Commentary My Experience at Upperville Colt and Horse Show By Allison May (June 23, 2004)

My experience at Upperville last Thursday and Saturday was so much fun. Upperville is the oldest outside horse show in America. It has been going since 1853. On Thursday I went with my pony, Brookfield’s Tatoo also known as Tatoo, and we did very well. Then on Saturday I went down with my horse and we also did very well. On Saturday we did so well that I almost cried because I was so shocked. Another reason I like this horse show is it has the best food out of all the horse shows and the best shops that you can go to. Also with this horse show you see everybody because people come from all over and it’s also it’s an hour away. So you see most of everybody that you know and you can talk to them. 

Upperville is my favorite horse show. When I went down with my pony, I was not expecting anything because im not at that stage yet for my pony. During my two jumping classes of eight jumps I did very well but not enough to get a ribbon. In my hack I got eighth out of 36 other ponies. He had a really long stride and I could tell that he did very well. In the ring he was very calm and he seemed really happy. In the ring you really want the pony to be calm or relaxed and happy. 

With my horse I got a first in the hack. I was so happy I was about to cry. The class had 40 horses so I was competing against 40 other horses. My two jumping classes weren’t that great because since it was so muddy we had to move rings and he was not used to the other ring. Also it was not that great because im still getting used to riding him. The second trip was my worst trip because he spooked at the camera guy because the camera guy took a picture and it flashed and he spooked so we could not get to the next jump. So we were disqualified because we had to refuse a jump and circle. The sad part about it was that all my other jumps were perfect until the camera man spooked him and so I got disqualified. 

This horse show has the best horse show food. When I was there, I had a hot dog and I had Hawaiian Ice which is amazing. My Hawaiian ice flavors that I tried were rainbow, strawberry, and raspberry daiquiri. The one that I liked the best was rainbow. In the rainbow it had the traditional flavors, cherry, lemon, orange, lime, blueberry, and grape. It was so good. They also had funnel cakes and caramel apples. I split a funnel cake with my friend and it was so good. My friend had a caramel apple and she said it was so good. My mom had some seafood and she said that was really good. It was the best kind that she has ever had. The food is unbelievable there. 

Another favorite that I have at Upperville is the shops are really cool. They have every different kind of shop there. They have clothes, hats, engravings, jewelry, belts, doodads and everything. My favorite shop that they have there is called the Preppy Pink Pony. It has really cool belts and cell phone cases. I have a belt from there and I wear it at the horse shows. My mom went to this shop that sells pictures and she bought a picture two pictures there. They are really funny too. I really like them. This other store is a really unique store because it sells these hats that are hilarious. There’s this one hat that has feathers on it and its looks so funny but actually it just a really neat looking hat. 

I also like this horse show because I see all of my old friends from the barns that I used to be at. I got to talk to them because I don’t get a lot of time to talk to them anymore so it’s really nice to talk to them. You also get to meet a lot of people so then you will just know even more people. Then when you go to more horse shows you get to see them more often and then soon you get to see them all the time because you will end up knowing what horse shows they go to so you will try to go to the horse shows they go to. 

This horse show is also one of the closest horse shows to go to. So it’s not like you have to wake up at three in the morning or go a day before so you can get down there. This horse show is only an hour away. 

Upperville is my favorite horse show because I did really well in all of the fours years that I have gone. I did really well this year, I got to eat the best horse show food again, I got to go to some really cool shops, and I got to meet some people and talk to most of my old friends. I also like it because it’s only an hour away. Those are the reasons why I love to go to Upperville.