short skirts and wild women

Yesterday was the Battle of the Barns show out in Martinez. The theme this year was "Decades" and we (the Bay Area Equestrian Network team) were the USO Girls of 1941. Last year we won the whole show and the costume competition. This year the team seemed a little less structured. And one team member's truck died on Friday and she was unable to bring her horses to the competition so we knew beforehand we'd be getting several very large time penalties in the classes she was supposed to ride. Winning would have been pretty much impossible, and indeed we did not win. We got 7th out of 10 and did not win the costume competition. I rode in only two classes, which made much of the day pretty boring.

I screwed up the joust even worse than I feared I would. I don't want to get into detail but it was mortifyingly bad, probably quite painful to watch. I pretty much wanted to crawl into a hole after that. The only other class I was assigned was the relay, just carrying the baton from one end of the arena to the other and handing off to another rider. Got a little canter out of Shylah in this and it wasn't too bad!

The show benefits a local therapeutic riding center, so it's all for a good cause, and it's fun to hang out with horsey people for a day and certainly good for Shylah to get more exposure to all the crowds and horses and sounds, even if 99% of her day was just being tied to the trailer. But it was a bit of a letdown compared to last year. I'm not sure I would do it again.

And I will not be wearing this outfit on any of my road rides around here. That might attract some unwanted attention. Then again...hmmm... >;-)

Here are some pics from the show though:

Me and the cutest horse on the planet (she later had "USO" in white letters on her butt but this was early in the day):

Aww, she's got stars!:

The team. Left to right is Noelle, Wendy, me, Leesha, Christine, and Alena:

Alena riding Cindy:

Christine riding Tag:

Noelle riding Cadet:

Wendy riding Mischief:

I was sooooooo tired by the end of the day. Amazing how sitting in the sun all day wears a person out! I house-sat out of town in the evening, got back here in the late morning, did a bit of art today (will post WIPs tomorrow), but the thrill of the day was going to see the movie Mamma Mia. What fun! I'm a big ABBA fan and the movie was a hoot. I was half way hoping the crowd would spontaneously burst into song and dance as we left the theater.

I'm whooped.