So for the show on Sunday, my dressage team was putting it on - we do a fall and spring show - and I am the president of the team as well as the show manager for this particular show. This equals mucho stress. Plus I was planning on riding in it (which was allowed because its a league show). That night I already had two club members contact me saying that they couldn't be there. Sadly these two shows are our only required events for members to show up to and only half of our team came.
Anyways, people canceling made me really worried that we wouldn't have enough people to help. Then I started thinking about what I had to do the next day. I realized that not only was my trailer not loaded, but it also still had things in it that needed to be unloaded. Thinking more about it, I realized I wouldn't even have time to braid Jetta. Oh well, at least she just had her mane pulled and I'd get up an hour earlier at 5 to deal with the trailer.
This internal discussion went on until about 1 in the morning as I thought and worried more and more about the show. If I rode my first test, I wouldn't be able to go get lunch. Solution? Only ride one test. But then I wouldn't have enough time to warm up for my second test - my tests were directly before and after lunch. If the four other members showed up, I still wouldn't have enough people to cover all of the roles so that lunch could be picked up. I eventually drifted off into a restless sleep and got up at 5. So I got less than 4 hours of sleep.
When I woke up I still felt worried about the show and the more I thought about it, the worse the situation seemed. At 5:30 I decided that I wasn't going to ride. I conked out on the couch for another hour and then headed to the show.
Once there we still had to assign every rider a number as well as the letters still had to be measured out and placed around the arena. Our judge was Anne Appleby and she was so nice about everything, including helping us place the letters properly. A couple days before the show I had made up packets for the competitors - we had an awesome local tack store donate not only the cooler for the high percentage award, but also hoof picks with their flyer attached and I also printed the show schedule up, so at least that was done nicely. Our ribbons arrived on time and looked amazing - if you need show ribbons, try out ribbonsgalore.com - they do custom ribbons and they look awesome, we got many compliments on them and actually paid $200 less than the ribbons for our previous show. Everything came together wonderfully. It was sunny but a little cold. The night before it was raining, so I had been stressing about that as well. Except for my rides and another team members ride, no one else canceled. We ran on time all day, sometimes even ahead if schedule and we were out of there by three!
If it ran so smoothly, why was I so stressed? Well, it was because our last show was a disaster. We had all new members because the older members had all graduated - therefore we didn't really have a clue what we were doing. Our president bailed on us and the secretary for the show accidently scheduled too little time for the rides, resulting in us being massively behind schedule. We ended up being three hours behind and the show ended at 10 at night. We had scheduled too many rides (120 rides, while the max should have been 80) and a lot of people were pissed off. Most people were very understanding, there was just the few that let us know how unhappy they were and I totally sympathized. I don't want people to dislike the team or our shows, I want them to run well and for people to be happy, thus my nervousness.
But all that stressing was for nothing. It was literally the perfect show. Very laid back, I think everyone had a good time and we had no problems. I was thoroughly exhausted though after we put away the dressage ring in record time, ML and I went out and rode the horses. I was really disappointed that I didn't get to ride, especially because it would have been possible, just too stressful though. It was hard watching everyone else and thinking "I bet Jetta would do better than that horse".
And of course to add to my disappointment in not being able to show off our moves I had a great ride on Jetta. We ditched the arena in favor of the field because it was so crowded inside. After a couple minutes of Jetta going "Outside? Galloping time!!" she calmed back down and we had some great work, cantering circles and figure eights with simple lead changes (!) in the middle. Doing shallow trot serpentines across the field and asking for some lengthen trots and really asking her to put more weight on her hiney. We went back inside to walk and cool off but I couldn't resist trotting again. It was seriously the most amazing, BEST trot we've ever had - it was so elastic and round, she was really stretching forward without rushing or being heavy on the forehand. Ah-maz-ing. I was so proud.
