Alberta Equest

As the steady pound of the rain on my tin roof has my dressage letters requiring floaties, the hatches are battened down and the horses are snuggled up in warm blankets with hot mashes, but my mind wont rest. I don't think I'm alone when I say I'm my own worst critic.  I think we're conditioned, as Equestrians, to never quite feel 'good enough', because there always seems to be someone better regardless of how hard we work to improve.  Riding is an art and a sport that seems even the best professionals can't quite master ... if we could, a 70% score wouldn't be grounds for a week-long celebratory party.  So instead, we focus on what needs to be improved and continue to chip away until most of us lose interest, finances, horse power, or simply 'limit out' because one or multiple of the aforementioned items are no longer at our disposal and thus the 'First Level Lifer' is born. As the consistent trickle of water drips off my roo

In my last post , I discussed my issues on my first attempt at riding my tests for the August Fairview Sport Horse Society Online Dressage Show, but decided to try re-riding the tests the following day and it went much better.  While I know that in the event of a 'real show' you have to ride the horse you were given, and that is precisely why I chose to ride in these Online Shows rather than in real ones, besides the fact that finances are tight and they are far more affordable.. Right now, I don't know Sierra well enough to know what kind of horse I will have on any given day, and until she and I develop our relationship a little further, I am totally content with riding tests in my own yard. For the August show - we had two judges.  Each judge scored the tests individually and provided feedback to the rider so competitors received twice the amount of feedback.  I am one of the judges and therefor as a rider I only received scores and information from my fellow judge,