Tag Archives: shows

Riding Club Points after the May 2018 Show

Riding Club PointsOur May show was a great success. Thank you to everyone who came out to support us and brave the extremely hot weather. As always our riders worked hard, competed well, and supported each other.

Once again we had Divine Horse Mobile Tack store here with a large selection of equipment and apparel. We were also lucky to have delicious food at a concession stand provided by the grandma of one of our riders.

Riding Club Points for this Show are as Follows:

Rider POINTS POSITION
 Sophia Eaton / White Rose Rubydoo 63 1
 Abbygale Hamilton / Escapade Fancy Pants 57 2
 Riley Hughes / White Rose Sweet Sierra 33 3
 Kayleigh Beckemeyer / White Rose Moonfire 26.5 4
 Michayla Belus / White Rose Sweet Sierra 26 5
 Maddie Rominger / White Rose Moonfire 19 6

Riding Club PointsAbbygale and Escapade Fancy Pants are still in the lead but Sophia and White Rose Rubydoo are slowly catching up. Don't forget that at the end of the show season we have a party and recognize all our riders.

Riding Club Points for the show season so far are as follows:

Rider POINTS POSITION
 Abbygale Hamilton / Escapade Fancy Pants 154.5 1
 Sophia Eaton / White Rose Rubydoo 99 2
 Riley Hughes / White Rose Sweet Sierra 84.5 3
 Michayla Belus / White Rose Sweet Sierra 67 4
 Maddie Rominger / White Rose Moonfire 52.5 5
 Isabel Mejia / White Rose Rubydoo 46 6

We are always welcoming new riders. Our next Fun Show is June 9th.

Come out and show with us!

Riding Club Points After the April Show

White Rose Fun Show
© Diamond M. Photography

We had a very successful fun show here at White Rose Equestrian yesterday. The weather was perfect and our competitors worked hard. I have to mention that we have a great group of Riding Club Members. They are all so supportive of each other.

We were also lucky to have Montana Webb of Diamond M. Photography taking pictures of our competitors. If you would like to order pictures taken at the show please reach out to her via one of the above links.

We also had a mobile tack store provided by Divine Horse Tack. You can buy from them online or their store that will open this summer on Congress Street in York, SC.

I know you are all eager to see who earned the most points.

Riding Club Points for this Show are as Follows:

Rider POINTS POSITION
 Abbygale Hamilton / Escapade Fancy Pants 63.5 1
 Sophia Eaton / White Rose Rubydoo 36 2
 Michayla Belus / White Rose Sierra  36 2
 Savannah Lewis / Mason 32.5 4
 Maddie Rominger / White Rose Moonfire 23 5
 Riley Hughes / White Rose Sweet Sierra 23 5
White Rose Fun Show
© Diamond M. Photography

This show also shook up the overall leaderboard. Abbygale and Escapade Fancy Pants have a very impressive lead but other riders still have a chance to catch up with her at upcoming shows. The trick is to show as often and in as many classes as possible.

Riding Club Points for the show season so far are as follows:

Rider POINTS POSITION
 Abbygale Hamilton / Escapade Fancy Pants 97.5 1
 Riley Hughes / White Rose Sweet Sierra 51.5 2
 Isabel Mejia / White Rose Rubydoo  46 3
 Michayla Belus / White Rose Sweet Sierra 41 4
 Sophia Eaton / White Rose Rubydoo 36 5
 Maddie Rominger / White Rose Moonfire 33.5 6

We are always welcoming new riders. Our next Fun Show is May 12th.

Come out and show with us!

Riding Club Points After the March Show

20180310_094540We have our first Fun Show of 2018 under our belt and it was a great success as usual. The weather was unseasonably very cold but we still had a very good turnout. Our established riders did well and our new riders learned what it's like to participate in a horse show.

All competitors who join our Riding Club are eligible to collect points at every show throughout the season. These points are tallied at the end of the year and the riders with the most points are recognized.

