Riding to the Finish – 6/4/24

My passion: horses, the sentimental creatures we know and love to this very day. I have been riding horses for about four years now, and it has changed my life. That long time ago, I was obsessed with the horse riding events in the Olympics. I begged and pleaded with my mom to have riding lessons and she allowed me. I’ll talk a little more in detail on how I started in the next post.

My main focus for this post is the Woodside Schooling Shows that happen three times per year. My most recent ones were the Woodside Spring Kick-off Show 2024 and the Woodside Summer Festival 2024. I got ribbons in both of them. I was so proud of myself for reaching this goal. I thought I would have never been able to compete in a real life show. 

The image above was taken at a Woodside Horse Show!

When we arrived at the Woodside Spring Kick-off, I was so scared. The show was occurring pretty far away from my house, so my mom, dad, sister, and I had to leave at about 6:30 AM. I have been doing show jumping, an English style event, and had to tack up my horse by myself. I had two friends help me with this, but it was still difficult to get it done in time.

I had one event per day, and the first one on Saturday wasn’t that great. I thought, “well at least I tried”, but I had this feeling in my gut that almost made me cry. Disappointment in yourself is a hard and challenging thing to get over. I tried my hardest on the second event on Sunday. Guess what. I got a ribbon! I was so happy, and it was third place.

I hung my ribbons on my mirror

Although there were only 5 riders in my event, it felt good to know that because I tried hard, there was a consequence (a good one of course). The second show that I most recently went to last weekend, the Woodside Summer Festival, was way easier on me. I had two events per day this time, meaning I got more chances to get a ribbon. Sure enough I did, on my last event of the show. I got 5th place, and it was a stunning mahogany ribbon.

Another horse at the competition named Lady (officially named Prim)

The moral of this post is to try your best, because if you do, there will be a reward; in this case, a ribbon. Because of this, my ribbon collection is growing (very rapidly). Until next time, and if you want to see how I started riding and my riding story, check out my next blog post.