Lauren Sprieser

I've only felt a "runner's high" a few times before today, and never twice in one day. It's when the world disappears, your vision goes a little fuzzy around the edge, pain disappears, and it's just you and your feet hitting the pavement. I felt it today running 4 miles at a blistering 9:09/mile, thankyouverymuch, for which I'm sure I will pay tomorrow. But I also felt something like it while riding Fender. And it was amazing.

The perfect storm approaches: a hurricane from the South. A pressure system from the North. Rain from the West. And Michael Barisone from New Jersey.

C'mon, a little hurricane humor.

In all seriousness, Michael is here for a quick clinic before the apocalyptic weather event. The "calm before the storm" thing seems to be true: We're being treated to mild temperatures and reasonably clear skies. And while Monday may be another story, the horses all have been great all week leading up to the clinic.

With the chaos of summer and the show season behind me, I'm back on the fitness bandwagon, getting my P90X going again, getting back to running more than once a week, and getting serious about attempting my first baby weenie triathalon when I return home from Florida in the spring. That means I need to start planning my training now, and that means I need a new bike.

Team Sprieser's riders at the show: 13.

Riders qualified for a championship: 9.

Trailers driven: 8, 3 from my farm.

Days at the show: 5.

Rides over those 4 days: 51.

Disparity in temperatures: 36 degrees (high of 71 degrees on Friday, low of 35 degrees on Saturday).

Rides sodden by rain: 0!

Classes won: 5 (including one championship).

Ribbons won: 24 (including the 5 blue, plus 4 seconds and 3 thirds).

Highest score from our Team: 73.78 percent for Kristin H, to win a class of 16.

Monday, 5 a.m.: I'm up, and I'm making eggs, because I've got quite a day ahead of me. Allison is already downstairs feeding and braiding Midgey and Tres, who we are taking to a schooling show at the beautiful Morningside Training Farm, home to my friend Skyeler Voss' eventing stable, and a series of terrific little combined tests. She and manager Kristin have graciously allowed us to ride our dressage tests before the event starts.

Five years ago today, on my 23rd birthday, I taught my first lessons on the farm here in Virginia. I taught them out in our front fields, because my indoor wasn't yet finished, and the footing in my outdoor was new and a little deep and needed to settle. I had no employees, six horses in the barn (four of my own: Billy, Cleo, Ella and Midge, plus two of my mother's), and a dream.

1. It is going to be STUNNING this week, so trot sets. Lots and lots of trot sets.

1a. Buy more Bodyglide.

1b. Probably more naproxen as well.

2. Cook real food. On the list: stuffed green bell peppers, ah-mazing vegetarian chili, gyros with homemade tzaziki sauce. Freeze lots for the nights when I'm teaching for-freaking-ever.

3. Make a big dent in the office work. On that list: two grants, one restructuring of horse ownership (more on that soon!), two clinic applications, and three clinics on my own farm.

Duncan McFarlane and Helen McNaught's barn cat Lucky isn't the only barn cat with a curious little story. We here at Sprieser Sporthorse have our own little feline weirdo: Icky, short for Ichibod Crane The Nearly-Headless Cat. And here is her story.

Have you ever seen the movie Top Gun? (If not, that's just plain wrong; go watch it right now.) There's this great scene where Wolfman is telling Maverick about how his team got their butts kicked in a training exercise. He says: "We went like this, he went like that. I said to Hollywood, 'Where'd he go?' Hollywood says, 'Where'd WHO go?!?' ''

Billy had at least some idea of all the pieces, but they certainly weren't finished. Cleo had only just shown her first Prix St. Georges about a week before I bought her. Tres, too, had done a few PSG tests and had the passage down but no piaffe and no ones. Ella came to me at five, knowing only how to go, stop and steer.

And now Midge joins the list, one I've known since he was barely under saddle: the fifth horse I've finished to Grand Prix. I turn 28 in about two weeks. How 'bout them apples?