How to Measure Success at a Horse Show or Competition

How do you measure success at a horse show or competition? Everybody wants the blue ribbon. But if you didn't win it, does that mean you lost?

And if you did win it, does that mean you won?

We're trying to take the focus off of ribbons. Some reasons for this are practical. Buddy is the cutest thing on four hooves but he's not fancy. He's nice, even handsome to my eyes, but not fancy. He's extra cute, too, when you get to know him. When competing with fancy, cute doesn't win unless fancy screws up. Fancy does sometimes screw up and cute sometimes performs spectacularly, but you can't count on it. So, unless we win the lottery, Lily will be competing on cute, handsome, unpredictable and full-of-yahoo Buddy. She has won some blues on him, including at his first horse trial last December. They work hard. But so do lots of other kids and horses.

So, how do you measure success other than by ribbons? Several ways. First, set goals for the competition. What's one thing you or your child have been working on, some special challenge? For Lily and Buddy, who went to their second horse trials last weekend (and competed two levels up from what they did last December), the goal was for Buddy to have a good experience and for Lily to have fun. Translation: no refusals and no taking off bucking. And an accurate dressage test for good measure.

I was proud of Lily for her preparations. We'll only foot the bill for one riding lesson a week and she'd had her one lesson last week. She doesn't take dressage lessons, but a neighbor of ours will give her lessons if asked. Lily knew she was weak in dressage, so she arranged a lesson with the dressage-riding neighbor and paid for it herself. That took a big chunk of her available funds, but that's what she wanted. And they worked hard. (Wonderful neighbor!)

So, on Saturday at the horse trials, Lily was first after dressage, turning in a decent ride in a division where she was the youngest rider. (She had also made the extra effort and was the only one who was braided. Really bad braiding, however. Need to work on that.) Her score was 30.

She was riding in the Special Novice division, which was her first timed cross-country ride. Since Buddy gets yahooey and bold, her coach (new -- another story) told her to do lots of transitions from the canter to the trot during cross-country to remind Buddy that he needed to stay focused on his rider, not all the fun he was having. Because Buddy is basically a frat boy all about partying all the time. Cross country? Yahoo!

Lily learned how to work a digital watch with a timer. She wrote the time limits for cross-country in different colors on her bare arm. She wrote the possible time limits at the half-way point in more colors and in more places. She looked like a tattooed WWII sailor. So she seemed really focused on this new aspect of cross-country: the optimum time.

(Photo of walking around before time to go in starting box, click to enlarge.) She and Buddy left the starting box at a beautiful canter and put in a hunter-round-quality performance for the first part of cross-country, the part we could see across the big field leading to the woods. It was perfect. Then she disappeared into the woods. After a while, they came out again at another place. Now Buddy was faster. Buddy's testosterone or something was back (he's a gelding). The blood of his great-grandaddy Swaps, who won the Kentucky Derby and broke several speed records, was stirred up and Buddy was going. (After all, it was Kentucky Derby Saturday). Buddy wasn't wild, though. Buddy was just having fun. The good thing was that he was less likely to refuse in this state of mind. The bad thing was -- well, the bad thing was that he started bucking after an uphill jump. We watched. Lily stayed on, then pulled him to a halt. Whew! Good girl! That's one of the things that she feared would happen. It happened -- and she handled it beautifully.

They cantered on to the bank and other more challenging obstacles. They no longer looked like a hunter round, but bold eventers. Buddy even jumped things that would normally have scared him. Attaboy! Attagirl! And they headed on home but maintained control. Awesome!

All goals achieved. Everybody had fun. No stops. Bucking controlled. Great ride..... Except, the first place holder after dressage -- the one with all the times written in Sharpie marker all over her arms -- had not only put her watch on UPSIDE DOWN, but forgot to check it at the halfway or any other point. And though they were doing a beautiful job in the parts we could see, Lily decided to walk, with some trotting, on the path through the woods.

This may have been a good choice. Maybe Buddy would have been even bolder (and worse) when they came out of the woods. But it would have been nice if she'd at least checked her watch. She had all kinds of time faults, which we didn't know about because the scorer (almost all volunteers are moms and dads whose kids ride at this farm) made a mistake and posted Lily as still in first place after cross-country. Oh well.

