31 JAN 2002 - 10.12a
HELTER SKELTER.

30 JAN 2002 - 9.28p
nothing monumental to report, i guess. today lacey mentioned something in her diary about cds she wanted for her birthday... i was able to offer my burning capabilities for most of them. one of them was for squirrels... i liked them probably when i was a junior in high school and i'm not really into selling cds, so i still have it. for those unfamiliar with the band, they had been in a car crash on their way home (to florida?) after playing in new york and the singer died (and i think someone died else, too?) and the drummer was injured (broken arms?). the band decided to go on without the singer and one of the other guys (the guitar player?) took over singing, and they toured. lacey and i went to see them (with mike petro?) at the odeon and had a wonderful time. i don't remember exactly how or why it happened, but i somehow ended up on stage singing their song "orange worker" with them. i must have been high or something, because i honestly could not imagine even thinking about doing something like that now.

[now playing: the mr t experience 'love is dead' cd]

28 JAN 2002 - 6.33p
things are going well. i am happy.

on friday night, ed dragged me out to see some band they heard they should be interested in playing with. some band called sad davie (at first i thought ed said "sad baby" and matt thought it was "sad navy"). they turned out to be absolutely wonderful, probably because they sounded just like radiohead. perhaps they were trying too hard to be radiohead, but i really didn't care. i couldn't believe this band was from cleveland. needless to say, matt and ed were all into the idea of possibly sharing a show with them sometime.

the northern ohio quarter horse association awards banquet was on saturday. after getting a bunch of junk as a reward for my hard work showing in 2000 at last year's banquet, we opted not to go and had the wests pick up my loot. turns out the loot this year was far superior to last year. i made out like a fucking bandit! i got a tack trunk (for 1st place in amateur working hunter), a really nice heavy wool cooler (for 2nd in green working hunter), a very pretty watch with silver stirrups as the band (for 2nd in amateur hunter hack), a braiding video and a braiding kit (for 3rd in amateur equitation over fences), and a some kind of weird bag (for 6th in open hunter hack). the ohio quarter horse association banquet is this saturday and now we're really excited for it. usually OQHA gives out better stuff, and since newt and i are first in two classes, reserve in one, and third in the other, i should get some really good stuff (i hope!). not too shabby considering it felt like we barely showed in ohio all year, and we weren't out for points!

i think i might go to minneapolis for spring break. i don't know how the financial situation is going to be, but i really would like to go. guided by voices are playing there while i'm planning on being there... and of course everybody knows that my goal is to see them in every midwestern state before i die (not really). ahhh... david has just informed me that he bought tickets for the gbv show... i guess i have to go now.

school is going well. i can't really complain... my classes are fine... even german (for the moment, at least). we had fun in the library in gay media writing last week... and dick (not fox) talked to me! yay!

24 JAN 20002 - 11.00a
last night i went to 80's night with paul h and lacey and john (ivy didn't want to go). i arrived at paul h's before lacey... i knew he'd already been drinking... and i did my best to get him to hold off having another (and another...), but i didn't want to tell him to just stop because this is paul h, who can supposedly handle drinking huge amounts of alcohol.

paul h and i drove separately from lacey and john... somewhere around west blvd. and madison, paul h informed me that he had a confession to make. he didn't feel so well or something. i drove for a minute without asking exactly what didn't feel so well... i just didn't want to know. i mean, if i made a statement like that and i was drunk off my ass, and someone asked me what didn't feel so well, my response would most likely be, "my stomach - mmmmmmmmmbbbbbbbbbblaaaaaaaaaaahhhffffffff! (sound of vomit)" but i asked. paul h said "my stomach" and that was all. whew.

i got a call when i was a few minutes from the chamber from lacey telling me that parking was scarce in the area. i located a couple of semi-okay spots and flagged her down and directed her to them. all was good. except for paul h trying to sing a spoon song and butchering it. we walked to the chamber, went inside, bought drinks (paul h bought water) and stood around for a minute or two. there was an open seat, and i think paul h just kind of slumped into it. we stood and/or sat for a while, paul h slumped. some bouncer guy came over and told paul h he had to get out. john attempted to hold paul h up, bouncer was not amused and said we had to go. lacey and i took the long way out.

