Awareness of the outside world. Law Dork: SCOTUS guts what remained of the Voting Rights Act before taking on TPS termination case, Geidner, Apr 29, 2026.
Pause to shift gears.
~~~
A pondering post.
Every horse & rider combination has their own reasons for going to any particular horse show. That said, I see motivation falling into three broad categories.
Experience
Experience for the horse. Experience for the rider. The show is NBD for one or the other.
For me, I could see being the adult in the room in a cross-rails class with, to take a random example, an off-track Standardbred.
Program
Qualifying for another show. Points for a year-end award.
I’ve read rants decrying points-chasing as leading to overuse of horses. Could be. Mostly, what I’ve seen is standardization and stifling of creativity. If the show schedule is structured around year-end awards, then all the shows have the exact same classes, barn-to-barn, year-after-year. No one seems to have interesting one-off classes. Could be it’s not what their customers want.
For me, I have no moral high ground.
“But just this once. I can quit points-chasing any time I want.” [Georgia Fall Classic] 2015
“You know, if I do two of the three local, summer shows, I could probably climb onto the tag end of the year-end awards.” [“The Crux“] 2022
Enjoyment
This would be showing for the show itself. Anything from trying to win the Olympics to taking an old friend for a trot around the ring.
Enjoyment is not quite le mot juste. One would hope that folks enjoy every horse show on some level, otherwise why go through all the nonsense? But you know what I mean. Doing the show for it’s own sake.
For me. Yes, please.
What motivates you?
Onwards!
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 