Half a Ton of Fun! Our first rated US Hunter/Jumper show :D.

Oh fantastic well done!! I'm so pleased for you. Its so easy to get a bit down when things aren't familiar but its great to see you pick yourself up and give it all you've got.
Those rosettes are huge and Jae looks super
 
Well done - sounds like a real culture shock. !!

Random question - if there is so much money in the US equestrian sports, and they take it all seriously from the lowest level up - why are the US team not as prominent as you may expect in the major international disciplines? Don't get me wrong, they aren't 'bad ' just not sure fire medal contenders
 
Really interesting report and a Very well done for getting rosettes, particularly as you don't have loads of help. Keep up the good work.
 
Great report, well done! Especially with all the others having such a lot of help from their trainers etc. It sounds like another world from here, next time are you planning to stay in the stables etc?
 
ihatework said:
Well done - sounds like a real culture shock. !!

Random question - if there is so much money in the US equestrian sports, and they take it all seriously from the lowest level up - why are the US team not as prominent as you may expect in the major international disciplines? Don't get me wrong, they aren't 'bad ' just not sure fire medal contenders
Click to expand...

Rivers of ink have been spilled on that subject. . ...
 
Thanks for the replies :D. Ha ha I think the USA are good at showjumping on the international circuit?! Hunters/Jumpers do seem to be the most popular discipline.
If I was to have my two pennies worth though the USA get many advantages to being huge but also disadvantages. They don't have the efficiency of smaller countries. For instance people have to travel a lot further, spend more money and time. IMO the fact competing is much cheaper and easier to do in Europe must have something to do with it, that also encourages more people to start riding from all backgrounds and come up the ranks.
We do have our first 3 day event at the end of next month so Jae will feel all important staying away! I'll have to take some stuff to decorate his stable, maybe a union jack! ;).
 
Firewell, how awesome is that! :D I'm so glad that things are going well for you now, and that you're being super competitive despite rolling up in a trailer and having to cope on your own. Knowing that you're capable will be doing wonders for your confidence. What do they say about your horse now? Are they still mistaking him for a WB? :)

Cabaret, someone from Ontario? Yay! :D
 
Cabaret I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the UK! I think you will be taken aback about many venues there are within a small area and how often people take their horses out but only for one or two classes and then they go home. Also no one really takes their trainers to shows, the odd one maybe but generally people don't, they might take a groom or a friend to help groom but a lot go on their own.*The warm ups are pandemonium too, there's no order, you yell 'upright' as you come to the fence and hope people get out of the way :D.
 
Thanks spookypony. The people who have met Jae love him! Its hard for them not too when he accosts them, his face wreathed in smiles looking for treats ;). They like their TB's here, there's quite a few at my yard :).
 
Re the 'barn' culture, there are two other aspects different to the UK.

One, lots of people, especially in more urban markets, don't have their own transport so ship with their trainer or share a commercial shipper. Lorries are almost non existent and for many people it's not worth buying the sort of vehicle necessary to do the sort of distances required to compete seriously. Eventers are more likely to have their own transport, as are people in more rural areas.

Also, there is much less of a culture of Riding Clubs, local teams etc. For many people the social advantages of riding with a barn, the feeling of 'team spirit' are as important as the financial aspects. Things like the tack room competitions are a big deal!

It's also not so much an issue for the OP's area but almost everywhere else the necessity of having an indoor arena and weatherproof facility comes into play. To afford that you need a minimum number of horses and barns tend to run better with a relatively cohesive system. Most facilities end up with a residential trainer or are run by a trainer so, by default, customers ride with that trainer. Just like any other system it has its strengths and weaknesses. Where I grew up was much more rural and people did their own thing, but they probably got to half a dozen shows a year, tops. Swings and roundabouts!
 
Wow, did you actually make those cupcakes?!

Sorry, I was distracted. Your performance was much more impressive, of course. Think I'd hate the scene over there so v impressed that you got on and did it without an army of profs to help. Really interesting to read. And I bet you were a teensy bit pleased that you managed that on your tod :-)
 
love reading your reports and its so interesting to hear how it is done differently in other countries. Well done on your results - your boy sounds amazing!
 
I find you threads so interesting! Well done at the show, So Cal is very competitive holding your own down there is no small feat!

I am an American and do dressage in a rural area so that show sounded about as foreign to me as it was to you lol. The Hunter world is its own thing though. In my rural area more people trailer in because we are either an hour away or its an out of state show and we travel 6 hours.

But yes nearly every one brings there trainer. The first show I went to with out my trainer I nearly had a heart attack! And Shows are horribly expensive (in dressage there is no prize money either) And out here in the middle of nowhere a few people have decorations for there tack stalls but I would not say that is the norm.

Well done and it is so interesting to hear your perspective on showing here!
 
