A Typical Show Day
Another popular question many new team members have, especially those who are not familiar with showing, is “what is a normal show day like?” The structure of the day depends if we are going to a show as a guest team, or co-hosting a home show with American University at Oatland. Either way, the shows are long, time-consuming, tiring, and yet one of the most fun experiences and a highlight of the IHSA experience. Below are the structures and sample schedules of each type of show. Because it varies day-to-day, the times are estimates. Some shows are much closer than others, and some take longer than others.
The Day(s) Before the Show…
Get as much homework done as possible
Practice ride the week before at Oatland (For riders competing, Oatland offers free practice rides the week before the show. They are unsupervised but you can only do flatwork. Let an Officer know if you’re interested/your availability and carpools will be assigned.)
Find out carpool assignments
Text your carpool driver so they know where to pick you up and you know when
For home shows only: find out horse holder assignments (each rider, often in pairs, is assigned to catch, groom, and maintain responsibility for a specific horse throughout the day)
Gather all your show equipment
Clean your boots, and then maybe clean them again
Eat a big healthy dinner the night before the show
Go to sleep early and set an alarm for yourself (or five)
The Day of the Show…
Home Show
5:00 Wake up
Wake up, get ready, and meet your carpool on time so you can hit the road, grab a bite, and arrive to the show on-time!
6:00 Breakfast
Most, if not all, carpools make a pit stop at the Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts along Route One to get some breakfast and coffee to start the day.
7:00 Arrive at Oatland Stables
Upon arrival, park in the back of the barn and help unload food, equipment, tack, etc. and bring it inside. When Paige brings the horses in, grab a leadrope and begin grooming and tacking your horse. Jumping horses need to be ready sooner than flat horses because they are schooled first and they show first.
8:30 Schooling begins
Non-competing riders and Star’s IEA riders help school the horses in the morning. It is very quick and just helps warm the horses up as well as determine who is sound or who is misbehaving in case adjustments need to be made. If you’re schooling, be prepared to hop on and ride quickly to keep the process moving.
10:00 Coaches’ Meeting
During the coaches’ meeting, there is not much to do besides clean the barn, help at the food table, and ensure that everything is properly put away and ready for the day to begin.
10:45 Find out horse assignments and hold assigned horses
Once the horse assignments are announced, find the horse you are responsible for, make sure you have its name somewhere, and make sure you’re where you should be. Jumping horses need to be ready first and stand outside for their riders while flat horses can wait in their stalls (tacked) for the jumping classes to end.
Only Oatland horses are used at our shows, so it’s a guarantee that you or
another teammate have already ridden your mount! Don’t be scared to ask
around.
11:00 Classes begin!
Our shows run very efficiently. The classes are quick and we encourage riders to find their mounts as soon as possible. Not sure what to do? Help teammates get ready for their classes, join jump crew to quickly put fallen poles back up, assist at the in-gate and mounting areas needed, help the food table, keep the aisles clean, make sure horses have hay and water, etc.
Start getting ready a couple classes before yours. Clean your boots, put your helmet on, and find your horse. Make sure a teammate is with you at the gate to help you get adjusted and give your boots one last wipe-down!
3:30 Classes/show ends
As the day begins to come to an end, begin cleaning up. Clean the barn, clean the stalls, and be sure to untack, groom, and turn-out your assigned horse when directed to do so. Help to unset the ring, load the supplies, equipment, tack, and left-over food back into the cars, and make sure we leave the barn in good shape!
4:30 Arrive back to UMD (or home)
Take a hot shower and a nice nap to congratulate another successful and fun show day with the best IHSA team ever!
Away Show
7:00 Wake up
Wake up, get ready, and meet your carpool on time so you can hit the road, grab a bite, and arrive to the show on-time!
8:00 Breakfast
Most, if not all, carpools make a pit stop at the Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts along Route One to get some breakfast and coffee to start the day.
9:30 Arrive at show and set up camp
Find a cozy spot for the team to gather, watch, and cheer on/coach teammates while they ride.
9:45 Watch schooling and read horse descriptions
Each barn/host schools must school their horses and allow the guest schools to watch. This is a good chance to study how each horse behaves in case you draw them! Sometimes, classes will get paused for a horse to get schooled or drawn if they are not behaving and it’s clearly not the rider’s fault.
10:00 Coaches’ Meeting
While it always takes forever, the coaches’ meeting is where coaches from each team gather to find out horse assignments for the day and review any changes or important information that they or their team needs to know.
10:45 Find out horse assignments
One of the unique things about IHSA is the catch-riding, so finding out horse assignments is always fun. Don’t be scared to ask teammates or Star if they know anything about your horse. Chances are, somebody else has ridden them and can give you some tips!
11:00 Classes begin!
While it can vary depending on the host school/barn, classes go in the order of division, beginning with Alumni, then Open, then Intermediate, then Novice, then Advanced WTC to Beginner WT. Some schools do all their jumping classes first, then take a break to reset the ring for all the flat classes.
Make a note of which classes your horse is in and watch how they ride. Look for what makes them tick, if they seem fast or slow, if they need a crop or not, if they like other horses or not, etc. Noticing these will help you when it’s your turn!
Start getting ready a couple classes before yours. Clean your boots, put your helmet on, and find your horse. Make sure a teammate is with you at the gate to help you get adjusted and give your boots one last wipe-down!
3:30 Classes/show ends
4:30 Arrive back to UMD (or home)
Take a hot shower and a nice nap to congratulate another successful and fun show day with the best IHSA team ever!
