It's the Little Things

It really doesn't take much to make me happy, especially when it comes to things that have to do with my horses. I've recently discovered that having my horse's name on something, anything, really floats my boat.

I've shared this plaque before, but my chapter of CDS recently sent me my most recent "plate," and I was eager to share it.

We finally have one row filled.

The plaque is available for purchase from the California Dressage Society. I bought mine three years ago when I knew my first plate was coming. To earn the first plate, a rider must earn five or more scores of 60% or better in a single competition year at CDS-rated shows. After that, any score over 60% earns a plate. Each time a rider earns 70% or higher, an asterisk is added after the number of scores earned.

The first summer I showed, there was no Introductory C class. I rode Inro A and B in four, CDS-rated shows and had a great time, but we didn't earn any recognition from CDS. The next year, 2011, the new tests were introduced. The newly created Intro C class was basically the old Training Level Test 1. That really bummed me out because I had to spend an extra year at Intro Level. We did pretty well there though and earned three scores of 60% or better which earned us a certificate from CDS.

It's framed and hanging in my office.

In 2012, I continued riding Intro C, but added the Training Level tests  throughout the year until I finished up riding Training Level Tests 2 and 3. We earned 4 scores of 60% or better at Intro and 7 scores above 60% for Training Level.

Our First Plate

I am obviously a slow learner because in 2013, I embraced Training Level completely, but didn't feel ready for First Level. We had a great year though and earned 16 scores over 60%. I finished the year ready to move on to First Level. 

That's a lot of great scores!

Speedy had other plans though. That was the winter he came up lame and took more than three months off. By the time we were ready to show again in early summer of 2014, I just didn't feel we were ready for the move to First Level.

Instead, we competed at Training Level again, but it turned out to be a wise choice as we really racked up some high scores, including scores above 70%. In fact, we did so well that we won the CDS Regional Adult Amateur Competition at Training Level and went on to compete at the CDS Championship/USDF Region 7 Championship Show (I didn't enter the USDF classes though).

Love those asterisks - two scores over 70%!

Once again, we are poised to move on to First Level. We've already done First Level Tests 1 and 2 (the old tests) at a schooling show this past fall. We earned scores of 63% and 64% which wouldn't hold up at a CDS-rated show, but the scores showed me that we might actually crack the 60% mark at a rated show. 

I am going to continue gently polishing my plates and appreciating all of our hard work. Here's to a successful year of showing in 2015 - for all of us!