Riding Club Points for this Show are as Follows:

Rider POINTS POSITION
 Isabel Mejia / White Rose Rubydoo  46  1
 Abbygale Hamilton / Escapade Fancy Pants  34  2
 Macy Schott / White Rose Fandango  29  3
 Riley Hughes / White Rose Sweet Sierra  28.5  4
 Kayleigh Beckemeyer / White Rose Sweet Sierra  24  5
 Isabella Hendricks / White Rose Sweet Sierra  22.5  6

Our next show is April 14th, please join us!

As always I must thank all the volunteers. It takes a great deal of time and effort to pull together, even a small, fun show and I couldn't do it without the help of a small, dedicated army. If you would like to volunteer at any of our events please let us know.

Click here to see more photos of the show.

Riding Club Points as of August 5th, 2017

Fun Horse Show
Photo courtesy of Lola Cichocki

We had another fun, friendly show here today at White Rose Equestrian. Thank you to everyone who came out to help and compete.

I am so pleased with all our riders and the progress they have made over the summer while competing. Showing is an opportunity for them to put into practice what they learn in weekly lessons. It also gives them the freedom to explore their riding abilities and grow as equestrians in ways that lessons alone could never do.

The riding club points for this show are as follows:

Rider POINTS POSITION
 Macy Schott / White Rose Fandango  58.0  1
 Libby Schott / White Rose Desert Wind  44.0  2
 Riley Hughes / White Rose Sweet Seirra  40.0  3
 Isabel Mejia / White Rose Rubydoo  39.5  4
 Maddie Rominger / White Rose Moonfire  36.5  5
 Deana Poteat / White Rose Rubydoo  34.0  6

After today's show, we have a change in the overall leaderboard. Everyone still has time to catch up at our Fall Fun Show on October 28th, 2017.

The overall championship riding club points so far are as follows:

Rider POINTS POSITION
 Macy Schott / White Rose Fandango  173.0  1
 Libby Schott / White Rose Desert Wind  163.0  2
 Riley Hughes / White Rose Sweet Sierra  162.0  3
 Maddie Rominger / White Rose Moonfire  156.0  4
 Allison Guidi / DF Sergio  65.5  5
 Alida Leidy / Maddie  51.5  6

Our Fall Fun show will also have a costume class so start thinking about how you are going to dress up your horse.

 

Why I Host Horse Shows

18221981_10155530340448974_2094783583415863576_nHere at White Rose Equestrian, we host several fun, friendly horse shows a year. Our riders look forward to showing off their skills and winning ribbons. But there is much more to it than that. Our emphasis is on learning and improving and our motto is, "The most important thing about showing is having fun!"

Most of our students are beginner to intermediate riders. They ride once a week and do not own their own horses. They don't have an opportunity to travel to shows.

I know what that feels like.

I was bitten by the horse riding bug many years ago. I can't remember a time when I wasn't obsessed with horses. I read every horse book I could get my hands on, tied a rope to the handlebars of my bicycle and pretended they were reins, and dreamed of owning my own horse one day. But, we weren't well off. We lived in a small apartment above a store with a yard the size of a pocket handkerchief and I knew I wouldn't be getting a horse anytime soon.

I was lucky enough to start riding lessons when I was eleven and used my weekly allowance to pay for them. I would ride the bus there early Saturday morning and stay all day. I did anything and everything the riding school owner asked of me just to be around the horses. And if I was lucky, I could ride William, my favorite, out to his field at the end of the day.

Once a year we would visit Ilkley for the day and sometimes there would be a horse show/gymkhana being held. I was so envious of those girls with their spotless ponies, fancy show clothes, and opportunities I thought I would never have.

My passion continued as I got older and eventually, as an adult, I bought my first horse. Finally, I had the chance to show. I participated, mainly, in jumpers but also did some cross country and dressage events. I also ran a small equestrian facility, Laneside Stables. At Laneside Stables we gave riding lessons, operated a pony club, manufactured show jumps, and ran small horse shows.

