Cob Jockey

I've always thought highly of my GMO, but this weekend took my admiration to a whole new level.

Normally our year-end awards is a luncheon with a cash bar at a country club. This year though, they decided to take their "education" mission to heart by having a "Through the Levels" symposium at a brand new local (private, omg) facility.

There aren't enough dollar signs in the world to express how much money this facility must have cost.

They invited the AA, JR/YR and Open high percentage winners of each level this year to bring their horses and ride, in order, from Intro through GP, in front of Angela Jackson who graciously donated (!) her time for this, with the goal being to show the progression of the Dressage horse from the earliest stages of the journey to GP.

It ended up being part clinic, part symposium, as Angela would work on various things with the riders while telling the audience why a particular thing was important both at the level the pair was at, and why it would be important to them in the future. 

She wove that thread throughout the entire day, often referring back like "Remember when I told the First Level riders this, you're now seeing why that's important..."

Third Level featured two 17hh imported WBs and 13hh Lovebug, the "asthmatic Chincoteague pony"

The other cool thing about it was that, I'm not trying to make us sound like a bunch of country bumpkins or anything, but we have far, FAR more off-breeds than Warmbloods in this club, and it was great to see the champions of the levels for the year struggle with some of the same things Connor and I struggle with. 

In some GMOs, inviting the winners of the levels for the year to this wouldn't have been as interesting to me - go even an hour or two away in a couple of directions from my barn and you've got a couple of GMOs with LOTS of imported Warmbloods. At something like this, I want to see people working through the same things I am, fighting the same conformational challenges that I am, and I got that yesterday.

In the middle of the symposium, they took a two-hour break between Second and Third levels for a catered lunch with free beer, wine and non-alcoholic drinks, as well as a champagne toast followed by the usual awards presentation. For the first time ever, I came home with a tri-color from this awards ceremony for my championship ride in September:

I also got my Reserve Champion Second Level AA high percentage year-end award - turns out I was 0.01 point behind the first place rider, which would have gotten me an invite to ride in this thing! That was a blessing though - I got a blanket instead of a second backpack (and it was cold in the unheated indoor, despite the heated attached barn being a comfortable 60F (heated barns are NOT common at this latitude, so that was a nice surprise!)) and I didn't have to drive to Ohio, pick Connor up, bring him back across the state to ride in this, then bring him back to Ohio. Which I wouldn't have had to do, I could have declined, but come on, you know me. I would have accepted.

I'm savoring these, because it took me three years to win anything at Second (with a COVID year in there) and will likely take me just as long at Third, lol.

So hats off to my GMO, this was such a huge upgrade over the usual country club lunch, and much more in line with the club's education mission. I hope we do this again next year!