WARNING: See how happy they both look?
These pictures in NO WAY capture the true essence of my week.

For the first four days of this five day ordeal, the horse was bad. He was a VERY BAD HORSE. There was refusing and rearing. And plenty of both. If you ride, you know that most problems in the ring stem from the rider. And some of theirs did, but most of them didn’t.

During one class, a trainer was sitting next to me in the stands. She did not know which rider I was watching – didn’t know me from Adam. Her students were gathered around her and she was telling them to watch the riders in the ring – their seat, their form etc. She wanted them to learn something and asked them to see if they could spot the winner.

One little girl piped up, “I like the paint horse”. The trainer lady ignored her and answered some of the others. They were shouting out their picks and the trainer was talking to them about what they said and saw. Spencer’s little fan was insistent and said again, “How about the paint horse? I really like that paint horse” The trainer could ignore her no longer and said with a sigh, “Honey, that horse is bad. That’s a bad horse.”

I don’t like going to these away shows when things are perfect, when the ribbons are blue and so are the skies. When it wasn’t scorching hot with high humidity, it was pouring rain. I brought a bike to ride and then went crazy eating since I was getting extra exercise. The bed at the hotel made my back ache and the carpet was questionable.

On the last day the two of them managed to pull things together – D#2 got tough and Spencer decided to listen. They ended up getting an 8th place (out of 40) in one class and putting in some good rides in the others.

bad horses and the girls who love them

Here’s what has happened since I hit the publish button on that entry yesterday ….

• D#2 left early in the morning to compete in a horse show.
• D#1 arrived via Jet Blue to surprise her sister.
• We start preparations for the surprise party we are throwing for her later that evening.
• I also start praying because it is supposed to be a pool party and the weather is not looking good.
• In a fit of hopefulness I mow the lawn and pooper scoop the yard.
• I also clean the house and begin to decorate the basement in a fit of reality.
• We get a phone call from D#2 saying that she hurt herself at the horse show with a gash on the underside of her chin and a chipped tooth (which thankfully turned out to be one of her molars)
• Boar picks her up at the show and they go first to the pediatrician where she gets her Sweet 16 tetnus shot and the off to the ER for her Sweet 16 stitches in the chin (which actually ended up being ‘dermabonded’ which is just fancy talk for paste. My baby has been pasted back together again!)
• that whole process took a good 3 hours during which:
• the skies seemed to explode and the rain was tremendous.
• my shed began to flood so I spent some time sweeping that out.
• and came inside to reattach the crepe paper streamers that my cat had taken issue with.
• the party was a surprise and was held indoors – lots of 16-18 year olds in my house. They cleared out at 12:30.
• everyone seemed to have a good time.
• I spent an hour cleaning up after the party
• taught my knitting class this morning where they seemed to have all perfected the art of synchronized dropped stitches.
• got home from that and hosted a little luncheon for my Aunt and her friend who stopped in on their way to JFK for a trip abroad.
• while Boar took everyone back to JFK, including D#1, I began emptying out our pantry for painting and reshelving work.
• later on today we are going to the dentist for D#2’s Sweet 16 Molar grinding.

I’m pooped!