The Virginia Horse Center has something happening almost every weekend.
It's not limited to horse events
but it's paradise for people who compete in horse shows!
It has a 4,000 seat coliseum as well as 2 other indoor arenas,
It's not limited to horse events
but it's paradise for people who compete in horse shows!
It has a 4,000 seat coliseum as well as 2 other indoor arenas,
19 show rings, 8 barns and much more.
And although it's only about 1/2 mile down the road
from hotels and Wal-Mart,
it's surrounded by 600 acres of land
for cross country courses, trail events and carriage driving.
Yes, go ahead and hate me....
that big building you see in the photo below is our Wal-Mart.
Even the Wal-Mart is scenic (sort of!)
View Into Town from the Oak Hill Cross Country Course |
This weekend was the Virginia Horse Trials "Three Day Eventing" Competition.
Each horse/rider team competes in all three events over the weekend:
Dressage, Cross Country and Stadium Jumping.
Looking Across the Afternoon Course |
In a moment of insanity,
I volunteered to be a "jump judge" for the cross country.
I say insanity, because I knew zero, zip, na-da about
cross country jumping!
I volunteered to be a "jump judge" for the cross country.
I say insanity, because I knew zero, zip, na-da about
cross country jumping!
Don't you always wonder
when someone tells you that you don't need to know anything to help out,
whether they really mean it?!
when someone tells you that you don't need to know anything to help out,
whether they really mean it?!
Thankfully I was emailed a link to a four page summary of what to do,
because the VERY brief 10 minute "training" on Saturday AM
assumed that I knew much much more than I did!
My Final Set of Jumps to Judge |
The courses were each about 2-3 miles long,
so volunteers are needed to be "eyes" of the event,
helping in case of trouble on the course and
helping in case of trouble on the course and
and scoring refusals, missed jumps and falls.
So armed with a clipboard, forms, pens, map, stopwatch and whistle,
I judged four different jumps on four courses throughout the day.
Continued tomorrow!......
So basically, all you have to know is what a horse is in order to be a judge? Sign me up!! LOL
ReplyDeleteoh, you're a mess! :)
ReplyDeleteWhich sounds easy until you have to stand out in the sun all day and make sure you don't mix up the numbers!
ReplyDeleteInteresting that to be a volunteer you did not have to know much, make that anything, about cross country jumping. And, i would fall into that same category, but at least you have ridden a house, which is more than I have done.
ReplyDelete