It was a few weekends ago when the Middleburg/ Orange County Pony Club “BLEW” into Morven Park to try their hand at the dressage rally! Despite GALE FORCE winds, falling over dressage letters, and long hours we all had endless fun! We had two teams, each team consisted of four people. With parents not being allowed to talk to the kids at the rally, the kids were forced to help each other and pull together. Both of my teams pulled together so well!! On Sat. each person rode two dressage tests, as a coach it was intense with warming each kid up for two tests, 16 warm ups in the wind! The coaches are not allowed to stand in the warm up arenas so each of us coaches took a corner of the arena and yelled so our riders could hear us! Everything was going great until one of my riders entered the ring and the wind picked up even more and three dressage letters blew over during her ride and spooked her horse. The great news is that she stayed on as the horse bolted from the flying letters, the bad news was that she did not get a re-ride due to the rules 🙁 . I tried to convince the TD, but she told me that if lightning had struck during her test… too bad… I was a bit surprised due to the fact that when I used to coach intercollegiate we would give people re-rides for lesser things. I guess as a coach I just needed to be glad that lightning didn’t strike my rider!
As a coach results are important, and both teams brought high scores and great ribbons! Sunday’s freestyle class was a spectator favorite and our teams had an individual win and third place!
For me on a personal note the best part of the weekend was seeing kids pull together to help each other! The parents help run the rally, and it is so awesome to see the great parents of this club running the show! Whenever horses are involved kids learn great lessons. The friendships and bonding with their family and horses are what they will remember long after the scores have been posted. I am glad to be a part of this great pony club! Great job!!