Surely I can’t be the only one who obsesses over a horse show? It has to stem from my equestrian upbringing, being very outside of the horse show world for a long time. While I would not trade my fox hunting based experience or education, it did make the fanfare of horse shows seems both alluring and out of reach for a long time. When I did start to show, mostly in college, I felt like a fish out of…
With how crazy and sad this year has been, I’ve been actively searching for things to look forward to so I don’t totally slump into a massive depression (you know, more than I already am). Since I brought Po home to Texas last summer, he hasn’t stepped foot off the property. I’ve been meaning to find a show to take him to to hang out with no expectations, but his feet were either not doing well or I felt poor…
When I first moved to my beloved California barn last year, I heard a lot of rumblings about a big horse show coming up. We’ll be at year end. Everyone’s getting ready for year end. They were referring to the IEHJA, our local circuit, year end show. No stranger to local horse show finales, I figured I knew what it’d be like. Maybe a nicer facility, a few special classes here and there. All year, everyone gushed about how great the…
I didn’t plan on horse showing much, if at all, when I moved Simon to California. That seemed like a luxury far beyond my grad school life, but I keep re-learning two simple truths with riding: I’m competitive as all get out, and I like to have goals. Luckily, my barn has its own four show series that awards year-end awards as well as counts for my local circuit points. At home shows in my barn? That was too good…
I’ve been competitive my entire life. I’m not sure if the figure skating started it, or if I was drawn to figure skating because of it but I’ve never known a period of time where I didn’t want to be the absolute best at something. First it was double sow-cows and flying camels. Then it was riding horses with 4H shows and much later, IHSA equitation. When I took a break from riding during my time in MA, I turned…
The derby is over and Simon is extremely relieved that he doesn’t have to wear braids for probably at least another year. We came, we saw and we huntered. For us, it was a personal best. Since we’re not exactly hunters, my goal for the derby is usually just survival and photographs. Mid-last week I texted my trainer and asked if she would be embarrassed if her fat client with the leadchangeless ottb was the only horse at the horse…
Yesterday I bragged profusely about my great horse show. Sorry about that, but today I’ll get into the more nitty gritty detail for those of you that like those kind of posts. As previously discussed, I decided to enter the 2’3″ and 2’6″ jumpers instead of the 2’6″ and 2’9″ heights we had been previously showing at. I stepped back because it’d been almost a year since I showed at all (April 2016), and it had been a year and…
Something very weird happened to me at the show this weekend. I’ve been showing for over 15 years, and the following has never happened: I signed up classes appropriate for my horse and my riding level. I brought a well trained, seasoned horse to the horse show. I listened to what my trainer said, didn’t go off course and rode competitively… and I pinned well in every class. Not only did I pin well, but I picked one of my two divisions…