Girls' night out

I'd seen it several years ago but herself never had. So tonight after we'd gone out to eat, we went to see the Royal Lipizzaner Stallions perform at the Coliseum.

The show was the exact same one I'd seen over a decade before. That's not bad but it's not too good, either, since the entire program consists of horses doing the exact same thing again and again, sometimes alone with the rider standing next to it. Sometimes with a rider on its back. Sometimes two horses, sometimes three, sometimes . . .

I hate to sound callus about it. I'm not. I realize how much training it takes for a horse to perform these maneuvers as well as how much work is involved on the part of each of the riders. I see and recognize the cues they use to signal their mounts and it takes a helluva lot of skill, coordination and athletic ability on the part of all, especially when there are eight horse and rider combinations in a small ring at the same time, performing as a dance unit. But again tonight I found myself concentrating on the . . . uh, the . . . erm, the technicalities rather than the show, itself.

When I'd seen it before I'd gone with a group of other riders, one of whom happened to be the woman many of us had taken or were taking riding lessons from. It was to be expected, I guess, that we were all more focused on things like the riders' seat, leg and heel position and equipment rather than the larger picture, the performances, but whatever chance there might have been disappeared completely when almost as one, many of us gasped, "They're using Wintecs!"

In other words their saddles weren't leather, but synthetics that are cleaned with soap and water, and a hose.

Since Herself isn't particularly horsey, she wouldn't notice these kinds of details. She is however, an RN.

About midway through she leaned over and whispered into my ear, "According to the program, these are Lipizzaner stallions, right?"

"Yeah?" I whispered back.

"Except for one, I don't see any balls on 'em."