Sport Horse Nationals

Whew. I -think- things are finally slowing down. Izzy moves tomorrow and everything is lined up. I promise, I'll take oodles of pictures once she's safely there. After riding her in a lesson yesterday, I realized that not only is our concentrated dressage effort paying off, but we might actually be on track to qualify for USDF regionals at first level after all.

However, none of that is the point of this post. Arabian Sport Horse Nationals are held at the Idaho Horse Park every other year (though I heard that it's moving permanently to the Kentucky Horse Park starting next year). Anyways. I went out last Thursday to watch all the pretty horses do dressage and I thought you might like some pictures.

Third level tests (I think)

Nine-year-old me is SOOOOO jealous of this horse:
Then I went to watch the warm up:
I think this is a flying change. I liked this little guy.
Twelve-year-old me would have killed for this one:
Another shot of the little black horse.
This girl definitely knew what she was doing. Lovely rider, lovely horse.
And we met a friend! I was there with my friend Katie and another girl, and Katie's childhood instructor was there riding Manhattan Mandy, a 9 year-old Trakehner/Arab cross at second and third level. (Sorry about the but off head).
Katie helps them get ready to show.
I'm not sure how they did, but it was a lovely test. Also, Mandy (the mare) is a dressage horse, but she made the Top Ten in the Show Hack, which they entered on a whim.

Fun stuff.