which means it’s time for another happy dance!

"Wonders of the East" performers at The Hoppings fair in England, c. 1940s. Image courtesy of the Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums

Do you know how many countries there are around the world?  If the answer is “No,” don’t feel bad.  You’re not alone.  No one knows how many countries there are around the world.

Some say as few as 189. Some say as many as 196. The US State Department recognizes 194.  The world is constantly evolving, and groups of people living in one country declare independence, yet fail to be recognized in the rest of the world as an independent, separate country.

Still, no matter what country they call home, I’m happy that so many people from around the world have visited my blog.  There are horse lovers everywhere.

The last time I gave you my report, in mid-March, shortly after my blogging host WordPress started keeping track and telling me about it, people from 45 different countries had visited reflectionsonriding.com.   Now I have visitors from 72 countries!  No matter how you count it, that’s more than one out of every three countries extant.

I’m thrilled.  I don’t expect you to be as thrilled as I am, but perhaps you’re curious as to where your fellow readers are living.  If so, read on.

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Good luck to all the riders — among the largest number ever entered in the history of America’s only four-star event.

Good luck to all the horses — including the 19 ex-racehorses among the current field of 69 (according to the Rolex site).

Spectators — You don’t need any luck, you have it, if you’re in Kentucky.  I’m envious.  I’m sure if I were there, I’d see everything.  As it is, I’m here working, and I know I’ll catch only some of the coverage available on TV or the computer.

The good news is that the coverage gets more extensive every year.  This year, Universal Sports Network will have highlights on April 28 from 10am to 12pm and so will NBC from 1:30pm to 3:30pm.

If you’ve got time to settle in for the duration, live webcasts will be available on the USEF Network and on FEI TV.  Did I mention that I’m envious?

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Her name was Sugar.  She pulled a wagon during the Great Depression, delivering bread and baked goods in the small towns east of Springfield, Massachusetts — Palmer, Three Rivers, Thorndike.

That’s the real New England says my Yankee-Irish horsewhispering boyfriend (YIHB for the purposes of this post), contrasting it with the state we live in, Connecticut.  Even though where we live, it certainly looks like New England — antique farmhouse, dirt road and driveway of cinders, ancient maples and miles of stone walls, and the reticent charm that comes from not spending money.

This photograph does not come from a family album.  There are no photographs of Sugar, just stories passed down.  I have an image of Sugar in my mind — dapple grey, with large, round hooves that clip-clopped down the paved and unpaved streets, a thick ivory tail, fuzzy ears, a soft, plump muzzle and large, brown eyes that said she knew more than she was telling.

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Yesterday, I mentioned that there was a Chagall in the auction line up at Moran’s, but it was a work with no horse, unlike so many of his others.  So I thought you might enjoy a selection of Chagall’s work that does include horses.  I have nothing to say beyond that, since Chagall said, “Works of art should speak for themselves.”

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I just finished reading Just Kids by Patti Smith.  Who would have thought that a girl from the East Village who looked like a junkie and sang “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine…” would win the National Book Award?

Her book deserves it.  She tells a wonderful story of love and friendship (with the controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe), even if it is slightly bent.  Patti was a poet before she started singing with a band, but there’s no purple prose here.  It’s told from the heart, simply and with a touch of lyricism.  All told, a wonderful memoir (even though we know that in memoirs, all is never told).

I bought the album Horses when it came out (you knew there had to be some kind of connection to equines here, right?).  I still have it by my turntable (I still have one of those, too).

People who know me in the horse business probably don’t know that I’m such a dedicated Patti Smith fan that I went to Toad’s Place in New Haven a few years ago to see her — it was a great dance concert with no seating — and I jumped up and down and screamed as if I were still 18.  I still remember every word of every song.

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Remember when you thought it was safe to go back in the water?  Well, less than four months after the largest online protest in history, SOPA is back. Just like Jaws.  And just like Jaws, it’s ready to take a bite out of your freedom and mine.

If you weren’t with me during the last protest, this article will bring you up to date.  When the proposed legislation was dropped, last January, I wrote about it in a post titled SOPA and PIPA dropped…for now.  “Now” didn’t last very long…but I didn’t expect it to.

That’s what happens when there’s lots of money being put to work to promote the interests of corporations over the interests of people like you and me.

If you want to keep reading and writing what you want on the internet, I urge you to go to Fight for the Future and sign the petition.  Just click here.

Lady Godiva, eat your heart out.

SirPaul released this album two days ago.  For those who love dance music, clubbing and horses, it’s a winning Trifecta.

The song “Ride” could be an anthem for all of us who think the best place in the world to be is on the back of a horse.  I’ve already been dancing to the song “Like a Horse”:  http://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/sirpaul/id17407810

Sirpaul explains his inspiration:

“…it’s about how there are so many parallels between learning how to ride a horse and falling in love.  Both require patience.  Both require faith.  Both are big, strong and intimidating.  They both seduce you to overcome your fears, let go and ride.”

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Animal prints.  They can be super chic or super trashy.  Scalamandre…

Scalamandre’s silk velvet fabric

…or Jerseylicious.

Jersey-icky

Or they can be Campy, when we put them on horses.  Those of you who know the sedate side of me (and my tendency to harp on what’s wrong in the Age of Vulgarity) will understand when I say — and I don’t care about the Camp — that there’s something wrong here.

At least that was my thought when I saw an ad for Farnam’s Super Mask with Shimmer Weave mesh (sounds like a Cover Girl commercial, doesn’t it?).  It comes in 4 colors, with different trims and two of those trims are animal prints.

Not just any animals, mind you, but animals that eat horses. The lynx and the cheetah.  They eat horses, don’t they?

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