Lamplight Equestiran Center re-does footing!

It hasn't been much of a secret that for many years now the footing at Lamplight Equestrian Center in Wayne, IL has left much to be desired. What use to be a warm up ring has gone back and forth from warm up to parking which has left the footing slippery at times, hard as a rock and considered dangerous to many.

This year LEC decided to begin to fix their footing and has re-done the "Grand Prix" arena. For those of you who are dressage riders, the Grand Prix area is usually the three rings that are in the same area of sand where there is grandstand seating on one side. This is by far where the worst footing was for showing currently in dressage shows.

Here is a link to a video of the renovations of the ring:
http://showplaceproductions.com/video/lamplight_footing_2010.html

I myself am very glad that they have begun to fix some of the footing. I know many a rider that has scratched on days that it has started to rain because the footing becomes so dangerous and deep. To now know that Lamplight has fixed both the warm-up arena and the grand prix arena area is a great improvement for the facility. We all love when they add gazebos and nice little touches like the giant wet bar down by the boarding area, but this new footing was long over do and will make for a much more comfortable show season!

New Rules from USEF

The USEF (United States Equestrian Foundation) enacted some new rules as pertaining to dress in the dressage ring. Among quite a few other interesting now acceptable choices in colors etc. that one can wear in the ring, it is now okay to have up to two logos on your jacket. Here is the exact wording:

Page 47 DR120 Dress. Chapter DR. Dressage Division Effective
...
12. When sponsorship is permitted in accordance with GR1306, the name and/or logo of the individual’s sponsor(s) may appear on each of the two sides of jackets or top garments at the height of breast pockets not exceeded 80 cm2 in size. Logos described under DR121.1 are also permitted as above.

This means that we can all now have sponsors prominently on our coats, which means we can all get someone to pay for our habits, and they can get some air-time for their logo on top a horse. This makes me want to think up the perfect sponsors. Not ones like Dressage Daily, or Smartpak. Those would be obvious. Ones like Durex, who can make a fun little play on words in their slogans. For example, "Sponsored by Durex, always riding well protected", or "Trojan, no need for the wood horse", the possibilities are endless. I'm sure it won't be long before it is like Nascar, where there will be logos everywhere we can put them and it will be forgotten that this was once a very prestigious and refined way of riding with lots of stout tradition. Pink shadbelly anyone? I'm sure Katie Price will be thrilled...