Thurday, July 24

Wow! Think this day went by fast enough? Barns open at 6, so we were there at 5:55 . Once the horses were fed and the stalls were done, Jess and I tacked up Aly and Tuff Stuff (Scooter), and went to ride in the schooling ring. There were A LOT of horses there, and let's just say they didn't all practice proper ring etiquette! It was really cool because the Dressage riders got to ride with Polocrosse and Eventing riders, too. In Dressage alone, there are horses from 12 hands to over 17 hands. Allegro settled in pretty fast and seemed relaxed through our ride, so I took her back to the barn after maybe half an hour.
For the rest of the day, we pretty much cleaned tack. Our briefing was at 1:30, and to be honest, it was kind of boring. Then we cleaned our tack...again... Our First Check was before the briefing, and it went fine. Jog out was at 3:00, and it was hilarious because the head judge, Trip Harding, was yelling "Hurry up!" while this poor girl's horse decided to lay down and roll, right there. Our whole team passed, obviously, and it was fine. So we got THAT out of the way.
Then we did baths! Baths in the big yellow wash stalls were fun . Aly got two bottles of prescription dandruff shampoo in her tail, so our formal had better be perfect. We have the last formal: 10:02, and everyone else's are earlier. Lucky us!
Opening Ceremony was incredible! The dressage team got to carry the banner in, and the Quiz kids marched with us, and also this girl from the Sr. D scramble team. She was the only person from her region, so they didn't even announce it, which personally I would have found a little insulting, but whatever. It was really cool- some regions, like Virginia, are HUGE HUGE HUGE! and they have teams for every sport. The showjumping courses we saw looked tempting...next year?
Wish us luck :)
-Marina, Spare Me the Details, and TR DR team 8, Northeast Region.
Tomorrow: Formals, and everyone rides Training Level, Test 4.