You know that scene in Finding Nemo where Crush the turtle describes hero Marlin’s run through the jellyfish forest? “First, you were like, whoa! And then we were like, WHOA! And then you were like, whoa.”

I feel, like, whoa.

I spent the weekend with five students on seven horses at a recognized show run by CDCTA, one of our great local GMOs. Normally this show is typical spring weather, which is to say that we never know what it’s going to be—hot, cold, wet, dry, whatever. This year, The Weather Gods chose hot. Like, HOT.

Fortunately, all our horses are fairly fit by now (especially the ones that lived with me all winter, because we didn’t have to shut down in the snow—big indoor to the rescue. Neener, neener.), so my riders hung in, but more than one had a warm-up consisting of going directly from stabling to centerline. Hey, brevity is the soul of wit.

They all did great. It was a big wake-up call for a few, which is fine, but no one was outclassed, and everyone learned something. A few highlights for me: one of my eventers, Helen, getting a whopper 71 percent at the CCI* test and making a HUGE improvement in her loopy 4-year-old from Friday to Sunday; student Mel, whose wonderful Appaloosa-QH cross moves a little like a Jack Russell on linoleum, getting a 65 percent at first level, little spotted legs and all; and superstar working student Nicole getting good scores on a tricky mare she’d ridden about five times before the show.

And we had FUN! I have a new secret weapon, SPF 100+ (no foolin!), so I survived the weekend with only a few little strips of pink. Lots of laughing and smiles in the barn. Domestic disputes were kept to a minimum. (Although I did have to smack one student’s husband with a towel a couple of times. It’s cool, he deserved it.) No one passed out, no one fell off, no one cried. Victory!

AAAAND I got a saddle pad for Ella to wear at the Ride For Life, the breast cancer research benefit Cleo and I did last year, on sale. Clearly, this is the most important thing that happened this weekend. Clearly.

So now we’re back at home, desperately playing catch-up after all that happened here over the weekend. I’m taking one student horse to his pre-purchase exam, while a leased student horse goes back home, and the new horse she’s buying comes in. And my mom’s new horse arrived at 3 a.m. Saturday. (One nice thing about being at the show—I was asleep at the time!) A new horse for Nicole to play with arrived yesterday, and by week’s end I think half the barn will be new faces. Yikes!

It’s great, though. All the horses coming in are terrific. My mom’s guy is especially exciting—he’s a 12-year-old American Warmblood gelding by Art Deco, a former breeding stallion who did the modified jumpers, evented intermediate and showed at Prix St. Georges. He’s also perfectly mannered and STUNNING to look at. So yeah, I think we’ll have fun with this one. I get to ride “Indy” for the first time today. Can’t wait!

I got terrific news for my horses, too—I got an invite to ride in the Elite Rider Clinic with Kyra Kyrklund at the end of May. YAHOO! Ella is going for sure, and we’ll see about Midgey as well. They’re both going like gangbusters, so I’m super, super excited about it. I’ve never been to one of her clinics, but lots of riders I love and trust RAVE about her, so yay, yay, yay!

Until then, it’s a few jellyfish-free weeks before our next outing, May 22-23. I’m taking ALL FOUR of the horses I ride to Morven Park that weekend, which will guarantee an aneurism at some point. Whoa.