M and I ventured back to GP Trainer's barn many weeks ago (and I'm finally editing the video and writing it up!). GP Trainer and I caught up really quickly on what my next outing was and at what level (Loch Moy, 1-3 and 2-2), and then off we went.
Hi Utonia! (this pic is actually from the ride home, whatever, lol). Had to borrow BO's trailer again for this trip- mine was having its breaks completely rewired as part of its emergency tune up.
In warm up, I touched on all the things, but the canter-walk-canter on the diagonal was no good. She said to put a pin in that, we'll revisit it after she sees the rest of his work. One item that sticks out in my mind for the warm up- the shallow loops in canter on the right lead- Penn wants to swing his hips right really badly. I have to keep my right leg on throughout the section near X to really keep them in line. (that was one of my first reminders this weekend that the outside leg has a purpose, doh) At this point, we turned on GP Trainer's Pixio, and I have video from here on out!
The first exercise we did was a 20m circle, with 10m circles at each point.
The entire idea was to slow down the canter, just one beat per minute slower, and collect it from seat and not hand. We did four 10m circles to collect the canter, then asked for a canter-walk transition in the 5th circle. I had to actively not brace in my irons. I needed to sit up, lift my feet ever so slightly (can't brace when they're light in the irons), then ask for the walk. It was super difficult to reprogram myself- sit up and walk instead of sit up-brace-walk. I was still bracing in the very last step.
The first two swings through the counter canter/tear drops/simple changes were good- he stayed relatively balanced and the simple changes were significantly better than in warm up and previous lessons. She wanted to see the left lead work again. He just struggles with the strength to hold it, and I struggled to find the right seat to keep it. It's all about sitting back on that right hind and sitting up and not bracing on my irons, haha.
Some notes for me:
Treat the last quarter of counter canter like your last quarter of the 10m circle- collect and sit and prepare.
The last bit of canter we attacked was medium into a 10m circle to the walk. I'm not sure if this was her original plan, but it became the plan after he basically ran away and got wiggly in the "medium" canter.
She got after me to:
Let go with my hands. Especially let go of the left rein (when tracking left) and stop him with the outside rein.
Let go of the reins in the 10m circle.
Tracking left: Use the stick on the inside hip within the canter rhythm as I collect him into the 10m circle to remind him to keep coming with his left hind. It's not enough to make him run out of the collection though; it's just a simple reminder. Obviously I can use it on the inside hip right too.
GP Trainer caught me leg yielding out to try and get his attention back as we tried to go back to work to do the left side again. She said no leg yielding out- it's not enough to get and keep his attention and he's just falling to the outside. If I'm going to do anything, bump him with my inside leg to outside rein, but put the outside leg on to catch it right away and stand him up. Don't change the line we're on, but give him something small to do. The leg yield is too slow.
The trot work was just lovely... when I wasn't dragging him onto 10 million tracks in the lateral stuff, haha. We touched on the trot pattern for 2-2, and it was really nice, just minor tweaks to it, and a reminder to not pull the left rein in the left SI- I pull him off balance, out of "frame", and then have too much neck bend. I have to be very very careful to ask for the SI left very gently- it is very easy to whip it off the 3 track and onto a million tracks. I'm not bothering to upload or edit it- it was balanced, rhythmical, and soft. The video would end up being 5-6 min anyway, and I don't know who is going to sit through all of that!
The biggest takeaways for this lesson? When I brace in my irons, he braces back, and that's really what causes the canter-walks to fail because it allows him to disengage his hind end. Everything in the canter deteriorates when I brace on my irons. I needed to get my leg out in front of me before because he was diving down in the canter, but now I need it under me and working, not bracing.
The kids got turnout for the overnight! They were in grass comas in the morning. Not that we don't have grass at home- it's just not as thick and luscious and yard-like at home!
My failures in this lesson definitely shaped our second lesson of the visit, and started my current focus of counting strides!
MF is a GP rider from several hours away. I've only heard glowing reviews of her when she comes to Dressage Trainer's barn, so when I was finally invited to come ride with her, I said "Ok!" and waited for lesson day to come.
Someone refused to eat his breakfast before we left. I hand grazed him for the half hour I had scheduled for him to eat breakfast instead.
She liked Penn A LOT. Nice neck, good shoulders, nice intelligent head. She noted his back slightly dipped, so to get it truly up, he has to stretch down a bit.
