Adjusting the Goals

The USDF Region 8 Dressage Competition Season whizzes by awfully quick in, especially for those who get started in April.

Actually, the season goes from mid-August to mid-August. Yes, August. And the USDF Championships are in September. However, between October and April, there are no competitions. Dressage shuts down for the winter in New England, New York, and New Jersey.

Piper and I started training for competition in April, a mere 11 weeks ago. With the USDF Region 8 calendar being what it is, we have a very limited number of local competitions to enter. Unfortunately, of those, we failed to get into the two closest ones. Our entry never arrived at one. The other was filled before closing.

And, considering that Piper's behaviour at his first 2 competitions was much greener than expected, we have revisited our goals. Earning a ticket to the 2008 USDF Region 8 Championships with Piper is no longer a goal.

New 2008 Season Goal: 1 hour of competition arena time

At an average of 6 minutes per test, that's 10 tests. And so, we are now entering schooling shows as well as USDF recognised shows. And, even though there are not enough local opportunities to qualify in 2008, Piper will be in Saugerties at the Fall Festival anyway, competing in the Open Show while Jeddien competes in the USDF Region 8 3rd Level Open Championships.

Piper won't know the difference. :-)