Fidgets and Fairland

Oh joy in the land of nod, last week Jamie alerted me to "Cavalia" performing in Portland http://unrevedeliberte.cavalia.net/en/spectacle/apropos.aspx  and asked if I would be interested--  I almost fell off of my chaise when I saw the premise and the pics, oh my god of course lets go-- not thinking what the day before thanksgiving traffic between 12-6 pm might be on the 5 North....she said with traffic its not THAT bad even on Holidays...

But finally!  An event to attend that would warrant, nay, require that I dress up (in my mind), where I could wear something other than my bathrobe or thrift store horse riding mud clothes.  We purchased VIP seats very close which included our own VIP open bar lounge and hot hors d'oeuvres beginning 90 minutes before and after the show (so it would begin at 6:30) and included tour of the stables and to meet the performers both equine and human, and away from those slatternly commoners!

VIP open bar and buffet

So we were going to wear the base parts of our outfits in the car and to save time, assemble the rest of the finery in a loungey fancy bathroom ladies couch type area that I imagined such a ticket price would call for, (or even a heated indoor parking structure would suffice--this is how I imagined it with my ever-rose colored contacts.)  I brought all my jewelry, the fixings and wanted to dress like I was going to the Met or Lincoln center (but modified to be my rock, equine, thrift version) and attend fully the pre-party eating shrimp and sipping on champagne.  Well, 7 hours into a 3.5 hour drive we arrived at 7:20 and rushed to change in the rocky ice cold outdoor VIP parking lot. 

I pulled on my floor length black cowhide hair maxi skirt that weighs about 5 lbs, took off my pants underneath, and switched from rubber boots to my own version of punky equestrian footwear, changed handbags, ready!

floor length cowhide full skirt 5 lbs weight-- I dropped
 the belt for simplicity and handbag only for elegance

Dubya Dubya I soldier spats w nude Tsubo mary jane platforms

 Lurex thrift sweater w pseudo military equestrian jacket-
dumped that too-- over doing it.

Anyway, we figured we would start flowing over with tears the second the house lights went down -- so we pulled out our tissue packs and put them on our laps.  If you can believe it, never needed them.  First, the music was that awful generic blah I don't even know how to describe it, had no emotion, then it was the arrogance of some of those little french men with long thinning hair and lots of overgesticulating implying "TA DA!  LOOK AT ME!  I AM THE BEST LOOKING ONE IN THE TROUPE!"  Which he was, but that wasn't saying much.
The show was "good"-- I could have used more horses, fewer overly expressive french Canadian fidget acrobats filling time in between horse segments-- they were probably the group that did not make the cut for the Vegas Cirques.....there were a couple bobbles and one fall.

Even the horses had their bad nights, one of the stallions was acting up nipping and biting at his neighbor and in one of his solo acts in the ring, they had to add a girl in the center ring to keep control of him.

They did a drill pinwheel just like we practice on the ranch team and, uhhhhh, now that I know what its supposed to look like, we've got a long way to go.  Its not the speed, which we try to push, its the precision and matching horses and outfits.  soooo beautiful.

Pinwheel

Roman style riding segment was awesome, very rare, small segment of the horse trick world I hear. I like this shot  for the almost good panning job. I should have taken more pictures, I didn't realize they would come out this well without flash so I stopped.  Anyway, Jamie wanted more video of the horse segments that she can incorporate into our drill maneuvers.

Here's this wild redhead roman style

standing one leg on two horses with reigns on 4!!!! 

Afterwards Jamie sought this girl out backstage in the stables, she is so driven to do stuff like this that she just had to connect with this girl (Fairland Ferguson, she's all over the internet)-- which she did of course, she's a mover and a shaker. 

That firecracker redhead rider Fairland Ferguson showing us the special equipment
 for their trick riding-- turns out she's just a real friendly "Sowth Carolahna" gal

The troupe has time off --- almost the whole month of December, she said she just broke up with her boyfriend, yadda yadda, and without planning it the conversation turned to-- why don't you come to GP for a couple days-- out at our stables the people would just FLIP if you came out to do a demo or something, people would come from miles around--they would PAY.  I pipe in without thinking-- I have a nice guest bedroom you could stay in.  whaa?!  So Jamie is going to see if she can make it happen.

Good times, good times, but I would only go if it was "in your town"-- I don't think I would drive that far to see it if I was you.