The 5 Day Challenge – Day 5
It’s the last day of Tracy‘s 5 day challenge!
21. Favorite classes to watch
I love watching equitation medals and hunter derbies. I know a lot of people find those classes super boring, but they’re my dream finals… way more-so than jumpers. Grand prixs are exciting, but most times I would choose a derby over a grand prix in terms of entertainment value to me personally 🙂
22. What’s in your cooler at horse shows?
Booze! Actually no, not even a little bit. Even though I always say I need a glass of wine to chill out before I ride… I never actually follow through with that plan. Instead, I pack lots of water and Gatorade on a hot day. I also like to bring carrot/apple snack packs, string cheese, and beef jerky. I need to eat to ride well, but most horse show food makes me want to vomit due to nerves and heat. I stick to lean protein and non-greasy snacks.
23. One thing about showing (or riding in general) you wish you could change?
Did I already say I’d like to change how expensive it is? Since I harped on finances already, I wish the playing field could level out some. I know divisions with restrictions are supposed to do that, but sometimes I wish that my free green OTTB could just be judged against other free green OTTBs instead of five figure warmblood packers. But hey, that’s horse showing. It’s not realistic so I won’t dwell on it.
24. Your ringside crew
My trainer is always there telling me key things like “breathe, remember how to ride, open your left rein you crazy person”. I’m also lucky to usually have some barn friends taking pictures and cheering me on. Tim, horse husband extroidinaire, goes to most shows and will video/photograph me when I ask nicely. He’s a great support and is good at keeping me calm and my nerves in check.
25. Best prizes
I want to win all the things!!! The best prize I have won is a beautiful ribbon with a Quarter Horse medal as the medallion, a big rosette behind that and long streamers… unfortunately that ribbon is orange, brown, and deep red colored (don’t ask). I’d love to win a neck ribbon one day, as well as a cooler. Really, I love to win anything. Next year I hope to snag a pair of boot socks or fancy treats that some of our shows give out with 1st places.
8 thoughts on “The 5 Day Challenge – Day 5”
Oooh ditto on the neck ribbon! Always wanted one of those! As an aside regarding winning things, I would also love to be part of a victory gallop too!
Totally agree about the snacks — food is necessary for good riding!
Love your collection, especially that gorgeous silver halter! As for what I’d like to win, treats are always good. Maybe a nice cooler in Paddy size? Do they give away jumping saddles at any show, ’cause I sure could use one of those!
I bought that halter for Elvis and only used it once 🙂 It was so pretty hanging on the wall though!
One day I will win a big pretty ribbon! The one show that Henry and I got reserve champion at, they never sent me the ribbon. I emailed like 10 times but never got a reply, so sad!
That really stinks about your missing ribbon!
Ohhhhh yeah I can hardly ever eat at a horse show until I’ve ridden. Usually I force myself to eat breakfast on the way there, but it’s hardly enough. In years past, I didn’t eat all day, which was bad. Now I can often wait a few hours for my stomach to calm down and the force myself to eat something. But I hear you on needing to eat to ride well…it’s a double-edged sword!
I love your ribbon and trophy collection!! And that was one of the things that was the most frustrating to me about hunters! It’s a little better in eventing- if you stick with it, free OTTBs rise to the top quite often! I won everything on a rescued mustang 🙂
But of course, you still have people with big beautiful expensive horses that beat you in dressage all of the time, lol. Luckily in eventing, though, there are three phases so it levels it out- the horses with the best minds tend to win, despite the price tag!