Live Show Games Part 1

     The title of this post might seem a little deceptive. It is not actually about horseback games, though maybe it sounds that way. Yesterday I said that there was a time that I would never skip a live show. I went to a lot of them, as long as they were within a 4 and a half hour drive (or 2-3 if I had to drive the morning of). I am a pretty good performance shower. I don't win everything all the time, but I learned to show performance in Region X, which is full of really great showers. And I showed, a lot, for a very long time. As I said, I didn't always win, or win everything, but I did win a lot. And I got a little bit bored. I would try to come up with new entries, and sometimes I did. Sometimes they were great, and sometimes they took a lot of work and did OK. I never got into showing a ton of horses at a time because I was always pretty much trying for champs. And you can't get champs unless one horse does well in a lot of classes. 

    So with my slight boredom came the need to make live showing interesting for myself again. I was still having a good time, but wouldn't it be more fun to challenge myself in unusual ways and make things MORE interesting? Of course it would be. I believe it started with Enchanted Eve and side saddle. In general, most people show side saddle in other English, though occasionally it will be seen in other classes as well. When I won Jennifer Buxton's blog contest for her one millionth page view I nearly had heart failure (said so in my comment!) I didn't get to decide what type of saddle I got, but Jennifer knew what I "needed" and made me a side saddle. We did a trade for the bridle. And then I had a fantastic side saddle set that, clearly, needed to be shown. So I decided to play a game with myself. I wanted to see how many side saddle entries I could get into the English performance division. So Enchanted Eve showed in trail.

She showed in pleasure.

 

      And she showed in a couple of other classes as well. I think games and... not sure. Maybe Other English. She did not have enough points to win champ or reserve but I believe that flower meant she got an honorable mention. 

      Showing a side saddle entry in a ton of English classes was definitely a fun game to play and an excellent challenge. I didn't manage to get champ or reserve, but that is not always what I am going for (often, not always) and I was pleased to do so well with my set. Now I was hooked on the challenges!

      For anyone curious, I am planning an epic giveaway like Jennifer did, when I hit 500,000 views. I am SO far off from a million it will be a very long time until I get to it. I also am actually super far from 500,000 views (I am still under 300,000). But huge giveaways just can't happen all the time.