Dressage Show

I have taken Izzy to one informal unrecognized dressage show ever. It was a very bad experience, to say the least. It wasn't really the organizer's fault--Ms. Mare had a meltdown of ulceric proportions and I got kicked and, well, the judge hated me.

Anyways. As such, I just quit bugging around with it. We did dressage at home and didn't even sign up for it at combined tests. I mean, all shows need volunteers, so I'd just do that for dressage and ride in the jumping. I didn't bother attending/volunteering at the big dressage shows. I don't really have a good reason for that. I guess I just didn't care.

Early last week though, I got a call from a friend who needed a groom at the recognized show. I told her I'd love to, and that was that. It was so fun (and pure chaos). Basically, my old trainer and I had three horses between us. She was riding all of them, which meant I was brushing, cleaning, braiding, boot wiping, water bottle carrying, and test reading. Plus cold hosing, untacking, bucket filling and tack cleaning.

I forgot how much I love that stuff.

There are only a few pictures, since I was mostly running around like a crazy but calm and collected person, but here is one of the horses in my charge. He's a goofy 5 year old oldenburg gelding. This was his first recognized show (I think) and it was his first canter show. He'd only done an intro class at one prior show.

What a pretty boy.

And a shot of him in the show ring. He was in the top three in all four of his classes. He's really quite a solid citizen--he'd spook at the judges' booth as he walked in, then not even blink at it again after that.

Also, he's bloody huge. (like 16.2 at least). I know this picture doesn't make him look ginormous, but that's because Cathy's 6' tall and has incredibly long legs.

And here's Cathy on Sasha, her 2nd/3rd/other hard things horse. They had a good weekend and got qualifying scores for regionals. Yay!

I had an absolute blast and even got complimented on my excellence as a groom by a race horse trainer, which was kind of fun. Cathy almost didn't know what to do with herself. As soon as she got off a horse, I ran off with it and had it untacked, fed, watered, stalled, and rinsed before she even made it back to the barn. Winning!

Of course, the fun part about grooming for a pro is that when I'd got pick up her scores, every test had a pretty ribbon attached. I think she won like 60% of her classes, which was way fun for me. She's one of those 'it's not about the ribbons' people, but I'm one of those 'OMFG I GOT A RIBBON' people, so I guess we balance each other out.

Total score for the weekend: $30 grooming fee from friend who owned the not-pictured horse, two free dressage lessons from Cathy, one pair of free breeches. What's not to love?