Or I suppose we could call it Double Derby Day? Yes tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby (which I haven’t paid any attention to at all this year, aside from the one-eyed horse) but it’s also the Benefit Derby at Pine Hill!

I’ve been looking forward to this for months. I love eventing derbies, I love benefit shows, and I love Pine Hill, so this is basically the trifecta (see what I did there?). So many of my friends and favorite business owners stepped up to donate money or products and it was all very much appreciated. Can’t wait to see the program and the signs and the raffle.

But of course, when I started getting all gung-ho about this shindig, I forgot that it’s literally the day after SO’s birthday… which is today. That means if I wanted to leave the today (it’s a 2 hour drive and my dressage time is 8:52, sooo leaving today would be ideal) I’d have to be gone on SO’s birthday. Considering that I was gone for 2 weeks in March when Presto was born and just got back from a week at Rolex, I thought it a bit unwise to test his patience by being gone for a horse show on his birthday. Instead I’ll be leaving at the absolute pre-ass crack of dawn tomorrow to make it down there in time.

And after I’d already made plans to stay over tomorrow night and XC school the next morning (Trainer’s baby shower is on Sunday afternoon and only about half an hour away from the show venue, so I figured I could roll it all together), SO informed me that we had movie plans for Saturday evening. See above about not pushing my luck at the moment. That means I have to basically jump off my horse after the jumping phase and floor it for home, which in turn means I’ll miss the big raffle at the end of the show. Boo.

They posted the derby course the other day though, which is awesome. I’ve been able to learn it in advance, so that minimizes how much time I have to spend walking. I don’t think this is a particularly ideal format for us, with stadium jumps sprinkled in throughout the XC course (if we don’t have a rail at every single one, it’ll be a miracle). Nor was I very happy to see a down bank right at the beginning, considering that just a couple weeks ago we discovered that we still have a down bank issue. I already have plans to XC school a lot in May to work through it, so if we have an issue with this one at the derby I’ll probably just retire. No point in pushing Henry’s already semi-fragile brain at the down bank.

Otherwise though I like the course a lot, and nothing else concerns me. I really hope he does actually decide to go down the bank, because I love how the water is set up and I definitely want to go up the triple bank!

Either way, even if we only get to do dressage, we need that practice too. Plus the money from the show goes to a good cause. Can’t beat that. Anyone else have other fun derby (Kentucky or otherwise) plans this weekend?