Shanghaied

I'm currently sitting here writing from a hotel apartment in Shanghai, China.  I'm still actually not sure I 100% believe that I'm here.

Last night, I experienced a little sliver of the Shanghai nightlife at a club called The Apartment.  My roommate and I had actually planned to go to a different club, but we got a bit lost, and it turned out to be a lot farther away than we expected.  Lucky for us, as we stood in confusion on a street corner, trying to decide which way to go, an expat came over to offer assistance.  He showed us how far away the Geisha club was, and then told us about a great club right nearby where we could go instead.  We opted for the closer option, and it was quite the experience.  It was a jam-packed little space on the third floor of a building.  Very cool.  As we walked home, I was surprised at how quiet the streets of Shanghai are at night.  With 20mill people, you would expect it to be busy all the time, but the streets were basically deserted, and we had a lovely walk back to the apartment.

Anyway... This morning was my first real attempt at trying to explore the city.  I wasn't exactly successful in that I didn't get where I wanted to go, but I wasn't exactly unsuccessful either, because I ended up stumbling on a gorgeous part of the city.
I was trying to get to Longhua Temple, and I guess I did, but it really wasn't what I expected.  The whole area was under construction, and I really didn't see an easy way to get over to the temple... plus, it just didn't look all that impressive surrounded by construction walls.  As the cab pulled up, the driver started talking to me, and while I couldn't understand him, I imagine it was something along the lines of "you idiot, this is where you wanted to go... there's nothing here!"  He pulled over on the side of a road lined with construction walls and pointed to the meter.  Well.. ok.  I figured that even though the temple looked like a bust, I may as well just get out and go for a wander.  After all, I had my apartment location card, so if I got really lost I could just hail a cab and get home.  In the meantime, I plugged what I thought was my apartment into the gps of my phone to see where I lived compared to where I was.  The gps said I was about 4km away, so I figured "ok, that's not too far of a walk, and maybe I'll find some cool things."  I did.
After walking for about 15 minutes, the streets got quieter and the people thinned out.  There were trees everywhere and I was coming up on the river.  Eventually I ended up on a beautifully serene walkway along the Huangpu.  As I walked along, I came to the Longhua Bridge, and while there was clearly a sign in front of the "walkway" forbidding bicycles, I didn't see anything forbidding pedestrians, so I made my way onto the bridge.  The walkway was quite wide and ran alongside of traffic, and I'm really not sure that I was allowed to be there.  I had several men on scooters beep their horned and stare as they passed, even looking behind them as they went by to continue staring.  Of course, that might have been sheer surprise at the lone laowai, sticky with sweat, ambling happily down the bridge in the middle of the day.  I actually got quite a few stares during my jaunt, which isn't surprising considering that I was clearly not in a tourist area.  After crossing the bridge, I passed by two men flying some seriously impressive kites, who stared quietly and sternly as I wandered by.  I then got laughed at by two women who looked like crossing guards as I darted across the road at the "safe to cross" sign, trying not to get hit by oncoming cars.  Yes, that's right.  Those little green lights that indicate it's ok to cross the road?  They lie.  You can still get hit by a car here when your walk light is green.  Eventually I found myself at "my hotel" according to the gps.  And indeed, the hotel was clearly owned by the same people.  However, it was clearly not my hotel.  As a matter of fact, after investigating a little and wandering around for probably another kilometer, I realized that my hotel was actually about 5km away from where I ended up.  By this point, I was drenched in sweat (Shanghai in July is hot), and I just couldn't fathom another 5km in the soupy air, so I stopped in front of the other hotel and hailed a cab home.
All in all, I didn't see any attractions, but I had a beautiful walk along the river and got to see some beautiful scenery that I probably wouldn't have found if I hadn't gotten lost.  Happy accident?  In think so.
More to come from China soon!

Kentucky Horse Park!

Today I spent a fabulous day at the Kentucky Horse Park.  I rode a big ole percheron on a 35 minute walk around the park, drooled over Cigar and Funny Cide, who were mostly just hanging around their stalls, and frolicked around the cross-country course...

Knabstrupper

Cutie Pie QH

Andalusian

Akhal Teke

Gypsy Vanner

Yearling - In training to be a police horse!

