Royal

Sooo much fun at the Royal today.   Yeah.

Stephy and I went after morning chores were done -- got there around lunch time :)   Wandered around, explored the shopping options (not nearly as much fun as some years), watched a friend ride, got a reasonable amount of junk food (mmmm apple blossom...) and settled in to watch the afternoon show.

First we had the jumpers, most with their greener horses.  One was definitely schooling as he jumped around the jumper course like a hunter.  Flawlessly done, but nearly double the winning time *g*  One started out competing but after a bad jump switched his ride to schooling -- that was good to see.  Fun class to watch, but very short.

Followed by dressage which was very LONG.  hahaha One horse I absolutely loved, one I sort of wondered what they were doing there, and everyone else was somewhere in between.  By the end of the class I have to admit I'd had enough of dressage and was ready to go back exploring...

Dressage was followed with SUPERDOGS!  hahaha so very much fun :)  And really quite impressive to see the very obvious bond between the dogs and their handlers.

Had just enough time after superdogs for a little more shopping/daydreaming and some dinner (and of course more junk food... mmmm cinnamon...)

Then back to the big ring for lit dressage -- could've been absolutely stunning, but I found myself distracted by the fact that the back pair just couldn't get their act together.  Front pair was good, but the back pair was never in sync.  Very pretty though.  They turn out the arena lights and the horses are draped with little star-lights, so they appear to float around the ring.

After dressage was more jumpers -- the course seemed to be eating people, but in the end 7 made it to the jump off, so that was fun to see.   Some *very* nice horses :)

But really most of the day was just about seeing horse people I don't get to see on a regular basis and having fun with those I do outside of the barn :)   Drooling over phenomenal horses and tack and toys under the "lottery win" category.  And lots of socializing :)

Ok now to answer the day's mountain of emails and try to get things a little back to normal tomorrow!