I’m halfway through my adventure in Pennsylvania! I arrived Sunday evening and hit the hay pretty early after a quick dinner with the rest of The Horse of Course crew. We spent Monday moving into our space at the show grounds at Devon. The whole thing is much more involved than shows usually are; our vendor space at Devon is indoors, in a building. We install the shelving, racks, and gridwall, then move in everything from the mobile unit- literally, every single thing. The volume of merchandise required for a show like Dressage at Devon is bananas; in addition to the entire inventory of the big dressage trailer, there’s also about 10 large moving boxes’ worth of apparel from the store and several boxes of tack shipped directly to the show grounds from the store’s vendors.
In between setting up, constantly rearranging, and helping people find the perfect breech (or boot, or shadbelly, or scarf), I’ve had time to walk around the rest of the vendor village and watch a few classes.
I watched the young horse in-hand classes on Tuesday, and it made me more disappointed than ever that Gina reabsorbed her embryo! There were some very nice young horses on the triangle…and some very naughty ones!
I also watched a couple of Materiale classes yesterday, which were really interesting. Materiale classes are under saddle group classes for young horses in which they are judged on movement, potential as a dressage horse, and overall general impression.
And you never know who you’ll see at Dressage at Devon! I spent 10 minutes watching the warmup for a Materiale class and trying to get a good picture of one of work’s customers. One of the riders in the group was a chic-looking woman with a lovely, quiet style of riding who seemed cool as a cucumber; when the class began, I realized I’d spent 10 minutes admiring Silva Martin!
I’m looking forward to the weekend, and to USDF Region 9 Championships in Houston next week!
Sounds like a fab time, your job is so cool!!!
I NEVER imagined I would get to do such cool things with my job! 😀
How cool! I love going to big shows and watching, I can’t imagine working at one!
It’s really cool- you get to chat with so many people and see so many interesting things!
The in-hand and materiale classes for me are so interesting. Definitely plan on signing my baby horse up for them, mine as well get some show miles in!
YES! I was SO glad to see them- it made me eager to re-breed Gina and dream about showing her offspring in-hand! Who am I kidding, though- I’ll probably pay a pro to handle it, because I CANNOT jog quickly lolz
So exciting! I’ve only been to Devon once, way back when I was a junior. (Not for dressage obviously!) But it’s such an amazing venue. I love the history there.
I once owned a mare who was second in hand at Dressage at Devon (before she was mine)! She was really pretty. Unfortunately pretty didn’t do… Lol.
It’s easily the coolest venue I’ve ever seen (and HIPICO Santa Fe was pretty freaking cool)!
I learned my lesson about pretty horses when I bought Gina, hahaha!
I want to steal that young mare to turn her into a hunter. That sweeping trot is swoon worthy!
Ha! The mare’s rider JUST bought her (that’s the customer I was trying to get a photo of)! I saw a lot of horses that looked better suited to the hunter ring with long, low gaits and kind eyes!
It looks like such a beautiful venue! I’d love to see it in person one day. That’s crazy about Silva Martin!
It’s really unique! It’s right in the middle of a residential area on a main street- a far cry from the big venues way out in the middle of nowhere that I’m used to!
I wanna go I wanna go I wanna go!!! 😀
I really want to come to Devon one day and see all the things. 🙂
Fancy! Enjoy your time there!