Two evenings a week I go to my special job at the barn. Despite the heat, humidity, dust, and of course time away from ProjectHouseFromHell (haha ha), I very much look forward to the few hours with beautiful zillion-dollar horses. I usually groom Oz and then take him to the arena for a workout. Most of the time, I pretend I am the great horse trainer and Oz usually plays his part very well by walking, trotting, and cantering on-cue. Once in awhile he'll throw in a toss of the head and a buck just to liven things up and test my skills as the master trainer. (The other day, a bunch of geese took off right by the arena door and scared the crap out of poor Oz...he sped up to about 90 miles an hour until he finally realized the geese were not going to launch an all out attack on him...it was really funny.) After I lunge Oz, I usually ride with another woman, Chrissy. Chrissy and I have become friends mainly because we hold the two lowest positions in the barn food chain. She takes lessons there as I do and, like me, has a gross income of less than a million dollars. We usually take turns riding the 2 different schoolhorses...because one of them is really peppy but tends to spook at nearly everything so you have to hang on or you get dumped...and the other one does not spook but in fact needs a bomb to go off for him to get into a trot. Between the 2 of them, we get fairly good practice in all things fast and slow. When Chrissy and I ride, we often talk about how cool it will be when we *graduate* to better horses. Most of the horses at the barn belong to boarders; however, a few of them belong to the barn and (like Oz) are in training to be sold for lots and lots of money.
Last night I arrived at the barn and saw Chrissy's car in the parking lot. I went inside the barn and saw that Chrissy was having her riding lesson. I further saw that Chrissy was having her riding lesson on Icon, one of the bazillion-dollar horses in training! She saw me as she passed-by the arena door. She gave me a satisfied smirk and trotted past me in perfect form. It was one of those moments where you are really happy for someone but at the same time insane with jealousy and anger and hate. As I worked with Oz, I could see that Chrissy was waiting for me. She was, in fact, pacing up and down the aisle with the anticipation of our discussion about her riding experience. As I walked out of the arena with Oz, I congratulated her on her new mount and said, "How the hell did you get to ride HIM??" She said she nearly fell over when, before her lesson, Instructor said, "Would you like to ride Icon?" She and I then discussed how exciting it was for her to ride such an animal and who cares if she couldn't get him to turn and who cares if he is so tall she has to turn the mounting block sideways AND get a leg up to get on him. Despite my jealousy, I am really happy for her. It's nice to see her making such huge progress. Ok, let's get real. I really hate her and I will to demand to ride Oz for my next lesson. Just kidding...I think. :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment