Eyes Closed

I love Wednesday! It means that the work week is almost over but for someone like me who works the weekends…well, never mind. I still like Wednesdays.

I get to be talkative – be wordful – because it’s Wordful Wednesday!

Today I’m going to talk about my girl, because my boy is kind of out of reach right now – out of reach like in a different time zone. I’m quite boring without my kids.

There she is! The shape of the jumps on this particular show on this particular day was intimidating for the girls. Once you jump in, the only way out was to jump out. No mistakes . . . or you’ll pay for it.

The day started in the regular way and in the regular dress code.

And everyone was dressed exactly the same way. And all the horses were exactly – brown.

But it didn’t last long. It was hot so the coats came off. The girl rarely jumps in just her shirt but if it was me, it would have come off a long time ago. So now we can tell the difference between the girls! One has on a white shirt, the other an ivory shirt, and then a nice shade of off-white. Wait, I see a light blue shirt too!

A photographer note: I like to run PW’s Lovely and Etheral action on Ella. It makes her look so shiny and buff.

The white shirt served another purpose – as proof of a fall because this was the day that the girl fell off of Ella. I forced myself to be calm, and it was a good thing. I wouldn’t have wanted to be “the” mom who freaks out and runs into the ring screaming when her daughter is getting trampled by a horse. No I wouldn’t. That would be embarrassing.

As you can see her white shirt is no longer white. I didn’t take any photos of the fall of course. I just thought that would be standard procedure when your daughter falls off: you put your camera down and start worrying. The girl asked that evening if I got any photos of the fall. “No,” I said, “of course not. Did you want me to keep shooting?”

“Yes,” she said, “I wanted to see what I looked like.”

Unbelievable.

She was stunned but alright. She walked out of the ring and someone gave Ella’s reigns back to her. Ella followed sheepishly the girl, as she should. Do horses feel guilty? I hope so. Miss Tina said, “Get back up (girl).” The girl did as she was told. Then Miss Tina said, “Why did you do that?”

These horse people are tough.

I can tell you why she did that. She had her eyes closed. This was the photo I snapped of the jump right before the fall. I looked at it later and said, “Aha! That’s why you fell. You had your eyes closed going over the jump!”

To which the girl rolled her eyes.

As a matter of fact – she had her eyes closed the entire day. I have proof.

They’re closed here…

And here…

See? I told you.

I had to post this last photo. Sophie girl – who is now starting her freshman year at USC, sniff, everyone is gone – looked so cute after she was announced the champion of the division.

So the point of the post? I suppose I’ll start snapping photos of girls falling off of their horses from now on. Stay tuned.

For Wordful Wednesday.