The New England Dressage Association’s Spring Symposium kicks off today at Apple Knoll Farm in Millis, Mass. Headlining this year’s event are Olympians Michael Poulin and Carole Lavell, teammates on America’s Bronze-Medal 1992 Barcelona Olympic Team that also included Robert Dover and Charlotte Bredahl. The symposium starts today and runs through Sunday.

Poulin and Lavell say this weekend’s event will be both educational and entertaining. The duo has titled their symposium “The Concept of the Training Process” and they say it will address the what, how to and why of training. “This isn’t just about what works, but also about how and why it works,” Poulin said. “We’ll be dissecting the training process.” 

This won’t be the average symposium. Breaking from the regular format, this year’s symposium will run more like a large round table where discussions are held amongst an entire group. Poulin and Lavell will show their approach to taking a horse up the levels to FEI. There will be no set question and answer sections, or much of a schedule because it will all depend on the discussions taking part throughout each day.

Auditors are welcome and directions to the symposium can be found on the NEDA website at http://www.neda.org/