Showing

[LSBC]

How would you define your lease? Is it three lessons a week plus hacks? Because that is going to take up a LOT of your time.

You need to think about what is most important to you. Do you want to go to college for riding? Do you want to try to compete NCEA or NCAA or IHSA?

Will the colleges you are interested in take AP credits? If they don’t - take classes YOU are passionate about. Having a lot of APs on your transcript does not always mean something for colleges, especially if your grades aren’t stellar. If you aren’t confident you can ace an AP it might not be worth it.

[julia.eq.h]

I mainly just wanted advice on if the plan is feasible and if I could even get to medal finals level if I can only lease for like 5 months. I just wanted advice to see if I should not lease and just do lessons or I don’t think I’ll do braiding (unless this plan completely falls apart). Braiding is a lot of work and I’ve been practicing every day but I’m still bad!

Do you think I could even get to the 3 foot level with the plan of showing as much as is safe? Or is this plan too far fetched

[Bristol_Bay]

My Spidey sense is tingling.

Op, your descriptions of your life and riding are all over the place.

Nothing adds up.

As a youngster, maybe your best way forward is to keep counsel with your parents, trainer, school friends and advisors and stop putting yourself out there on social media.

[julia.eq.h]

This is a little difficult to understand as to how someone who likes showing is narcissistic?

I genuinely just like showing and testing my abilities. I like to trail ride sure, but riding competitively with a goal in mind is really rewarding for me. I always like to be challenging myself and when all I did was trail ride I felt sad because I knew I wasn’t pushing myself to do better.

It’s not a bad thing to show, as long as you spend time with your horse. I personally trail ride, do ground work, braid, and pamper my horses on top of showing.

[julia.eq.h]

I’ve spent the last ten years playing my instruments, so I’m able to do short but sweet sessions. I sight read well, so it’s easy for me to learn songs and then work on problem areas. This is also excluding the lesson times. I play around 30 minutes each instruments per day. It is also off-season for competitions because I usually compete in winter and spring.

I’m not saying I win everything I play, I just do competitions for fun and because I like to challenge myself. I have q problem with stage fright.

I’m not working on anything too advanced. Some Rachmaninov, kabelevsky, Mozart, and some back fugues.

[julia.eq.h]

Your spidey senses aren’t super accurate. There are ways to do everything and still have time to do stuff. I’m really organized…

I honestly just wanted an honest advice about if my showing plan is even feasible. I’m not sure if I could even move up to the 3 foot by April.

[Scribbler]

So we have choices in life. We can do a wide variety of activities at a beginner/intermediate level, or we can focus on one primary activity and get really good at it. For myself, I’ve tended to find passions that basically swept away everything else at the time, and not worried about keeping up with everything else. I’ve never once worried about being well rounded etc.

I am also someone who needs a lot of space in my life and I think that people who try to book up every minute of their lives burn out fairly quickly.

I’ve gotten good enough at a few things to know what effort and time that takes, and the difference between mastery and just dabbling.

That said, I can’t really advise OP what to shed from their schedule. I can say with certainty that they aren’t going to achieve mastery of equestrianism or horsemanship with the proposed plan but perhaps that’s not necessary any more than they become a concert level oboe player or launch a new app on the world. If you have the cash to get wraparound trainer support in a good program, you can be a junior showing on leased horses and get some ribbons or bragging rights.

Now for me, horses have always blasted all other sports and hobbies out of the water but I realize not everyone is that horse crazy, and that’s fine too.

[LSBC]

Are you in your senior year? I ask this as someone who lives and works with students. This sounds overwhelming. If you were my student, I’d tell you to scale it back. You NEED that rest and free time so that you can do your best in the things you’re interested in. Forcing yourself to meet goals is not sustainable.

[Bristol_Bay]

Talk to your trainer about it.

[julia.eq.h]

I’m moving barns soon, haven’t had a chance to find a new trainer. I want to create a plan to give to the trainer that could sound legit and doable.

[Words_of_Wisdom]

That new trainer can help you formulate a plan and tell you whether or not your goal of the 3 ft medal final is reasonable.
Very hard for a bunch of internet strangers who have never seen you ride, are unfamiliar with your local show circuit, and who do not know your budget to determine whether or not your goals are reasonable.

