It was a full moon effect, I think

I went to my favoritist job last evening at the barn. There is a new horse at the barn named Luna. Luna is all black except for a teensy crescent moon of white on her forehead (hence the name Luna)...she is so beautiful! El Instructor was riding her the other day and when she moves she looks like she is floating. He is trying to keep her fit for one of the boarders who is getting ready to sell her for mega $$$. Last night I finished with Oz and I decided to ride my trusty schoolhorse, the one who lives outside and is usually caked with mud. (He is no Luna) While I was getting *tacked up*, El Instructor said he was going to hop on Luna. What? In the same Olympic arena as me? You guessed it, dear reader, the dual for the gold medal was on.

For those individuals who didn't have tickets to last night's event, here is a recap:

1) Trusty schoolhorse is about a foot shorter than Luna so as Instructor and I began to trot together in sort of a mini paux de deux, Luna was halfway around the arena before my horse and I even got going. It was more of a paux de one and a half.
2) I was concentrating so hard on getting my position correct that several times I suddenly looked up to see Luna/Instructor headed right for me! El Instructor said, "Don't worry, I'll try not to run you over". Reassuring.
3) I decided, at one point, to canter (for non-riders, the canter is one step up from a trot). When I went to do it, tho, trusty schoolhorse got spooked by the very scary shadow in front of us that was going to attack and kill him so he bolted sideways and took off at the same time. As Luna/Instructor floated past us once again at a magnificant trot, I was straightening my helmet, trying to unclench my hand from the saddle strap, and trying to look cool and collected at the same time. I am not very good at that.
4) In all, schoolhorse and I had a good ride; however, we had a few faults that counted against us. In a competition of this caliber, there just isn't room for costly errors. We're going to go home, work on a few things to iron out the wrinkles, and come back next week.

No gold for us, I'm afraid.