GREAT Weekend!

Hoo-rah, yesterday was a great damn day!

Midge was about the same, maybe a little tighter, in DREADFUL weather. This judge gave us better scores for the movements and hit him in the collectives for a tight neck, which I appreciated. He won his class again with a 65%.

Ella was a ROCKSTAR!!! She was VERY tired, and didn't make anything in the test as well as she can do it, but she made everything well, went forward, tried her little red heart out, and made NO mistakes. So we won our first FEI test (well, technically a USEF test, but I was wearing a shadbelly; that makes it count) with an absurd 74%, which includes, as Scott said, "a little love" from a certain very... ahem, optimistic judge. When you do what we affectionately call "The Chopra Math," (take your score, subtract 6-8%, get what you really deserved), it comes down to somewhere in the 67% range, which thrills me to death.

I'm still going to pass on trying to qualify her for the Developing Championships - it's expensive and far to travel, and she's still a few months away from really being brilliant at that level, and I don't want to show her against those caliber horses until I can make her brilliant. So it's 4th level and maybe a PSG at the next-next show (entries are already in for the next one, in about 2 weeks), Regional Championships, and get ready for the big time Small Tour next year.

Kelly did a SUPER job under yucky conditions to win her class with a 74%, after which there was a lot of happy yelling and jumping up and down. Student Wendy won both her 2nd level classes with 68%s, and I got word that Lisa, one of my clients in Chicago, went to her first show of the season and was Reserve High Point Champion at 3rd level.

Wowza!

So I ate a big chunk of pizza all by myself yesterday, and I've stepped on the scale this morning, and pushed myself firmly back into reality. Not to mention the HUGE pile of wet, dirty horse-show laundry waiting for me downstairs. Ugh.

But I can still feel that afterglow to bask in, just a little longer!