Get Organized for Show Day

It’s July, which means that the summer showing season is finally in full swing. Riders from every discipline and every region of the country are gearing up for the championships that typically take place towards the end of every summer. For some people, fine tuning could mean perfecting their form and rhythm, while for others, it could be putting a little more elbow grease into their show day preparations. Whether you’re an Olympic contender or just the occasional competitor, now is the time to start polishing your style.

For me, this definitely means getting more organized about my show prep. The day before the morning of a show, you can guarantee that I’ll be scrambling around the barn, frantically trying to get my horse bathed and braided, while trying to pack the trailer in the meantime. While I do manage to get out the door the next morning, I always manage to forget something. Luckily, it usually isn’t something of much consequence, such as a hoof pick or a bottle of fly spray. However, on one particularly unfortunate occasion, I managed to forget my bridle – that was a bad day! I had to drive back all the way to my barn and get it, and I got back to the show with just enough time to warm up. I’m embarrassed to say that incident was only last summer – as someone who has been showing since the tender age of eleven, mistakes such as that simply shouldn’t happen.

So, going into this summer’s show season, I decided that I needed to become more organized if I wanted to be successful. On show day, I don’t need any additional stress, and worrying about whether or not I have everything I need definitely falls under that category. What’s worse is that when I’m tense and anxious, my horse immediately picks up on it, and that just doesn’t make for a smooth ride in the ring. To help me with my organization problem, I invested in some tack luggage to carry things such as my boots and helmet. These are great, since they come with pockets where I can store additional things. For example, in my boot bag, I put leather cleaner and spurs in the pockets, whereas in my helmet bag, I stowed my hairnets and hair ties.

My tack luggage was also great since it saved me valuable trailer space. Instead of having all my equipment haphazardly lying around on the floor, I had it neatly packed and stowed in the corner of the storage section. I was able to more easily see what I had already packed and what I still needed to, instead of digging around and playing a guessing game. This saved me precious time that I could then use towards getting my horse prepped and ready for show time. Sure enough, my first show trying out my new luggage went more smoothly than I had even fathomed! I was beyond thrilled as I floated out of the ring and realized that it had been my least stressful show to date! If you’re as much of a scatterbrain as I am, save yourself the stress and buy yourself some tack luggage – I promise you, it’ll make your life easier!