we drove back home and paul h wanted to play make-believe. i didn't understand what he was talking about at first, but apparently he wanted to be oscar the grouch. i knew then that things could only get worse. he started talking about making-believe he was elvis costello... and the next thing i knew, he's hanging his head like a dog out the window, puking all over the side of my car. i laughed and told him he had to clean it up. then i called lacey to tell her! it was amusing.

so we got back to paul h's and made a mess of the fridge, leaving various notes and magnets and magnetic poetry relating to the night's events. i'm pretty sure i caught john looking at my ass. please john, don't look at my ass. i don't like you, and i don't like it when you look at my ass. anyhow. lacey made some magnetic poetry that reflected the night's events quite well. paul h cleaned the puke off the side of my car (i hope... i have yet to go out and see it in the daylight) and that was that.

[now playing: neutral milk hotel - 'on avery island' cd]

19 JAN 2002 - 11.15a
wow. haven't had much desire to update lately. school is draining, but fun. i'm enjoying three out of four of my classes... that media writing class is remedial or something. and i thought i hated german after i struggled in class on wednesday... but i love it again.

apparently paul cox is still recovering from the weekend i was there. wow. i didn't think i made any impact on him whatsoever... but check it out... he's still recovering!

horse gets a month off. i've been burning cds for paul h. work is fine. we're going to have an unofficial german club, which i think should have an outing soon. i love jagak. the end.

14 JAN 2002 - 2.24p
woo! well, the first day of school is out of the way. all i had today was communications & conflict and german II. turns out the bookstore ordered all the wrong books for com & con... dr. rudd was fuming. i thought it was pretty funny, myself. she let us out of class way early so she could call the bookstore, as she was a little flustered. german II was great fun... unfortunately it looks like herr baseball won't be joining us this semester. actually, i think ivy, george, and i were the only people there from our german I class. but we got to sing our favorite german drinking song... and prof. hinze asked me if i'd rather drink beer or orange juice and i said beer. he liked that answer. oh, and the contest that ivy and i had going is now officially called off. there is not one boy (except for maybe that fonz boy) that i'd be willing to do in that class.

last night we had our work christmas party at weia teia. it was a good time... everybody was there and the food was excellent. we had a lot of wine (maggie sat next to me... i swear, whenever we have wine, she always forces me to drink more, more, more. i think it's because she can get tipsy, too, and all the attention won't be on her.). we shared a few desserts... one of which was this amaretto mousse type thing that was covered in chocolate and had a crown of spun sugar on it. maggie took the crown, licked off the chocolate, and put it on my head. it was a wonderful picture opportunity and i was buzzy enough that i didn't care if my hair was a little sticky. it really was a nice party.

bah. i found out the breeders play columbus the day before the clevo show... cool, except it's a thursday and i have night classes on thursdays. so, not cool. and the night after the clevo show, they play detroit. i'd consider going if the show was at st. andrew's... but it's at the magic stick, but that's in the same complex where my car was violated. it sucks.

my stupid fucking boring lame horse has another vet appointment tomorrow. this time doc's son (also a vet... and very attractive) is coming out to watch me ride... then we're going to do some nerve blocks, etc. and really try to pinpoint what's going on. i'm feeling really defeated, and i'm about ready to claim insurance on newt. he's been so sound all this time, and i feel like this is something REALLY bad going on. i could claim loss of use, keep him, and get half of his insured amount (which is quite a bit of money)... and then use that towards the purchase of a baby (and maybe even paying off my student loans from findlay!). i'm not sure what claiming would do as far as whether or not i could show him if he got better (assuming that maybe someday he'd be sound enough to show, at least on the flat)... but i'm keeping it in the back of my mind just in case dr. bob says we're going to have chronic problems.

i don't know what else is going on... paul h and i are supposed to get breeders tickets today. phoebe ate this whole giant hershey's kiss that ed gave me as a joke for christmas (i was going to give it back to him for valentine's day). she unwrapped it very carefully... hardly tore the foil or the box. i imagine she'll be very sick soon. good luck to all my friends starting school... i read lacey's diary and it sounds like her first day smelled. i'm very sorry to hear that... but she should be comforted in the fact that i bought her a kickass present the other day. presents rule.

