Horse show season is always at the mercy of the horses. Over
the winter, it looked like a crazy year with a bunch of students learning the
ropes and a full ride roster for me. The
good news is my students are going strong. Me, not so much.
Last year I took five horses down the centerline, and one by
one, they have all been sidelined this year for various things.
Flash, the fiery little pinto, back in March, injured her
jaw defending her stall through the little feed-hole in the front of her stall (it
was promptly covered up, but not soon enough).
She has been doing well under saddle, but she has been going bitless,
which rules her out of USDF Recognized competition. She is 3 weeks from wearing a bit again, and
we have our fingers crossed that her injury didn’t affect the inside of her jaw
where the bit lies. We won’t know until
we try it.
Secret, who did well at 3rd level last year, needs
more suppleness and strength for the jump to 4th. I tried to work on it while competing 3rd
in April and May, but some training stages require a bit of deconstruct-analyze-specialize-strengthen-reconstruct
to truly fix the problem, and that doesn’t lend itself well to staying
show-ring ready, so we decided to keep her home for a while. She is already qualified
for GAIG Regionals, so hopefully by staying home and focusing on training, we’ll
bring out a new-and-improved Secret by September. Whether we make September or not, she needs to
stay home and get stronger to compete 4th in 2013.
Basil, the big red boy that I showed late last year, well, I
lost the ride to his owner. Which is as it should be. I’m thrilled to see
Rebecca meshing with him as she always wanted to.
Eclipse has been sidelined by the checkbook. His owner is in
the Navy Reserves, and has been called into active duty repeatedly the last 48
months. The military doesn’t pay well enough to cover the farm sitter at home
as well as stud-boy’show season expenses, so if he gets out this year, it’ll be
later in the season.
Sling, who spent the first half of last year promptly growing
every time I put a show entry in the mail, was scheduled to stay home this
season. Eventually, Paige will take over the competition reins on him, so this
season the show budget went to getting her some big-ring experience on her
pony, which she did beautifully last weekend at Morven Park.
Then there’s Venus. She
is working well, but is between levels. I took her along to Morven last
weekend, and she was a good girl, but the excitement of being at a show again
for the first time in four years affected her gaits. I really don’t see the point of putting her
in front of a judge until she is relaxed enough to show her best, so she can
come along and school this season to get used to the high-intensity of shows
again. If she is relaxed, I’ll compete
her, but if she is tense, training at the show grounds will do her more
long-term good than a $3 piece of satin.
I know she can do it, she did it well enough to compete with the big
boys as a 4, 5 and 6-year old. She just needs to get in the swing of things
again.
So that leaves SFD’s two sales horses, ShowMeTheGlory (known
as Pee Wee around the barn) and Ensign’s Stately Mandolyn, or Mandy. Both are
super fun, easy-to-ride horses priced at a rather friendly price point. The
plan for them is to stick to the schooling shows, where the show budget
stretches further, and they can get what they need to be marketable – show miles
and show miles and more show miles.
My students, on the other hand, appreciate my semi-sidelined
status. Last weekend at Morven, I was
able to be their eyes in warm-up more than last season – granted, an agreeable
schedule helped a lot. Rebecca earned her second GAIG qualifying score on
James. Paige earned her qualifying score for BLM on her pony, Maggie. Alexa learned a lot about showing Ockie at a
BIG show (really, that show was much smaller, with much less scary competition
last year…. sorry about that, girls, it probably wasn’t the best choice for
your first recognized show…) and her scores improved all weekend. Meanwhile, back at home, Jen played coach for
Liz and Joyce at a local schooling show, with both riders earning personal-best
scores.
So this year I get to be the riding instructor version of
the soccer coach. I’ll live through my
student’s success, which is really quite sweet, and frankly, easier. I get to
enjoy the excitement of the show grounds, without stressing about keeping my
whites white. Sounds like a fun year.
