Devilish Detail...

...Quite why it is said that the devil is to be found in the detail I have never understood, as Ol' Stan, our eternal enemy, is to be found in matters large as in small, vide the Iraq War. Pretty big affair I think you'll agree and one devil of an enterprise all round.

That said, the detail can be evil as evidenced by our experience yesterday. Dear Ericka was taking part in a dressage competition - a supposed 'friendly' inter-club affair, though those of you who know the world of horse know too that 'friendly' and 'competition' are not words that can sit easily in a single sentence!

Our horse was born to jump - indeed can on occasions take off in one county and land in another - but it is surprisingly capable of a nifty dressage test too. (Not always mind you. The phrase 'Enter at a working gallop' is not one found in any BD test that I've ever come across!) So yesterday horse and rider executed a rather wonderful Prelim 13 - that despite the caller at one point crying "At C - no fuck I mean at A!" - and the team cheers were resounding around the arena, until the Judge - a saintly woman no doubt, but not in E's book bound for heaven - announced she had noticed that the rider had not been wearing gloves and therefore would be eliminated from the competition.

If you know dressage you will know that wearing gloves is as mandatory as riding a horse not an elephant, i.e. it is a standard issue rule and one not to be overlooked. E of course blamed me for not noticing, then H for not being there to remind her, then the Judge for spotting her bare hands, then the sun for shining - you get the general picture. Only the horse was exempt from a share of the blame, though even that in the end was a close call. We warm up without gloves because the horse is more responsive and we put them on just before we are to go into the arena - only we didn't and instead of a winning score - for such it would have been - being posted, the stark and horrid sole word "Elim" was written next to her name.

There is a horror book - I've not read it - called 'The Devil Rides Out.' What though it should be titled is 'The Devil Rides Out But Without Gloves.'