Lighten Up Dressage

2010 Update:

I am now the sole owner of Lighten Up Dressage. My co-organizer has decided to show her new horse and concentrate on the horse and family. I have four shows planned this year and have a “S” and “r” judge scheduled for our first two shows. We are again, NCDCTA recognized.

Several things are new this year:

YEAR END AWARDS - I have decided to give a year end cooler to the highest placing Intro., Training, and First level Jr. and Sr. riders. Tracy Walling has offered to sponsor these awards in memory of her beloved horse, Fox In Socks.

SPONSORS - I have Cowboy Magic back as a sponsor and will be giving those products away to high point winners each show. I have plans for other sponsors and hopefully more prizes! Please check our LINKS page for updates.

SECOND ARENA – I have purchased a second dressage arena. If entries warrant I will organize for two rings. It will make our day shorter and make the waiting times for your travel buddies a lot shorter too. I can eliminate the 8:00 AM ride time and start at 9:00 AM. I will have special times for volunteers so they are available to help me. Regarding volunteers, every one day you volunteer will earn you one free ride. I have three volunteers that have helped me so often they now get two rides free plus a stall. Please see me at the show office.

FACEBOOK - Lighten Up Dressage has a page on Facebook. For those of you on Facebook, please check that page for entry updates and information. I will keep everyone up to date on that page.

I’m excited about my show plans for my two horses. Diligent (Dillon) will start the year at Third Level. This is very exciting for me because I’ve always considered myself a First Level rider. Second Level was very challenging last year and I am now moving to Third. It’s a dream come true that I actually get to ride a test with flying changes of lead, with more collection on a horse I purchased at 6 months of age from a video tape while he was in Germany. We are working on strength building and more “punch” in our stride.

Dynamic MF (Mick) is 4 this year. He seems to be a good enough mover to pursue the USEF National Young Horse Dressage Championships for 4 Y.O. We shall see, a lot of work and training is ahead of us. There are a lot of very good horses and riders shooting for the same goal. The experience will be good even if we don’t make the cut. Otherwise Mick will start at Training Level this year and if he is strong enough he’ll go to First Level.

I’m looking forward to seeing our regulars and meeting new riders and horses. Good Luck in 2010.

About Leslie Lytton - Founder of "Lighten Up Dressage"

I hope to co-host a fun schooling show where everyone can just lighten up. Riders and their horses can come and have fun in a low key schooling show environment. You don't have to be perfect and you are always welcome. No need for a dressage saddle, bridle or formal dressage riding attire. I wanted to co-organize a schooling show where riders can come and compete dressage tests in front of a judge with out all the dressage formalities and fees that USDF/USEF shows require.

I started riding ponies and horses at 12. My love for jumping was picnic tables and a fallen log on any trail. After a few bad jumping shows, my confidence was blown. I found dressage at 24. My little 15.3 hand TB gelding was a great teacher. Dressage was his talent until I jumped him one day. My love of jumping came back. He was a natural at both. The only way to combine dressage and jumping was eventing. My little TB re-instated my confidence in jumping and he took me to the Preliminary 3-Day level.

We competed to the Preliminary level and completed a 3-day at the KY Horse Park placing second. I sold him to a lower level competitor and lost track of him. Since then I have re-trained a Four-In-Hand combined driving horse and a Hanoverian/TB cross. My “wagon horse” Houston had not been ridden in 4 years and was not willing to canter. The canter is heavily penalized in the combined driving. In a year and a half Houston helped me qualify for Regionals at the training & first level and the BLM Championships at Training & First Level.

While I was pregnant with my daughter, he placed 4th at the Training Level Regional Championships and 2nd at First Level at the BLMs. I sold him to a great lady in VA. My Hanoverian/TB cross was a re-sale project. I purchased him as a 3 y.o. and he was under saddle 25 days. He blossomed into a beautiful horse. Dressage was not his calling, it was the hunters. After a year and a half I took him to a hunter show and didn’t bring him home. I now have an Oldenburg gelding who I adore. Diligent or “Dillon” was imported as a six month old. He and my daughter get along very well. He gets to see all her toys and follows the electric Gator like a dog. He’s becoming bomb proof or should I say childproof. My goals with Dillon are to compete in dressage as far as Dillon and I can go.

2009 Update:

The Lighten Up Dressage Schooling Shows have really become popular. This year we are NCDCTA and SCDCTA recognized. Our shows usually fill and we have wait lists each time. We encourage everyone to please enter early. Tracy and I are in our third year of organizing the shows. Our first year, we organized two shows. Saturday, June 9, 2007 was our first show. We had so many entries we knew there was a great need for dressage schooling shows in our area. We now organize 4 shows a year.

In 2008 I earned the required scores for my USDF Bronze Medal. I owe my friend and her horse for the help. My horse family has increased and I have two horses to ride. Dillon is now competing at Second Level. Last year, we qualified for the BLM Championships at First Level and placed 3rd out of 30+ competitors. This year we have qualified for the Region 1 GAIG/USDF Dressage Championships. I plan to show him at the championships in Lexington, VA in October. He is a challenge to ride and not easy. He hates my leg and spur and tells me about it by kicking out… a lot. He likes the lateral and collected work but has a tight back and neck at times. I’ll learn to ride him one day. I just love dressage!

My new horse is Dynamic M.F. or “Mick”. He is Dillon’s half brother. They share the same dam or mother. His sire or father is a local NC stallion, Don Principe. I loved Dillon’s mother who was at MaryDell Farm in Columbus, NC. They are the owners of Don Principe too. The first time I saw Don Principe I knew I had to have the 2006 foal. I told Maryanna Haymon the owner of Marydell Farm, “Dillon’s mother is going to have a colt and I want him.” Sure enough she had a colt! The first time I saw Mick he was 12 hours old. Mick is 3 this year and 17 hands tall. He looks and acts nothing like Dillon who is a compact stocky 16.1 hand horse. Mick is tall and lanky. Mick likes to please and so far he’s very nice. I will compete him at a few dressage shows and breed shows in the 3 y.o. Materiale classes. We won’t do anything too hard this year since he is only 3. It’s all about fun.