Nature of the Business

I'm frustrated.

Cleo was a very good girl in New Jersey, trailed up by herself with no drama, warmed up well Saturday, warmed up even better Sunday. The test was good, not amazing. Piaffe-passage still lackluster, but I was a little braver about putting my leg on and going for it. She snuck an early change in my canter zig-zag, I over-prepared for the second canter pirouette and got one lurchy step. But no disasters, no drama.

The scores were more than 6% apart between the two judges, and the resulting average pulls me off the list for Gladstone by tenths of a percent.

So now I'm begging and pleading with show organizers (who are being very, very kind), and I have to haul her down to Raleigh next weekend - her third weekend in a row, by the way - for absolutely no good reason. I'm frustrated that one person can cause all this chaos. I'm frustrated that Cleo, who didn't put a toe out of line, has to suffer as a result. And I'm frustrated that my plans of letting her have a little down time, of trailering up to work with Lendon and focusing on training instead of showing, and of trying to save a little capital is all going to pot.

The good news: Cleo is fit fit fit, wasn't even breathing hard at the end of the test, so I know she'll take it all in stride. I just don't want her to have to.