brief thoughts: a preview of a successful weekend

Yesterday's outing at Olde Hope went really well. Really better than it had any right to go. More details to come later, but suffice it to say I'm quite pleased. We had our share of 'green' moments (to be expected) but Isabel proved herself to be a reliable and 'generous' horse (yes that's actually a quote from the dressage judge lol) and we had a blast.

'as if i could be anything other than awesome' - isabel

There were a couple little things that happened early in the day that I chose to take as good omens. First off, the recently discovered spider that had taken residence in my truck's mirror? Well, he was super busy and active all morning long while I was packing, and it was kinda freaking me out. He was ALLLLLLL OVER my drivers side window and yea... the idea of driving for an hour and a half with that thing right there was really unappealing.

But lo - poor spider got too bold and ventured down low enough where I could swipe a sweat scraper underneath him to fling him into some foliage where he'll surely eat just as well but yet be nice and far away from ME. Just the way I like it. (it is maybe worth mentioning that I have a serious aversion to killing predators so I'm happy that 'eviction' was an option here rather than 'execution' lol).

spider was quite active for quite some time. as evidenced by the changing color of the sky as we moved from pre-dawn to past sunrise

Another silly 'good omen' was driving past a couple hay trucks on the way out. I'm not sure how this superstition originated, and perhaps it's total and complete bunk.... but for whatever reason my family has always considered it good luck to encounter a hay truck on the road. Bonus points if little stray pieces of hay wash over your car in passing.

So I felt really oddly (and ridiculously) reassured when I passed two such trucks in a row.

check it out!!!

But whatever the reason, things just worked out really well for us. Well enough that we were able to put in a near-record dressage test and just barely cling on well enough to finish with a quite lovely blue ribbon.