Unfortunately, while I have video of lesson, there's no audio because MF used a headset to speak to an earpiece in my ear from the middle of the ring. I usually post videos from my lessons with GP Trainer, but that's so all can partake in the audio instruction too. I don't have her exact instruction in this, so I'm just going to do a bunch of gifs (and a little video at the end).
She watched us warm up, and immediately said he should be stepping more out with his front legs at the walk. He reaches under with his hind legs nicely, and he has a wonderful angle to his shoulder, so there should be no reason he can't reach with his front legs. He has an 8 walk, don't let him go around at a 6. To make that happen, I had to ride it more forward, but more up too in my own body so he would raise his shoulder and lift the leg more (I also filed this away for his mediums).
She started what became a common theme for our lesson: Good scores come from riding on the edge of control, and judges want to see nice moving horses really MOVE. Average moving horses move as best they can and they're rewarded for moving at their best, but nice moving horses better really move because then the judge will be disappointed in what's brought to the ring. I never really thought about that- Mikey was a good mover in eventing, but a average/good mover in the dressage ring. I always oogled the fancy horses and how I couldn't hope to best them so I had to be super accurate. Apparently now I have a fancy horse who I'll be punished for not riding on the edge!
We moved to trot. She wanted more trot too. I did my usual figure 8 and serpentines to warm up (sorry, not making gifs of those, lol).
She had us leg yield from centerline, but had me counter flex (flex him into) the leg yield as a start for half pass. He got steadier in the leg yield when I did that.
She then had me go down centerline and then go left for a few steps, and then right for a few, then left, then right, etc. Pushing him back and forth makes him steady his shoulders himself. She noted that it takes me a long time to get the leg yield left going from the centerline.
Go left. Go right. GO LEFT. GO RIGHT!
Next she asked me to show her his turn on the forehand... which I had to admit that I barely do with him. She was like, "Oh really? You should do it every ride!" I asked him for turn on the forehand, and he promptly turned, but inverted a bit. I guess it never really occurred to me to have him be round too. So that's where we started.
Well that was bad.
She identified where he holds his tension in his jaw and cheek and did some manual flexing of him. She showed me where she wanted him to stay, and then it was my turn... and she promptly took him back from me when I did my rein jiggling thing. The second thing she stressed this lesson was "rein on or relaxed hand." No jiggling, put the rein on by closing your hand and using your elbow or relax the hand. Hands like side reins yo.
"Stop wagging his head you schmuck."
Ok, she didn't actually say that last bit, lol.
Note for riding Penn: Going left, relax left hand and really hold the right rein with my right elbow. This keeps control of the right shoulder. Going right, he needs the bending right suppleness and less left rein.
The problem in my haunches in, half pass, and turn on the haunches (aka why they aren't happening) is throughness and flexion in the jaw. She said don't be afraid to manually put him there- obviously this isn't the final stage but you have to make it clear that's where he's to be.
Yea, I needed a lot of help. Horse gets a pat though.
So that's where we started- keeping roundness at the halt and through a single step of turn on the forehand. She had to help me keep the flexion and get the over because Penn was looking for any way out except the door I was holding open. He also had to STOP after one step. He wanted to rush through it (the Thoroughbred in him, haha). It got better, and we moved on to a square with quarter turn on the forehand corners.
Ok, that was a little more than a quarter turn.
Then we moved on to turn on the haunches. Penn didn't want to bend and move to the right and it took a lot of reminding him about where to be in order for him to do it. Turn on the haunches should have the hind legs crossing over (walk pirouette does not have the cross over). We finally got some good turn on the haunch right, much better than anything I've been able to produce.
One to the left.
Even with the stutter, it's still better than anything I had produced to date for the TOH right.
MF surprised me by having me canter out of the turn on the haunches right. In my haste to comply, I dropped all reminders for Penn to be round and let him invert into the canter and hurried him so he picked up the wrong lead.
Rider error FTW
We schooled the walk/canter and trot/canter both directions with the same idea- he must connect and not invert. Same thing as the turn on the forehand- we have to fill in this hole too. As I got better at maintaining the roundness (something I will have to do until he will hold it himself as the new normal), his back started really coming up into the transition. If I dropped the ball AT ALL, he'd revert back to his old self and not lift his back through the transition.
