06/20/2026
I'm so behind on videos and racing to get ready for next week....we leave tomorrow at noon!
Duke, Deanna, and I had our last drive together. Deanna had a chance to drive her horse for the first time. I've got it all on video along with 2 others) and hope to edit it in my spare time hahahahahaha
Captain, Lola, and I (along with my navigator and love interest, Thomas Holkenbrink, and our good friend, Danny Navarro) head to the EI Driving CDE Clinic and Sunny Meadows in Rochester, WA (It's not letting me tag) , working with Stacey Giere over 4 days, with 3 private dressage lessons, 2 semi private cones lessons and 2 semi private marathon lessons.
After 4 days of 2aDay drives with Captain and 1aDay drives with Lola. Captain and I have a lesson with Sterling Graburn on Friday in the AM then I have 3 rounds, with each pony, at a driving derby Friday afternoon. Lola is Training level pony, Captain is Prelim small pony. Last year Captain and I took 3rd out of 14, at training level.
On Saturday, we have a Driven Dressage festival. I'll be driving Training level Test A and B with Lola and Prelim test A and B with Captain. This is good practice for Sunday.
On Sunday, I'll start with driving Captain in Prelim Dressage Test A with cones immediately following. Next I will do the same with Lola, but Training Level Test A. Again with cones immediately following. I'll have about 2 hours of downtime (Captain gets 4), then we drive a 5km marathon with 5 obstacles.
I'm exhausted just reading this. I have fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, so this will be a grueling on me. I've scheduled the following 3 days to lay in bed and watch movies and sleep....then visit with my awesome Aunt Claudia Mieras for weeks! She arrives during my 2nd day of rest and will be with me at Inavale in Oregon in July! She'll get a chance to meet our grandson, Teddy.
We are SCHOOLING prelim. Next weekend will determine whether we stay at Training level or move up to Prelim. We did 2 driving trials, last year, in training level.....but then we put in a tremendous amount of work almost all winter. The ponies got two 2-week vacations but other than that have been schooling in hand and in harness, 4-6 days a week. I took the time to condition Captain.
Lola won't be doing marathon this time around. She does NOT have the conditioning to take 2 adults 5km. She's yet to do that. Because she's a pony, and not small pony like Captain, I have to have a navigator on the cart with me, which doubles the weight. Lola is worked, regularly, with 2 people in the cart, but not enough that I would consider asking her to do in at marathon speeds. It wouldn't be fair.
I registered for the driving trial (dressage, cones, marathon) for both Captain (prelim) and Lola (Training level).....but requested to change Lola to a Combined Test (dressage and cones), instead. Lola can get hot out on the course, and she's never done an obstacle. She'll school on the course, next week, then will do a marathon later in the summer, likely the Fall Driving Trial in September.
I'll post pics during the week. Sounds like we have a heat advisory for the first 3 days of the clinic, then rain on the first 2 days of competition.....sigh. I will be sending my requests for more tepid weather to the weather gods.
