Riding," was
published in 1985.
In August of 2006, Sally Swift was inducted into the United States
Dressage Foundation’s Hall of Fame. In June of 2008, she was
presented with the seventh annual Equine Industry Vision Award by
Pfizer Animal Health and American Horse Publications, an award which
recognizes innovation, ingenuity and service across the entire
equine market.
At the age of 7, Sally was diagnosed with scoliosis, lateral
curvature of the spine. She worked for many years with Mabel
Ellsworth Todd, author of “The Thinking Body” who believed that you
could control parts of your body with your mind when you couldn’t
direct them with physical movement. Sally used
concepts of her work with Mabel Todd to develop the Four Basics of
Centered Riding.
Sally was home schooled until 7th grade and then attended
Milton Academy in Milton, MA, for her 7th through 12th
grade education. She graduated from Cornell University in 1947 with
a B.S. in agriculture. She worked for 21 years at the
Holstein Association of America located in Brattleboro, VT, retiring
in 1975.
Upon her retirement from the Holstein Association in, Sally began
teaching her friends at the rate of $10 per lesson and $50 per day
for a clinic. She never advertised – her teachings spread by word
of mouth. Before long, she was going up and down the
East coast with her teachings. In the early 1980’s, when Sally was
in her early seventies, she began travelling to other locations in
the U.S., Canada and eventually to Europe. In 1988, at
the age of 75, she went to Australia to work alongside Richard Weis,
who was her first apprentice. Sally continued to be very active in
Centered Riding until her recent illness.
During the days of her illness, Sally was surrounded by her friends
and Centered Riding family who loved her. She was closely attended
to by her long-time friend, Lucile Bump, also of Brattleboro, her
devoted friend, Munson Hicks, her care-givers, and her special
friend Francois Lemaire de Ruffieu. Sally was
well-loved my many, many people. Despite her fame,
breadth of knowledge and accomplishments, she greeted all who
journeyed down her path with warmth and humbleness.
Plans for a memorial service in honor of Sally Swift are under way
and will be announced on this website. In lieu of flowers,
donations in Sally’s memory can be made to Centered Riding, Inc.
P.O. Box 157, Perkiomenville, PA, Windham County Human Society, 916
W. River Road, Brattleboro, VT 05301, The Heifer International
Foundation. 1015 Louisiana St., P.O. Box 727, Little Rock, AR 72203
or Amnesty International, 16th Floor, 5 Penn Plaza, New
York, NY 1001
The world was made a better place by Sally Swift, and the horse
world and all who came to love her deeply mourn her
passing.--Sybille Crafts
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FROM WHEELCHAIR TO WOW!--Cerebral
palsy confines 24-year-old Keith Newerla to a wheelchair, NEED HORSES AND SUPPORT
Click here for a list of GA
evacuation facilities |
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Adrienne Dickerson/Cavalier Are Region 3's
Recipients The Carol Lavell Gifted Fund at The Dressage Foundation ( www.dressagefoundation.org ) was established in 1997. The Fund was originally seeded with Donations from Carol Lavell, received in memory of her great Olympic dressage horse, Gifted. The scholarship idea came from Carol Lavell as a way to help Adult Amateurs pursue their dressage training. The fund provides up to nine scholarships to enable Adult Amateurs to set aside quality time, in concentrated training, with a trainer of their choice, along with a horse they own. The first scholarships were given in 2002 with each recipient receiving $500 to be used for training expenses. The scholarship has an application process which is accessed on the Foundation website. A Scholarship Selection Committee evaluates each application and reaches a collective decision on the recipients to receive the award. Each scholarship recipient is required to prepare and submit a written report of their training experience to be shared with others, and if possible, to give a brief summary to their GMO. The Gifted Scholarship Fund has grown steadily over the years, and from the original award of $500, is now $750. We look forward to an increased Scholarship amount of $900 for the upcoming 2008. In addition to Adrienne Dickerson, past recipients from USDF Region 3 who have received the Carol Lavell Scholarship include the following: Sandi Piazza, Beverly Zimmer, Cathy Cottril, Elizabeth TeSelle, Marianne Rutherford and Laura Jane Crane. Here's What Adrienne Did With the Money. . . Step It Up! By Adrienne Dickerson MADISON, GA--The Gifted fund provided my horse, Cavalier, and me a two-week intensive training session with Roel Theunissen in Madison, GA. A common theme those two weeks was the need to “step it up” if I wanted to step up to Prix St. Georges! For the first two weeks in February of 2008 Cavalier and I both stepped up and put ourselves to work. To seal our commitment to this goal, I went ahead and sent off my entry for a show immediately following my training dates. In the first week of our training Roel focused on the bending reaction to my inside leg and overall throughness of the horse. Cavalier can sometimes be overly sensitive and react in a forward direction rather than bending in response to lateral aids. I concentrated on