So you pull up to a nice show barn in the countryside of Los Angeles at 5 or 6AM, set up shop for your school whether it be a tent or your table. You make sure everyone’s accounted for, for the show day and so it begins.

Each one heads to their horses to begin the grooming process. Although, 85% of them had grooms and didn’t have to worry about the dirt. The next ones began tacking, applying boots, fitting show numbers to bridles and more. They go through their individual plans for their classes and then come back for one last team photo and off to the ribbons they went.

Before the blue ribbons were won though, they hit the warmup ring seen above and made sure they were on the same page to earn that blue. This warmup ring was insane to say the least, it made me nervous just to watch all those pairs in there. For more IEL photos from this time follow @grey2bay on Instagram.