Steps towards decision-making

Compared to a lot of people, I came to showing horses relatively late. It was not part of my childhood or teens; I had barely dipped my toe into any kind of equine competition before I turned 30. But after I became a student of dressage, I figured out that showing could be an effective evaluation tool. So I would set goals for training and showing, then work to achieve them, rather than using competitions as a showcase for what my horse and I had already mastered. And that approach mostly worked for me, as I forged ahead through the levels year after year, earning a fair number of ribbons and USDF All-Breed awards along the way.

So once I got the idea of showing Stella next month at the Oregon Morgan Classic, I turned my attention to what would need to happen for that to be possible. I'm not interested in getting hurt, making Stella look bad by overfacing her, or embarrassing myself, so mucho progress would have to be make in the next four weeks. And I'd have to be confident enough in our progress by June 1 to enter.

Step 1: Much more exposure to life outside our arena. I started by riding Stella out of our arena and up and down the driveway, and texted Lisa about meeting up at the county fairgrounds. That meet-up happened this morning. I got there first, so tacked up Stella and led her around the grounds, the warm-up arena, and the big indoor arena.

By the time Lisa arrived with three horses and two friends, we were ready to mount up and give it a whirl. Fortunately, there wasn't much whirling! Stella was very nervous and tense about the new environment and the other horses' activities, but didn't lose her mind. Lisa snapped one photo and got a couple of short video clips, one of just Stella and the other showing two of the other three horses.

The buckskin in the foreground is Lance's half-sister; the bay loping around the perimeter is Lance's sire. The third horse was a young, green mustang prone to bolting; fortunately, he didn't do that today. The photo isn't great, but I do like my good leg position. I am very conscious of the need to have a secure seat on my little firecracker! (You might also notice that I'm riding her in a bit for a 'bit' more security.) Oh, and Stella was actually ridden enough to sweat a little!

Step 2? First I think there needs to be a whole lot more of Step 1. Lisa offered to meet us at the fairgrounds once a week leading up to the show, so we'll take her up on that. She's also going to the beach to ride tomorrow, but it doesn't sound like the right group for us to join. (Refer to above regarding lack of desire to get hurt or overface Stella.) In spite of Lisa's enthusiasm about my idea of showing Stella next month, today made me think it'll be too much, too soon. But I'll give us the two weeks until entries are due to decide.