Life happened and I ended up in America and that brings us to present day and White Rose Equestrian. We have only been at our location for six months but we hit the ground running and have no intention of slowing down. We have many upgrades and improvements planned but our facility already had all the basics in place for us to grow and expand what we offer.

20170715_090822adj
A fun horse show at White Rose Equestrian

One of the first things I was determined to do was to host some fun shows. They are hard work and take a great deal of time and effort to organize and pull together but they are so worthwhile. I get so much satisfaction when I see the riders improve and become more independent with each show we host.

There is no pressure on anyone to win, just to learn and have fun.

So why do I host horse shows? I do it because at heart I am still the same horse-mad little girl I always was. The one who never got to show as a child. The one who wanted for a pony more than anything in the world. I host horse shows so that kids can experience opportunities I never had. They are making memories. When they are all grown up they will be able to say, "I used to ride when I was younger. I even went to a few horse shows."

Come and join in the fun with us!

Riding Club Points as of June 25th, 2017

Riding Club PointsWe have now had two very successful Fun Horse Shows here at White Rose Equestrian. All our riders, parents, helpers, and friends did a great job and made the show a memorable success. Our emphasis is on learning and having fun and our competitors take it very seriously. We are happy to welcome riders and horses from other barns and look forward to making new friends at future shows.

We are very grateful to everyone who comes out to help. It takes a lot of time, preparation, and manpower to put on a horse show. If you would like to volunteer please let us know.

The championship riding club points, so far.

Rider POINTS POSITION
 Riley Hughes / White Rose Sweet Sierra  84.0  1
 Libby Schott / White Rose Desert Wind  78.0  2
 Macy Schott / White Rose Fandango  73.0  3
 Maddie Rominger / White Rose Moonfire  71.5  4
 Alida Leidy / Maddie  51.5  5
 Mekah Leidy / Oragon  42.0  6

Championship Riding Club Points are recognized at our end of season party. The date and location is yet to be decided.

Just about everything that could go wrong did, but that didn't stop us from having fun.

We tried very hard to get there but we clearly weren't supposed to show today

It was dark as we pulled out of our driveway and headed to the barn.  Even the birds were still snoozing.  Isabel chatted away about anything and everything as I ran through in my mind what we had packed and what still needed to be done before we could load.

We snaked through the sleeping town of Davidson, cocooned in a soft, velvet darkness;  the streets eerily silent.  Out into the country heading east on Rocky River Road the distant skyline above the trees was painted in soft streaks of cerise with blends of copper and coral.

"What an amazing time to be alive." I said out loud, punctuating Isabel's ramblings about ponies, and horses, and all things equestrian.

"Yes it is." She agreed.

I feel so blessed to have a passion that I can share with her.

The previous evening at the barn our pre-show routine had finally clicked with her.  She had spent some quality time riding before helping load the trailer and clean tack.  We'd had a conveyor-belt routine down-pat and had everything finished in no time.  We'd decided to bathe Mylie the next day at the show as our class wasn’t until noon which gave us all morning to kill.

As I'd tucked her into bed that night she'd hugged me tightly and whispered in my ear.

"I love you mum.  Thank you for getting everything ready for my show."  If love could be measure in a bucket, I had enough to fill every ocean on the planet.  What a sweetheart she is.

We pulled into the barn and were immediately greeted by a plethora of activity.  Horses and ponies stood patiently in the grooming stalls while everyone busied themselves.

Hauling a trailer is like riding a bike; once you learn how to do it you never forget.  With the guidance of Liss I backed up perfectly, first try, and hooked everything into place.  In the barn I wrapped Mylie's legs with the travel bandages then went back outside to do the final checklist before loading up.

