Horse show season is upon us yet again and we are back in full swing! Samantha Walker Performance Horses just wrapped up two days of showing at the POA Southwest Regional Show hosted at Chaparosa Ranch. Our riders had a great time and the ponies were their wonderful selves!
From an outsiders perspective, all you might see are the beautiful, perfectly turned out ponies and the riders in all their fancy, sparkly show clothes. The judge is just that man or women in the suit jacket with the clipboard and all the classes seem to be endlessly the same. It’s a fun day until a few hours in and then all you seem to notice is either the heat and endless dust or the torrential rain and wind (that ALWAYS seems to wait until a show weekend!). Yet, for the riders, show days are so much more. Those beautiful and perfectly clean ponies are the result of hours of work the day before and frantic effort in the morning before classes start. The judge has gone through certification processes, been booked far in advance, and has often times traveled long distances to be there. The weather is an afterthought; your mind is so focused on when your next class is, do you have time to warm up, and is your horse feeling soft and are you both on your game? Every class means something and while spectators may not see the difference from one class to another, you know the nuances of every one and focus on exactly how you should ride in each one. You’ve worked hard preparing and learning and teaching your pony and it all comes down to 10 minutes. You’ll find out if you get to see the fruits of your labor or not. Sometimes you do and sometimes you feel like the whole day has been a disaster. Sometimes you hold your head high and feel like you’re on top of the world. Other times, when nothing seems to be going right you just want to throw in the towel and call it quits.
The truth is though, shows are shows. Judges are human. Horses have a mind of their own. The weather isn’t a given. Some judges simply don’t like your horse and no matter how good your ride was, nothing will change it…as much as it *shouldn’t* happen, it DOES. Sometimes as much as you’ve practiced and ridden and trained, you aren’t on the same page as your horse and you make mistakes and DQ. At the end of the day, you have to consider how far you’ve come, the friends you’ve made, and the fun you had. “Winning” isn’t determined by the color of the ribbon you came out of the class with, but the attitude you had- win OR lose, the love and care you gave your pony, and the appreciation that you GET to do this, when so many horse crazy kids and adults never get the chance. Hug your pony, love what you do, and thank your trainer!
See you at the next show!
-Rebekah Bukowski