Today I am a) riding in one or two National Finals classes, b) sitting home in a huff, or c) still at the show, cheering on the rest of the barn, wishing I was home in a huff.
I keep hearing that National Academy is a show that one has to experience to believe. That I need to go once just to get the idea. While I have no cause to doubt this, I also think that I can hit the ground running. Okay, not the best metaphor for riding. I think I will not be overwhelmed by whole concept my first time out. I’ve trotting into a lot more big rings that the average Academy student.
OTOH, none of these big rings have been at saddleseat shows. Being engulfed by a horde of horses and riders, all diamonding their hearts out, might just fuse my circuits.
There is a good probability that I can outride my competition. Whether I can outshow them remains to be seen.
Today is the second day of competition. Our instructor has reminded us that the goal on days one and two are to move up. The exact placing doesn’t matter. We are not here to win the semis.
The show is over three days and 10 move up after each round. History would indicate that there will be less than 10 in my division. OTOH, there could be 15 entries and I could already be done. Here’s hoping not.
By the time you read this, I will not have been on speaking terms with my stomach for days. I have been looking forward to this show since I heard about it a year ago [Showtime].
Of course I have thoughts about what happens if I win, or win big. Or if I lose, or lose big. But I’m not going there. That would be living in the future. In the run up, I have tried to enjoy the process, the pursuit of the goal, rather than the goal itself. I’ve been to shows. I’ve taken lessons. I didn’t miss a single boot camp session [Boot Camp Begins].
I’ve done everything I could have asked to prepare. And I’ve had fun planning for the show, saying. ‘I want to do X, so that I can do Y in November’. In the past, I have been at barns where I was not ambitious enough. I have been at barns were I was too ambitious. Whatever happens, I have enjoyed working toward goal at place that takes me just the right amount of seriously.
I feel ready.
The plan is to have inundated you with Tweets by now [Newest]. See sidebar for Tweets, Twitter handle and link to blog Facebook page. OTOH, I’ve heard horror stories of the show running until the wee hours. It may be show, sleep, and surface sometime next week.
Allow me to paraphrase the Special Olympics motto:
Let me win. If I can’t win, let me ride well in the attempt.
A well-bred Appaloosa who turned out plain bay. This is how I dressed him for Halloween. Note the stripes on his hooves. His breeder was not amused. Also note Jaws next door.
Yes, before I owed four plain bay geldings (all Thoroughbreds), I leased three horses. All – wait for it – plain bay geldings (TB, TB/QH & App). This is why Hubby is convinced I will end up with yet another bay, TB gelding.
I attended a meet-up for bloggers in my area. I was told that I must merge my personal and blog Twitter accounts into one. That I must use Instagram & Pinterest & Twitter to drive traffic to my blog. That I must… Well, no. As I said in the mission statement above, until someone offers to pay me, I don’t HAVE to do jack. Too militant? What I mean to say is that I am happy with the blog the way it is. And that’s a good thing.
For me, Twitter is a way to create a moving sidebar for the blog. Of course, now that I have been assimilated into the collective [Newest], my opinion may change.
I think the meltdown got rid of the last remnants of commercial thinking. For 20+ years, I wrote what the nice people with checks wanted me to write. I wrote newspaper pieces, magazine articles, even a book to order. If I had an assignment for a new magazine. I would read several issues cover to cover, including editorials and advertisements. I would absorb and reproduce their house style. The first iteration of the blog, Back to Eventing, was targeted to a specific audience. Once I started writing for myself, I was still trying to anticipate an audience. That way lies madness. One cannot write for the Internet as a whole.
I have come to decide that writing a blog is closer in method to writing fiction. You write the story you have to tell, then you look for an audience. So this is me, writing my blog, saying what I have to say, then looking around to see if anyone is interested in reading.
We have joined the 21st century. We went to the Verizon store, closed our eyes, signed, and emerged with two smart phones. My first project will be to live tweet my next horse show, the National Academy Championship Horse Show, November 1-3, 2013, Murfressboro, TN. Website, Facebook.
I will be one of eight competitors from Stepping Stone Farm: three WTC, three WT, one leadline, one driving. The entire show is Academy.
For those of you who might be interested in my every move but are not on Twitter (Hi Moms!), I don’t believe you need an account to access a page. You just won’t be able to send tweets.
My inaugural phone Twitter pic for those who do not wish to click over:
Hello Twitterverse!Caveat:
I may tweet a few times and get bored with it. I may tweet my fool head off. I may tweet extensively on Wednesday and Thursday when we are getting ready and then drop off the face of the earth once competition starts on Friday. We shall see.
The blog will continue as normal. I will have daily posts queued up through the middle of next week. National Academy related posts will start Friday. I leave Wednesday. (Don’t bother breaking into our house, Mathilda’s Lead Minion will be here doing the honors.) I always check, one way or another, that the day’s posts came up. Other than that, I dunno how much reading/commenting I will do during the show. See above. I’ll be back once the show is over and I have recuperated.
For the information junkies among us, horseshowtime.com has schedules, class counts, and all manner of other data. My classes:
Friday AM – 14 Academy WT Pleasure–Adult
Friday PM – 21 Academy WT Equitation–Adult
These two are definite. The rest of my weekend depends on how the first class in each division goes.
Saturday AM – 39 Academy WT Equitation–Adult Championship
Saturday PM – 53 Academy WT Pleasure–Adult Championship
Sunday 54 Academy WT Pleasure National Finals–Adult (first class, yikes! But yeah!) & 62 Academy WT Equitation National Finals–Adult
I keep hearing that National Academy is a show that one has to experience to believe. That I need to go once just to get the idea. While I have no cause to doubt this, I also think that I can hit the ground running. Okay, not the best metaphor for riding. I think I will not be overwhelmed by whole concept my first time out. I’ve trotting into a lot more big rings that the average Academy student. 
Virtual Brush Box 