Hello!
Our Pony Club hosts a show every year as our main fundraising effort for the club. I’ve ridden in the last 3, including this year’s which was just a few days ago! They used to do a low key Mini Event but the last two years have instead been at the Sheboygan County Fairgrounds and been a Hunter/Jumper and Dressage show. These last two at the Fairgrounds were with Elliot, the horse that I lease. My Grandparents have been to each of the shows, including this year’s! They came up the night before.
This year Elliot and I did the Training Level Dressage tests 1, 2 and 3, and also did both a hunter and an equitation ground pole class.
We had to get up very early- my alarm was set at 4:15! I was the very first dressage rider of the day, set to do my test at 7:30am. Which meant I had to be warming up around 7:00/7:10, and we wanted to leave our barn with the trailer at 6:00am. However, things out of our control made it so that we left around 6:30… it took 20 minutes to get there which meant I had about 15 minutes to get in the warmup ring. Now to be fair, we may have needed to allow more time or go faster on our part because I don’t know if I would have been ready at 6:00. Anyway, thankfully I groomed him at the barn before so I just had to pick his hooves, tack up and get my boots, helmet and stuff on. I struggle with being too detailed and taking a long time especially with the hooves so it was a stretch for me.
I was frustrated, nervous and a bit angry. But in the car my mom helped me turn things around and reminded me to ask Mother Mary for help. I have recently done a consecration to her. We also talked about praying that through all of this… I could have fun.
Boy, did Mama Mary help.
I was able to do things fairly fast and to get on pretty much in time. A nice lady who was there that I’ve had a couple lessons with gave me a leg up when I was having a hard time keeping Elliot at the bleachers to get on him (there wasn’t a mounting block at the time). I had a pretty nice warm up- I could have done better with him but we had time and he wasn’t being spicy like he had been last year. I had enough time other than a few things including that I probably should have fixed some things on my saddle before I went into the test but the dressage judge asked if I was ready and I just said yes. I also forgot fly spray but it was fine, I asked my to get it and put it on later.
We had a pretty good ride! We did have an error of the course but he wasn’t being super crazy.
I was on Elliot for about 3 hours. In between the dressage tests and ground pole classes I would usually be in the warm up arena keeping him warmed up but trying not to get him too tired. Mary also helped me have fun through it all, to enjoy it and have some nice and friendly interactions with other riders.
This was my instructor’s two, probably around five year old twin girl’s first show ever. They did great and were really adorable!! At least twice for one of them, in two different ground pole classes, one on Chester and one on Zeus, both horses started cantering at times! It was her first time cantering over a jump and she stayed on!
I think the dressage tests went better than I thought they would, which I’m also grateful to Jesus and Mary for. They were pretty sloppy but Elliot was less spicy than last time and we had some decent moments. He got a little bit excited in Test 2 but that was about it. I wish the tests would have gone better but beforehand my mom and I had been talking about what I should define progress as because I felt like there would be very little progress from last year’s show. They went better than I thought, either way! The fact that I wasn’t fighting him throughout in that way was progress! Which I wasn’t expecting based on past rides when we rode at my instructor’s mom’s house that is a little bit down the road from our barn. He tends to get excited in new places. I’m wondering if we tired him out with the two rides he had the day before.
Anyway, we have a lot of good stuff to work on.
On Test 1 I got 6th place out of 7 people. On the next two I got 3rd but they didn’t have many more people than that in those divisions. They only reward the top 6 with ribbons so last year there must have been more people competing because for the exact same tests I didn’t get any ribbons for dressage at all and this year I walked away with one from each. That was nice!
Our ground pole classes were pretty well! To be honest I did not really practice. Elliot is not a jumper so our main focus is dressage. Last year we got 1st place in the one we did! This time I ended up getting 1st in our Hunter class and 2nd in our Equitation class! Now to be fair, some of people I was against were a lot younger, including my instructor’s girls! ? It was still fun to get those ribbons though!
It worked great because I was able to stay on that whole time and do everything I needed to do. It all took longer than I thought too which was nice since my Grandparents were there, I was worried it wouldn’t be that much for them to see. I untacked and did what I needed to do for Elliot for a while and then mainly hung out for the rest of the day. My mom and brother were volunteering at the food booth, which for the past few years has been mainly done by the dad in one of the Pony Club families. The food was super good!!! I mainly just sat around by them, it was a little awkward ?. I probably should have been more helpful at certain times.
It was very hot in the sun as it got later!
We had a silent auction going on at the show and we ended up getting a “Ready to Show” basket which had a cool white Tipperary hat (a lot of the baskets did, they got some donated), a book on horse showing, a nice notebook and a lot more.
Another girl from our barn and I were able to take Elliot, Chester and Zeus home more early with my instructor’s husband. The girl’s sister drove her and I. That was nice to get that done, and people from our barn cleaned all our stalls for us while we were gone. Then we came back and eventually helped with take down. Then we didn’t have to go back to the barn afterward which was really nice.
We were very tired that night. I was super due for a shower so I did that and eventually we had dinner in the living room and watched the Olympics. It was a pretty great day!
I also love Elliot! He is such a good, sweet boy and he did a great job! He is so patient with me.
What’s something you liked about it (and why)? I am so thankful for Mary’s prayers and all of Jesus’ help. There was more progress from last year than I expected and I am so grateful for their help with that and in getting ready fast and having a nice warmup, being calm during that, having some nice interactions with people and really having fun. I liked, for the most part, how that beginning part and throughout the day turned out. I’m also grateful for my Grandparents coming up, it was very nice to have them there! Not sure if this answers the question but yeah! ?
What’s something you disliked about it (and why)? I do wish we would have done better in dressage. It was very sloppy. But I figured we wouldn’t be that much greater than last year- although we didn’t have all the issues we had last year! We had one error of the course instead of the two last year and there were barely any canter breaks or bucks and things from Elliot. Maybe it was too prideful of me feeling like I should be better. We have a lot to work on.
What was your biggest takeaway or lesson? A big one was I was reminded how I should, and how good it can be, when I pray. I could feel Mary’s intersession that morning when I was on Elliot, and I definitely don’t pray enough throughout my day or ask for help as much as I should. It was a nice reminder on how good the grace can be.
What is something you’re curious to learn more about as a result of this experience? It got me more fired up on horses! I’d like to improve and learn more about dressage. But I also liked the jumping aspect and just the whole vibe of horses, horse management and ownership and items for horses (inspired partly from the silent auction, my own and other people’s packing as well as seeing other’s stuff). These are things I’d like to get into more. I wish I could do this show again! I’d like to do another one this year though.
Thank you for reading!
Lucy