Yes, it's that time of year again that most pony clubbers dread.. Quiz Rally. Quiz Rally is a horse knowledge competition that kickstarts the horse show season and gives us something to do over the winter when riding can get sparse because of the weather. This year, I was busy teaching a group of D pony clubbers that newly joined and also happen to be some of my moms students, so I may not have gotten in as much study time per usual (generally I read the manual entirely). But I did get in some unusual ways to studying... including a knowledge off with my little sister (which I won), compiling worksheets for Ds and reviewing some of the material for my HB next month. But as usual the day of quiz rally cam slightly unexpectedly, and we all began to gather our pony club attire of khakis, pins, and polos. Which may be in fact the most difficult part of the quiz rally. Considering between my sister and I there was a fight to the death for the only Howard County Pony Club polo (which I again, won) But all sorted itself out and we arrived to quiz rally generally unscathed and everyone somehow managed to find a pin (I wouldn't say their pin because there was a lot of begging for extras). Our pony club sent competitors in almost every division, and when we arrived everything went fairly smoothly except the fact one of our pony clubbers was sick and unable to attend! My team was partially composed of previous team mates, one from quiz nationals Madison, and the other from last year Laney, the final team mate was a friend Zoe. Two of my students who were attending their first quiz rally were also in the rising stars division.
My team's first phase was barn where we received outstanding scores. Followed by a three hour grueling classroom and written test. It was a good thing that we brought cookies in, or we would have died of hunger. Although long, our classroom session was pretty hilarious by jokes and wild correct guesses that lightened the mood, including calling the organizer Ms. Nicole "god of the rally" every time she came on the intercom. We finished out the phase winning by 100 points over the other teams, and I had the high classroom score of the day (a 70) answering all my questions at a HB and HA level, and getting them all correct. We had lunch, played some wall ball, regrouped and then headed off to stations that some may have said we bombed. But we were still in the lead by 90 points, so it must not have gone so bad. Then we headed off to mega room where we spent the wait listening to nirvana on 8 tracks. turns out that mega room had a "teaching and poisinous plants" theme, and we all came out with not exactly the scores we had expected, but they were still fairly strong. We protested a question, and while the TD was outside, we got to hang out with this cool bunny named Cinnamon. And then came the process of "score tabulation and competitor frustration". We all want to get out of the rally, but we have to wait on scores, so we spend our time playing some wall ball, eating cupcakes in a cup, and talking about how cool the protest bunny was. And finally they began awards. In the team awards, a team in the junior Ds with our pony clubbers came in third, our rising stars came in first at their first rally (and I taught them!) My sister and her junior C team came in third in a very competitive division, and my team came in first in our division. In the individual high scores, I came in first for our division!
I just have to say that I am so happy that I have made my epic comeback from last year and I have to thank all my supporters and people who may not have supported me for giving me the push to compete. I also want to just say how proud I am of everyone in Howard County Pony Club for doing so well in the rally! I'm ecstatic that Kate is coming back from Aiken so the hard core training can begin!
Keep moving forward
Little One
