Olil Amble Clinic...

Olil flew in from Iceland this past weekend to teach her second clinic in the US. The clinic was all private lessons and there were 9 of us riding. We learned a lot from her and she is a great instructor as well as a rider. She promises to come back next year and we are already looking forward to it! I have added some photos from the Olil clinic to the photo albums.

Renew your membership...

It is time to renew your USIHC Membership. Go to www.icelandics.org and log in to renew your membership. Once your membership has been renewed you can become a meber of the CIA for 2009

USIHC Annual Meeting 2009

Please spread the word that John Parke will be speaking at the annual meeting in January. The Board is sorry for the short notice but we've been working on scheduling John for quite some time. We finally have a firm commitment.

As a reminder ... hotel and dinner reservations are due next week. The hotel can be reached at (800) 345-1554 for the room reservation at the group rate of $89/night. The dinner reservations need to be made with Doug Smith at secretary@icelandics.org.

The following is the text of the speaker announcement from the bulletin board on the web site:

Mr. Parke will deliver the keynote address, "Journey to the Center of the Earth on Your Icelandic Horse", at the Annual Meeting.

Mr. Parke is 55 years old. He resides in the Santa Ynez Valley near Santa Barbara, California. Mr. Parke is a lawyer by profession, with an emphasis on civil litigation. His family has ridden Icelandic horses since 1994 and currently owns four of them. Although he enjoys learning about every activity with Icelandic horses, he mostly trail rides on mine.

His chief form of organized equestrian sport is endurance riding. Probably his most notable endurance ride was the 2,000 mile long XP 2001 ride on the Pony Express Trail from Missouri to California. Three of his horses have competed in endurance rides. Two of them, Remington and the late Skjoldur, are well known for their accomplishments as endurance horses.

USIHC Annual Meeting 2009
December 15th is the deadline if you are going to attend

Annual Meeting Reservation Deadline. Hotel reservations for the annual meeting must be made by December 15 to receive the group rate. Contact the Plaza Suites directly at (800) 345-1554. Mention you are with the US Icelandic Horse Congress to receive the negotiated room rate.
Dinner entree selections and payment are also due today. Contact Doug at secretary@icelandics.org to confirm your meal selection and arrange payment if you've lost track of the yellow form mailed with the latest annual meeting notice.

Annette Coulon takes over Regional Clubs.

Annette Coulon was named chair of the Regional Clubs Committee during the November 25th conference call. Annette has been on the Regional Clubs committee for several years and was instrumental in the founding of Kraftur, the Northern California Regional Club.

Election Results

Debbie Cook, Election Committee Chair reports the following results.

210 ballots were returned voted as follows:
Ásta Covert -- 176 votes
Kari Pietsch-Wangard -- 159 votes
Susan Peters -- 148 votes
Kathryn Lockerbie -- 81 votes

Ásta, Kari, and Susan will serve three-year terms effective immediately.

Olil Amble Clinic...

We have dates for the Olil clinic. December 12-14.
3 Day Private Lesson Clinic.

For more info e-mail Asta at asta@tolt.net.

CIA Open Results..

Dynjandi frá Dalvík winner of Open Tölt and Fourgait

The CIA Open was held at Flying C Ranch this past weekend.

We had about 28 Horse and Rider combinations show and everyone had a great time.

Thanks to Valhalla Icelandics and also the Kraftur club members from Northern California that came. We are very happy with the turn out and hope to see all of you again in April. Also big thank you to everyone else that came to participate and watch.

Everyone enjoying the BBQ in the Barn

The Friday Night BBQ was a great evening and there were about 35 of us enjoying the delicious food in the barn.

Annette and Punktur the winners of the Costume Tölt

Saturday was all the preliminary rounds and we were mostly proud to have 5 youth riders this time and they all rode very well. At the end of the day on Saturday we had the Costume Class whic the audience chose the winner and Annette Coulon from Northern California won and then we did the 100 m speed pace which is always a crowd pleaser.

Sunday we had all the finals.

