horse show on saturday: hot, and more hot, and especially hot, given that i was (a) wearing long, skin-tight pants and knee-high black leather boots, a long sleeved button-down shirt with high collar and a polyester blazer, and a black velvet helmet, (b) sitting on a hot, sweaty horse, and (c) exercising.

good things: didn't have to get to the barn until about 11.30, so there was none of that ass crack of dawn nonsense. random (mostly) behaved himself. bad things: judge was (a) a fat lady in spandex [note: that is NOT OKAY if you are not at the gym. and adding a big straw hat with flower trim DOES NOT HELP] and (b) was pinning the strangest combinations of horse and rider. alicia, one of the superstar teenagers at the barn, gave the ride of her life in one class and got nothing. random trotted and cantered around the pleasure horse division like a pro with loopy reins and his head practically down at his knees, and got nothing.

but, as an upside, at least random did trot and canter around with his head down, a first for us at a horse show. and we did win a 2nd and two 4ths, in the low adult hunter division. out of 4, but hey. and we totally should have gotten 3rd in that first class. the person who ended up with 3rd couldn't even get going the right way around for his courtesy circle. feh.

the last jumping class of the day, the one that won me the 2nd place, is below. we entered at the gate at the bottom, turned left, and picked up a canter. cantered a courtesy circle in the open area at the bottom of the ring, then headed for fence 1, a white vertical (just one horizontally laid pole held up by two posts) with peach flowers at the bottom. made a sweeping turn to fence 2, another white vertical. steadied up our pace and continued around to the right, staying out in the corner for fence 3, a brown and green oxer (two verticals placed one behind the other, to make a wider jump than just one pole). swing around the other fence in that line, to do a bending line up to the third jump in the triple combination, fence 4. having gotten a perfect 8 strides in the bending line, we steadied around the corner at the top of the ring to get the lead change and come around to fence 5, a brown vertical with blue flowers at the bottom. then we swung around fence 3/8, holding hard to slow random down for another lead change and the sharp corner to roll back to fence 6, a white oxer with peach flowers. successfully over that one, we came around to the right to finish up over the 4-stride brown and green line. over that last fence, i gave random a pat on the neck and smiled big at my coach.

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|              5              4------ |
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| ------6    /     7                  |
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|          8                          |
| ------1   \                        |
|   ^        \                       |
|   |         \              2------ |
|   |          3                      |
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the previous course, by the way, had been: start over the same fence as above, but continue on to jump the white oxer on the same line, 3 strides. come around to the brown and green diagonal line (fences 7 and 8 above) in 4 strides, lead change and around to the left to head up the triple combination, 3 strides each, then down over the single (fence 5 above) to finish out.

at the end of the day, i was disappointed with my placings, i think i rode better than i got pinned. but i was really happy with both my handy hunter course (the one pictured above) and with random's relaxed ride in the pleasure horse division.

took him home, hosed him down, put away my tack, and called karl. he, his parents, brother, and sister-in-law were heading out to see the bourne supremacy in an hour. did i want to go? yes, but damn was i sweaty, and didn't have time to go home for a shower. so i met them at the theatre, in my show clothes, for the movie.

after the movie, i made karl take me, stat, to a diner for some food. it was nearly 11pm and i hadn't had anything to eat except a snapple and a coke since a bowl of cereal that morning, at about 9.30. then home, and collapsing in bed.

sunday started with a sudden thunderstorm that woke me up about 7.30. rain was coming in all the windows. karl and i rushed up to shut them, and i stayed up to put in a load of laundry, empty the dishwasher, and sit on the balcony for a while watching the rain. it was, as they say, absolutely chucking it down. went back to bed for a while, then got up again to get ready to go out to the 'burbs to hang out with the in-laws. we ended up at the mall, where karl and i bought face masks in preparation for our sledgehammer party tomorrow night and walked around. oh, i bought a red belt for $3 at the gap. a successful outing.

we ended the evening with dinner at the valley forge brewery, where we were the only customers. i mean, it was a slow sunday night, but come ON people. i ordered a glass of their home-made black cherry soda but sent it back in exchange for a vanilla creme soda when it tasted a bit like root beer. the vanilla creme did too, but i didn't want to send it back again, so i just drank it really quickly. had a lovely vegetable barley soup, then a reuben. but, while that reuben was good, i couldn't face it. i felt really ill. so i picked at it a bit, sipped at a cup of tea, and made karl take me home, where i watched an episode of "the prisoner", that ridiculously incomprehensable bbc show from the '60s, with patrick mcgoohan as an ex-secret agent who finds himself kidnapped and imprisoned in The Village, a surreal place decorated in outlandish mod style (every house with a lava lamp!) where he is known only as "number 6," is chased by a giant white sphere that suffocates escapees, and is questioned by the mysterious number 2, who only wants to know why he resigned. several episodes in, i too want to know why he resigned, and find myself siding with number 2. JUST TELL US WHY YOU RESIGNED ALREADY AND YOU CAN GO HOME. in last night's stirring episode number 6 runs for office and wins, replacing number 2, then, after uselessly pressing buttons and questioning the "council" (who is number 1?), is knocked out and replaced as number 2 by number 58, who we previously thought was a non-english speaking overly chirpy assistant. DUM DUM DUM DUMMMMMMMMM.

remember: free ipod info in the previous entry.