Horse Show Numbers are (gasp!) Declining

There are a couple articles swirling around "the socials" right now about the decline in participation at USEF horse shows.

The mind, she is boggled!

Or like.

Not.

#baller

One of the posts I saw was written by a thoughtful local pro who I have a lot of respect for, so I wrote the following:

"It’s been years since I’ve taken a horse in the show ring and if I get back to it, I don’t see myself joining organizations and showing rated. The cost is so high and the competitor experience is not great. Why would I spend hundreds of dollars to wear white spandex for a couple minutes and sweat my ass off only to be told that my safe, appropriate horse isn’t as fancy as a much fancier horse?

I find my competitive outlets other places and while I enjoy my horse, I have no interest in getting back to showing."

There was a lot of discussion, but another person came back with two things:

1. Amateurs are too fixated on winning
2. Amateurs who aren't winning blame their non-fancy horse instead of their own poor riding

I'd like to discuss these responses just a little. 

1. Winning fixation-as the other poster illustrated, people run 5ks with no expectation of ever winning. Why should they expect to win at dressage? 

Let's talk about this a little. 

Running is a sport with a very low barrier of entry financially. You can do it with things you already have around the house. You can spend a lot or you can spend a little. For the sake of discussion, let's focus on the full-time worker who runs nights and weekends for fun and does 5-10 5ks a year. 

They pay $30-100 to run a race. At that race, they can wear anything they feel like running in (barefoot in shorts and a sports bra? fine. designer shoes, olympic branded gear, heart rate monitor? equally fine.) They get a tech fabric shirt, a finisher medal, post-race snacks, and frequently a meal or beverage. There's a start time and every participant can set objective time goals and work towards them. 

If their friends or family want to come watch, there is a start time and a published route. Cheering and participation is encouraged. If they have plans after, the whole day is typically ahead of them. If the family wants to participate, hey, they can.

• This person will literally never win a 5k unless they are over 70 years old. 
• This person will never appear on the "national running scene".
• This person will have the full running experience, probably including a couple of irritating injuries that will result in a few days away from work over their career

they may get a wild hair and run a half marathon too

And how does horse showing stack up? 

Riding is a sport with a very high barrier of entry. Whether you own or lease, you need a horse. The horse needs to live somewhere. You need appropriate tack and gear for the horse, a way to get the horse to and from competitions, and a bevy of memberships to be allowed at the competitions.

And this is for the nights and weekends rider who wants to do 5-10 shows a year. 

We're going to talk about recognized/rated horse shows since these are the ones squealing about diminished participation. Participants pay $150-500/day in show fees just to the show (not including coaching/stabling/hauling/grooming/schooling/etc). The participant (and the horse) have to wear approved outfits and the person in charge can literally wave around a color wheel and kick a rider out out for being a shade off. If the person wins the horse show, they get a $2-$5 ribbon with no cash value. Maybe a wine glass. If they don't win, hopefully there was a peppermint in the competitor pack that they can suck on. They can try to set individual score goals, but since judging is ultimately subjective and influenced by trends and the class around them, they may or may not meet the goals. (You ride Backyard Betty after Hopfenschnerflgard the Import? -5 for looking worse in comparison. Whoops. Too bad your ride had to be scheduled around multiple trips in the ring for the ammy with 3 imports who's competing in multiple divisions and worth way more money to the show organization than you ever will be!)  

If your friends or family want to come watch, they will have to show up to a multi-hour event that is nearly always behind schedule. They will be subjected to a complicated set of expectations for the horse show spectator and ignored at best, or (likely) mocked, hushed, and glared at for not following the intricate social mores of a rarefied upper class club. If they have plans after, too bad. The event will go all day. If they still want to participate after all that, the barrier of entry is just as high as it was for the first person.

• This person might win a class here and there because hey, participation is declining and sometimes your competition gets the flu!
• This person will never appear on the "national riding scene".
• This person will always know that they aren't a "true equestrian" because their middle class life requires they have a real job and health insurance, which precludes long hours at the barn. 
• This person runs the chance of a catastrophic injury from being around horses which could result in weeks or months away from that all-important job. 

oh hai decently fancy ribbon

TL:DR USEF shows come with very high costs and little to no reward. Running 5ks is much more competitor and spectator friendly. 