Yeah, I did dressage in Colorado, and when I encountered hunter/jumper-land on the East Coast when I went to Massachusetts for University, it was definitely a foreign country to me. I trailered into shows, USDF/AHSA (when there was an AHSA.... LOL) as well as unrated, sometimes by myself, and once in a blue moon had my trainer accompany me. Well, maybe once. H/J-land is a different kettle of fish, and you're right, there is lots of money in it and horses sell for crazy crazy sums.

When I was a teenager, a whole gaggle of people from my barn would trailer to multiday shows and it was great fun. There was a real community thing about it. We loved it. We didn't care how well we did (though good scores are always nice) -- it was great just for the craic.

Interesting what TarrSteps says about barns there v. here in the UK. The community thing is something I haven't got used to in seven years but never could put my finger on it. There has only been a general feeling of isolation. Just this past Thursday, I got a text from my YO about an hour after I left the yard saying my horse had a bad nosebleed and "it didn't look good." I raced back to the yard, got there in about ten minutes, and the good news was that the bleeding had stopped, the horse was looking at me like, "Jesus. What's your problem?" and the bad news was that no one was there. YO had left her to it. The livery who had been cleaning her stable when I left the first time was still there pottering around with her horse when I came back, and as she has the stall across the aisle, she would have seen the whole drama, and she said, wait, nothing. Not, "Is she all right?" Not, "I'm glad it's stopped and she's all right." Nada. Bupkes. Horse could have been on her freakin' deathbed and I would have been on my own with it until my husband got off work. Horse was fine. I was upset and homesick.
 
Some yards are quite social here but yes, by and large I am still taken aback by how disconnected people are. Even the fact that you can walk on to a yard and no one will question you still seems odd to me. I assume people get their connections through RC lessons, teams etc, like grown up Pony Club.
 
I was training a horse for someone at a yard (not close enough for me to keep my horse, nor would it have suited her little neuroses) that seemed very connected and social, and it always had such a warm atmosphere and was so nice to visit when I went to work with that horse. It wasn't the norm for my UK yard experience, sadly.

I'm glad you've picked up on it too, TarrSteps, and it's not just me being crazy.
 
I was at Brandeis...it was really weird. I started riding there again through the uni club, after not riding while I was at grad school. They were H/J people, and I found it extremely strange! The way they sat was weird to me, the way they obsessed about which colours of jacket were currently fashionable (apparently green was out!), the sheer money these girls threw around, the way one of them would get her dad to phone the uni with lawyerly threats if she didn't get an A (I gave her an earful about that), and the way I couldn't figure out why whoever won the class, won the class! :D It's also the first time I heard the term "daisycutter action", and I confess to still not understanding exactly what that means or in what contexts it might be considered desirable. :D
 
Ah, yes, Brandeis. Very much in the same sort of small liberal arts college culture we had at MHC. I encountered the H/J people at Mount Holyoke, after growing up in laid back Colorado (yes, even the dressage there was pretty chilled) and was a little bit shocked by it all. I know those girls. MHC's barn had thirty boarders, thirty school horses, and the boarders were a mix of serious dressage people, serious H/J and eventing people, and not so serious people, although the last category was diminishing rapidly when we got a barn manager who was selecting new boarders (out of the students who wanted to bring their horses and were applying for a space in the barn) based on them not being useless to the image she was trying to cultivate for the equestrian program.

In fact, that's where I got into the habit of wearing saddle pads like this:



Or this:



Or more than half a dozen more along those lines.....

The horrified looks and even better, the comments I got from those sorts of girls, the ones you describe, were worth their weight in gold. One H/J person once said, "My trainer would *never* give you a lesson if you wore a saddle pad like that. It's disrespectful." Yeah, ok... but the chambone-side reins-vienna reins-God-knows winning combo? That's all right (and everything about that jumping pic above would make George Morris cry in pain).
 
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Well done! Sounds like you are doing brilliantly well and finding your feet!

The set up sounds very similar to France. Shows are few and far between here but they last for 3-5 days, everyone stays over and takes part in the social activities in the evening which can be anything from BBQs to fancy dress! Everyone has their trainer along here as well, with trainers also ridding client horses during the weekend - it's a completely different approach!
 
Thanks everyone for reading and replying :D. Caol Ila I think that is a v funky saddlecloth! I have a pair of purple Jods from the UK that I love riding in. The barn owner who I had never met (They live in Idaho) saw me in the arena one morning and asked the resident trainer can she not allow minors to ride without supervision. She said 'We don't have any minors at the moment... was the girl you saw on a red horse?'. The owner said yes. The trainer laughed out loud as he thought I was 13! That was the morning I was wearing my purple jods lol!
I have posted two new posts to my blog if anyone is interested in following me between competition reports :D :D x
www.hoofprintsinthesand.com
 
Bloody brilliant, not only to go out and be brave and hold your own, but also to get ribbons and results! More blog posts! I love the differences around the world, think it is fascinating!
 
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