Click here to see the full results from the show - PDF

Big Thank you to Rune for flying all the way from Norway to be our judge, Doug for scribing and announcing, Bruce and Gayle for helping with the gait keeping and Stina and Myra-Dawn for bringing lunch for everyone and everyone else that helped make the show so much fun.

Willy Ma took some photos that he will post on his website www.freehorsepicture.com.

CIA Open November 1-2 2008

I have posted the premium for the CIA Open this November 1-2.

Click here for more info on the show

Johannes Hoyos riding Góður-Greifi frá Stóra-Hofi
at the 2003 World Championships

Hello Everyone,

Mountain Icelandic Farm will be hosting it's 2nd Sanctioned Icelandic Horse Show.
August 9 & 10, 2008 being judged by Johannes Hoyos of Austria.

The Deadline for Entry's is August 1st. Any Entry form received after that there will be a $20.00 late fee.
Any Non USIHC members or Non Registerd Horses there will be an additional $15.00 charge also.
You can find the form at http://www.mountainicelandics.com/shows.html
Click on Entry Form and you can print it yourself.

The show schedule is also listed on the above page.

For Accomodations:
http://www.watsonvillelodging.com/
Comfort Inn, Watsonville. This is the closest to the Farm, located only about 1.5 miles away.
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ex/1/en/hotel/wtvll?&cm_mmc=mdpr-_-googlemaps-_-ex-_-wtvll
Holiday Inn Express, Watsonville. This is about a 10 to 15 minute drive away from the Farm.

If you wish to know of other accomadations in the area please feel free to call and ask; Annette Coulon Cellular Phone (831)331-0442

Friday night we will be having Pizza and Beer on the back patio at the Farm so it could be cool in the evening. Bring warm clothing.
Saturday night we can go to a Local Restaurant of our choice.
Please feel free to pass this e-mail along to anyone you think may be interested in coming to our Show.

Sincerely,
~Annette Coulon
Mountain Icelandic Farm

New Competiton Chair person...

Heidi Kline has handed the chair of the Competition Committee to Will Covert.

Thanks to Heidi for her service to the Congress.

For more USIHC Updates check out the bulletin board on the USIHC Website.

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to let you all know that we had a very successful Youth Cup this year! All of our girls made it into finals classes and it was the best peromance the USA has ever shown at the Youth Cup. Big thanks are in order for Susan Peters and Jasmine Ho!

Here is the link where you can check out results: http://www.fycup.ch/news.htm

Laura Benson
Youth Leader

Shows...

T1 finalists at the CIA October 2007 - photo Heather Skopik

The next show in California will be at Mountain Icelandic Horse Farm, Watsonville, CA August 9-10. The judge will be Johannes Hoyos from Austria. It is a sanctioned show. Contact Annette at annette@mountainicelandics.com for more info.

Then November 1-2 we are having the Fall CIA Open and since it is the day after Halloween we are thinking to offer a Costume class for anyone interested to dress up and ride for Hallwoeen. And of course we will have the Friday night BBQ. For more info contact Asta at Asta@tolt.net.

Hope to see you at these events.

Electronic Version of the Quarterly...

The June 2008 issue of the Quarterly has just been mailed but current Congress members can download it today and IN FULL COLOR from the web site.

Click here for more information or to download a copy.

Don't worry... your printed copy is in the mail and will arrive shortly. Meanwhile, enjoy the online version.

Breeding..

Villandi frá Feti in April 2008 - Rider Bergur Jónsson

CIA member Anne-Marie Martin bred and owns a 4 year old stallion who made it to Landsmót this summer. He is a son of Anne-Marie's mare Gola fra Hofdabrekku and the first prize Orri son Ludvik fra Feti. 4 year old stallions need to score 8.00 or highter to qualify for Landsmót and Villandi scored 8.09 including 8.18 for talent. He got 8.5 for Tolt, Gallop and Spirit. We look forward seeing this young stallion at Landsmót.

