PLEASE VOTE

go visit weetabix for a funny and insightful entry and, even better, a thoughtful and polite discussion of the issues involved in this presidential campaign, in the comments section. and then register to vote. even if you think you're registered, go and register again. be SURE you're vote will count.

ALL A GIRL NEEDS IS A HORSE AND A SUNNY DAY

the weather this week has been gorgeously wonderfully beautifully perfectly perfect. impossibly blue skies, sparkly sunshine light up bright green leaves, no humidity, light breezes... a perfect week for horseback riding.

i had lessons on tuesday and today on random and they were the best lessons we've had in a while. not just because of the weather. some of the boarders at the barn are disgruntled, basically because of the lack of barn management, most recently instantiated as a dismal reaction to a bunch of horses getting sick with the flu and worse, strangles. it got back to the owner that there was grumbling, and he and one of the boarders, our unofficial spokesman, met to discuss the issues.

the extent of the changes resulting from this discussion is yet to be seen, but one change already in place is better lessons. our trainer has made tuesdays flatwork days, and this past tuesday he lived up to that by making us trot without stirrups for about 30 minutes. we hooked our legs over the front flap of the saddle to work on our seat. we held our legs straight down and out to work on our upper leg muscles. we opened up our shoulders by reaching up to the sky and back to the back of the saddle. after much sitting trot without stirrups, he said the dreaded words: "posting trot, ladies!" to post the trot without stirrups is torture on the inner thighs. without the stirrups to support your weight while you're in the rising position, you must rely entirely on your inner thigh muscles.

but enough about trotting without stirrups. today we got to jump for most of the lesson, but again with our trainer really working us rather than the usual trot around, canter around, jump around, "put him away" that we usually do.

the women who ride with me (all stay-at-home moms married to men with high-paying jobs. shouldn't be a surprise, really, given that they are (a) free to ride at 10am weekdays and (b) can afford to keep horses. but really lovely people. even the one woman who not infrequently says things like "as good Christians, we should do the right thing and..." forcing me to hold my tongue rather than point out that she's implying that only "good Christians" are capable of doing the right thing, which is one of the unthinking assumptions of Christians (both good and bad) that pisses me off the most. one of these days i may have to speak up about it, since it bothers me so much, but i need to come up with a way to do it that isn't aggressive or threatening. because i don't think that she intends what she implies--i think that she just hasn't thought about how it might sound to someone who is not a Christian, and has never been called on it before because she lives in a place that is populated almost exclusively by affluent white Christians. i need a comment that is light enough not to threaten but which makes her aware of her (hopefully) unintended implication. suggestions welcome), okay, back on track now, the women who ride with me and i are all making a particular point of praising the lessons, saying to the trainer how very much we like them, so that hopefully he'll keep doing them like this. because apparently he has done this in the past, started giving really great lessons, only to let them slide back to the norm after a couple weeks.