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Tag: horse shows

Battling Show Nerves

Battling Show Nerves

Even though I’ve actually shown a lot in my life, since 2008 s I’ve been to a grand total of three shows and all of those were in the past 12 months.  Even though I thought I had conquered my show nerves in the past, they have returned with a vengeance. I know this is something a lot of riders struggle with.  For me, it’s all about mixing exposure and attitude.  Go to a lot of shows.  Go to a…

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Observations from CTHJA Summer Circuit 2

Observations from CTHJA Summer Circuit 2

This past Saturday I spent another day at the horse show cheering on friends and taking pictures.  Each summer circuit show has a special Saturday night class, and this weekend was the jumper classic.  It’s a big deal to us with a satin obsession, because they award giant beautiful neck ribbons. And who doesn’t want to win giant beautiful neck ribbons? As always, it was nice to observe the horse show from a spectator’s point of view. Some horses just…

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SmartSlim Ultra Review

SmartSlim Ultra Review

Full disclaimer first – I worked at SmartPak while they were developing SmartSlim.  Of course, I had absolutely 0 to do with the development of the product (the person who did is really, really awesome by the way) and didn’t do any original product testing or anything like that.  I’ve just known about SmartSlim for a long, long time. So it’s surprising that it took me over 5 years to try one. When it was first a thing, I wasn’t…

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June Show – What Worked, What Didn’t

June Show – What Worked, What Didn’t

I know y’all are probably tired of hearing about the show… but hey it’s a slow week and I promise this is more entertaining than me blog about trying to lunge Simon over the log jumps last night when I went out to pay board and check on him. Overall this show pointed out to me (roughly at times) how much I have to learn and how much work we have to do.  I already went over how the classes…

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June Show – Class Rundown

June Show – Class Rundown

This post may be kind of boring, because it will most likely contain less of the usual flair or introspection.  I want to be detailed so I can look back and remember just how these classes went at the show, so I can track our improvement and progress in the future!  That being said, let’s go through the classes we entered – the 2’0″ Beginner Hunter and 2’0″ Beginner Equitation division. In the morning, I lunged Simon for maybe 20…

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A Hunter/Jumper’s Prayer

A Hunter/Jumper’s Prayer

Today is going to be kind of awesome I hope!  We have a company fun day at Top Golf (aka little to no work today) and then I’ll get to skip out of work a little bit early to go hack Simon, bathe him and pack for the show.  Our lesson last night was pretty shit-tastic, so I’m hoping that means we’ll have a good show 🙂  Either way I am adjusting my expectations in terms of ribbons (as in…

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Go Go Pony Show

Go Go Pony Show

It’s safe to say that I have horse showing on the brain. I spent my day with Jen and Echo (aka Baby Race Horse) at an itty bitty schooling show an hour southwest of Austin. It was an… er… interesting show (I will say there were beautiful jumps and plenty of areas to school that was awesome for competitors), but Echo was a rock star and had a great confidence building learning experience. I played photographer, groom and try to…

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CTHJA June at Manor Equestrian Center

CTHJA June at Manor Equestrian Center

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…

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