[GraceLikeRain]

@julia.eq.h

I honestly just wanted an honest advice about if my showing plan is even feasible. I’m not sure if I could even move up to the 3 foot by April.

The thing is that not a single one of us can give you that feedback. We don’t know you. We don’t know your riding skills. We don’t know your quality of trainer, access to horses, proximity to shows, etc.

If you want assurance that you should push yourself, that’s best done by trusted adults who know you well.

Personally, I work with a lot of burnt out young adults who tried to do it all and are really struggling now. Many are now doing the hard therapy work of understanding why they felt that their value as a person was so deeply linked to accomplishments and accolades. Personally, I enjoyed being “too busy” to run from my anxiety and to earn the approval of others. If I could go back, I’d give myself more time to breathe. Whether that’s relevant for you is again, only something that can be known by the adults that know you.

Previously you mentioned having 3 years until you turned 18. If you’re 15, taking all of these APs, playing two instruments, working two jobs, and are trying to also find a way to ride at a moderately competitive level, my instinct is that you may be burning the candle at both ends.

[findeight]

We don’t have enough specific details or personal knowledge to evaluate your plan or even know what, exactly, the plan is.

I thought you were set on joining the rest of your family in investment banking and possibly moving to Europe? Now you have introduced a substantial amount of time consuming involvement in music?

Sorry but your posts are all over the place. Slow down.

[KBC]

@julia.eq.h

It’s not a bad thing to show, as long as you spend time with your horse. I personally trail ride, do ground work, braid, and pamper my horses on top of showing.

I’m lost, you have horses of your own, or you are leasing?

You braid, for recreation?

Unless you are some sort of super talented prodigy at everything, my advice would be to do less, and stick with those things that give you real pleasure. You can be competitive with having to compete, you can enjoy competing without winning.

[julia.eq.h]

I definitely never said I was moving to Europe. I mentioned an internship there, but never moving there. And yes, I said I want to learn about investment banking because I’m learning about it and I think it’s cool. Why is that relevant? And yes, I play music a lot. It’s normal for people to play music and do other activities.

[Mersidoats]

What sort of competitions? Local competitions? When I was preparing for auditions and solo competitions, I was playing at least 20 hours a week on my own, from freshman year on. It seems like you are well on your way to being a jack of all trades, rather than a master of one. I would scale back to the things you truly enjoy for hobbies and pick one thing to pursue seriously while getting the best possible grades at school.

I think you are overextending yourself. I can’t comment on whether you have a shot at medals finals because I haven’t seen you or the horse, and I don’t know if you are in a full-care situation or have to do all the grunt work at shows yourself. You should talk to your next trainer and let her help you formulate a plan for showing. And as always, be prepared for it all to come to nothing if the horse gets injured and needs time off.

What do your parents say?

[vxf111]

The #1 way to get better at riding is to ride as much as possible with the best possible training. That’s not cheap. But that’s how it done. The path you take to accomplish that is up to you. But that’s how the best riders get great… they rode a TON. Period. Often at great sacrifice to other aspects of their life. But that path is a clear one. You don’t become a great rider on the COTH forums or playing the piano or passing the AP history exam. Those are all ways you could spend your time, and perhaps some of them are even more worthy than riding. But getting better at riding is simple-- good practice makes perfect. Of course, that’s easier said than done.

[julia.eq.h]

Definitely. I fear I am becoming good at a lot of stuff, but not amazing at anything. I’d say I’m good at piano and math (I do local comps nothing crazy) but that’s all.

I desperately want to be super good at a few things.

My parents say I need to focus on school only until summer but I feel like that’s a long time away.

[julia.eq.h]

Definitely! I’m always trying to ride any horse I can to get better!

[vxf111]

And also “retraining” a horse as a hunter, and learning to braid, and practicing music, and taking a bunch of classes, and math competition, and coding, and etc. etc. etc.

You’re not really hearing what everyone is saying.

If you want to get better at riding, to really be the best, something has got to give-- probably lots of somethings.

Would I pick that path? No. I’d rather have an enjoyable life than be the greatest rider I’m physically capable of being.

But if you really wanted to become the best rider you could, you’d focus more and spread yourself less thin.