In second level, test two on Thursday, the pair won with a 74.359% and on Friday they won third level, test won with an impressive 78.611%, the highest score at the show thus far. His powerful gaits were submissive except for when a jump went crashing down in a nearby hunter ring and he took an enormous leap forward, but settled into his work again quickly.

"He really likes to work," said Lavell. If he in tense the work relaxes him. I don't want to overdo it with him because there is a lot of joy in his work and I don't want to lose that. I want the harmony and pleasure of it." Through a fairly intense Florida season, Lavell keeps her horse fresh by not pushing him too hard. "Tomorrow I'll bring him out and warm him up so that he knows he doesn't have to go in the show ring every time he's ridden here," she said on Friday.

Lavell spends her summers training in Vermont, taking a break from competition after her winters in Florida. "It's kind of a joke," she said, "that I use an indoor arena in the summers and the outdoor in the winters."

Much Ado is her only horse; she spends a lot of time teaching, and having only one horse to ride leaves time for other things in her life, not to mention more time for this one horse, for which her admiration and affection is obvious. "There's a lot of pressure on him in third level," she said. "I'm backing off a little; I would rather train a lot than show a lot because at this point he still has a lot of muscle to build up and the showing is hard on him."

Text by Amber Heintzberger