Summer Preview

I started putting together next year's show schedule this morning. It began by my need to calculate how many bus tickets I needed to buy for January, and it just kind of snowballed into making my 2016 vacation tracker and then planning some vacation and that meant checking out USDF.org and picking some shows!

I think dressage judges are always looking, darn.

I did pick Region 1 to show in- Region 2 Championships are 8 hours away. So are Region 1 Championships... so I'll just stick with my "close by" shows that are 3-4 hours away and not fiddle with changing my Region affiliation.

I picked 8 shows that span 5 weekends (plus Championships):

	Dates	Show Name	Location
1	5/21-22/2016	Potomac Valley Dressage Association (PVDA) Spring	Leesburg, VA
2	6/4/2016	WPDA June*	Quentin, PA
	6/5/2016	WPDA June Encore*	Quentin, PA
3	6/10/2016	Northern Virginia (NOVA) Breeding Classic and Summer Dressage Warmup	Leesburg, VA
	6/11-12/2016	VADA/NOVA Summer Dressage Festival	Leesburg, VA
4	6/26/2016	Dressage at Centre Hall	Centre Hall, PA
5	7/30/2016	WPDA Summer Sizzler**	Quentin, PA
	7/31/2016	WPDA Summer Sizzler Encore	Quentin, PA
6	9/15-18/2016	GAIG/USDF Region 1 Championships and NCDCTA Autumn Leaves Dressage	Williamston, NC
	* This GMO usually holds an early summer show the first weekend of June. If for some reason this show is not held, I'll go to the cheaper single day show on 6/5/2016: NC PAHA Dressage Show in Hugesville, PA. ** I am assuming this show is pending with the USDF because the Encore show the next day is official.

Each show has one Regional Championship Qualifying class, which means the weekends that hold "two shows" in one weekend actually have 2 qualifying classes. I just need two scores in 1-3 that are 62%+ in order to qualify. If I get the scores I need early on, I may not keep going to recognized shows because well, June is looking really expensive.

I hate to put all my eggs in one basket in June though. There just wasn't anything in July and August that is close enough for me (not driving 8 hours, sorry!), and you have to have qualifying scores by mid August I believe.

I think I'll go to all the shows in June, and if I have the qualifying scores by then, I'll skip July. Penn will need a rest I think after doing 3 weekends almost back to back. The show in weekend 4 is very important to go to- this is the first time they've offered a show on the weekend (it's usually a Friday) and they're trying to attract more people so I want to go support it. Maybe I'll dump that 3 day weekend (weekend #3). Maybe I should dump the May weekend (weekend #1) since I don't really want to go showing in May, but I don't want the pressure later either.

I'll revisit USDF's website in a couple months to parooze any new shows that are added, and then finalize my schedule.

You can probably see why I don't join any GMOs and just go straight with a Participating Membership (PM): PVDA, VADA, NOVA, WPDA, and NCDCTA are all hosts for these shows, and each group holds so many shows that I'd go broke trying to hit the ones in just one group!

Anyway, if I somehow manage to go to all of these, Penn should have his First Level Horse Performance Certificate by the end of summer... because I don't deserve to go to championships if I can't manage 10-60%+ scores riding 1-2 tests a day at each show!