So that was my weekend. Stressful but good. The only bad things were that I missed out riding in an eventing clinic/derby at a local farm that I'd been planning to go to all summer, but luckily they also have one in the spring, and I didn't get to ride in our dressage show. But I'm content - I'm just happy the show went well and I can stop stressing! Maybe. I somewhat foolishly signed up to start volunteering at the campus large animal veterinary hospital because I want experience with that sort of thing and need to work with at least two vets to get into vet school. But it's only for four weeks, so I'm sure I'll survive. I hope...
Anyways, people canceling made me really worried that we wouldn't have enough people to help. Then I started thinking about what I had to do the next day. I realized that not only was my trailer not loaded, but it also still had things in it that needed to be unloaded. Thinking more about it, I realized I wouldn't even have time to braid Jetta. Oh well, at least she just had her mane pulled and I'd get up an hour earlier at 5 to deal with the trailer.
This internal discussion went on until about 1 in the morning as I thought and worried more and more about the show. If I rode my first test, I wouldn't be able to go get lunch. Solution? Only ride one test. But then I wouldn't have enough time to warm up for my second test - my tests were directly before and after lunch. If the four other members showed up, I still wouldn't have enough people to cover all of the roles so that lunch could be picked up. I eventually drifted off into a restless sleep and got up at 5. So I got less than 4 hours of sleep.
When I woke up I still felt worried about the show and the more I thought about it, the worse the situation seemed. At 5:30 I decided that I wasn't going to ride. I conked out on the couch for another hour and then headed to the show.
Once there we still had to assign every rider a number as well as the letters still had to be measured out and placed around the arena. Our judge was Anne Appleby and she was so nice about everything, including helping us place the letters properly. A couple days before the show I had made up packets for the competitors - we had an awesome local tack store donate not only the cooler for the high percentage award, but also hoof picks with their flyer attached and I also printed the show schedule up, so at least that was done nicely. Our ribbons arrived on time and looked amazing - if you need show ribbons, try out ribbonsgalore.com - they do custom ribbons and they look awesome, we got many compliments on them and actually paid $200 less than the ribbons for our previous show. Everything came together wonderfully. It was sunny but a little cold. The night before it was raining, so I had been stressing about that as well. Except for my rides and another team members ride, no one else canceled. We ran on time all day, sometimes even ahead if schedule and we were out of there by three!
If it ran so smoothly, why was I so stressed? Well, it was because our last show was a disaster. We had all new members because the older members had all graduated - therefore we didn't really have a clue what we were doing. Our president bailed on us and the secretary for the show accidently scheduled too little time for the rides, resulting in us being massively behind schedule. We ended up being three hours behind and the show ended at 10 at night. We had scheduled too many rides (120 rides, while the max should have been 80) and a lot of people were pissed off. Most people were very understanding, there was just the few that let us know how unhappy they were and I totally sympathized. I don't want people to dislike the team or our shows, I want them to run well and for people to be happy, thus my nervousness.
But all that stressing was for nothing. It was literally the perfect show. Very laid back, I think everyone had a good time and we had no problems. I was thoroughly exhausted though after we put away the dressage ring in record time, ML and I went out and rode the horses. I was really disappointed that I didn't get to ride, especially because it would have been possible, just too stressful though. It was hard watching everyone else and thinking "I bet Jetta would do better than that horse".
And of course to add to my disappointment in not being able to show off our moves I had a great ride on Jetta. We ditched the arena in favor of the field because it was so crowded inside. After a couple minutes of Jetta going "Outside? Galloping time!!" she calmed back down and we had some great work, cantering circles and figure eights with simple lead changes (!) in the middle. Doing shallow trot serpentines across the field and asking for some lengthen trots and really asking her to put more weight on her hiney. We went back inside to walk and cool off but I couldn't resist trotting again. It was seriously the most amazing, BEST trot we've ever had - it was so elastic and round, she was really stretching forward without rushing or being heavy on the forehand. Ah-maz-ing. I was so proud.
 |
| The cutest, bestest dressage pony EVER! |
 |
| Sporting her new dressage pad. |
I remember you blogging about the last show. So glad this one was better and a lot less stressful. :-)
ReplyDeleteToo bad you couldn't ride but it sounds like it went SO MUCH BETTER. You guys just needed practice to get it right ;)
ReplyDelete