Due to parental error (that would be me, speaking of checking your watch), Lily had to rush to show jumping. Her warm up consisted of a fast trot there, and she kept hurrying when they entered the ring. She had quite the cowboy show-jumping ride. No mistaking this for a hunter round. Buddy was bold, she was still hurrying from her rush to the ring, and at one point they were going so fast she had to pull him up before a jump and circle (he would have jumped it -- yahoo!) to get herself organized. The right decision in terms of living a long and happy life. The wrong decision if she didn't want to get faults for a refusal. Still hurrying, she almost came off on a monstrous leap Buddy made over a fan-spread jump, followed by a sharp turn. The crowd gasped. Was she coming off? No! She regained her stirrups and balance and galloped to the next hairpin turn and jump. Wheee! They may have walked through the woods, but they were putting on a show now. When they left the ring, the ringmaster said, "And that was our speed round."

Not pretty. Not the way we had walked it and planned it. That rush to the ring had lost Lily most of her IQ points and whatever recollection she had of walking the course, planning the turns and her approach speeds. But she handled it. And if she'd been given the chance to be there early enough to catch her breath and school, she probably would have ridden it more conservatively and not had to circle before a jump. So I learned something, too. (Wait by the ring because they're going faster than you think -- show jumping was in numerical order and there were no loudspeakers broadcasting the show's progress, so we were eating hot dogs at the trailer when Lily should have been warming up. Excuses, excuses. Lucky not to be disqualified, though Lily did arrive within the time limit. I called later to apologize to the organizer.)

Anyway. When the ribbons were handed out, Lily was in last place. She knew she'd lost points for the stop in show jumping. But she thought she was in first place after cross-country because that's what the posted score said. She didn't know about the monstrous time faults for her pleasant walk through the woods.

Oh well. Score poster error. Not a big deal. It's a friendly event and everybody is just doing their best.

So she went from first to last.  She lost after almost winning. But it was an absolutely fabulous day, filled with success after success after success in all the things that count the most for the future.

I asked her if she wished that she'd signed up for the division that jumped the same course but wasn't timed. "No, Mom. It's just a ribbon. If I hadn't been timed, I wouldn't know I needed to work on that."

Bless her. I'm resisting the urge to go out and buy her a big ribbon, because I think she's a winner.

But we don't measure success in ribbons, so I'll restrain myself. (Photo below from dressage warm up, click to enlarge.)

Comments

[Lori Schmidt (LoriProPhoto)]

That was a great entertaining and heart warming story, you told it in spectacular fashion and 10 out of 10 for Lily's take on it afterwards.

It really warms my heart to hear of a young person with so much conviction and restraint and will and the fact that you get to share it with her and her pony/horse. I haven't shot 3-Phase (thats what we called it in South Africa) for years but I always enjoyed those events especially the water jump in the cross country LOL.

Well done Lily you are a winner in my eyes.

Lori

[lori]

beautiful riding and beautiful writing!
xoxo

[BrownEyedCowgirls]

Bravo!! Accomplishing goals is a much better reward than a blue ribbon.

[ell]

Bravo! atagirl indeed.

[Simply Marvelous]

Who needs a ribbon of any color after a day like that! Bravo to a terrific team!
Can only imagine how proud a mom would be after all those accomplishments!

Loved the story!! Could feel the wind in my hair!

[Grey Horse Matters]

It sounds as if they both had a marvelous day and they both learned something for the future. I like Lily's attitude and wish more young riders were like her. Buddy is adorable too and he sounds like a good boy. Ribbons don't count when you have a great day.

[jewel and abu]

I think you have one amazing kid!!! She is a big WINNER in my eyes.
Thats why I show dressage, its about the score and you get feedback on ways to improve. Trust that CUTE can do the job every bit as well as fancy. I like that she spent extra time on turn out, that a big plus in my book. Thanks for the comments on my blog, I am completely sick over this process

[risingrainbow]

I think setting goals for horse shows is much more productive that counting ribbons. Besides I think it changes the focus of the ride to something more tangible and that focus can mean the difference between a case of nerves and a rider confident in her own skill and that of her horse.

[KathyC]

Great job to both you and Lily. It sounds like you both had a good day, and should be commended for your attitudes!

[Jackie]

Anne,

Great story and motivation for the rest of us. Concentrating on a few tangible goals is definitely the way to approach horse showing for anybody ... not just young girls. Most kids would have a hard time handling things as maturely as Lily does. Thanks for sharing so that we can all be proud of her too!