Horse Show blues - what if your ribbon isn't and you are!?

OK, day after the horse show and you feel rotten. Your horse and you didn't get the scores you hoped for and you feel, "Why do I bother? I'm not any good at this! This is not a good enough horse, etc." Remember that dressage test scores are extremely fluid. I've been at shows where I got 73% and 56% with the same horse on the same day. That's because if your horse is half-a-bubble off his game, just won't go forward, or he's fearful, or not feeling his soundest, etc., it totally alters all your scores. Then, it affects the collectives at the bottom of the test, of course, and that ride just doesn't score well. Plus, if you have trouble with your walk, particularly the free walk, you're in trouble because, the judge looks at that score when determining her score for your horse's gaits. The walk, particularly at the lowest levels of dressage, determines a lot of scores -- and some are multiplied by a coefficient of 2!

If you have a depressing show, learn from your mistakes. Study what the judge said, figure out what she said that you agree with. Talk to your teacher/s. Analyze and then figure out a plan for proceeding that may help you improve. You may want to try going on the lunge line or riding some different horses. You may benefit from some massages yourself to help reduce your tension. Meditation may help you get over the horse show stress! But in the final analysis, riding is a lifelong pursuit, and most of us just pray we can keep our bodies together long enough to learn enough to do one, just one, really good test in our lives! So, don't despair, riding is put on this earth to challenge our mettle and make sure we always stay humble!!