DVCTA’s first event was held at the Willcox’s Tory Hill Farm in 1966 where “the scoring and pinning could not be done until all the riding was over and the horses were cared for because the competitors had to do the scoring and pinning too.” Like most of the early competitions the dressage arena was grass. When we were lucky enough to have the use of an indoor, rare in the early days, the arena dimensions were not always strictly legal. The dressage arena was very challenging to erect until Bernie Weichert designed and built one which was later replaced by the arenas known as “the good boards” which were designed by Alice Semke and John Ryan.
Entering the shows was frustrating for both riders and organizer and went like this:
In 1985 DVCTA membership records were individual index cards in a shoe box. Louisa Morse created a data base for membership and her daughter Alice created a companion data base for schooling shows. In 1991 209 DVCTA members rode at least one dressage test in the 10 dressage schooling shows; 40 members jumped at least one round in the 4 clear round jumping events. At this time March shows were held as one ring in two locations with indoors, December was held as one ring with an indoor, the rest were two rings sometimes one with an indoor. One ring shows had up to 55 rides, two ring shows up to 110. Entry procedures had changed dramatically and a Newsletter article was written to encourage getting it right the first time:
For insurance reasons riders had always had to be members of DVCTA. As the number of shows and volume of entries increased the Schooling Shows developed a committee system and instigated a work requirement. With some adjustments DVCTA continued to run the Schooling Shows until the current system of Approved Schooling Shows was instigated.
DVCTA members may qualify for Year End Awards at both Schooling Shows and Recognized shows, for Rider Medals (which replaced Achievement Awards) DVCTA Awards Program, for Championship Classes, and for BLM Classes .