Three additional Chinook FFA Chapter members, Jade Cecrle, Bree Swanson, and Morgan Friede received grants and scholarships through the FFA organization's granting and scholarship program. The three learned of their awards last month during National FFA Week.

Bree Swanson and Morgan Friede, two eighth graders in Chinook, were awarded scholarships to attend the Alumni Leadership Camp (ALC) this summer. Held for four days each June in Highwood, Montana, ALC brings together young FFA members who gain confidence through workshop and team building activities. ALC also gives younger members a chance to network and learn from FFA alumni around the state. Essentially, this program provides the opportunity for members to understand at a deeper level what FFA can do for them, their chapters, and their communities.

Swanson won the ALC Sam Cornthwaite Memorial Scholarship and Friede won the ALC Montana FFA Alumni Scholarship.

About her opportunity to attend the ALC, Swanson said: "I hope to gain the leadership skill and to develop the personal skills that will enable me to become an officer with my FFA Chapter. I would love to bring back what I learn and implement the ideas in my community and Chapter."

From the Montana FFA Foundation, Cecrle received $1,000 to learn dressage, and her goal is to bring that type of horsemanship to Montana. The aspiration is part of Cecrle's Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) in equine science. The foundation is calling Cecrle's award an SAE Grant of the Montana FFA Foundation.

Any active Montana FFA member who will be an active member the following school year (grade 7 through 11) is eligible to apply for an SAE grant. The SAE is one of the components within the three-circle model of Agricultural Education. Through SAEs-which are required and intended for every student-students can explore career opportunities, gain work experience, and develop specialized skills. The SAE Grant allows FFA members to start a project or to expand their current SAEs.

Although Cecrle, who is a sophomore at Chinook High School, has raised a market hog in her swine production SAE and maintains a commercial cattle operation with her beef production SAE, her main focus for this grant will be her equine science SAE.

In July, Cecrle will travel to Buskirk, New York, and enroll in Dressage Boot Camp at Riding Right Farms where she will work at a stable and learn both the fundamentals of English riding and the basics of dressage, a unique discipline for riding a horse. As she progresses, the program integrates jumping skills and then moves through advanced levels of riding. While in New York, Cercle also hopes to attend the Riding Right Farm Youth Dressage Team's performance at the Lendon Gray Youth Dressage Festival, held July 12-14 in Saugerties, New York.

"This will be my first time in New York, and I'm excited to go. I'm especially eager to learn the discipline of dressage so that I can bring it back to Montana since it's not popular here," Cercle said.

When she returns home and better understands the process, Cercle plans to train Eboni, her Tennessee Walker Horse, in dressage. The object of the training of a dressage horse is to develop a harmonious and fluid moving horse that performs from almost imperceptible signals from the rider.

According to Cecrle, the horse's physique and mind will develop as will her ability to perform so that she is confident, attentive, responsive, and graceful. A horse performing the discipline of dressage must develop, at minimum, three free, elastic, and regular gaits. These are a four-beat walk with no moment of suspension, a two-beat trot with a moment of suspension (all four feet off the ground) between each diagonal beat, and a three-beat canter with a moment of suspension following the three beats.

Although the development of these three gaits is paramount in dressage training, the rider must also undergo training. The rider must learn to sit in the saddle in a unique balance and use her aids: weight, legs, and hands to help her horse achieve these gaits. During this lengthy training process, both the horse and rider develop a bond of trust and understanding.

Cecrle's key role will be tuning-in to what Eboni's body is doing underneath her. That level of perception will help her learn to time and coordinate her canter aids with greater success. After Eboni becomes comfortable with her level of training, a less experienced rider can learn from this trained horse in an interesting role reversal.

"With dressage, it's almost as if the horse is dancing to music," Cercle said.

SAE Grant of the Montana FFA Foundation Winner. The main focus of Jade Cercle's grant will be her equine science SAE with her Tennessee Walker, Eboni. Jade will travel to New York this summer to learn the discipline of dressage, a type of horsemanship she hopes to popularize in Montana.

As part of the grant process, Cecrle will need to submit an update of her SAE to the funding organization that includes a summary of her project, two photos documenting the project, and an advisor reference of the project from Chinook FFA's Chapter Advisor, Robin Allen.

All three girls will receive their awards at the Donor Recognition and Scholarship Dinner held in Norm Asbjornson Hall, Montana State University's newest building, on April 4 during the State FFA Convention in Bozeman, April 3-6.