2. Non-winning amateurs on affordable horses who ride on nights and weekends and take a weekly lesson should blame their own riding instead of the fact that they got beat by a purpose-bred sport horse that cost more than their house ridden by an-equally motivated amateur who trains 5-7 days a week with the best trainer money can pay for in a sport that literally takes a lifetime to understand.

If you say there isn't a divide here, I don't know what to tell you. It's a money sport. The people who can afford top of the line horses, get more show ring experience, and ride with better pros are not less motivated than you are and yup, they're going to beat you every out. 

And they should. They literally paid for the privilege.

They're better than you (at this sport). A lot of them are great humans and they work hard at it and that's nothing to be ashamed of. 

i'm being a dik dik again

There's not a whoooooole lot of point in paying money to go get your subjectively-judged ass handed to you to the tune of your mortgage payment per weekend when you literally don't have a chance. (Unless you're short on wine glasses? Even then I feel like amazon prime might be a better shot if you want a matched set.) 

So yeah. If you want to be blamed for not having enough money to compete in a moneysport that's literally populated by the Eve Jobs, Jennifer Gates, and Georgina Bloombergs of the world, I mean, there's always USEF shows! 

Sound off, internet. Why am I wrong?

Training While Broken: Courage Style

Thank you stupid car accident, I still feel like poo most of the time and my body doesn't work and my brain doesn't work super great either. I'm bored to tears by lunging right now and our outdoor arena is just starting to be rideable.

that makes both of us, i think

The few times I've sat on C-Rage this year have been in the safe confines of the indoor. You know, small, no windows, no room to get up serious speed if he decides to peace the hell out. It happens.

So because I'm not the rider I ought to be right now and Courage is the horse he is, I've made some different choices. For example, does anyone else remember how C likes to hardcore bolt and flail in the spring? And how the first ride outside ALWAYS necessitates bolting? No? Well maybe it's just me but if I weren't massively lazy, I'm pretty sure I could dig up posts about it for you.

am massively lazy. insert dr chiweenie image as diversion.

Soooooo our first excursion to the great outdoors was on a lunge line. With Vienna reins. In the safe end.

oh hullo there sexy

That went shockingly well--not a single bolt or flail, just positive forward energy. Let's look at that again.

dead sexy

The next day we worked back inside and C was definitely a little sore and tired from that much brilliance. Also kinda batshit due to the fluctuating turnout from the weather. Then we came back outside again, this time to do some groundwork in a rope halter.

i will take this

The whole idea was that I wanted Courage relaxed and focused on me, now in a "new" and definitely more interesting environment.

omg arena was worked!

Then came our first lesson since November! If I was a smarter person, I would have ridden inside but dammit it was 41f and sunny and the footing was perfect. Oh and I'm totally coasting on this thing where Courage knows I can't ride for shit and despite being a LUNATIC on the lunge half the time, he doesn't put a foot wrong when I ride him. It's possibly the sweetest thing ever.

look who's not bucking me off

I'm not going to lie to you and say it was perfect. My body is useless and doesn't do what it's told. My brain seems to process about 10 seconds behind constantly. My trainer was very, very patient and the worst thing Courage did the whole time was pick up a little canter stride instead of trotting forward, but he came right back when I lost my balance.

such a good boy

Note: I always tell my trainer the secret to this horse is to half ass it and ride like shit. I might be more right than I know.

Of course, the FOUR WHOLE (kidding, more like 2.5 if you count walk breaks) minutes of trotting was about as much as my stupid body felt like coping with, so our next session was in the rope halter. As much as I hate having my schedule dictated to me by pain, it's forcing me to think through how to address our problems differently.

So problem. When I ask Courage to do something he thinks is hard, he gets tense and flings himself around. Also problem: he thinks the top of the outdoor arena is scary.

opinions. we haz them.

So I took him to the top of the outdoor arena and did some groundwork exercises until he was focused and relaxed. Success level one: scary place not scary.

Then I looked at the scary ass mess of ground poles in the corner. Fun fact: C HATES ground poles. He's actually more ok with jumps than poles.

So I led him over them at the walk. That was fine. Time to make it harder.

I sent him over it at the walk on a circle left.

That was a little rushed, but ok.

Then I asked him to change direction and walk back over them.

BINGO

He didn't like me off his right side, he didn't like the poles, and he didn't like the scary end. He threw his shoulders in my direction and his head up and slammed it in reverse.

