Horse Show Research Paper

Everyone who knows me, knows that I own horses and that I go to horse shows, but most of them do not know the whole story or how big horses are in my life. Like many little girls, at the age of nine I fell in love with horses. My mother had horses when she was younger and decided that she wanted to get them again. Until this point, the only contact I had with the equine species was the pony rides at the local fair. Since I had never been around horses, my mother contacted a family friend to give me riding lessons so that I would know how to be around them and not get hurt. It did not take long, I was hooked!
Once I became good at riding, I started to go to local horse shows. I joined a local 4-H Horse club, starting going to 4-H events and within a year I graduated to going to 4-H Horse Shows, which lead me to qualifying for the Virginia 4-H State Horse Show in Lexington, VA. This was the first time I had been to a horse show of this size. There were over 500 horses in the same place with riders ages 10 to 19. These riders were competing in all disciplines – Western Pleasure, English, Jumping, Dressage, Trail, Reining and more. Experiencing this size show fueled my passion for becoming a “true” …show more content…
Reining is a very intricate competition where the rider has to guide his/her horse through a set pattern with eight specific maneuvers to be completed. There are twelve different patterns that must be performed exactly, otherwise one mistake on the rider’s part, they receive a score of zero (0). This event takes memorization, concentration and the ability to work with your horse as one. It is a difficult sport to master and there is always room for improvement and never perfection. The reason I love this sport is because it mirrors my life. I am very organized and a disciplined person. I enjoy intricate tasks and procedures. These skills help me perform well during reining and also help in all other aspects including