Finally, the pix have arrived

First day - dressage at the NW Fall Gala. Look at my pretty little boy - all braided up. People are just amazed that I can braid his mane - but it's actually pretty easy and I just do a double french braid down both sides and tie it all together with rubber bands at the end.

Unfortunately my main photographer (my husband) couldn't attend this event so I was stuck having to get pictures from friends and friends of friends. And no one took any cross-country pix that I could track down. However, stay tuned because in a few weeks the whole thing will be on YouTube. Lucky you.....

I really need to work on my facial expression during dressage - I constantly seem to be grimacing. :) It's hard work!

And halt, salute - thank goodness that is over. Whenever anyone asks me how I did in dressage, I always respond - "the whistle didn't blow (it does when you make a mistake on the test), Traveler didn't jump out of the ring (elimination) and he didn't scream." The rest is icing on the cake - just as long as I can continue on to the next day.

The pix from the last day - the stadium round. This is where the pressure is - you have less than 2 minutes to do a perfect round to keep your place or make a mistake and possibily lose everything you have been working toward. Today, the stars were in alignment and we went double clear.

Jump it like it's on fire, Traveler, jump it like it's on fire. He does this though - we get some good clearance on the fences.

Okay - so he is clearing almost the heighth of the jump standards here. He is spring-loaded on the hind end. I think we can jump the heighth to move up to the next level - Training Level, now to just work on all the more "technical" aspects of jumping.

In every picture, he has one ear forward looking for the fence and one ear back listening to me. He was truly asking the entire time during this round - "which fence do I take?"

Alright, he has two ears forward in this one - that's because the next fence - our dreaded combination is up next.

I don't even know where the jump poles are in this pix. We are just flying - and although you can't see it, my hands are embedded in this mane. That is truly the reason I don't braid for stadium - I have got to have something to hang onto when we "fly".

Airborne again.....

Traveler and I - he is very self-satisfied - he knows he did good. And our 3rd place ribbon.

And that's all folks (for this year).