God damn I love ground work for this stuff. First things first--no horse gets to push into my space, even if they're ten feet away on a lunge line. Running over me is NOT an option. (PS and if you don't train your horse like this, do not ask me to handle it. I have zero tolerance for being run over.)

Next things next. When I say "go forward quietly", I mean "I am the boss hoss in this here shindig and I say it's safe to proceed quietly SO GIT YER ASS OVER THAR NAOW".

his yes ma'am face

Now, I have to qualify that statement--Courage is a sensitive horse with a hair trigger. In our relationship, a "big" reprimand is me swinging the coiled lunge line at his butt. Not hitting it. Swinging it at him. It's an unusual day if I really even pull on the rope. Because he is so reactive, I don't get excited when he slams it in reverse. I let him go so he doesn't feel trapped and don't reprimand unless it crosses the line into naughty.

And even then, when I say "reprimand", for this horse, I mean a tug on the rope and saying "knock it off, asshole" out loud in a normal tone.

This horse is not representative of all horses, but he's my horse and this is the method that gets me the best results. I don't feed his drama and then he comes back to me.

And maybe it's stupid to say this, but the biggest factor is the release--so he does something well and I immediately take pressure off by turning away, let him stand, and stare at my phone until he finishes licking and chewing.

So. All that. We fixed "go over there quietly" and we fixed "pay attention to SB" and we fixed "scary end omg", and then we went back to the poles.

hey look who can walk like a sane horse

 I guess I should add something here--I have no idea who set the poles or what the hell they were trying to accomplish. On this day with this horse, I wanted him to relax and look where he was going so I didn't "fix" them to a more correct distance. I wanted him to think through a problem calmly. No shits given about proper striding.

admit you kinda love his mud dreds

And by the end of the session, I had a horse working calmly through a difficult exercise with a soft eye and a soft body on the scary end of the scary arena. We call that "Success Level Two".

I certainly wouldn't choose to be this way and I don't know how well this is going to translate going forward, but it's a whole new way to spend time with Courage and we're making the best of it.

Insert Frustrated Sounds Here

 I sort of think I could just drop this meme here and it would cover all my feelings about the past few weeks.

Two weeks ago, we couldn't work because Courage's toes were long and he was kinda on and off.

One week ago, he decided that stretchy trot was too hard and we couldn't work because we couldn't brain.

Oh and then last week, he wrapped up his bell boot-destroying-rampage by NEARLY SEVERING HIS LEG getting a probably-self-inflicted tiny cut and being COMPLETELY CRIPPLED.

Yeah no strikethrough on that one because it's actually true.

pre-treatment

It's a long ways from his heart. It's not serious or scary or even really anything. If he was anything other than a giant princess thoroughbred, it wouldn't be swollen and he wouldn't notice it.

post-treatment

But noooooooo he is most definitely a princess and so I am (not actually a joke) tack walking, cold hosing, and buting him for a TINY CUT that BARELY broke the skin.

and repeat

You might say I'm massively overreacting and I 110% agree with you. IT'S A TINY CUT.

But. I discovered it Thursday morning when homeboy could barely touch his foot to the ground to hobble around because OMG CRIPPLED.

this is what crippled looks like

Gave him two days off with bute+cold hosing and he was still off at the trot. Did a couple more days tack walking but no bute or hosing and yeah, you guessed it, he blew the leg back up like a balloon.

also he wants a glove balloon

So yeah. I'd scheduled some lessons for this week and was hoping we could finally start moving forward again.

 which of you bitches ruined my plan by telling him?

Courage Has Opinions

I throw around the #couragehasopinions tag on social media when Courage and I are having a rough time. Generally because of his opinions. I usually commemorate said opinions with fail pictures and gratuitous memes, some of which you see here.

A non-blogging Courage fan encouraged me to start a separate instagram for said memes. (Well, actually she said tumblr, but I don't know what tumblr is so I passed.) Regardless. She was so stuck on the point that she even checked available user names for me. 

What do you know. Couragehasopinions was available. 

I'm having way too much fun with it. I've even got fail pictures from Austen and Emma to add to the hilarity. 

If it feels too Taylor Swift for you, that's because she's easy I had Taylor Swift Day. I also started sci fi day yesterday... it may go on for a while.

If you're not on instagram, I am trying to link to the best of them with the blog facebook with mixed success. So there you have it. If you were just wishing for more Courage, more opinions, and ALL THE MEMES, I have your answer.