12 JAN 2002 - 12.06p
paul h and i went to see silkworm and various others (okgo and some dakota band) at the grog shop last night. it was totally a good time... that couple that was always doing it was there. it was good to see them. it was also good to see matt hedset's girlfriend. not really. she didn't say anything to me, so i just pretended i didn't see her. there was some kind of big arabica crowd there that left right after okgo. anyhow. this dakota band had this girl in it... and they're totally going to be on the dawson's creek soundtrack. i couldn't listen to them and NOT think that. okgo opened with a breeders cover, which was probably really smart of them. it was good for them to start things off on my good side. not that they're horrible, but there's something too shiny and rockstarish and mtv about them and i can't figure out why the hell they were playing with silkworm.

in other grog shop related news, they now serve my favorite cheap beer, straub. someday i am going to visit their brewery and the eternal tap. maybe for spring break... who wants to tag along?? i also plan on stocking up on my favorite beer there, since i can't really find it at stores around here.

so, i'm starting to get really excited about the breeders show in february. i have more than a month to wait, but i am a big nerd.

12 JAN 2002-8.19a
bah! spring semester begins on monday. i have to admit that i'm not terribly excited about it... with the exception of having two classes with ivy and german to look forward to, i'm afraid it's going to blow. i went downtown the other day and bought all eight hundred of my books, as well as my parking pass (the price was upped to $104!)... it's a good thing my credit cards are slowly finding their way home with me.

i must have had a dream about pudding last night... the first thing i did when i woke up was go to the cupboard to see if we had any instant pudding. we didn't.

so, if anybody knows how someone can be too dumb to not know how to do it, let me know. like ivy said, it's like not knowing how to put a key in a lock. i know i'm baffled.

ed finally came home from his journey. we hung out the other night, and i got to hear all of his stories. the really funny thing is that he was in memphis and nashville over the weekend... when i was in nashville! what the hell is up with that? i mean, i'm kind of glad he didn't call or anything... but at the same time, i'm kind of hurt he didn't call. oh well. at least he's home in one piece... with six thousand more miles on his car.

speaking of nashville, i have no idea what's going on with paul cox. he's the anti-snuggler. paul cox, could you email me your address? i know your birthday is coming up.

oh! david sent me his discman and many cds he burned for me to replace things that were stolen. i'm only borrowing his discman because he doesn't drive his car. i'm so happy to have it, though!! i put two radiohead stickers on it, david doesn't mind. i still need to replace quite a few cds, and i should be able to just by borrowing from friends. everybody has been really great about this, and i truly appreciate it.

[now playing: ben folds - "rockin' the suburbs" cd-r]

09 JAN 2002 - 11.49a
i've been back from nashville for a couple of days, but too lazy to update my blog. i had a nice time while i was gone... it was a super lazy weekend, which was great. i had a chance to get my mind off of all of the trauma and drama here... and i came back so well rested! i honestly can't remember the last time i could sit around and do nothing for such a long stretch of time. that kind of thing just doesn't happen at home.

i had a good time, though, despite growing roots while lying on the couch. my mission to get paul cox drunk failed miserably. i'll get over it someday, i guess. paul cox also never took his socks off. he even sleeps with socks on! isn't that crazy? i had never heard of such a thing... socks are the enemy. anyhow. we went out with msp, which was great fun. paul cox didn't get drunk there, either. i feel like a failure.

i'm going to go spend some time on the couch now.