Coming from canter to trot, I had to make sure to collect, collect, and shoulder in into the trot. He stopped falling on his forehand and made some nice transitions.
I'm pretty sure she was yelling "Shoulder in!!" into my ear.
She had me do a change of direction through a trot change. The downward was OK, and then she said "don't hurry the new lead, wait for him to soften and come through!" It took a while to establish the new bend, but we got it and the new lead. She had me make the next change with a flying change, which ended up late behind and a bit tense. Baby changes though.
ZOOMish
She also had me work on the stretchy canter. Say whaattt?
This is all the stretch I got, but he's not running off, so win?
She wants him to be able to go forward, come back, stretch down, and lift up. As he stretched down, he wanted to run off. We spent some time working on down without running off- she had me think about moving against his left hind to prevent him from running off on the right lead while encouraging him to stretch down. She said it'll be the work of weeks or months until he can actually give a good stretch without running, so no worries. She had me collect him and then volte into a walk at A... where he inverted through the downward. She said he needs to be stronger, and right now it's good enough but it's flat and not great like it could be. Effective, but not expressive and great.
Effective, not expressive.
I feel like she's standing there saying, "Impress me." lol
We finished by working with the bamboo pole. She asked if he has started half steps, I said no, so we started from the beginning. All we worked on was getting him comfortable working around the pole- it has to be a very low key, low stress thing so he doesn't get worked up over it. To be honest, I'm not sure what she did besides tap legs and make sure he was OK with the pole (my job was keeping him round and/or moving), but he started sitting more in the walk which was pretty cool. I'm not going to do a gif of the work- It's interesting so I'll share the whole video of that part.
Overall, I was really happy with the lesson and MF's ideas. She certainly identified weaknesses I need to address, and Penn was better at the end than when we started.
________________________________________________
Since this ride, I've oscillated on how I feel- I don't like the amount of hand I used (my right arm hurt for a couple days). I do like how regular the canter got. I don't like how he started getting BTV. I do like how the transitions changed for the better. I've mixed her work into my warm up- she said she always starts from the bottom of the pyramid, no matter what horse she's sitting on (green or FEI), and she works on the first part of the pyramid that trips up the horse during that ride.
I do my serpentines that mix in Cowboy Dressage Trainer's bending exercises, but then I also get my elbows into the work faster and I check my throughness with turn on the fore and turn on the haunches. The elbow reminder came in handy at the show this past weekend and keeping Penn's attention.
There were a few days that Penn flipped me the bird over moving off my left leg (in both TOF and TOH). He kept threatening to rear, so I thought, "How did MF help me get him moving off this leg?" Well she poked him. I can't poke him since I already am with my spur, but I could tap him with my whip behind my leg. It only took one or two taps before he complied, albeit unhappily. Now I generally do only a handful of turns because he keeps the roundness. I sometimes have to remind him on the left, but there's much less fuss now.
Overall, I think it was a worthwhile lesson. If I'm invited the next time, I'll sign up again!
Lots has been going on, and well, I haven't written! I'm working on it, but I'm held up by the need to edit video, and the lack of time to do that. So here's a preview of posts to come:
A favorite traveling clinician (who we'll call MF), came to dressage trainer's barn and I was invited to come ride. We covered a bit of ground and touched on a lot, but she finished by introducing Penn to the bamboo pole. (One post)
We visited GP Trainer again. Penn enjoyed night turnout while we were there and was in a grass coma in the morning! It was an excellent visit with some great tips. (Two posts)
We went to a recognized show with Austen and it was AWESOME. There was dressaging, wildlife, and cross country schooling. (Two posts)
I will eventually write all of these and then get back to every day activities because all I've been doing are lesson and show recaps! We've started a 4 week lull- no shows and no lessons for a while (Penn is going to enjoy a week of quiet time with very light work).
Hope that's enough tidbits to keep everyone interested!
If you're friends with me on Facebook, you're already aware of the above information. There should have been a #bigfishsmallpond tag on there too because it's true, but oh well. We had a great day, and it would have been great at any show- schooling or recognized.
Seriously, if you're not into watching my videos of dressage tests or lessons (not offended, I promise), these are the ones to watch, if you watch any on this blog. I'm so proud of these tests. I'm sure in a year I'll go, "eww look how bad that was" but right now, I'm excited to watch them.
