I’ve spent so much time at the Day’s Inn in Leesburg, Va., that it’s beginning to feel like home. (For the record: they have GREAT pillows.)

Yes, we’re back at Morven Park yet again, the last of a three-weekends-in-a-row tour of insanity. This is the last shot for Fender, who’s 12th right now in the 4-year-old standings and going great, and Midge, who needs a 68.5 to get back in the ballpark, and even then there’s no guarantees. Yikes.

He feels super, and I’m at peace with the whole thing. I made some twos this week, and the full pirouettes are better than the half ones. Scott saw his passage yesterday for the first time and was pretty stoked, so if the Developing Horse thing doesn’t work out, we’ve got bigger fish to fry.

Ella’s just here for the mileage; she’s already qualified for Gladstone, so yippee for that. All that said, I really want to apply the stuff Kyra had me work on and see what I can do about boosting the piaffe and passage scores while simultaneously not working so hard. Goals!

It is, as is always the case with this show, preposterously hot. And naturally, almost all my rides are in the afternoon, so I’m drinking lots of water myself and bringing a bucket to the show ring to allow my horses to do the same. This is actually good practice, since we all know that Chicago in July and New Jersey in August are such delightful, temperate places to show! Fitness and conditioning, fitness and conditioning. However bad the weather is at the respective Championships, it’ll be hotter and stickier at home, so I’ll get plenty of training in.

This is also a fun show because it’s the East Coast Selection Trials for the World Breeding Championships, in Verden, Germany, for 5 and 6-year-old horses. The best of the best on the Eastern seaboard will be here, and that will be a real pleasure. Selection trials (as well as the 4-year-old qualifier for our domestic championships) are tomorrow.

I’ve been working hard on a strategy to maximize Fender’s walk, and hopefully the rest of his work will stay up to par. He’s not been so thrilled about the heat, so I got on his case yesterday and he perked up. Hopefully a continuing trend!