Off to the Western Dressage World Championships By : Scot MacGregor
When you pull your big horse trailer out of the driveway loaded with everything you need for the next week plus four horses , you never know what adventures await you . We headed out to Guthrie Oklahoma for the Western Dressage World Championships at the Lazy E Arena with high hopes and a year ’ s worth of practice and planning . I could say it was an easy trip and hordes of people were waiting for us to arrive with leis and music like a bad episode of Fantasy Island but we just got stuck in the mud .
Working that out we did find a beautiful horse show facility with ponds and paths under trees and huge arenas with perfect footing for the horses to perform their best in . Everything packed must now find its new place and the unloaded horses must be fed and settled down for the night because first thing in the morning it ’ s show time !
Our first competitions on Thursday would be suitability and equitation . Suitability assesses the horse and equitation evaluates the rider and I had the honor of winning both . Belle ( Banner ’ s Dixie Belle ) a 14 year old mare was found to be most suitable toward the contests of western dressage and I was deemed a decent rider on Knight ( All Around Midnight ).
The second day each horse would ride in their first western dressage tests . We arrived for warm up and every horse in sight was perfect ! This is not normal at most horse shows where there may be a few excellent horses and many average people packers ( easy to ride horses ). I was a little intimidated but my lower level horses were first to show and they both performed well . My mom ’ s horse Belle was next and she performed very well winning her test in basic level . Western Dressage starts with introductory level , then advances to basic level on up to first , second and finally third level . My mom , Marilynne MacLeod , was really excited . Winning is only dreamed about but the reality of your horse becoming a world champion really impacts you emotionally . We cried .
Knight , my 13 year old stallion , whom I raised , was our final horse of the day competing at the highest level . Third level takes a decade of work to achieve . As a winning professional horse trainer , I took five years of lessons at Roberson Equestrian Facility , here in Murfreesboro , preparing for this challenge . Can I become one moving body with my trusted horse ? Can we move through extremely hard maneuvers linked in trust and years of practice to achieve the heights of third level ?
We arrived at the doors of the main arena for the upper level horses . It was huge ! This massive building held two 20 x 60 meter arenas side by side and they only filled the floor half way . The warm up area was immediately in front of us using the front half of the building , then the competition arenas , surrounded by many rows of seats . Walking in , we rode under the largest American flag I ’ ve ever seen . Old Glory prominently welcomed you to the big time . Now I ’ m really intimidated !
NWHA National News 28