The sporting life

[glenatron]

Tomorrow evening will be the first dressage competition for Team Iris. I'm pretty confident it will go well, given all the things we have in our favour:

• I have had to borrow a bridle because I always take the nosebands off mine because they look silly with western gear and then I lose them.
• Turns out the bridle I have borrowed is actually black, with

Comments

[quietann]

/giggles

I am sensing nerves, too.

In the US, there are a lot of snobby "dressage queens" but there are also a lot of beginners, as well as people who remember what it was like to starting out, on a green horse. They are usually nice :)

[glenatron]

It's true enough - I have literally no idea what kind of people will be there. It's a pretty big arena and may bring in a few people as it's one of the few places one can compete during the winter, so who knows how it will work out...

[quietann]

Is it an indoor arena?

We have them all over the place around here (and I am willing to pay extra for a place with an indoor). In warmer parts of the US a lot of people have "Cover-all" arenas, which have a top and partial sides but are more open so a breeze can pass through.

Horses who've never been in one before can get a little spooked. And then there are things like snow sliding off the roof in early spring -- guaranteed to cause spooks! A friend was riding outdoors just next to an indoor a few years ago. Snow slid off the roof and her horse teleported sideways about 15 meters!

[glenatron]

It is an indoor, which is relatively rare here. Iris has experience of them, though, so hopefully it won't be too bothersome for her...

[re_vised]

Indoor arenas are rare there? Wow. That kind of blows my mind because they are so popular here.

[flax]

Yeah, word! I have literally never been at a barn without one, even if it was small. I can't imagine.

[glenatron]

You're probably looking at one in somewhere between twenty and thirty here, even though we often have a lot of rain.

I guess the big difference is that we don't have much space, so land is at a massive premium and planning permission to build a massive barn is hard to obtain.

[re_vised]

I've been at a couple barns without one, including right now (and it suuuuucks). Most of them were in southern Virginia, where it was 60* in January and never snowed.

[flax]

Yes! I really dislike a lot of Capital D- Dressage People, even though they are theoretically my people, but I've also met some terribly nice ones when I was hanging around at shows volunteering or whatever. They can be really lovely!

[glenatron]

I know some pretty nice ones, and I'm not that worried either way really, I am quite entertained by the last-minuteish nature of the endeavour...