We went to a local schooling show on Mother's Day (and my mom was thrilled to just go and watch Penn and I do our thing, and was tickled pink that we did it well that day). This show is hit or miss with the number of competitors- sometimes there's enough people to fill the day from 8am to 6pm. Sometimes it's small like this time when it went from 9am to 1:30pm. They usually don't have many riders at second or above, but this show was pretty equally turned out across intro to second level. There may have only been a handful of riders in each test, but every test from intro, training, first, and second level was ridden at some point during the day.
I had to borrow a trailer (small slant instead of my relatively spacious straight load) to get to the show, and maybe that had Penn a little frazzled from his normal travel state. I got on him to warm up and he was more spooky than he's been in recent past. Like, someone was pulling weeds 40 feet away from the walk to warm up and he had a literal meltdown over having to "pass" them. I've been working hard on Cowboy Dressage Trainer's relaxation technique at home, and I warmed up with my serpentine plan and bouncing him from one bend to the next... and Penn really relaxed. Hooray, the day was saved!
I knew Penn was working on a whole different level from every other horse at this show partway through my warm up. He was relaxed, forward, bouncy, and through. The horses I saw in warm-up... well they were giraffing, lacking impulsion, bridle lame, and faking connection. One rider was almost laying on her horse's rump in an effort to do... something. I've never seen someone lean back so far. My mom thought she was going to fall off her horse backwards.
I talked to one of the moms at this show and she was dismayed with the scores, which I understand. Most were in the 50s and by the end of the day, there would be one in the 40s too. She was like, "You just have to be happy to break 60% today! This judge is harsh." I think the judge was probably spot on, but probably harsh for a schooling show. I'm pretty sure by the time I came around, she had already scratched out her eyes, so nice test riding was probably like getting some visine. I think she might have been a bit generous at times in my tests.
I don't think his first lengthening trot should have gotten a 7, but she nailed me other places where she should have. I'm so super pleased with my 10m circle accuracy- I missed both at the recognized show and these ones were spot on. I have to work on my halts- he was dead square and then stepped back a couple inches. I'm happy with my canter one loop accuracy since that was a miss at the recognized show too. I need to work on the canter-trot transition at A at the end of the test because he anticipates it and ends up breaking early instead of holding the canter like I want him to. I'll have to start cantering past A when I practice at home. I think we could carry a bit more step in all gaits though, throughout the entire test. All in all, I was happy because it was a solid, steady test and Penn stayed very relaxed.
Leg yield left
This test was a "fuck yea!" in terms of accuracy (for the most part lol). Hitting centerline on the 10m circles, one loops, and the halt at X happening with his shoulders ON X. I swung wide turning left at C in the initial centerline and goofed the canter-trot at A at the end. I think the freshly dragged arena helped- I know my centerlines are straight and I could use my own tracks as a marker for the line (only one horse rode it before me, and she swung wide on centerline too, which I think let me go wide too).
Centerline accuracy ftw
He settled here for a moment, then stepped back with the left hind and looked left. *facepalm*
I was so excited to get a run of 7.5's for the collected marks! 1-3 ended up scoring a 70.735%, praise from the judge at the very end (and a comment of nice braids, which was great since it wasn't just "oh at least she did that well"), and we won the class by 17.353%. Like wow, that's a lot. I did see the second place test, and the woman surprised me with the issues she was having- she also does recognized shows and scores very well there at first level. She just had a lot of issues with breaks from the canter work and went off course once. She must have had a very off day.
I got off Penn, loosened his girth and unbuckled his flash and noseband, and took him back to his stall to see if he wanted a drink. My next ride was in a half hour, so I didn't want to put him away, but I wanted him to relax. He wasn't interested in drinking, so we stood and watched a couple tests before going back outside to fix his tack and warm up a second time.
I had a really cool feeling moment as I did my courtesy lap for 2-2- I asked very gently for SI right from a very straight trot and he simply floated into it. No break in rhythm or anything. I may have grinned.
I think there were even more generous judging moments in this test because the final trot work felt like rubbish to me, and Penn simply wasn't going to turn up the final centerline and I had to drag him there via inside rein, yet both got good scores. I lost Penn's attention after the walk work- the wind was really picking up and banging the arena doors (you can hear it throughout the test in the background). For lost attention, it wasn't so bad!
