Show Time

The beginning of this year has been crazy busy! I've got another horse show tomorrow, and I only have a couple more before the season is over. Then it's time to decide if I want to find a summer series to show in. 

But first, I think I'm going to talk to my vet about giving Chica an all-over evaluation.  As she gets older I want to make sure I'm doing what I can to maintain her good health and soundness. It's easy enough to push myself past pain and tiredness, but since my horse doesn't have a voice of her own I feel a big responsibility to keep her happy.

After tomorrow's show I have to get together with my sister so we can start planning some of the stuff we want to do while we're in New Zealand! It will probably be my last big trip for a little while. I need to start investing more in my riding/training/showing career. I need some better show clothes, a better fitting saddle, and it might be time to start looking at horse trailers. But all things in their time. 

All I Do Is Win

Show Results

First Level Test 1: Second place (62.2%)
First Level Test 2: First place (68.28%)

For my 68.28% I also received the High Point of the Day trophy!

Practice to Perform

Photo credit: Ruth Buchanan

This blog will be about the general happenings in my life. Mostly it will be about my riding career and life at the barn. Sometimes it will be about jiu jitsu and life at the gym. Occasionally it may be about family and life in general.

I hope all of it will be interesting enough to read.

Current News

The big news in life is that I am showing my horse today. I'll be taking her to a local schooling show, and it will be our first show of 2015. It will also be our first show moving up to First Level.

Thankfully, I don't tend to get nervous during a competition except for while I'm driving to he venue. I think part of the reason for that is because I'm usually pretty well prepared and another big part is because my philosophy of competition.

Philosophy of Competition

Some people I've seen seem to have the mindset of "I'm going to compete so I'd better train really hard these two weeks before hand so I'm REALLY GOOD for the competition.

Now don't get me wrong. I know there is a process of training so you make sure you're in peak condition for the event. But in general, this is how I tend to approach the situation: "This is how I ride and today I just happen to have a judge watching and evaluating me."

"Practice the way you want to perform" is the way one choir director always phrased it.

I think this can apply to a lot of things in life. If you manage an office or a restaurant and your boss' boss is coming to visit, it will be a lot less stressful if your employees already do things according to policy. If you build buildings you won't have to stress about the inspector coming to the site because you know you and your team always build everything to code.

So when my horse steps into the ring today, I know we'll be ready to do our best!

But for right now I'd better go study my tests.