Congratulations to Katie Dodson, the winner of the CDCTA Trainer of the Year Award for 2025 in both dressage and eventing! This award recognizes the dedication of the trainer through the accomplishments of their students. Each year CDCTA selects the winner in two catagories, a dressage category and an eventing category and presents the winner of each with a banner at the CDCTA Banquet. The club then displays the trainer’s award banner at CDCTA competitions during the following year before giving them to the winning trainers to keep. More about how to get your trainer’s name on the banner at the end of the article, so keep reading!
For 2025 a busy and dedicated trainer named Katie Dodson won both awards, a rare but exciting accomplishment. Katie, who started riding as a small child, went on to teaching in her teens and then completed several working student positions around the country. Katie earned her USDF Bronze medal and opened her own boarding, training and lesson facility, Fuse Equestrian in Nokesville, Virginia.
Katie’s facility accommodates boarders, but she also has lesson horses for students that haven’t yet been able to find their own equestrian partner. One teen student, Maddie told CDCTA that her favorite lesson horse is Bella. Maddie loves that she can learn both dressage and eventing with Katie and attend competitions. She said her favorite thing about Katie is that she is both very supportive and flexible in helping each student with their own personal goals.
Phoebe, who rides Bluey, has been excited to find a trainer that could help her achieve her goals of attending competitions. With Katie to help her, Phoebe has now attended her first horse shows including CDCTA Dressage Shows. Phoebe said that if you have a goal to reach Katie is very dedicated to help you find ways to achieve that goal and guide you through obstacles standing in your way.
Katie works well with adult riders also. Shannon, who wanted to return to riding was delighted to discover Katie’s facility that had quality schooling horses that could help her get back into riding after some time off.
Katie’s award banners can be found at the next CDCTA competition in 2026 and it is very possible she will be there as well with her students.
If you are interested in finding out how YOUR trainer can win this award, details are listed in the CDCTA Handbook. Briefly, if a rider who is a CDCTA member competes in a dressage or eventing competition, they can submit their results to the club to be compiled for Year End Awards. The forms must be completed by deadlines listed in the handbook and riders must be members at the time of each competition. When filling out the form, if you want your trainer to accumulate points for Trainer of the Year, make sure that part of the form is completed with your trainer’s name. For the points to count at the end of the season, each rider who submitted points must have completed their minimum of one full day of volunteer hours for CDCTA. If you need assistance with the submission form or understanding the requirements, please contact a board member. The handbook, submission forms and people to contact list can all be found at www.cdcta.com