I wasn't first but I wasn't last which is a great place to be when you are first starting out. If your first time out you get first place you have a good chance of coming away thinking you are better than you are. However, after you have walked out of the show ring a couple times without a ribbon at all it can be very discouraging. I never had the desire to enter the show ring. I was always content watching my daughter, my neice, and my sister and our students. However, lately I have been considering taking new horses into dressage schooling shows. I felt the show experience would be good before I started doing schooling tests where I was in the ring all by myself in front of a judge.