Police man and his horse playing soccer :)

Terrible picture of Cigar... I didn't get any of Funny Cide because he was in his stall and it was dark.

Me in front of Bruce and Eagle Lion!

Not sure if I was technically allowed to be there, but I went into the big arena grand stand!

Alltech Arena from the grand stand.

Yes, that step IS almost as tall as I am!  AND there was an enormous ditch in front of it (that I am not standing in... it probably would have been over my head if I got in the ditch!)

And that table... ALSO almost as tall as me.  The middle was a little shorter, but that's still huge, and it was WIDE.  Just as point of reference, I'm almost 5'7...

Man o' War!

Secretariat!

Favorites: A to Z

Summer has officially arrived here in Tennessee.  The weather has been balmy and beautiful, and I was able to spend a lovely week with my mother and grandparents galavanting through the Smokies (pictures to follow eventually).
I absolutely adore summer, though it's making me desperately miss my Beastie.  So, I decided to do an A to Z of all of my favorite horse-related things... with pictures!

Scared of Girls ...

I'd consider myself a "mare person."  Most of my best horse-relationships have been with mares.  I've always felt that nothing beats a mare for heart if you make the connection with her.
I'm sitting here "studying" for contracts and watching the Derby Pre-show, wondering why it is that you hardly ever see any fillies in the Derby.  I know some people think it's because the boys are faster, but I don't think that's the case at all.  Like I said, if you have the right relationship with a mare, I submit that she can out-try any colt there is.  Here's my thought as to why you don't see more champion fillies: they just aren't as profitable as a champion colt, so why enter them in a prestigious race like the Derby?
If your colt wins the Derby, he's a super star that you can now breed to lots of mares in one year, for exorbitant prices.  If your filly wins the derby, she's a super star that can have 1 foal every year, if that.  Sure, your filly might have won you tons of money in races, but she won't earn you as much as a colt once she's retired.  Maybe I'm just being crazy, but it's the only reasonable explanation I can come up with, considering that I don't believe the fillies are inherently slower than the colts.  I think that at the end of the day, it makes money-sense to just run the girls against the girls, because when she has a foal, you can say "look how much better she is than all the other mares who foaled this year AND look at her Derby-winning dad!"

For the record, I think Zenyatta outclasses and could outrun the best of the boys (and she and Dee share a granddaddy, which makes me love her more).

Anyway, I'm just babbling on at this point.  That's just my 2 cents... 2 biased cents.

Fantasy vs. Reality

Where I wish I was this weekend:

Where I am / what I'm actually doing this weekend:

However, while I'm beating my head against a wall getting ready for my Civ Pro exam on Wednesday, you can be sure that Rolex will be live streaming from the USEF network site on my iPad straight through to my TV!  I can't explain how excited I am that this will work... I tested it out on some old videos on USEF, and they seem compatible with my Apple TV!  Does it get any better?  Well.. yes, being there would be better, especially considering how close I am to Lexington, but given that actually attending isn't an option, it probably DOESN'T ACTUALLY get any better.  Maybe next year I can attend...

"Today is the greatest..."

Snapfish was running a deal on framed collages, so I bought this, which is now hanging in my living room...

I think it pretty well sums up the greatest mare*.  On another note, I was speaking with Steph the other day, and she actually said that while she never thought it would be the case, she actually thought Dee was a pretty awesome horse.  I knew she ended up liking her more towards the end, but it was really great to hear her say that she actually finds her to be nice.  I know that I just adore her!  While it terrifies me to think that I'm going to have two mouths to feed when I graduate school [mine and hers, with hers being more important], I have big plans to grow old with this mare.  Somehow, some way.

*I have to qualify that statement by saying she ties Dusty for that title.  

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

So, I'm not going to say too much yet, because it's all very tentative, but it looks like there might be a life change in the works for Dee.
H has begun working full-time and hasn't been able to ride much, and L is going for her PhD at the moment.  B might know someone who would like to take over the ride for a bit, and it might be an eventer.
I will keep updating as I know more, but there might be some fun changes in store for my baby.

Meanwhile, I'm feeling like I'm on a runaway freight car, heading straight into exam week.  I might have some interesting plans for the summer, too.  But again, I'll update as I know more!