TL;DR sad face

Before Courage and I went to our last show, I said that if we didn't break 65%, I wasn't willing to try and do a recognized show immediately after. I realize that it would probably be good experience, but I'm not in a place in life where I can shell out hundreds of dollars when I don't have a reasonable expectation of accomplishing something tangible (bronze scores). I mean yeah, maybe Courage would be fine and love the facility.

not what 65% looks like

Or you know, maybe he'd be green and have a meltdown and with the substantially harder judging at a recognized shows, we'd beat down my confidence without helping him. 

We're not paying $400 to find out. I just can't. 

Instead of showing at the big shindig I'd been working towards for well over a year now, I went and volunteered. It's great to help out and see the scene and blah blah blah something about giving back and something about being supportive.

You know what sucks?

Busting your ass to work towards a big goal and failing.

I can try to be optimistic and say that it turns out there were a lot of good life-reasons that I'm glad I didn't just shell out $$$ to go to a show. Or I can say "there's always another year". Or a lot of things. I'm a pretty positive person and I'll get over it. I always do.

But right now, it sucks.

I'm not mad at Courage. I'm frustrated--why do I live in a region where our only recognized shows are early in the year? Why can't I afford to do all the things and go all the places to turn my horse into a seasoned campaigner overnight? Or even some of the things and some of the places and get some decent exposure? Why do all the shittiest things always happen to me in May, no matter how carefully I plan?

There's a lot of meta whys and no answers other than "you ought to get over yourself and be grateful for what you have, you whiny overgrown child".

I'm still doing the slow, consistent, simple work at home and Courage is progressing really well. I know life is bigger than horse shows and I know I'm luckier than a lot of people.

And tomorrow, I'll try to feel better about that.

What Happens in Blogland...

As the only woman in my office, working in a very male-dominated industry, I have a rather unique set of perks and challenges. I focus on the perks, which includes things like:
1) If I painted my nails, I'm trying too hard.
2) Barn clothes translate with work clothes with minimal effort and zero commentary.
3) There is literally zero office "relationship" stuff to deal with.

But as I discovered in the past month, there is one other distinct advantage:

4) When I mentioned wanting to set up a fantasy league for Rolex, my coworkers not only had advice on how to run it and what it would entail, but one of them built me this amazing color-coded spreadsheet with all kinds of cool formulas and even learned enough about eventing to do data entry for me.

Wait what?

Yes.

Because anything worth doing is worth smack talking about, I recruited a small group to do a test run of equine-based Rolex Fantasy league. I mean, we all know Ze Terminator was going to win, so that's not a lot of fun. But what if you take 55 horses out of a 72 horse field and try to guess which ones will even get close to finishing?

Now that is quality entertainment.

It was just an experimental test run and there are certainly things I'll tweak if I do this again in the future, but here's essentially what we did:

11 participants each drafted a team of four horses that were entered. We did the draft as close to the event as was reasonably possible while still allowing time for data entry. We included one drop score per team, ostensibly to account for withdrawals and falls on course or the one-off ridiculously high score. (Obviously, there were a lot of ridiculous high scores, but since we were basically drafting the top half of the field, I was thinking we'd miss most of those.)

At this juncture, it is only fair to acknowledge Emma as the unluckiest bastard of all. I believe something like 3/4 of her team either withdrew before the start or chose not to continue after dressage. Whoops. And no, no one gets to say that JenS was cheated. She chose her team for the dressage prowess, not their ability to actually finish anything.

Oh damn. Smack talk not over.

Anyways. I know I tend to go on about the awesome people you meet blogging, but it really is the truth. We were spread all across the US, but thanks to the magic of technology, we watched the live stream together in very different places.

We also experienced a lot of this together:

cue excessive swearing and rebooting

And of course, if you create three epic email threads and the computer-crashing group chat of DOOM, you're going to get a lot of this:

best. notification.ever.

there was a sausage fest

and a real blog meet up

 Pipers were a theme (as were ass shots):

Then dogs started wearing hats... (I was "working" for this segment. I cannot explain).

The smack talk levels were intense.

So was the spreadsheet game:

And even the snacking game:

Yeah. Wow. I can safely say I have never enjoyed Rolex this much, and that's not even because I won the whole thing and got a new shirt with my winnings. #memequeen I'm still laughing hysterically while writing this, so I guess I'm going to wrap it up by saying I can't wait to do this again and thank you blogland for the chance to meet so many amazing people.