Doing some quick micro blogging during the show 🙂 Friday I got in first, got our stalls unlocked and put out shavings while trying to calm my spaniel down from his worried mania. I guess my springer (my buddy for the weekend) forgot what shows are like since it’s been so long. He kept wanting to go back to the car… Sorry buddy, were here all weekend – but I digress! Lunged Simon for a bit but could only trot…
My brain is almost 100% on the year end show, and because you guys are my captive readers I’m going to drag you down the crazy train with me. Most of my showing has been exclusively at local one day shows and schooling shows, and last year’s CTHJA year end show was my first “away from home” weekend show where I actually sat on my horse and rode him around a ring. Â Success! This year the year end show is…
I’ve been told by an eventing friend that hunter/jumper shows are a foreign world and leave her feeling very confused. Â It’s hard for me to see that since I’ve only been to hunter/jumper and open shows, but after reading some blogs lately about people feeling frustrated to some degree after attending a hunter/jumper show I thought I’d give my two cents. Â It may or may not be helpful, and I’m sure I’ve missed something so if my fellow hunter/jumper enthusiasts…
The show this past Saturday was one of those that I will record as another good learning experience and miles for my green horse. Â It wasn’t a disaster, but it wasn’t stellar. Â I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a bit disappointing, but that’s horse showing! This was the 3rd time we’ve shown at this facility (2nd time this year) and as one day shows usually go, the schedule is a little stressing for Simon. Â You may remember how…
After four beautiful rounds of jumping this past weekend, my trainer informed me that I needed to do the under saddle classes as well. Simon and I hate flatting. People say that it’s the race horse in him, but he never really raced and the truth is he’s almost as bad schooling at home as he is in the ring. I just don’t think he’s quite figured out what under saddle classes are all about.
My goal for this show was to have a calmer Simon (and a calmer me!) throughout the entire experience, and I am thrilled to say that we blew past that goal and ended up reserve champion in the 2’3″ Equitation!  Wut wut! That’s the high level overview.  If you want to skip the rest of the words of this post and just look at pretty pictures, that’s totally fine by me 🙂 We’ll start with schooling on Friday.  I headed over…
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. Â 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. Â For me, it’s all about mixing exposure and attitude. Â Go to a lot of shows. Â Go to a…
This past Saturday I spent another day at the horse show cheering on friends and taking pictures. Â Each summer circuit show has a special Saturday night class, and this weekend was the jumper classic. Â 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…