And that's when the fun started.  The lights on the trailer wouldn't work.  We unplugged the cable; rubbed it, shook it, blew on it, and any number of other non-technical things but nope, no way were the lights going to come on.  We put it down to the trailer almost being swept away recently when a storm surge gushed through the farm but that's another story all together.

We contemplated taking the trailer anyway without lights but it would also mean the electric brakes wouldn't work and that wasn't something I was willing to risk especially loaded up with very precious cargo.  So Liss got on the phone and called for help.  Her good friend A. C. had a trailer not too far way that we could borrow.  We quickly unhitched and set out to pick it up.

By now it must have been around 7:00 a.m. and the rest of civilization was beginning to stir.  We dashed along country lanes, through Huntersville and back out the other side.  Without even announcing our arrival we pulled up to the unsuspecting trailer, attached it to the back of the truck and set off back to the barn.  We tested and reset the brakes and pulled onto the highway.

Now I've pulled many different trailers over the years with many different vehicles and they all have their own individual feel to them.  And this one felt like a troop of gymnasts were perfuming a routine inside it.   I mentioned that it felt very bouncy but didn't give it much more thought.  About half way back to the barn Liss said in an extremely calm voice.

"You might want to slow down, do you have a 2 and 5/16th ball by any chance." Liss asked me after receiving a text message.

I had no idea and to be honest didn't even know what size ball was on the hitch on the truck.

"Don't know." Was my answer and picked up the phone to call José.

The previous week he had been working his on-call week and was trying to sleep in.  His sleepy reply quickly turned into a completely wide away response when he realized we were towing a trailer with a ball too small for the socket.  But what were we supposed to do?  Even if we decided to take it back we still had to tow it there and we weren't about to abandon it at the side of the road.  So fully aware that it could bounce off at any given moment I gingerly continued our journey.  Thank goodness Liss knows everyone there is to know in the horse community around town.  We stopped off at another barn on the way and changed out the ball.

By now we had been missing about an hour and a half and I'm sure everyone back at the barn must have been wondering where we were.  Fortunately they had the foresight to transfer everything from the defunked trailer into Liss' trailer so all we had to do was load up the horses.

Finally on the road.  Liss and Jake in one truck with Cottie and Hershey, Bailey and me in the other truck with Mylie and Jelly Bean, and Dori, Chloe, Lola, and Isabel in the mini-van with the DVD player.  It looked like we had overcome all the obstacles, felt like I'd already put in a full day of work, and it wasn't even 9.00 a.m.

I77 was just beginning to fill up and I thought it must be safe to let out a sigh of relief.  That turned out to be rather premature.  A thin drizzle of precipitation formed on the windscreen and I inadvertently flashed my headlights in an attempt to find the wipers.  I really should drive José's truck more often.  The skies ahead were thick and grey which in itself isn't a bad thing.  I'd rather be at a show with overcast 70's weather even with a steadily falling trickle of rain than dress up in jods, shirt, hunting stock, and jacket in a billion degrees with off the chart humidity; so on we pressed.

We cruised past the lake, through Mooresville and steadily towards the ever darkening skies.  The rain drops grew larger and larger and our speed became slower and slower.  Less than an hour into the journey our convoy pulled off the interstate into the relative safety of a gas station to reassess the situation.  Dori had gone ahead of us and Katherine was already on the showground.  Numerous calls later and a look at the Doppler Radar image on the phone and we decided it was a washout.

Very reluctantly we turned around and made our way back to the barn.  We work like a well oiled machine and each took a task without negotiations.  Liss cleaned the trailers, I cleaned the stalls, and Bailey began taking shipping bandages off of the horses.  Dori and the girls arrived soon after and we all laughed about the adventures of the morning.  Not one single person complained.

It turned out that the storm had decided to plonk itself firmly over the show ground and the show had been postponed to the following day.  So, we get to do it all again tomorrow - minus the non-working trailer and hopefully the rain.

The moral of this story is - tomorrow is another day.  No it's not, it's WE NEED OUR OWN TRAILER!!!