WHO'S EXCITED? I'M EXCITED!

Ti and Gogo and I have arrived safely in Hamilton, MA, for the Groton House H.T. Even though I had to work today, everyone hustled me out of there as quickly as possile, and we were on the road by 1pm. We actually got in before 4... speedy quick! It was a bit crazy when we got there - trailers all over! - but we got everything sorted and settled, and I braided Gogo before her dinnertime.



She looks popeyed.... I wonder what she was oogling at.

Ti and I had some snacks from the welcome party, but I didn't stick around too long because I was too eager to get out and see XC! The course looks awesome. Interestingly, the majority of the fences are within a fenceline... very few stand alone jumps. I actually don't think the course looks THAT hard; I think King Oak was harder. The very first fence is the most intimidating first fence we've faced yet:



Bright flowers! I like it. I'll go over the couse in more detail tomorrow, but we have a few things on course that are new to Gogo. For instance, we have our first real drop fence. Not a down bank, but an actual low fence with a pretty big drop on the other side. We also have our first jump out of water - we've done up banks out of water, and plenty of fences a few strides after water, but technically none that actually have a take off in the water and land out of the water. It's teeny weenie, but it's still there! There are lots of big gallops and lots of beautiful, hilly land. SO EXCITED.




It's also our first time doing dressage in a grass ring. Sweet!

We ride at 8:36 tomorrow morning. There are twenty-four people in my division, and a whole lot of them are GOOD. REALLY GOOD. As long as I give her a good ride, we'll do just fine. I don't know where we'll place, but I expect us to earn a reasonable score. She IS in flaming, flaming heat though.... so we'll see. I pretty much tripled her raspberry leaf for the weekend, just to see if I can keep her body relaxed. We'll see!

WISH US LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!