Sounds cool! I've done organized rides and poker rides for prizes and those are furn, but I think the horsemanship part of it is valuable, and valuable safe experience for ecurbh too. I don't mind organized rides for the crowds so much, it's fun to see lots of different types.
Well, one of the best things about CTR is that you get your score cards. You know what you did wrong, what you did right. The judges are good about commenting on what they liked/disliked.
Now there can be things that are just differences of opinions. One time we had a judge who was a dressage rider. She took off points on some if she saw alot of slack in the reinds. Then another time there was a western pleasure judge....see where this is going:)
Sometimes you may get marked off for something, or a comment about something on things like that. When it happens to me I just don't take it personally. But, really getting those score cards has been the biggest help to me on my horsemanship.
Becky