And I am shocked to see how few people there are in my class! There are only 12 people at training 3+4…and I know half of them personally! Hahaha. This show is so small in comparison to past years. I was surprised to see my “rival” was showing in the same division that I am. This woman competed against Gennyral and I 4 years ago and she always has her trainer warm up the horse and her horse has TEMPI CHANGES! Do you know how intimidating it is to have a horse come flying across the diagonal AT YOU doing tempi changes when you are showing WALK/TROT. And she is in the show ring right after me this year so I will be in the warm up with her. My expectations this year are totally different though so I don’t think she will psyc me out like she has in the past. I was just surprised to see she was still showing training level because last year she was consistently in the 70%s and was reserve champion in the year ends at it.
The cool thing is that I will have lots of friends in my division with me. Lori, Speedy’s Mom, Texas’s Owner and the leasor of my triner’s Half-Blind Horse will all be in the ring warming up with me at some point so hopefully there will be a lot of laughter going around.
The scariest part of the day for me? I might have to drive Texas myself!!!And there are 2 circles on the way to this farm. And the parking sucks! Texas’s Owner is bringing her fancy horse to school and so I might have to be a big girl if she wants to make only one trip to the show.
So if you are asking yourself why I am not stressing about the riding part the answer is simple. No ribbons. This is a sweepstakes show for money, and considering how much I spend on horses each month and how little the prize is in comparison I really could care less about how I place. Would I love to beat my “rival”? Of course, but considering she and her horse have been together for 4 years, the horse is very well trained, and they are consistently in the mid 70%s I don’t think that is very realistic. And since there are no ribbons being handed out my ribbon junkie self does not even consider this a real show to me. What can I say…I love ribbons!
My only real goal for the day? Break 60% at training 4 so I can get a usable score towards my GMO medals.
I need to go watch a dressage show one of these days. This whole thing of having a “time” to show is just so bizarre and the fact that you might only go to ride once or twice is even odder. Does that limit you to only going to shows that are close by because it’s just too much hassle to go very far for one or two classes? I’m so used to our open and breed shows where my daughter does at least 5-8 classes and I might squeeze in a couple if I’m in the mood and the horse is happy.
Only having 1 or 2 classes does not limit my showing at all. I am very lucky and live in a very horsey area so all the shows I am going to this year are not even 30 minutes away. I worked a western show and thought it was crazy how people were on their horses ALL DAY! It just goes to show that what you do yourself is always normal and everyone else is always weird
The posted times are completely bizarre to me too. I am used to schooling at 7 a.m. and then waiting around all day, constantly checking in at my ring, and guessing as to when I’ll show based on how many trips are in each class. Sometimes it works out in our favor. On Saturday we guessed that we would be showing at 5 but we actually showed around 2:30. Not bad.