not enough words

But WAY too many pictures. Dear god, I don't even know how I'm going to get through it all. Wow. Happy Monday y'all - as a celebration (or, more likely, a nostalgic nod towards the weekend when work always seems to come too fast....) here are representative photographs of all the many goings on lately.

For starters - Charlie and I officially debuted our berry dressage outfit haha. And... proceeded to earn our worst yet dressage score to date. For what was actually our best yet dressage test to date. Go figure. Tho at least it didn't land us in last place so that's cool, I guess haha. 

Also this was of course a weekend of much racing and galloping and jumping. Naturally I was glued to the live stream all Saturday morning and actually got to see just about every cross country ride at Badminton. And I gotta admit - this might not be a popular opinion bc we can basically all agree that Michael Jung is incredible.

But.... I was THRILLED to see Ingrid Klimke snag the lead after xc. And honestly I was also pretty happy to see Andrew Nicholson pull out the win in the end, especially knowing all that he's gone through to return to competition at this level. 

Anyway tho, that was only a small part of a Saturday full of racing horses. I also made my way down to the Old Dominion, Virginia, to catch the Gold Cup at Great Meadow with Courtney, D'Arcy and Shelby. MUCH fun was had by all, even if it was cold with fairly constant rain. The bubbles helped for sure haha.

Pictured: bubbles lol.

These ladies were an absolute blast to hang out with and the event was definitely an experience unto itself. VERY different from most of the horse events that I typically attend - in that it was a decidedly non-horsey crowd. Actually the horses were almost only there to represent the trappings of wealth as a backdrop. Twas... interesting haha.

We had so much fun tho and I took a gazillion pictures so I'll probably have a more complete post on this day with the ladies later!

Race day wasn't over with that tho - as I scurried on over to Morven afterwards to watch the Kentucky Derby with Austen and Jan at their show grounds, and say hi to Liz too who was in town for spectating and moral support. Actually I'm pretty sure there are photos somewhere in existence of this lovely little get together, but alas I don't have them immediatley on hand.

All told tho, 'twas a very blogger weekend! 

Things kept on rolling through Sunday tho when we got our own chance to get out for some galloping glory. And actually I got to see Michele again at Fair Hill, tho failed to snap a pic of us together (tho I'm pretty sure she got some shots of Charlie as she found the horse before she found me haha! #internetfamoushorse).

It was really nice to see her and always so wonderful just in general to get to know so many likeminded equestrians around the area!

Of course you're probably curious about how Fair Hill went from a riding perspective haha, beyond the whole "terrible dressage score for what was otherwise maybe a pretty OK test" part lol. Short story? It was pretty darn good.

Fair Hill is a pretty cool venue with a somewhat unique atmosphere - especially with that looonnnng hack up to the jumping tests. Charlie handled it well tho. We were there ALL DAY for friends and he basically was able to hang out on the grounds like a solid citizen, and then rise up to occasion when duty called. He's still super green tho, and ultimately I did not regret my choice to ride in the 18" division.

It was a fun day tho and we spent a long time just hangin out at the trailers - esp bc one of our riding buddies brought their LQ trailer complete with awning, tables, and a dedicated ground covering outdoor rug lol. It was a major upgrade in our tail gating style lol.

Plus my parents came to watch my jumping phases!! It was their first time seeing Charlie since our first dressage show last November, so that was pretty cool :)

And ultimately it was a pretty successful day for everyone involved. As an early season outing, it definitely showed where we all have opportunities for growth and further refinement - but it also showed that everyone is already in a really good place and on the right track. This was made especially obvious by all the lovely primary-colored ribbons taken home by the group. Go team!!

And hopefully it won't take me 18 years to edit all the resulting media - videos of all three phases (including helmet cam!) and video of some fun horse races and just omg so many pictures haha. Soon enough!

Hope you all had a great weekend too - full of fun horsey stuff and hopefully not as much rain as ours!