We're taking a lot of hits, the U.S. Dressage program. We're not good enough, we're not spending enough time in Europe, etc, etc. One thing I'll certainly jump on board with is that we don't have enough really good horses, and that we're reliant on wealthy sponsors purchasing made horses for us far too often, that not enough of our top riders have a pipeiine of horses they're making themselves. 

A client vetted a horse recently, a delightful horse, exactly what we wanted. Unfortunately, the horse had really unfortunate X-rays, showing lots of damage to multiple joints. The horse is in his mid-teens, has been showing at FEI for years, rides great, and has never had a joint injection in his life.

At the heart of it, there are four reasons one shows a horse. One is that you just want to go and have a great time, and the results be damned—you're in it for the social element. Awesome. The second is that you and/or your horse have loftier aspirations, but you need mileage. Maybe you're inexperienced at showing, or maybe you're an experienced rider with a young horse, and it needs to learn to go to the shows and behave. 

If you've never sat in on a lesson between two upper-level riders, I bet you'd think it's really beautiful work, full of piaffing and passaging and half-passing and the upper echelons of dressage.

You'd be mistaken. I spend a remarkable amount of time in my lessons trotting a 20-meter circle and hoping that whichever horse I am on will put his or her head up, down or in, respectively.

This week was not the best horse show prep I've ever had. I had clients in town visiting, and then it DUMPED rain on us for two days, and as soon as the rain stopped Michael caught The Plague To End All Plagues. I got Midge worked every day for the week leading up to the show, but I only had two lessons, one of them with poor Michael huddling, pale and wobbly, in the corner of the field because every ring in South Florida was a giant puddle.*

(*Except for the rings at the Global - even with all that awfulness, they were PERFECT. They should be VERY proud!! I love that place.)