What do you do If a Show goes wrong?

[Grace, Rocco and Rip]

I really want your opionions and Advice. What would you do If a show went completely wrong?? Like, If you where having lots of bad luck in the show. Please respond!!!!

[Kat]

Try and make light of a bad situation. I went to a show last year and the horse I was riding wouldn't settle down. Everythin SUCKED. We didn't place in anythin I think. But she was green, and I just kept tellin myself it was good exposure for her. And a few years ago I took my horse to an event. Dressage was a disaster, stadium went well, and cross country didn't start well. We had a refusal at the first freakin fence that was a freakin LOG. lol But we also had to go through water, and he went through it like a pro. So despite the rest of the day, I was proud of that one single moment. =)

Try and find somethin, anythin, that you can be proud of from that day. Whether it's (in general, not you specifically) how you sat up better, or kept your legs in the right spot, or your horse managed that lead they can never get.. There's always somethin to be proud of. =)

[Maria]

GOOD HARELY!!!!!!!!!!!!:D :D

[Kat]

Not Harley. haha I have never shown Harley.. yet. lol

[Maria]

Oh pooh... Thunder?

[Kat]

Nope. haha
First reference was Daisey.
Second reference was Stanley.
=)

[Maria]

sO IT WAS dAISY???

[Emily Roy]

Hahahahahhah. Sorry. I find this a bit amusing. People and horses have bad shows alllll the time. God, me and my horse went on a streak where we hadn't had a good show (compared to other people lol) in a longgggg time. My horse is just now finally not totally galloping around courses and diving through the corners. Especially if you have difficult horses and horses that have issues, bad shows just happen. Yeah, it sucks when you look at all the girls that are on the packers and are getting ribbons left and right, but shows are there for practice. The more you go to, the better you get. No matter if it's your fault, the horses fault, or whoevers. You can't set your standards way high. Just think of goals you want to accomplish, and try really hard to get them down and be proud of that. Perfection will neverrrr happen. You can't set your standards to how everyone else goes around, either. You have to set them according yourself and how you and your horse go round. And if you and your horse normally get around a show pretty decently, then just remember that everyoneeee has their off days. I swear! :) Think of the positive, and don't be like me and dwell on what all you should have and could have fixed. Believe me, it doesn't do much good to put yourself way down, lol. AND no matter what you are upset about or what not, you HAVE to leave all of that emotion out of the saddle. Horses feed off of everything and it affects your ride for sure. I get annoyed with myself sometimes, but I can't let it affect what we're doing at that moment or we will never get better or fix anything...

[Rachel.Lucille(:]

Okay.. so looking back at my first show with Alms. (It was a small 4-H show but it still counts as practice!) The first class I did was showmanship. It was perfect, and I even got a second and trust me.. alms is not that great att showmanship so I thought it would be a perfect show day. Well in the next class Almudin was so excited he was bucking and trying to gallop at every canter. He was being absolutely difficult! It was like some devil thing came and took over him. I got really frustrated and could only think about how terrible it was. Alms picked up my senses and was even worse! Horses know how you are feeling and if you are frustrated it only makes the horse him or her frustrated too because they can't connect with you. Finally we got to trotting over crossbars class.. and I had done the ground pole course as practice so he would know there were now poles involved. And he got right down to buisness. He turned into a completely different horse! :) he did it all perfectly.. Now reckon we didn't place in that class but I finally got Almudin to listen to me. The rest of the show was a wreck.
When a show goes bad the only thing you can do is think about one good thing at least that went right. For me it was completing the crossbar class without Almudin exploding on me. And even at every show you should pick the best thing and I garauntee that it will keep you going for a couple of days(: One thing to always remember though is that horses always know how your feeling and they react to it. Because I was so frustrated Alm became frustrated and got worse. If you are scared of doing a jumping competition or nervous your horse is going to know and maybe totally different.. which is why I think about how at the last show everything went fine and that I should focus on riding not on the negative things. So when I strat to think about the good stuff and when I get out into the ring Alm actually listens to me.. and I have a feeling that shows can also be very distracting to horses... especially when there is food nearby(: And also even if a show is bad.. it gives you practice to know that next time you should focus more on this or that and maybe you will get that blue ribbon(:

[Grace, Rocco and Rip]

Okay!! thanks!!!

[Mary]

My horse, Lorenzo, jumps out of the dressage ring more then half the time! This one time after he jumped out they let us go again, but it didn't count. A few days later when I was on their website, and looking at everyone elses scores. It turns out that not only did I get eliminated but when I got to go again ,just schooling, I found out that over all the 72 people that were at the show I got the lowest score! When Lorenzo jumps out of the ring I always joke about it and make fun of myself when really I just want to go cry. My mom is always complaining about the last to shows her scores have gone down and I say "at least you can keep your horse in the ring!" Even though things aren't going great for Lorenzo and me and sometimes I think that maybe I just shouldn't show anymore I keep trying. I know that we will get better and someday we will stay in the ring. You just have to keep trying and things will get better.So if your horse refuses a few jumps, jumps out of the ring, or whatever it my be, don't give up, keep trying, and give it your best 'cause it will pay off one of these days.

[Grace, Rocco and Rip]

Your advice really helps. I completly did terrible at the last show i went to. It was pouring, and thundering etc. The show eventually got cancelled, but it was a show in harrisburg which is 2 hours away from were i live. i completly messed up on my course and it was terrible.