2009 DASC Year End Awards

Team Symphony attended the DASC Year End Awards Banquet on Saturday, January 9th. Not only did we have a great time with all of our show friends, but we walked away with several awards!!

Trainer of the Year:
Chemaine Hurtado

Student of the Year:
Monika James

Highest Median Score for Training Level Open:
Chemaine Hurtado with Amazingh Welcome (owner Molly Cope)

Reserve Highest Median Score for Training Level Open:
Chemaine Hurtado with Winter Nebel (owners Chemaine & Jan Handlers)

Reserve Highest Median Score for First Level Freestyle AA:
Monika James with General Lee

Reserve Highest Median Score for Second Level Freestyle Open:
Chemaine Hurtado with The Bennett (owner Karen Mitchell)

Highest Scoring Dutch Warmblood:
Amazingh Welcome ridden by Chemaine Hurtado (owner Molly Cope)

Highest Scoring Quarter Horse:
General Lee ridden and owned by Monika James

Additional Year End Breed Awards, Hanoverian Division:
Paolo ridden and owned by Jen Nunes
Winter Nebel ridden by Chemaine Hurtado (owners Chemaine & Jan Handlers)


Message from Chemaine-
“Thank you all for your help and support in making this happen for me and for Monika! I always try to remember why Anne Safchik created DASC, because of the limitations and politics of other organizations. Let's try to keep her memory and ideals alive!”

Sonja Vracko Clinic

We had a very fun & successful weekend with Sonja Vracko! In fact, we loved Sonja so much that Chemaine ended up being signed up for more lessons than she bargained for - she ended up riding 5 times on 4 different horses during the weekend!

The main focus of the clinic was fine tuning the basics and improving weak points in our tests, which was perfect preparation for the next weekend - the DASC Championships! During Chemaine's ride on Mazie, Sonja was able to point out that Mazie always threw her haunches to the left in the halt. With just a few simple adjustments with the seat and leg, Chemaine's halt went from a "6" to an "8"!



Chemaine and Monika were also able to present their musical freestyles to Sonja, and recieved valuable feedback on both the technical and artistic points of the freestyle. After re-working some of the choreography in Chemaine and Winter Kiss's freestyle, you really began to hear the "oohs" and "aahhs" when the movements synced up perfectly with the rhythm of the music.




We had a wonderful experience working with Sonja and look forward to working with her again in the future. Now on to the Championships!