Willig's first derby!

Willig exceeded my expectations for his first derby, though he also gave me plenty of ideas on things we need to work on.
We rode senior grasshopper, which, based on our score and the two other riders', was actually about right. He got a 50 on his dressage test, no faults in stadium, and one refusal (20 faults) in cross country (on the first "fence" which was a telephone pole on the ground).
There were only two other senior grasshoppers, so depending on whether you're a glass half full or half empty person, he either kicked ass (2nd place! woo!) or he was kind of pitiful (he was 2nd out of 3, and for a while there, he was 3rd, so basically, uh, last place).
The other two riders got a 45.5 and a 49.5 on dressage, and then one rider had one stadium fault, and then she had two refusals (first log, second log), so even with our xc refusal, we eked into red ribbon territory.
Most of the judge's comments on dressage had to do with him "bending to the outside". Unless I'm missing something, that was him spooking at every flower pot at every letter. I went past them approximately 2000 times on the outside (and one million times with the daisies at home), but apparently they were very scary from the inside. Overall though, he did really well, with mostly 5s and 7s. My score (that one that the rider gets) was a 6.
Then for the stadium, we went second, and although three fences has fake flowers, they apparently aren't as scary as real flowers. We had one close call where they did a combo, and he stepped over it from almost. a. stop. but. I. squeezed. and. begged. and we made it.
There were no time limits on either stadium or cross country, which was nice too. Oh, and speaking of nice, the weather was perfect. Cool in the morning (for the "real" lunging and riding with the jacket on), and then sunny and breezy in the afternoon. And they sold AWESOME $1 giant pickles and mt. dew. My two favorite foods. (You can't see it in the photos, but I braided last night, which was another ordeal. He doesn't like standing still and knocked me off the stepladder thing twice. I kept meaning to take a picture because it was such an effort, but forgot.)
Cross country was just 6 flat boring poles - 5 of them were like telephone poles (one was tricky and short) and one was a PVC pipe with concrete on each end.
I lunged Willig before each phase, and he was tired by stadium, but REALLY tired by cross country, and his power steering went out after the second jump. So I was really lucky we didn't have more "refusals" because he just quit responding and I had to flap my arms all big and cling with my legs and we had the ugliest course ever. But I think it was him just being a kid, doing too much, being overwhelmed, and then the lunging before each phase.
Since I came for the day, I also had to deal with not having a helper, so how did I leave him to use the bathroom, walk the course, etc.? I solved that by leading him everywhere I could, and putting him in the trailer to eat hay after stadium so I could walk the xc course. A lot of people left their horses tied to their trailers, but I don't trust him.
He was not thrilled about getting in and out of the trailer (like 5 times), but if I wait, eventually he walks in on his own. He also had a few panic whinnies, but overall, he was much, much calmer and better than I thought he'd be.
I'm definitely moving him up to Hopeful, but I'm pretty sure we're going to "lose" (i.e. not place) for at least a year or two. And I'll do Hopeful for one or two shows and then move him to Beginner Novice.
It's the experience he needs now - the miles under his girth. So I think I just need to bite the bullet and pay a lot of money for shows where we're going to be in the bottom half.
What worries me is that he'd progress faster if I had more money to spend on him - take him to school xc courses, to unrecognized shows, to clinics, to recognized shows ... Then he'd be ready to go in just a couple years.
The other thing that worries me is I felt like I rode terribly. What if I'm just not a very good rider? Like grasshopper is really my level? But I definitely don't have money for more schooling AND lessons, so I'm not sure what really needs to happen next.
I hope I can take him to the Happ's Derby in September (at Hopeful), then that will be it for this year, and then I'll spend the winter working him and hopefully ride next summer for the experience, and then start working with a trainer again to improve me and him together after that.
He is, in some ways, so easy to ride, that if I am good enough, I think once he "gets" it (it's ok to jump it and the flowers aren't going to kill him) that he'll progress very quickly because the height is not the obstacle.
Here's the number of riders in the senior levels and the dressage score range (for future reference):
Senior Hopeful (16 riders), Dressage range 24.5 - 49
Senior Beg Novice (16 riders); I couldn't find scores
Senior Novice (17 riders), Dressage range 27.89 - 41.05