Top 5 Reasons to Take Your Horse to an Event
The competition season is in full swing. It’s always a busy time for those of us immersed in the competitive and/or educational aspects of the horse world. I’m involved as an instructor, clinician, judge, and competitor.
I enjoy traveling to show, judge, and teach but sometimes a weekend at home in the summer feels like a luxury, and I start asking myself, why am I doing this? So, I make a list about all the reasons I keep going out and about to horse shows and clinics. The following are my top 5 reasons in favor of showing or attending clinics.
- Motivation to keep riding, learning, and training. Nothing points out the holes and deficits in the solidity of my horse’s skills (and my own) like going to a show or a clinic. Mutual trust is tested. The added pressure of the show ring or the stress of a clinic intensifies any problems in my partnership with my horse. I might not even know I have a problem until we end up in a new and strange place. Competition nerves are awful, but they can lead us to seek out new learning and that keeps me growing as a horseman.
- I develop a stronger bond with my horse. When I do all the necessary work to get myself and my horse to a show or a clinic, I inadvertently develop a stronger bond with that horse. Everything from the extra grooming, added time in the saddle, time on the road, time acclimating my horse to a new environment, and then the joyful return home brings a sense of accomplishment to me and my horse.
- I make my horse a better horse. Once a horse has been down the road a bit, he’ll be a much more solid partner. For all the reasons mentioned above—stronger bond, better relationship, sense of accomplishment, more time—all of it develops a better horse. Horses that have been tested in the show ring (and the occasional clinic) will be solid citizens and a joy to own.
- I make new friends. Some of my most meaningful relationships are with other horse people I’ve met at equine events. I’m grateful to know them and they bring much joy to my life.
- Finally, horses are beautiful, and horse events are just plain fun for this horse lover. I’ll keep going down the road with horses as long as I can.
Kim Roe grew up riding on the family ranch and competed in Western rail classes, trail horse, reining, working cow, and hunter/jumper. She trained her first horse for money at 12 years old, starting a pony for a neighbor.
Kim has been a professional dressage instructor in Washington state for over 30 years, training hundreds of horses and students through the levels. In recent years Kim has become involved in Working Equitation and is a small ‘r’ Working Equitation judge with WE United.
Kim is the editor of the Northwest Horse Source Magazine, and also a writer, photographer, and poet. She owns and manages Blue Gate Farm in Deming, Washington where she continues to be passionate about helping horses and riders in many disciplines.