The United States Dressage Federation (USDF) is extremely pleased to announce that Luitpold Pharmaceuticals, Inc. manufacturer of the joint therapy Adequan® (POLYSULFATED GLYCOSAMINOGLYCAN) renewed their commitment to sponsor the annual USDF National Convention and Symposium and the USDF year-end horse awards. 
The sponsorship, which includes the designation as the "Official Joint Therapy Sponsor" of the USDF, runs through 2013.
"The dressage horse and rider are a team that tends to look at long term relationships as a vital component to success," states Allyn Mann, Sr. Manager at Luitpold Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  "Adequan® is a product that can help this team accomplish their goals by keeping the horses joints healthy throughout their competitive  career".
Due to the rigors of competition, many performance horses suffer from joint disease. Adequan® is designed to help treat the underlying cause of the problem and break the cycle of damage, while reducing pain and inflammation.
Linda Schultz, Director of Marketing of the USDF, adds, "The staff at Luitpold understand the performance requirements of our dressage horses and support our educational emphasis so this is a great partnership for our members."
As part of its mission, the USDF offers a variety of award programs to recognize achievement in dressage and dressage sport horse breeding. Adequan® will be sponsoring the prestigious Horse of the Year (HOY) and Sport Horse Breeding Horse of the Year. Both highly coveted awards are national in scope and rank the top twenty horses for each level of dressage.
Adequan® is sponsoring over 1700 individual awards in 11 categories that include the Adult Amateur, Junior/Young Rider, Musical Freestyle, Musical Freestyle Challenge, Vintage Cup, FEI 5-year-old, FEI 6-year-old, Materiale Horse of the Year, All Breeds, and Breeder of the Year Awards.
Horse year-end awards are based on the quality of a horse's performance as demonstrated by scores earned during the competition year from October 1 through September 30. USDF awards are designed to reward horses that consistently earn good scores, regardless of whether they win a class.
The Adequan®/USDF National Convention and Symposium is the single largest educational venue for USDF members and includes USDF business and governance activities, an awards banquet, a gala evening honoring lifetime achievement, a trade fair and various social events.
For full prescribing information on Adequan®, visit www.adequan.com

Founded in 1973, the United States Dressage Federation is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to education, recognition of achievement, and promotion of dressage. For more information about USDF membership or programs, visit www.usdf.org, email usdressage@usdf.org, or call (859) 971-2277.