Look out DQ Canada! There’s a new sheriff in town and she means business! Yes, as communicated in a giddy-with-excitement press release two weeks ago, Sarah Bradley has been imported from the world of Eventing to sit in the Chair of DCB through the remainder of 2012. The release takes its jubilation so far that it is hard to connect it with the somber tone of the press release earlier this year in which it was announced that a posse was riding into Dressage Town to clean up the mess left behind by a string of resignations and disputes over when something is or isn’t a conflict of interest. But never mind. If all is now well in DQ Canada, I’ll have more time to blog about something else, right? Maybe. I won’t bet on that horse just yet.
One thing the post-coitally joyful release doesn’t mention, but which can be found in the minutes of DCB’s latest meeting, is that Sarah will not have voting rights in her Chairmanship. Call me crazy, but that seems to entirely nullify the point of bringing her in at all. Like a policeman with no gun, or a guard dog with no teeth. Without voting rights, Sarah will be nothing more or less than a sounding board, which the Board can choose to ignore at any and all times. On the upside, at least the population of the DCB is starting to look more like a ‘who’s who’ of Canadian Dressage instead of a ‘who’s that?’, thanks to new statutes which were birthed under the capable eye of the 2010 DCB Chair Karen Thompson-Harry – along with a new statute the DCB Chair can stay for more than one year (if he or she lasts even that long, which was not the case in 2011).
I’ve known Sarah since my fearless eventing days when she and I were both being studious little alumni at UBC on week days and spending weekends trucking all over BC’s nether regions with our steeds. Yes, Sarah and I have shared a few spaghetti meals cooked on a Coleman stove set up on the fender of a horse trailer. Sarah is a straight shooter, and has a firm grasp on what makes sense for an organization. She has both the creds and the chops to be of great use to DCB. Too bad she has been put in the position of nanny, instead of enforcer.
