April 29, 2013
This week is Golden Week, so I had a
nice three day weekend, and next weekend will be a four day weekend!
今週はGWなので３連休があって、来週も４連休になるよ!
---Riding School Exam---
This weekend was the riding school
exam. We were supposed to have the exam several weeks ago actually,
but there was a typhoon that day, so it was postponed until this past
weekend. I woke up at 2:30 to make it to Chiba and be ready for a 5
a.m. start. This time I rode the A and B test on Holy North and Parco
respectively. The riding exam is given sort of like the IHSA or IEA
shows where your horse is drawn randomly. The test is judged as a
hunter course, but it's set up with jumper elements like combinations
and jumps of varied heights.
先週末は乗馬学校の進級入校試験だった。本当は数週間前にあるよていだったけど、ちょうどその日嵐が来て今週まで延長になった。５時スタートに千葉市に着いて準備ができるよう２時半に起きた。AとBの試験でホリーノースとパルコに乗った。試験はIHSAやIEAの試合みたいに馬は適当に選んだ。ハンターコースなんだけどコンビネーションやさまざまな高さがある障害のようなジャンパーコースみたいなところもあった。
The A test went pretty decently. I was
a little short in the line between fences four and five because I
sort of forgot that it was a five stride and not a four until about
two strides in (waking up early does strange things to my head). Also
my horse threw out a buck over the last fence—probably out of
excitement since it was the last fence and also a big oxer—but we
were still clear!
I was last to ride the A test and
second to ride the B test so I had literally two minutes to take Holy
North back to the cross ties and Parco out to the arena for the B
test (*.*)
The B test was on Parco who I used to
show, but at this point I hadn't ridden her in about six months.
She's not a difficult ride, though, so I figured it would be okay.
However, when one of the trainers was schooling her, she seemed
really up, and she was over-jumping fence five. I realized later that
the sun was still coming up so she probably couldn't see very well in
that direction. But then she was refusing the last oxer! Eventually
he got her over the fence a couple of times, and then she was fine.
For my ride, we had a really good pace
and were getting really good distances. When we came into the
diagonal line for fence four and five though, she jumped in, took a
look at fence five and pretty much decided that there was no way she
would be going over it. We circled back and made it over the second
time with no problems, but I could tell she was really looking at
both fences of the last line as well.
Needless to say, after having two
entertaining rides in a row, I was a little worried about whether I
would pass or not. Obviously B was out of the question with my
refusal, so I was crossing my fingers that I had passed A despite the
interesting last fence. At the end of the day though, I ran into one
of the guys who was judging and he called me over to say that he
really liked my riding! He said he was impressed that I didn't lose
my position at all even though my horse bucked. I hope that means I
passed!
Also, I have officially scheduled my
first rated horse show in Japan! I'll be gone from May 16th
through the 19th at Higashi Kanto Horse Park. I'm so
excited!!
５月１６日から１９日までは私が日本での始めての試合に行く!どきどき、わくわくしている～
---Art Flea Market---
 |
| Melon shaved ice. yum! |
On Monday morning, I went with a friend
to the Art Flea Market in Chikura. There were all kinds of people
selling their hand-crafted art and organic bakery right next to the
beach at the roadside station, Shiokaze Oukoku.
月曜日の朝は友だちと千倉にあるアートフリーマーケットに行ってきた。いろんな人々が手芸品や自然料理を海の隣にある潮風王国の外で売っていた。
We met some really interesting people
there including this nice old man who spoke really good English, his
friend who used to be an Engineer for Nissan but who now makes metal
crafts, a few foreigners doing carpentry, and a man who is in charge
of running festivals in Tateyama.
面白い人々がいっぱいいた！
 |
| Dancing with the mask on |
 |
| And now there's partial nudity, sake, and fire! |
There were also performances given on
the patio where they were selling yakisoba and kakigori
(shaved ice). The most entertaining part was a man dressed as a kappa
(a Japanese demon). At
first he was wearing a noh mask while doing some dances, but then he
stripped off his clothes, changing into a kappa, and
then breathed fire! I tried to get some photos. Unfortunately
I wasn't able to time them very well, but I did get an excellent shot
of him chugging some sake.
やきそばやカキ氷を売っているパティオみたいなところで大道芸があった。最高に面白かったのは河童を化けている男の人だった。最初は能面を付けて踊っていたけど、すぐ服を脱いで河童になって、なんと火を噴いた！写真を撮ろうとした。残念ながら、タイミングがなかなか合わなかったけど、日本酒を豪快に飲むところはちゃんと撮れた。
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