[now playing: n'sync cd that lacey let me borrow]
12.22p um... n'sync cover a christopher cross song on this cd... what the fuck?

03 JAN 2002 - 10.26p
i'll continue with newt's story after i return home from my short vacation with paul cox. too much is going on right now to not discuss.

first of all, many healing and surgery-surviving well wishes to lacey. i'm assuming she is fine and came out of everything okay because i have yet to hear otherwise. it would totally suck if she died. so, lacey, don't die.

my car window was repaired today... but with the wrong color glass! bah! apparently car glass comes in green and bronze... the lady we talked to on the phone bet anything that our windows were green, as bronze is not as common, and usually more expensive. well, guess what? my car windows are bronze as bronze could be... and to think all this time i thought they were just clear. i plan on leaving it that way. i don't care. 150k miles on the damn car, one mismatched window is fine with me.

and guh! i also realized the asshole that broke into my car not only took all of my mixtapes from when i was 14, but my scurvy tape, as well. i could not be more pissed off!!

today i had lunch with paul h... prior to that, he took me to the record store to "spend his gift certificate." i was very surprised and kind of angry when he bought spoon's girls can tell for me! damn you, paul h. yes, that cd was stolen in detroit... but he definitely shouldn't have done that. oh well... i'm just going to burn it and give it to him. it's a good cd, and he should have it for his own. but sigh, i'm listening to it now, and i love spoon.

so, i leave for nashville tomorrow. big excitement, although i will be in the shittiest time zone ever. i hate central time. eastern is far superior, as far as i'm concerned. anyhow. i'm keeping fingers crossed that my flight goes well and that paul cox doesn't try to include squirrels in any of our activities.

i should go to bed. i'm tired, and feeling sick.

[now playing: spoon - 'girls can tell' cd]

02 JAN 2002 - 10.34a
i will resume the telling of my horse story after a brief interruption about the current state of my life. i apologize, as it will most likely be boring... it does not involve being particularly social or anything of that sort... but it also does not involve my boring fucking horse, so that might redeem it just a bit.

so, david and i went to detroit to see yo la tengo on new year's. it was really a wonderful show... the venue was cool, the band was great. they played a lot of covers that were fun (with the exception of bob seger's "night moves"... so sorry, lacey). i picked up the greatest yo la shirt for paul h... i know he'll enjoy it. it seemed like a decent enough night... until we left the show.

some asshole had broken into my car (and several other cars parked on the same street as my car) and stole the following from me:

1. my pink velour wallet, which will never be able to be replaced.

2. the contents of my pink velour wallet: $10, two credit cards, many things of sentimental value.

3. my brown purse and the brand new harmonica and two bath and body chapsticks inside. i think the zippo lighter ed got me for my 19th birthday was also in there, too.

4. the new cell phone car charger thing that david had bought the previous day.

5. my car cd player.

6. my cd "fuzzy" which contained approximately 50 of my cd's... i've already made a call to my close friends to help me replace what is missing... i will have a more definite list fairly soon, i hope.

things that were not stolen: my logic book. sleater-kinney's "dig me out". i found this funny, as of all the things in my car i would have actually wanted someone to steal, these two items were probably it.

my nashville trip is now up in the air, but i have a feeling i'll still be going. i just found out that my insurance isn't giving me a dime towards the repair of the window or anything that was stolen. oh well.

29 DEC 2001 - 9.14a
anyhow, things with jimmy were slowly getting worse. upon the advice of my trainer, we stopped trying to do the 3'6" and kept him at 3' which was easy enough. i, however, was tired of showing the children's hunters on the AHSA circuit since i had been doing so for a couple of years at this point... so even despite the dismal experience we'd at the one quarter horse show we went to, we decided to give it a second chance.

