Fourth Show....Results are "rigged"

Nevermind. I think I timed out to change the title....

I tried memorizing the colours, but they changed them once the fences were set to the next height. They also switched out a pair of standards for a different pair, also a different colour. Not sure why they did that.

Oh well. I'll try better next show!

That is the best way to look at it. These schooling shows are for us to learn from. Not beat ourselves up over :)

Do they not post your courses in advance? If so maybe try drawing it out and tracing your finger over it again and again. Then zone everyone out and focus on what you need to do. I actually will tell my coach to buzz off before I go into a class because I don't want to listen to last minute snips of advice. I have three things to focus on and only those three things. Path, Pace and Position.

Maybe ask your coach at home to keep giving you random courses last second to help you prepare yourself for different courses at home. It helps train your mind on it.

I'm confused, are we talking about hunter courses or jumper courses?

If it's hunters, knowing the course ahead of time isn't really much of an advantage, unless you've had the opportunity to school the actual course ahead of time.

If its a jumper course, maybe, if the course contained a difficult turn or difficult related distance being able to set that up and practice at home would be an advantage, but only a slight one as it probably would ride differently at the show.
Also, jumper courses should have the fences numbered and flagged, which makes remembering them a lot easier.

Glad you did well!

The bad news is there are those kind of people at every show and on every show circuit, so you might as well get used to it.

Here's a trick for not forgetting your course AND getting good distances to the fences!
1. Try to memorize the course as best as you can.

2. As you do your courtesy circle and approach the first fence, chant in you head a keyword* for the first fence followed by a keyword for the second fence. For example: if your first fence is a red verticle and your second is a blue over, chant in our head "red to blue oxer, red to blue oxer." Say it in time with your horses stride!

3. Once you've jumped the imaginary red verticle, your chant will be altered. Lets say the fence after the oxer is an orange vertical. Now you say in your head " blue oxer to orange, blue oxer to orange."...you get the idea.

*keywords can be based off of anything that will help your brain recognize a specific fence. It could be the fence's color, shape, size, style etc. Always come up with keywords while you first learn the course! This is very important. Hope this helps!

we had a girl like that...really ended up sucking for her when she got to county fair and the rules stating that you "CANNOT have a trainer ride your horse at the show".

She lost her first class of the day to me (English eq.) so she stormed out of the arena, threw the reins at her trainer and let the trainer get on and discipline the horse...then she got DQ'ed because the judge saw her trainer on the horse!

Believe me I know it seems unfair to have girls like that and cheaters in general...but what counts isnt the ribbon, its the notice you get for being a good fair competitor, and for putting in the hard work to get your horse that way....

Who do you think people will go to down the line? The girl who cheats/doesnt train or ride their own, or the girl who put in the hard hours and spent the time with their horse. And then went out and beat the cheater fair and squaree? Don't sweat it...believe me the right people will take notice of you.