IS2004186929 Villandi frá Feti
Color: 2500 Brúnn/milli- einlitt
Breeder: Anne-Marie Martin
Owner: Anne-Marie Martin
F: IS1998186918 Lúðvík frá Feti
Ff: IS1986186055 Orri frá Þúfu
Fm: IS1987258007 Ísafold frá Sigríðarstöðum
M: IS1993285705 Gola frá Höfðabrekku
Mf: IS1981157003 Tvistur frá Krithóli
Mm: IS1985285706 Járngerður frá Vestur-Skaftafellssýslu
FORSKOÐUNARDÓMUR - Héraðssýning á Gaddstaðaflötum
Measurements: 140 - 130 - 138 - 65 - 140 - 38 - 48 - 42 - 6,6 - 28,0 - 18,0
Conformation: 7,5 - 8,0 - 7,5 - 8,0 - 8,0 - 7,5 - 8,5 - 8,0 = 7,96
Ridden abilities: 8,5 - 8,0 - 7,5 - 8,5 - 8,5 - 8,0 - 7,5 = 8,18
Total: 8,09 Slow tölt: 8,0 Canter: 8,0
Rider: Bergur Jónsson

CIA Open Results..

Stina, Berta, Ed, Anne-Marie, Uschi, Willy, Lorrie and Asta

The CIA Open was held at Flying C Ranch this past weekend, we had a 2 day Judges clinic on Thursday and Friday that we all learned a lot from.

We had about 35 Horse and Rider combinations show and everyone had a great time.

Thanks to Valhalla Icelandics, Stina for bringing a majority of the horses and also the Kraftur club members from Northern California that came. We are very happy with the turn out and hope to see all of you again in November. Also big thank you to everyone else that came to participate and watch.

The Friday Night BBQ was a great evening and there were about 40 of us enjoying the delicious food in the barn.

Saturday was all the preliminary rounds and we were mostly proud to have 5 youth riders this time and they all rode very well. Lucy and Sophie were among them and they are going to compete in Switzerland this year at the FEIF Youth Cup. We had a Silent Auction to raise money for them and Carrie who will join them from Kentucky. We raise a total of $951 that we will split evenly between the 3 of them.
At the end of the day on Saturday we did the 100 m speed pace which is always a crowd pleaser.

Sunday we had all the finals.

Click here to see the full results from the show - PDF

Big Thank you to Uschi for flying all the way from Switzerland to be our judge, Anne-Marie for scribing, Gayle and Doug for announcing, Gayle for Icetest entry, Jennifer and Cait for being the DJ, Heather and her Mom for helping with the gait keeping and bringing lunch for everyone and everyone else that helped make the show so much fun.

Willy Ma has posted photos he took at the show last weekend on his website www.freehorsepicture.com.

Fall Show Date...

Photo by Heather Skopik

We have decided to have the Fall show November 1st and 2nd at Flying C Ranch in Santa Ynez.
Make sure to mark your calendar for another fun event.

2008 Youth Cup Team.

Congratulations to this year's US FEIF Youth Cup Team: Lucy Nold, Carrie Lyons Brandt, and Sophie Shalhoub. There is a chance that FEIF will award additional space to the US Team allowing us to send more riders.

We are planning a silent auction during the May show to benefit the Young riders going to Youth Cup this summer in Switzerland. Any donations would be greatly appreciated.

You can contact me directly at Asta@tolt.net for more information.

Competition Seminar

May 1-2 -- USIHC Education Committee Competition Seminar. FIPO, rules, classes, judging guidelines, no riding clinic. Clinican: Uschi Heller-Voigt, FEIF International Sports Judge. Seminar will take place at the Flying C Ranch in Santa Ynez, CA. For more infomation or contact Alexandra Pregitzer at alexandra.pregitzer@gmx.de or Asta Covert at asta@tolt.net. Riders attending the seminar remain eligible to compete in the CIA Open California Spring show. Attendance of this seminar satisfies the prequisite to join the Compeition Committee.

The Election Committee convened for the final time this afternoon to tally the ballots for the 2008 USIHC Board of Directors election.

A total of 630 ballots were prepared. 610 of the ballots were mailed to member households of record as of January 9, 2008. The remaining 20 ballots were held in reserve in case members reported lost or damaged ballots. None of the reserve ballots were used.

