Baby, are you coming for the ride?

Trail ride!

Had a seemingly benign conversation with a friend the other day. She works her ass off as a show secretary and was telling me about a parent who complained about the dressage judge and other things.

"Why don't you just be better?" was what my friend wanted to respond. Obviously she handled the situation professionally at the time, but if you are complaining that you or you kid is getting low scores in dressage ... then be better. Take more lessons, buy a better horse, practice more, BE BETTER and maybe you won't be so disappointed in your scores.

Like the 54% in out first Grand Prix. Yes he did all the movements,
but we just were not good enough for the 60.
(An a good photo demonstrating DAP+)

I realized ... well shit, the amount of complaining/blaming/blowing off of judges that I do is kind of shameful. There is plenty of it on this blog. I have never complained to officials of course, but plenty to my friends and on here.

Are there judges who are tougher than others? Yes of course. Are there judges who will simply not like your horse? Yes, probably.

But if I get a disappointing score, the hard truth is that I am simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH. 

I can spend all the time I want saying things like "the judge doesn't like my horse," "I won the warm up" "Well so and so big ass clinician said I was good" "The judge is drunk" "I don't understand this score" "The judge is biased and wants flashy gaits"

That is all a load of shit because the actual truth is pretty hard to admit to yourself.

A low score = you is not good enough.

So, as the new year approaches I am going to try very hard NOT to complain about the judge. To take low scores and work harder. To take the better scores and ... keeping working. And not let a judge get me down about my really nice horse, because that happens too. 

Maybe we will aim for Regionals in 2022!

Just chipping away. To be better.

And on that note, we are off to Aiken for 4 days! 

Actual interesting blog content to come.