Our local show circuit is called CenTX, which stands for Central Texas Hunter Jumper Association. Austin is different from what I was used to in Raleigh as far as the show scene goes. In Raleigh, you could take your pick in any given month from a selection of open shows, hunter/jumper schooling shows, and C or A hunter/jumper shows in the surrounding area. In Austin while we are lucky to have a good hunter/jumper scene, the choice is TSSA (classy…
I believe I’ve mentioned before, but I ride at a pretty no thrills kind of barn. Meaning, we see a lot of white plastic schooling helmets, nylon halters decorated with glitter puff paint, and my personal favorite – a fitted zebra fleece english pad. Fitted zebra people… fitted! Really I’m fine with all this, because the ugly white helmets are safe and the tye dye polka dot polo wraps are done correctly… so who cares? I don’t care but I guess my…
And now for the long awaited epic conclusion of my first major horse show as well as the show that made me scared of showing (almost) forever. As the record states, after doing remarkably well in mare halter I had managed to make poor riding decisions in hunter hack and gone off course in hunter over fences. All that were left were Hunter GAYP (Go as You Please) and Hunter Under Saddle. Easy peasy…. not really. If you have not…
The story so far: little Lauren and Lydia get a 3rd in Mare halter because they copied showmanship skills from another girl in the class. Little Lauren and Lydia then get called back in the hunter hack class, but Lauren makes an ass of herself by riding poorly… a trend that will continue. Now let me tell you a little bit about myself: I was probably at least 20-21 years old before I made it through a horse show without…
When we last left 14 y/o me, I was high on horse show success from copying a girl from a lesson factory barn and thus winning a yellow ribbon in mare halter – rock on me! This taught me a valuable terrible lesson early on in my show career – you should change your tactic at the horse show right before or in the middle of your class. New skills and horse training can be done in the middle of…
I started taking riding lessons in someone’s back yard when I was 10 years old. For a backyard barn, it was a great one with a grass ring and good horses. My trainer’s main focus was fox hunting, and while I learned so much about good horsemanship in general – equitation and the finer points of showing hunter/jumpers were not on the radar for my early equine education. I don’t remember anything about my first horse show except that it…
Overall I’ve been really lucky on the riding front. No broken bones, no significant time off, etc. I cracked a few ribs once and hurt my hip in the process, but after about two weeks I was back to normal. There is one fall that has scarred me forever and gave me what I like to affectionately call my ass tumor. See that kind of pointed part of my ass? I hope the cellulite doesn’t leave you blind, but I…
It took me a long, long time to get somewhat good at horse showing. Going to a show and getting no satin pretty ribbons (oh ribbons, how I love you… let me count the ways) these days isn’t a huge shocker, because there were many, many shows in my past where I would be happy to come home with one 6th place. Eventually, I did start doing better than 6th and then I won some. There are 3 ribbons in…