lowering the poll and bending him through his body during all work – especially in the warm-up as we started with steep shoulder-ins and bending lines and progressed to long half-passes. Roel explained that my ability to place Cavalier’s inside hind under the body was a precursor to correct bend and control of the shoulders. Even if the “feel” is that his haunches fall out, I must first create the correct placement of the inside hind and later “catch” him with my outside aids for a true bend throughout his body. This was a good reminder that what you feel beneath your seat is more important than what you see in front of the saddle. As the first week progressed Roel stressed the importance of carry-over. That the warm-up must carry over into the work and that the work must carry over into the next day’s warm-up so you are always building. He also pointed out that the warm-up should be as long as necessary but as short as possible. Cavalier becomes more through and together as he moves into the “work” for the day. So the sooner he is loosened up and starts into the work the more productive our time is. As the week went on we also began to focus on a more active hind end and a quicker but appropriate forward response to the driving aids. We did a run-through of the trot work of the Prix St. Georges test, which for us is fairly solid, and selected a few things to “step up” for higher scores. I also explained to Roel my goal of “rideability” in the canter tour. As the canter tour progresses, Cavalier gets tighter and more difficult to ride; it has improved over the winter, but the tempis and that last extension to flying change across the diagonal can be very touch and go at times. With that in mind we moved into our second week of training. To address the rideability question, Roel took two approaches. First, he again had me ride in a rounder frame and stressed the importance of being able to ride Cavalier more through, more round, and with more bending in the tricky moments rather than backing off or changing the subject to reclaim the suppleness as I had been doing. Second, we focused on riding the tempi lines in an overly forward canter but with small aids so Cavalier learned they were not as exciting as he originally thought. After only a few days of this work we ran through the full test twice one day about a week before the show. I was pleased with the improvement in rideability and overall throughness. Cavalier actually improved as the test progressed, and I was able to ride through the difficult moments or past the tense moments and back to suppleness. Just a few more days of lessons and then off to the show with us! Cavalier has not had a lot of show experience, and I never know how he will settle in at a new facility. To my relief he got right to work the day before the show, and we had a very productive schooling session. I was pleased with the show overall, I had three (3) opportunities to ride the PSG and we put in a consistent test each time. I was especially pleased that our tempis were solid throughout the weekend as those have long been a source of tension for Cavalier. Our best ride was the second day with a 63.5% which was good enough for 1st place out of 6 in the FEI test of choice class. I left the show and my two weeks of training with some homework to focus on until my next clinic opportunity with Roel. Overall it was a fantastic experience and one of the most productive periods of training I’ve had, thanks to the Dressage Foundation Gifted Scholarship. Cavalier and I both clearly progressed in our riding and performance at the show, and I could see an obvious improvement every few days. Without a doubt the scholarship and our 2-plus weeks of dressage immersion allowed us to “step it up!”
LEXINGTON, KY--For the first time, the FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) will be held outside of Europe in 2010, when the games come to the United States. The announcement of Kentucky's successful bid to host the games was made half-way around the world in Bahrain on Dec. 6, 2006. The Kentucky Horse Park, soon to be the permanent home of the USDF and its National Education Center, will be the venue for all seven FEI equestrian disciplines which make up the WEG, including dressage. Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher was all smiles as he made the announcement to an enthusiastic crowd of industry leaders gathered for a press conference at the Kentucky Horse Park. He observed, "This will be an unprecedented opportunity for our Commonwealth to showcase itself to the world. We are known as the epicenter of the equestrian world and we have a deep appreciation for all things having to do with the horse. I know that we will stage a very successful series of competitions." USEF President David O'Connor also noted that the FEI World Equestrian Games would cement the Kentucky Horse Park as the center of equestrian events in the U.S. The games will take place during two weeks in the fall of 2010 and have estimated ticket sales of 300,000. More than 1,000 athletes representing 50 countries are expected to participate. The games will be broadcast live from the Kentucky Horse Park to 40 countries and reported world-wide by more than 1,000 members of the international media. ___________________________________________________ |
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