Equestrian Team

So here's why participating in Oregon High School Equestrian Teams (or OHSET, if you don't want to tie your tongue in a knot) was really, really good for me and my horses.

There's something like two hundred riders. Lots of them have more than one horse.
Therefore, your horse gets introduced to crazy warmup arenas. Big time. After the first meet, Bailey was an awful lot less concerned when A. people tried to run their horse up his butt, B. horses went flying by bucking wildly, C. people with flags galloped around playing tag, or D. miniature ponies with carts were about.
After a few minutes of sensory overload, the horse generally starts ignoring all the other asshats and just listens to you.

You haul to practice once a week and you haul to three meets, once a month in the winter/spring. This provides a very nice incentive for your horse to learn to trailer nicely, doesn't it? And how convenient that you get weekly practice! By the end of my time with him, while trailer loading could still be a high-stress experience simply because he was never quite happy being shut in, Bailey would pretty much walk right on the trailer. With McKinna this has never been an issue.

Did I mention the asshats? People will cut you off and glare at you. People will see that you accidentally crossed your reins before you put them over your horse's head and say nothing. People will roll their eyes if your horse misbehaves. They will also run their misbehaving horse into you in the warmup arena. Their training methods are right, and yours are wrong. Also, if you don't want to wear a neon-colored helmet cover for dressage, you have no team spirit and are a Diva. After awhile, it all rolls off your back, a valuable skill to have anywhere and especially in the horse world.

Then again, there's also nice people. Making friends from other schools, spontaneous bonding with people who I empathize with ("Yeah, I have a crazy horse too..."), people who loan you tack and rule books and horses and help you with your patterns, people who offer a free spot in their trailer, people who cheer for you even though they don't know you. Life's not all that bad, is it?

You are expected to compete in 5 individual events and as many team events as possible. This is so your team can get as many points as possible. You're an English rider and there aren't 5 English events? Guess you'd better learn to ride Western then. My three safe things were Over Fences, Hunt Seat Equitation, and Dressage. With both Bailey and McKinna, I have competed in Pole Bending, Individual Flags, and Figure-8 for individual events. I also learned how to team pen, do Canadian Flags, and run Birangle. Another popular event, IHOR (In Hand Obstacle Relay), which I stepped in to do after a team member quit, involves showmanship at speed over obstacles.

Basically, doing all that different stuff means your horse had better be one hell of an all-around horse. My horse neck reins very well, grasps the basic concept of pockets though I never patterned her, understands working cows in a team, and gets really, really excited when we're about to run Individual Flags. She already lead well before I started OHSET, so I wouldn't have worked on it; thanks to competing in IHOR, she can flawlessly (and quickly) turn on her forehand or haunches, sidepass, trot in hand (on the off side too!), or back through an L, all without me touching her. She also stops dead on a dime.

Here's some pictures to illustrate the different sides of it all (these were all taken at OHSET):Lining up for the sidepass in IHOR

Getting ready to carry the flag for Grand Entry

Team Penning (sorry Mugs, I'll never be as good as you with cows ;)

We're serious about our pole-bending. Really.

Just trying to keep a gray horse clean!

That's all for today!