Tentative 2015 Show Schedule

We've had a weird winter so far in Texas. The first two weeks of January were nothing but grey, cold, wet, and miserable, day in and day out. This was followed up with a week of amazing, gorgeous, sunny 70 degree days. For whatever reason, Mother Nature has decided to retract her taste of spring, and it is currently hovering around freezing, pouring with a howling wind. What happened??

Luckily, I was able to get three good workdays in a row before the weather tanked. After our great drive on Tuesday, we added another lunge day yesterday - I knew the bad weather was coming in for today, but I didn't want to drive her two days in a row, as she is historically never great about doing the same thing two days in a row. She was lovely, buoyant, pleasant and quiet yesterday, working in a longer outline and stretching out well.

 

And by longer outline, I mean she has lots of loose rein, but still likes to canter along in show-off-able self carriage. Because she's a boss like that.
(She has a very nice canter when she is quiet and balanced. Out of balanced, and it becomes very flat, lateral and counterbent, not to mention super zoomy. She was definitely in lovely canter mode yesterday.)

Tomorrow I will be super busy all day - not to mention it will be wicked muddy - but Saturday and Sunday she is back to work! I have to make due with the days I have, especially when the weather tanks.




The bad weather has given me a bit of time to sit down and gather up the tentative show schedule. Included in the schedule are seminars on the ground (no active drive time), clinics (active drive time), and of course shows, which include fun games days as well as actual ADS sanctioned shows. This is a whole new thing I am tackling here, so this entire schedule is subject to change - it all just depends on how it is going. This is the full list of stuff available to be that I'd like to be able to attend - it is a LOT of stuff and O has not ever had a really full schedule like this, so we'll be largely going on her level of brain-fried-ness. If she starts to get a little fried, we back off. Making a success out of a first season (for both of us!) largely has to do with laying the groundwork for getting good experiences out of everything. The pressure comes later, the good experience is the first thing you always need to go for.

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2015 Schedule:
 
March 7th: Beginner to Winner seminar*
March 21st: Day of Dressage (?? Maybe)
April 12th: Sunrise Ridge HDT
May 3rd: TCA Carriage Classic
May 16th: NTW Playday
May 24th: Pine Hill HDT**
June 12-14th: Cowboy Country HDT
June 27th: HACA Driving Trial
July 23-25th: Clinic
October 25th: NTW Playday
November 7-8th: Black Star Farm CDE

 *Non-riding seminar
**There is conflicting evidence that says Pine Hill may or may not be an HDT this year - it may just be a pleasure show

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It's a bit confusing, trying to sort through the schedule. There is very little information on each thing at the moment, so it is hard to choose what to go for. The seminar on the 7th makes sense, it is just a bunch of lectures all day long, but the Day of Dressage is confusing - it isn't clear if this is something to trailer your horse to, or if you just go watch, or? I don't know. I am also disappointed to learn that I won't be able to participate in two of the NTW playdays - I was asked if I could help out with organizing them this year (kind of a large task for a noob, but since they asked, I said I would help out). Turns out that means I can't show in two of them at all. Pretty disappointing and I wish I had been told that right off the bat before I had agreed to help out, but hindsight is 20-20. I'm pretty sure that they knew I'd say no if I knew ahead of time what the thing entailed... but ah well. I agreed to it, so I'll do it. Serves me right for not asking ahead of time what it all meant.


Here's hoping it dries out soon... and that my Monster Dog heals up quickly from her surgery. She went in Tuesday to have her eyelid repaired, and she is now living temporarily in the Cone of Shame 24/7. It took her a little bit to figure out how to do Life while in the Cone of Shame, but now she has fully accepted it as part of her body. She has also weaponized it, smashing shamelessly into everything in her path, scattering cats, dogs, and people alike. My thighs might be bruised and sore after all the full-on smash time, but at least the eye looks great?