and i'm glad i did! it wasn't really a whole lot better, but it was a lot less bloodthirsty than the AHSA circuit. the people were friendly and the kids seemed nice enough. i was approached by a trainer that knew jimmy. his name was art o'brien and he'd known jimmy for a long time... when jimmy was just a wee baby jim, art was the one responsible for bringing him up from georgia to ohio. he broke jimmy, and then sold him to the people we'd bought him from. art seemed very knowledgeable and friendly, and although i had no idea at the time, he was one of the best QH trainers in the country. i started hauling jimmy to his barn (we had our own trailer by this time) for occasional lessons... i just needed some help converting from the real hunter way of doing things to the QH way. we went to af ew more QH shows and i liked it enough, i guess. i didn't really complain.

at some point that summer, we also discovered that jimmy did indeed have that genetic disease discussed by our vet several years earlier during the pre-purchase exam. it was called hyperkalemic period paralysis (HYPP). when extra potassium was fed to the horse (by means of alfalfa hay or sweet feed, for instance), the horse's potassium-sodium pump in its muscles did not work correctly, causing excess sodium to leak out and in turn the horse would have muscle tremors... sometimes the tremors would be so bad the horse could fall down, which is how we found out jimmy had it. we'd been giving him electrolytes in his water buckets that summer (a typical thing to do when it's hot)... electrolytes are 11% potassium. jimmy fell down, we tested him, he was positive. took all potassium out of his diet, and he was fine. end of story.

that fall, upon art's suggestion, we entered a big horse show called the all american quarter horse congress. we'd never gone to congress before, but knew a lot of people went down to this big horse show just to shop. we didn't know much about it other than that. hauling down to columbus was intimidating... there were signs along 71 stating which exit congress was at... signs on the highway! sheezus, this wasn't any horse show we were used to going to!

we pulled onto the showgrounds, and i'm pretty sure my mom was crying... it was just this amazing site... people, horses, cars, trucks, trailers... everywhere you looked. there was a giant archway welcoming you to the congress... enormous tents to house the horses for the two and a half weeks of the horse show greeted us as we pulled in. i'd never seen anything like this in my life, and it was almost overwhelming.

we got jimmy settled in his stall and began to explore. we signed up for the infamous "midnight schooling" and did some shopping. it was crazy, but luckily jimmy seemed to be taking it in stride. we schooled that night and he was great. jumped around like the star that he was. i had nobody there to school me, as art was busy with a bunch of his regular full-time clients. i was doing okay despite not having much help.

the next morning we woke up and cleaned tack and braied jimmy. got him ready for one of my classes. i remember warming up and he was good... but somewhere between the warm up ring and the coliseum, i think i lost my confidence. i saw how many people were inside watching, thought about how many horses we were competing against. i went in the ring and rode around like a zombie... we got over all the jumps, though, but that was basically jimmy carting his passenger around... unfortunately, my nerves got the best of me everytime we showed that first congress. but just being down there was so cool! i'd never seen anything like it, and couldn't wait to do it again. aparently, the fogginess i experienced is typical of everyone's first time to the congress... it's just good to go and get the first time out of the way.

while down at congress (this was during the fall of my senior year of high school), i was approached by a representative of the university of findlay. her name was kristy something, and she'd asked me if i'd considered going to school there... then told me about the equestrian scholarships they had, and about their equestrian program. at this point, i had no idea what i wanted to do... i mean, i really wanted to go to NYU or fordham more than anything... but i still wanted to ride, and riding in NYC is possible, but not practical, especially for a college student. i considered it, then visited findlay... my mom convinced me it was probably the only possible way to keep jimmy, or even ride for that matter, and go away to school. i put thoughts of NYU and fordham out of my head (both of which i'd been accepted to) and packed my bags to go to school in the middle of nowhere. i'd received every riding scholarship they had, as well as other academic scholarships. it was an expensive school (so were NYU and fordham, though) and i'd pretty much resigned myself to going there. i wasn't happy about it, but was happy enough to keep jim.