A total of 487 households received ballots. This figure includes all active member households for 2008 as well as households active in 2007 that had not yet renewed. An extra line of instruction was included on the membership confirmation slip for members who had not renewed reminding them their votes would not be counted unless dues were received by the February 28th deadline. Two members included checks with their membership slips and ballots. These ballots were counted and the checks will be sent to Ed.

A total of 192 households participated in the election.

The results are as follows:

Bernie Willis 208
Karen Olson-Fields 163
Kathryn Love 174
Sandie Weaver 119

The disposition of the uncounted ballots is as follows:

Missing membership card. 3
Never mailed (spare ballot). 20
Not active member. 9
Not received by deadline. 350
Undeliverable. 3

The election committee received no questions or complaints about the ballots or the election materials.

There was minimal discussion on the Yahoo! Groups "Forum" list centered around timing issues. Some members were concerned they did not receive election materials early in the process. These few isolated cases were resolved by simply waiting for the US Postal Service to do its job. There was also concern toward the end of the voting period that results had not been announced. This question was quickly resolved on the Forum list. The information requested by the member was also available on the election FAQ page on the Congress' web site.

The Election Committee urges the membership to adopt the constitutional changes regarding membership and elections as they appear on the agenda for the annual meeting. These amendments will have minimal impact on the membership but will relieve some of the burden on future election committees. Further, the Committee strongly urges the Board to revise its communications policy to allow members to opt-in to receive the Notice of Election and renewal reminders via electronic mail. This will both reduce the burden on future election committees and save money.

Doug Smith (Committee Chair)
Gayle Smith (Committee Member)
Annette Coulon (Committee Member)

Annual Meeting Details....

The following PDF files have been approved by the Board for immediate release:

- Agenda (revised Feb. 26)
- Hotels
- Weekend Activities

Spaejari Awards Winners.

The winners of the Spaejari Awards sponsored by John and Marilyn Parke are:

Emily Pfoutz of Massachusetts
Megan Milloy of Virginia
Jennifer Wright of Maine

Congratulations! Look for their essays in the USIHC Quarterly!

CIA Open in May 2008

We are looking into having a clinic by the judge who is coming to judge our May show to have a 2-3 day seminar before for competition riding from the judges viewpoint. She will cover FIPO rules, guidelines, explanation on classes etc. I wanted to check what kind of interest there is for a seminar like this and if you are interested in attending we will move forward on planning this seminar.

People interested in taking the seminar can still ride at the show during the weekend. It would be either wednesday thru Friday or Thursday and Friday depending on the interest we get. Also if you are already an Intern Judge this judge is one of the 5 FEIF International Judges to test new FEIF International judges so you could learn more about the FEIF Judges test and what it takes to pass it.

The judge is Uschi Heller-Voigt from Switzerland.

We are also planning a silent auction during the May show to benefit the Young riders going to Youth Cup this summer in Switzerland. Any donations would be greatly appreciated.

You can contact me directly at asta@tolt.net for more information.

CIA Open Spring 2008

May 3-4, 2008

We have a judge. Her name is Uschi Heller-Voigt and she is flying in from Switzerland. She has judged at many World Championships and we look forward to her coming and judging our show!

The Premium is ready and we are planning to have a BBQ Friday night like we did in October.

If you have any questions you can contact me at asta@tolt.net

Click here to see more info on the show.

2008 California Shows.

· March 8-9 -- Valhalla Icelandics Schooling Show Lake View Terrace, CA. For more info contact Stina at valhallaicelandic@earthlink.net

· May 3-4 -- CIA Open Spring show. For more info contact Asta Covert at asta@tolt.net

· June 14-15 -- Mountain Icelandic Horse Farm Sanctioned Show, Watsonville, CA. For more info contact Annette at annette@mountainicelandics.com

· August 9-10 -- Mountain Icelandic Horse Farm Sanctioned Show, Watsonville, CA. For more info contact Annette at annette@mountainicelandics.com

And more events have been added to the 2008 event calendar.

Hope to see many of you at these shows.