Bear Valley Show Part 1

I've written these word before, but here I go again: I might love this horse more now that I am not riding him. I thought I couldn't love him any more than when he earned us a USDF Bronze Medal; I was wrong. My heart simply melted this weekend as I watched him happily carrying "T" through her first ever dressage show. Speedy was simply perfect.

What you have to do when your horse has rubbed out a hunk of mane, and it won't grow back.

A few weeks ago, T rode through several different tests so that we could determine which tests she should choose to show. While we've done all of the movements from Training Level, we haven't really worked on the leg yields or stretchy trot circle enough to show them, so we decided that she should do Introductory Level Test C and Training Level Test 1.

The week before the show, we schooled both tests a few different times. We also spent quite a lot of time talking about how to show. If you've never been to a dressage show, it can look like everything is done in secret. We practiced everything she would need to do before she even started the test. Things like:

• when to enter the ring
• what to do outside the ring before the the judge rings her bell
• how to introduce yourself to the judge
• what to do if the judge rings the bell if you happen to already be at A (DON'T GO IN UNTIL YOU'RE READY - but don't be late either)
• how to enter at A
• how to salute
• what it sounds like to have the test read aloud
• what to do when the test is over
• how to exit the ring
• what to do between tests

Then we practiced it all. I blew my whistle a million times, we worked out when I would start reading, how fast I should read, and what it means when the test says BETWEEN B and F. When we felt confident about the test itself, T came out for another lesson where we worked on what to do in the warm up. I quit telling her what to do (mostly). I explained that the warm up was large, and she was going to need to pretty much ride on her own with me only offering coaching when she was close enough to hear me.

Once we'd done all that, T came out for a final warm up ride on Saturday. She did her twenty minute warm up (with me keeping track of the time), and then we ran through each test one last time. Afterwards, she gave Speedy a good bath, and we loaded the trailer. Then we sat down to map out her day.

It's a little less than an hour and a half drive to the Bear Valley Equestrian Center, but things around me have a tendency to go haywire, especially lately, so we built plenty of extra time into the schedule. I ended up arriving a few minutes early, but nothing ever goes perfectly. T's gate pass didn't go through, so it took some extra time for me to make some phone calls to get the gate pass for her.

Bear Valley is a private, gated town, and all non-residents need a pass to enter. Most of the time the system works, but I always expect issues, and Sunday morning was one of those days where things didn't work out smoothly. Since I had built in extra time in our schedule. T arrived just after 8:30, but I already had Speedy unloaded with hay and water so there was no need to feel rushed.

​To be continued ...