Show Recap Dressage at Devon Recognized Show

When I wrote my first recap post of the weekend, I was planning on having part two follow about 2 days after my first post, but here we are 2 weeks later and just getting around to it. After the Amateur Show ended, I tucked Montego back in the barn and me back in my hotel for the night. My ride times for the recognized show were at 3:00 and 4:32 the next afternoon. Knowing that I would be waiting around most of the day, I really was already leaning towards scratching my second test Training 3. The morning came and again the typical routine of an away show, I took Montego out to stretch his legs, fed his breakfast, and cleaned his stall. Refilled hay and water and then set off to watch the upper level riders riding earlier in the day.

One of the most fun riders to watch was Silva Martin. She attends a lot of the local shows, but it was even more fun to see Boyd at the show watching her like just a normal horse husband. Dressed in shorts and slides, if you didn’t know he was an Olympic rider himself, you would think we was just another guy out supporting his wife with his kids. The morning and the afternoon seemed to drag on as I waited for my times. I rebraided Montego and took him for a couple more walks throughout the day before it finally got close enough to our time to tack him up.

Again I chose a short warm-up before our Training Test 2 class because I could tell he was very close to having no gas left in the tank. Our ride time finally came and again we strutted down center line in the Dixon Oval one more time. After having what felt like one of my best rides in Training 2 the day before, this ride felt very lackluster compared. Montego was much more against my hands and distracted with everything going on around him more so than the day before. I think he was just done with the tiny stall and missing his turnout time by then. He still managed to score a decent 64.14% which is better than the last time we did this test at a Recognized show in 2019.

Overall, I couldn’t ask for more from this horse in a weekend. I just didn’t feel like getting him to do another test because I signed up was worth it so we scratched our Training 3 test and headed home an hour early. Totally the right decision because by the time I got him off the trailer at home we would have just started our second test. I know we both would have been miserable if we had to wait around that long.

The whole weekend to me was such a fun experience. I got to check off a lot of items off my bucket list and completed a lot of firsts in my horse journey including our farthest solo trailer ride together, away showing by myself, and completing tests at Devon with great scores. Montego ended up getting a week off and then has just been slowly getting back to work as we begin to enter our final couple of shows for the season.

I was extremely appreciative of the amazing show that was put on at Devon this year and think it is a great event to bring more amateur and lower level dressage riders to this amazing venue. Looking forward to doing it again sometime in the future.