i enjoyed findlay, and my trainer there... but jimmy was becoming less and less sound, as they pushed us so much. it was good for me, as i was doing things i thought i'd never do with him... but very bad for him, as his navicular syndrome was developing into the full blown navicular disease. and all this time, he started having HYPP attacks more and more frequently, even though he had NO potassium in his diet whatsoever. it had to have been from stress (school was tough)... around spring break, my trainer at findlay suggested i sell jimmy and buy something that was more likely capable of keeping up with the workload. i went home for break, and i think i cried the whole drive home... when i got there, i very calmly told my mom i wanted to sell jimmy (who had been with our family for five years at this point). then she cried and cried.

at the end of the semester, i sold him to a little girl that lived around findlay. she wanted to do 4-H type stuff, and jump just little fences. he was so perfect for her... and i realized that the day she came to try him out. when she was done riding him, and her mom was going to take her home, she went into his stall and gave him a big hug... i held my breath. that was the type of thing that jimmy hated! he hated hugs and pats and being scratched... but he just stood there like a statue, while that little girl was wrapped around his neck. i let out my breath. it was meant to be.

i don't think i cried once when i sold him, because i knew i was doing the right thing. he needed a less stressful life, and i needed a new horse. he did wonderful things for his little girl before he died in 1999, two years after i sold him. he had complications with colic, and surgery was not an option as he probably would have died under anesthesia because of the HYPP. he was put down, and buried in his favorite corner of the pasture at his family's house. i think i cried more hearing of his death than i ever did selling him.

almost to newt! whew!

in other news, you can now get to my blog by typing www.nakedomalley.com. thank you, david. that was a wonderful surprise and gift.

27 DEC 2001 - 5.23p
Wow... I never expected to receive such an overwhelming positive response from my last entry. I just got home from riding my stupid fucking horse, so I shall pick up where I left off yesterday.

My mom and I were growing tired of constantly looking at horses... we were almost to the point of settling for something that was less than perfect. We'd drive hours to see something that was advertised as 16.2 hands, and have it be barely 15.3. It was disappointing, as some of the horses we called on sounded so great and we'd get our hopes up... only to have them be junk. One Saturday, we called on a horse in the Plain Dealer, which was kind of a joke. Horses advertised in the newspaper are usually horses not worth looking at... it's just not the market for the type of horse we were looking for. The ad sounded promising, though... a 16.1 hand AQHA (American Quarter Horse Association registered) gelding, 5 years old. It probably said other things... "jumps, quiet, etc..." Over the phone, the people were very honest with us and told us the horse was green, but very sensible. They'd bought him for their daughter (who was now in college) as something to learn to jump on... unfortunately, very rarely do horses and riders learn to jump together... not safe, not a good idea. The horse ended up being too much for their daughter (they said he was a very talented jumper), but only because she didn't know what she was doing.

We drove out to Burton to see the horse one day after school that week. It was a warm spring day and these people lived way out in Amish country, and we passed lots of baby cows and stuff on the drive. We got there and they had him standing in the cross ties, groomed and ready to go. Imagine my surprise when I saw he was a palomino... we'd never even asked what color he is (a good horse is never a bad color). His coat was the color of a ritz cracker, and his mane and tail were white. He was big, with a very kind soft eye. Very, very pretty.

We took him out and I watched the daughter ride him for a few minutes. He was a very good mover, and seemed fairly athletic. I got on him and rode him and jumped him over a few small jumps. I really liked him, so we went home and arranged to have my coach come out and see him the following week. I told her all about him, and she seemed excited, until she asked what color he was. I told her that he was a palomino and I could tell she wasn't thrilled.

