Amy Xu ’30 walking Louie (Photo credit: Anna Shi ’28)
“What do you do at a horse show?”
This is one of the most common questions that most riders get from their friends. At George School, the annual equestrian home show lets every member of our community see the answer to the question themselves. This year’s home show took place on Saturday, October 10th. Many riders from nearby barns and communities, as well as George School families, students, and staff, stopped by to show support. 13 riders from the GS Equestrian Team and ones from several other barns and communities joined.
The home show was not yet a tradition when director of the Equestrian Team Tiffany Taylor joined the program 15 years ago. George School, in fact, did not even have a show team back then. Through Tiffany’s hard work and perseverance, our team entered The Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) ten years ago, which allowed us to compete in IEA horse shows, host home shows on campus, and opened up new doors for our riders.
Although the show happened all in one day, the efforts that made it possible took months. As Tiffany describes, the home show is “a huge accomplishment every year.” To pull it off, Tiffany has to book officials, plan for vendors, coordinate with the school, contact other barns, decorate the ring, and work through all the related paperwork.
On Friday, the day before the show, riders were dismissed from their afternoon classes for extra training and preparations. They trained with Tiffany for an hour to untack and take care of the horses and wipe off all the bridles and saddles carefully, making sure every single piece of leather is free of dust. This process can take hours, requiring the riders to be mindful and patient.
So what happens on the show day? Riders are required to be at the barn by 6:30 AM with their show clothes and equipment ready. They then groom and tack up their designated horses and take them out to the lawn near the ring according to the horses’ show schedule. The show progresses from higher-level classes to lower-level ones, with the open class being the most advanced and the beginner walk-trot class being the least advanced. Schooling breaks and adjustments of horses happen in between classes, and coaches from each team gather to draw horses randomly for each rider in each class. Once they know their horses, riders can find, mount, and get ready to enter the ring and show their best performance.
Leyla Kanyi ’28 helping Lexi Johnson ’28 to get ready (Photo credit: Joy Liang ’28)
Some might assume that riding at a show would be an extremely intense experience, but many riders find it rather enjoyable. Catherine Shao ’29, who competed in this year’s home show as a new IEA rider, was surprised by her calmness and how much fun she had. “It felt amazing to put all my weekly training into practice in the ring,” she said.
Another commonly asked question is what riders do when they are not in the ring. Horses, like riders, spend time outside the ring, so riders walk the horses that aren’t being ridden to keep them warm. Though it might sound normal, walking horses in a circle for hours can be exhausting, as Catherine called it the “worst part” of the day. Riders also need to help their teammates get on horses and cheer to support their team, which is why they usually stay for the entire show day even though they might only ride for 20 minutes. After each class, the judge would announce the ranking, and riders would collect their ribbons accordingly.
Riders walking horses to keep them warmed up (Photo credit: Joy Liang ’28)
Amy Xu ’30 and Maryam Chaudhry ’30 walking Manny (Photo credit: Anna Shi ’28)
It is no surprise that riders need to untack and take good care of the horses by the end of the show. But one tradition makes the time after the home show special to everyone — the surprise senior posters. Every year after the home show ends, the team and coaches take pictures in the ring, which is when all the team members surprise the senior riders with the senior posters they created. This year, the team started to plan and secretly make posters a week ahead of the show for our senior captains, Sumy Shao ’27 and Saadiya Bhatti ’27. The posters, full of love, surprised our seniors to tears immediately when the rest of the team pulled them out during picture time. Sumy remembered that she “couldn’t help but burst into tears” when the team playfully “threatened” her to hang the poster in her college dorm.
Saadiya, also melted by the touching moment, said that “everyone who signed made my last home competition the best show I’ve ever gone to.” Everyone cried, laughed, hugged, and enjoyed this “bittersweet” time, as Tiffany recalled.
As another home show ended, the team is a day closer to saying goodbye to senior riders. Though sad, the memories made will last, and we are looking forward to the exciting future that lies in front of our seniors and the team.
