Volunteering.

Yesterday was the event at DVCTA. I was a fence judge for all divisions. I was at the drop fences for Novice, Training, and Beginner Novice and the little Ramp for elementary. Training and Novice all had no problems with the drop. Lots of people trotted because it was a downhill approach, and most horses confidently stepped right down. The BN division had just a downhill log as their "drop". I had a few stops and it seems as though most were from either the rider getting ahead and taking the leg off or because the horse had already had previous stops on the course and maybe had lost a little confidence along the way. Elementary was pretty horrifying to watch. Several riders didn't make it to my fence and we even had one rider whose horse stopped at EVERY FENCE. It was so obvious that the horse was just taking advantage of her because she wasn't riding forward. She even approached some of the fences at a walk...just asking the horse to stop basically. It was painful to watch and I was happy that everyone finished the day in one piece.

Amanda was also there volunteering so I talked to her for a bit. She said that she just finished up a week at Phillip Dutton Camp. Lucky girl! Sounds like she had a great time and is looking forward to moving up to training level in the not too distant future. She also filled me in on some of the goings on over in sleeper-land. Sounds like it's pretty busy over there but everyone's having a good time and having some success.