"meghan," she said, "some judges are going to hate that."

i had no idea what she was talking about at the time. she also asked me what his name was... "jimmy," i said. she asked me what i would change it to when we bought him. i don't think cathy was fond of people names for horses... but he seemed like a jimmy to me, i guess, so i never really gave it much thought.

so, cathy came out to see him and loved him, too. my mom made an offer on him, right there... pending a trial visit to our barn and a pre-purchase vet exam. they would drop him off the following sunday and the pre-purchase exam was scheduled for the wednesday after that. we were on pins and needles awaiting his arrival.

i remember preparing his stall that sunday... cleaning the buckets and putting fresh hay in it. the trailer soon pulled up, and jimmy got out. a few people were out at the barn, and ooohed and ahhhed at the pretty palomino. they weren't used to "horses of color" at the snooty barn... most thoroughbreds and warmblood breeds are bay, chestnut, black and grey... it's not often you see a performance horse that isn't one of those colors. in fact, even using a quarter horse to show on the american horse show association (AHSA) hunter circuit was odd at the time... cathy also warned me that his breed might get counted against him. he was too nice of a horse and the price was right, so we figured we'd take a chance.

the next few days were exciting... jimmy settled in, and we got to know him a little better. the vet came out, passed him with flying colors and said he was happy we'd finally found a good one. he did warn us of a potential genetic disorder certain bloodlines of quarter horses carry... jimmy had those bloodlines, but we were too thrilled with him being perfect in every other way that we didn't even draw the blood for the genetic test.

the first few months with jim were great. he was an absolute peach for the most part. he jumped better and better with each lesson, and everyone in the barn grew to love him. i got to know him a lot better... he didn't particularly care to be groomed or petted, and he especially hated being scratched. he liked attention, but not physical contact. jimmy was really smart and learned things very quickly, but i think that's more of a breed attribute than anything. we were soon ready to begin showing him, and started off showing at some of the bigger local shows. he won everything everywhere, even getting blue ribbons at his very first show with me. we were so thrilled with him. it was everything we could have asked for, and we were excited to advance to a higher level the following show season.

advancing to the children's hunters (3') was a great thing for me... i was really tested as a rider, and jimmy was doing the job that seemed most suitable for him. we had a lot of fun on the show circuit, but encountered a bit of the color and breed prejudice that cathy had warned us about. the judges loved him most of the time, but occasionally there was a judge who wouldn't even so much as look at us when we were in the ring. we never got discouraged, though, as the ribbons and championships we earned that year were enough proof that we had everything we ever wanted in a horse.

the following year, the logical thing to do was to move up to the junior hunters (3'6")... jimmy didn't seem as comfortable over the slightly larger fences, and i wasn't accustomed to it, either. we figured we'd stay in the lower division the first part of the year and work on moving up the latter part. we were kind of bored with showing against the same people every week, over the same type of courses, so someone suggested we start showing on the AQHA circuit, where only AQHA registered horses are permitted to show. it wasn't quite as lucrative as the AHSA circuit, but it was good experience and we'd at least have new competitors to show against. we knew the hunters weren't as big on that circuit, but that at the higher levels, the class numbers were comparable to the AHSA shows we were used to.

the first AQHA show was culture shock. we had a vague idea of what to expect, but i don't think anything could have prepared us for what it really was like. the judges were used to western type horses (western horses dominate over english horses on the AQHA circuit) and most of the english horses looked like western horses in hunt tack. we were kind of disgusted, especially with the judging of the jumping classes. the judges really had no idea what they were looking for... one of the judges that day picked all the horses that flew around the courses like their tails were on fire... not what a proper hunter is at all! the other judge at least recognized that i had some clue as to what i was doing, and placed us well. even so, that was enough for me. that circuit was horrible, and i had no desire to show on it again.

we went back to doing the AHSA shows... and trying to get comfortable over the large fences so we could move up. jimmy was really struggling, though, and for the first time he refused a jump. this was a sign that even the six inch difference was too much for him... it was probably more of a mental thing, than a physical thing at that time... but the following year (once again, trying to be consistant at 3'6") proved that physical things were brewing. jim went a little lame, and was diagnosed with mild navicular syndrome (foot pain). we babied it, and got him back to his normal self, and things were fine for the remainder of that year. my mom wanted to sell him, as it seemed as though it was time for me to move on... i couldn't stand to think of that, so i refused. i didn't mind showing over the lower fences if it meant keeping jimmy.

well, i'm supposed to call paul h. to be continued...