I don't think his medium trot was enough either time. I love how suppling the SI is in this test though. Travers is hard for us (it suddenly went to hell in the last few weeks and the ones in this test are far superior to anything we've done in the last month), and the turn on the haunches aren't very good (they've gone to hell too, especially the one to the right). The left lead canter's 10m circle back to E ended up small from the aforementioned loss of attention. I asked for the turn and thought nothing was going to happen so I was like, "Let's just get there", lol. The left lead counter canter looked so good... then he broke since I had too much left bend and not enough leg. I had to make a snap decision about trying to get counter canter back so I could attempt to not completely blow the simple change... well I got two 4's (the 20m half circle and simple change) but I don't know how else I could have ridden it without getting even fewer points. The right lead was spot on. I would like a bit more roundness in the 20m counter canter half circle though. He totally tricked the judge in his final halt- she said it was square and he was resting the left hind leg again! Like 1-3, this test could have been ridden more forward.
And now a GIF attack!
Shoulder in left. I really like how he settled into it.
10m half circle left, 10m half circle right.
Shoulder in right. Very settled into this one too!
Left lead counter canter. Oops, lol.
Right lead tear drop.
Into the right lead counter canter work.
The judge commented in the test to make my turn on the haunches closer to the walls, and to collect the walk more before them. The collecting is in the test instruction, I just seem to have forgotten that part. But I have let the turns creep closer to centerline than they should be.
Reach for it left hind!
2-2 ended up scoring a 66.795%, for first place out of one, haha. I still count it as a solid first place because it was the highest scoring second level test of the day, and only second highest of the day to my 1-3 test. This is actually my highest scoring second level test ever- Mikey topped out at 64+% at both schooling and recognized.
So: two first places, two champion ribbons (first level high score, second level high score), high score of the day, reserve high score of the day. I may have sent GP Trainer an email with the subject "We are the Champions..."
Sunday dawned much nicer than Saturday. Penn and Guinness got some grass, then we headed up to the indoor to watch two of GP Trainer's students ride Grand Prix. We got to see one have a very excellent test that completed her gold medal, and the other made huge improvements from the previous day- very exciting stuff!
I had a lovely ride time of... 5:04 PM. Austen and I stopped by the show office to find out if there was any possible way a First Level TOC class could be created for me in one of the scratch spots because we had such a long drive home. Unfortunately not, but I was able to move up to an earlier slot in my 1-3 class- 4:40 PM. Whatever, I'll take it. It's 20 more minutes on the other side that I can spend packing so we can leave as soon as the class is pinned.
It turned out there were so many scratches that I was able to ride even earlier- 4:20. GP Trainer couldn't stay as late as my test (pre-planned evening festivities from before ride times came out) and her assistant couldn't come to my warm up either because she had a ride time of 5:10 in a different area of the property. However, Austen filled the coaching spot admirably. She pointed out I needed to ride his canter a bit more forward that day because it was a bit irregular.
Penn warmed up quickly, and luckily the riders in front of me were in a hurry to leave too, so they rode their tests early. I'm glad I swapped out- one of the riders between me and my old ride time insisted on keeping her original ride time... which while she's entitled to do that, I would have been super pissed to see the ring empty and me not able to ride my test. Either way, I got to ride 40 min before my original time, allowing for even more packing time!
First centerline. So much more uphill, I love it.
First lengthening trot. I need to keep his poll up.
More of the first lengthening.
I was very pleased with this stretchy circle... but for some reason I've forgotten how to steer and make them round.
Apparently this was a flat canter (according to the judge's comments). Coming up to the simple change through trot.
Penn decided he was going to quit on me in the left lead canter and just get stuck. I had to really kick him on in this lengthening, which the judge called "labored". Which I get it, he was tired.
Half a moment later, I just like his neck in this one.
I swear I'm not about to show the same picture 3 times. He had some really nice moments on the final trot lengthening. (the first pic in this post is from this line too)
Super consistent strides at the start of this diagonal.
I was happy with the test, except Penn simply got tired during the canter and our slew of 7's and 7.5's for the trot and walk became a slew of 6's and even some sub-6 scores for the rest of the test. Mostly his irregular canter rhythm popped up (but not nearly as bad as it has in the recent past) and the judge rightly nailed me for it. Who knew standing in a stall all day (with some grazing time in the morning) was exhausting? We ended up with a 64.853% for 5th out of 7 people. It's still a qualifying score, but I can't use it because it was earned at the same show as my other score, so I still need one more.
