We entered the ring for our only class we were competing in that day. There were several other riders in the class and we would all be in the arena at the same time. The objective of this class was simple – be better than everyone else. At least that’s the objective from an uber competitive person’s view. The class itself is pretty boring. We would all be put through our paces in front of the judge, and she would scrutinize our every movement. She would analyze how well we rode, how the horse behaved, and how fluid the horse’s movements were.
As we entered the ring I made sure to find myself a spot on the rail where no other riders would be near us. “You are now being judged at a walk.” The class had officially begun. I jammed my heels down and sat up tall. Gideon bowed his neck – proud and a bit nervous. I held my breath waiting for the trot command. Would Gid show lameness like he did while we were warming up? If so, we could likely be excused from the class. “Trot please.” I gently touched my calf to my horse’s side and he struck out into a balanced, beautiful, lameness-free trot. I checked to make sure I was on the correct diagonal (rising out of the saddle as his outside foreleg moved forward), and I gently touched his mouth with the reins to make sure we didn’t speed up. I wasn’t sure how the other riders were doing, but we seemed to be doing ok. Then the announcer said, “Canter. Canter your horses.” I pulled his nose slightly to the inside and touched his side to ask for the canter. We immediately struck out at a lovely canter…on the WRONG LEAD!!! I know that doesn’t mean much to a non-horse person, but it’s a deal breaker in a class like this. I did a “judge-check” where I checked to see if the judge was looking. With several other riders to watch there was a chance she had not noticed. We were approaching our first turn and I felt a shift underneath me as Gideon changed his lead all by himself. The judge had not seen AND my horse did a flying lead change (a flying lead change is a big deal too)! “Walk your horses.” “Line up in the center of the ring with your numbers facing the judge.” Gideon and I pulled up and headed into the line-up. Competitiveness flows through every vein of my body so the line-up is often the toughest part of the class for me. The wait is excruciating as the judge makes her final decisions. Finally, the decision was made and the announcer began to call out the placings. 1st place – some other girl. 2nd place – some other girl. 3rd place – Sarah riding Gideon!!!!!! 4th place – this other girl who was supposedly amazing that Gideon and I had just beat.
We practically floated back to the trailer! Maybe it wasn’t 1st place, but 3rd is definitely not too shabby – especially for our very first English show on the very first weekend that I owned my new horse. Not to mention, we beat the girl that apparently always won those classes. I smiled smugly with my yellow ribbon in a white-knuckle hand as Gideon and I rode past the mean lady at the registration table. She had been telling me this probably wasn’t the best show to compete in for my first ever English show, and by telling I mean yelling at me in front of everyone that had ears in a 50 foot radius. She obviously didn’t realize I could kick her daughter’s butt along with every other rider at the show (except for the 1st and 2nd place riders). I love to win and to prove people wrong!
It’s amazing how a simple yellow ribbon can put things into an all new perspective. The trailer was still embarrassing, but who cares? So it took me an hour to get my horse out of the trailer – he still got out! Yeah the lady yelled at me and made me feel about as cool as horse poop on the side of the road for a few minutes – now the horse poop was basically all over her shoe (TAKE THAT mean lady!) and Gideon and I were the ones who left it there.
Lesson for the day: Choose what you will focus on – the one ribbon or the hours of misery leading up to the single moment of glory when they called out our name. I think it’s pretty obvious which is the best to focus on. Find your own “ribbon” and focus on it.
Soli deo gloria,
Sarah
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