I have to say, I'm quite disappointed with a sub-65 score at first level. We're better than that, we need to bring it, especially if I want to meet my goal of a 70+ at a recognized show and going to First Level AA Finals. This is just me being a picky bitch because of very lofty goals. I'm happy to continue upping my average first level score and average 1-3 score.
The faces of boredom while we wait for scores.
Austen and I were super efficient in packing up- we had everything ready to go before the last rider rode 1-3... which also meant we had to kill a bunch of time at the show office... we got there as they were announcing her going down centerline. Ugh.
Penn wasn't very happy, so I clipped his hay net out front of his stall so he could channel his inner racehorse and stick his head out AND eat. Poor Guinness had to try to eat it through the chain link, lol.
All was not lost though, I think we got to leave the show grounds around 6:30 PM about ten min after they pinned 1-3. We stopped in "Creamery Row" to get ice cream (which was delicious and well worth the stop) on our way back to Austen's barn to drop off Guinness. We were off to home around 8PM.
Husband earned his keep as "Best Horse Show Husband Ever" by making the 5 hour drive home by himself while his wife slept it off in the passenger seat. We tucked Penn in at 1 AM, unpacked everything I needed in the barn, cleaned the trailer, then took the trailer home with us... More on that later, but long story short, it needed some basic welding work to fix some steel supports, and now needs a crap ton more work because we found so many more things wrong with it. That's for another post though.
Still a good weekend, we accomplished what we needed to! The first of two qualifying scores for Championships.
At attention! I love his ears.
Courtesy of Liz Stout
Several weekends ago we went on an adventure to the first recognized show of the year. First up was picking up Austen and Guinness! Austen insists Penn has grown since last year and that I should stick him again- his butt and Guinness' were the same height! He also filled out to match Guinness' butt width too. I don't have a pic of it, sorry! Guinness freaked out Husband by not being able to stand in the trailer when we turned right on our way to Morven Park. We got there in one piece though.
Ready for two horses! Except the second horse is 5 hours away, lol.
The rain that plagued us at home and on the drive down finally went away when we picked up Austen and Guinness.
We arrived in time to unpack and for me to scurry off to have a half hour lesson with GP Trainer (we stabled with her group of riders- which was a ton of fun!). We kept our lesson short and sweet- no reinventing the wheel, just a run through of all the gaits and test tricks. The first thing she said was, "Look at you sitting up! Someone has been working very hard on her homework!" She had me prepare a bit more for the across the school halts, and sit on the back of my butt more in downward transitions to help Penn keep his balance. I think we only worked for 15 min, because Penn was super on and we didn't want to tire him out. I got to test out my new warm up plan- work everything on the serpentine and then move off to canter.
I got to meet Liz at this show too! She's so great, and was nice enough to take some really great pictures of us on Saturday (and edit them too!).
This was the first time I've ever had someone warm me up at a recognized show. I've had two trainers warm me up at shows, and by far I prefer GP Trainer's approach. She let me warm up at my speed (aka slow), and had comments and recommendations as we went along. Other trainers who have warmed me up always seemed to be rushing me along, and it always worked out (at least with my recent Event Trainer it did! Not so much with the one before her, but that's another story), but I stayed relaxed and focused this time. The biggest thing GP Trainer had me do was keep him rounder and more forward in the trot.
I was really happy with Penn's test. So much more solid than anything we've put forward this year, and steadier than last year. The trot work was definitely the weak point (along with me blowing the walk by asking for too much), but the canter was a strong part of the test. I was completely boggled that I missed the centerline on my leg yield and one loops. I got an 8 for rider position, and then a 6.5 for rider effectiveness with a comment about missing the centerlines. Such a stupid place to lose points!
I think he's improved from last year! (well duh, he's much steadier) I don't think his stride length hasn't increased by much, but he's better muscled and more engaged now, and more on the vertical instead of hiding behind it. He still hides behind it, but not as much as he used to.
Penn whipped his tail around after our test. Oops.
Courtesy of Liz Stout
We ended up with a 66.324% and tied for 2nd place in a class of 7! The 66+% was also good enough to be our first qualifying score for this year's championships!
Blogger meet up (plus my husband) at the show's Kentucky Derby Party after the end of the show.
So much fun!
