Thursday, May 14, 2009

Theme Thursday - (Wh)oops!


And I thought this would be easy. It turned out to be quite a challenge. The first thing I did was google Whoops! to see if anything inspiring came up. No. So I decided to take the liberty of checking the more commonly used Oops! - and even that wasn't particularly helpful. I did find a Britney Spears YouTube video called Oops!... I Did It Again. I watched it. I was surprised to note that I really had no idea what Britney Spears looked like, except that she was blonde. I could have passed this performer on the street and not recognized her. That was actually rather heartening. There's apparently one aspect of popular culture that hasn't permeated my brain.


It was a couple of hours later when suddenly I knew what I wanted to talk about. I was curled up on the sofa, reading Tender Graces. I came to a scene in which Virginia Kate learns to ride a horse. Bingo! I remembered a (Wh)oops! moment in my own life. It had to do with a horse named Bingo, in fact.

I was not yet 40 years old, and I had already managed to do some fairly nasty things to my back, so I was a little fragile. My son, whom I'll call Bumble (that being his baby nickname), decided he would like to take riding lessons, so we sought out a riding school. Every Tuesday night we would drive out to the riding school, and I would watch the class go through its routine. One night, I said to the teacher that it was like watching somebody shave or put lipstick on. My muscles wanted to move in synch with the riders. "If you want to ride," said the teacher, "I'll bring out a horse for you next week, and you can have a go." Cool. Really cool. I was so excited.

The following Tuesday, when we arrived for the class, I wasn't sure that the teacher would remember his offer. I wasn't going to say anything about it, but he came out to say hello, and he said "You can ride Bingo. He's very gentle."Bingo was also huge, but I had seen him in action, and I knew that he was perfect for me to ride. The challenge would be to get him moving.

So off we went, Bumble on his horse, I on mine, and we joined the group of kids. Soon we were all going around in a circle, walking slowly and gently.

Next came posting. For those not familiar with English riding: this is a technique whereby you clamp the saddle firmly between your knees and ride without actually sitting down right on the horse. "Posting trot!" called the teacher, and that's what we did. It was easy, and it was fun.

"Sitting trot!" came the next instruction, and we all sat down. Things are getting a little more jostly here, but I'm still okay.

"Feet out of the stirrups..." Out came my feet, and there I was, bouncing around on my tailbone, not having any fun at all, and meanwhile, the teacher was finishing his instruction - "...everybody except Bumble's mother." Oh. Right. Now He tells me. (Wh)oops!

The following day, I couldn't go to work, because I couldn't lift my foot far enough to climb into the commuter van. I could get into my car, barely, and I went straight to the chiropractor. His reaction was predictable. "You did WHAT?"

30 comments:

Ronda Laveen said...

I spent 12 years working as a massage therapist/back office manager for a chiro. I have asked that same question, "You did what?" many times. Why?

Brian Miller said...

lol. seems a question that always preceeds a great story.

Kat Mortensen said...

I love that song -- and that movie!
You are lucky you weren't really seriously injured. I had an experience on a horse when I was 18 -- a nice meander along a path, but when we hit open field, my horse bolted. I didn't fall off, but I sure learned the definition of "saddlesore".

I think you did "whoops" proud!

Kat

Mrsupole said...

My whoops on a horse happened when I was 18 and I have never been back on since and have no wish to ever do it again. Great story, I can just picture you bouncing around on the horse. Better still the pain, I can truly picture.

God bless.

Tracy said...

Oh, my goodness...what a story, Sandra! I suspect there are many with similar stories...always good to know we're not alone. :o)

Debbie said...

Great post. I love Music Man. And wasn't Tender Graces just the best?

Wings1295 said...

OW! Not fun... two of my kids had cracked their tailbones, one in a football game and the other tripping over her feet in basketball! Not fun.

Thanks for sharing!

Sandra Leigh said...

Good morning, Ronda, Brian. We do tend to think we're invincible, don't we?

Kat, Ouch! Scary stuff. Mrsupole, it sounds as if you had an experience like Kat's.

Tracy, yup. That's probably why we have so many chiropractors and massage therapists.

Debbie, yes. Yes.

Wings - I feel your kids' pain - and I love your avatar.

Leah said...

OH goodness. A definite whoops.

Ed & Jeanne said...

In my opinion, horses are nothing but whoops!

Unknown said...

Yikes-- I tend to leave horses to themselves-- they are rather large & it seems like a number of quite bad things could happen once you're atop one.

Sandra Leigh said...

Hello Leah, VE, and John. Yes, it seems that horses are Whoopses for me - but they have such beautiful noses, and they smell wonderful. It's a puzzlement.

Liza B. Gonzalez said...

Are you still paying for that Whoops? Sounds painful.

Tom said...

i've only ridden once, and found it terribly difficult...takes practice. You are lucky to not know much about Brittany Spears...here you can't avoid her; she's everywhere!

Anonymous said...

It does take some getting used to riding one of those things! I was saddle-sore for a couple of days!

Sandra Leigh said...

Liza, yes, probably, but it was one of a number of Whoopses, so it's hard to tell. I'm still walking, so I'm not paying that high a price!

Tom, I have developed a quick finger on my remote's Off button.

Subtorp - isn't it odd how easy and graceful it looks when somebody else does it?

New Yorker wannabes said...

Oh that must have been quite a whoopsy experience :)

Funny I thought of Britney myself when I pondered on TT!

xoxo

Sandra Leigh said...

Hi, Marianna. Yes, well, Britney kind of brings Oops! to mind, doesn't she?

Sheila said...

Hi Sandra. Thanks for joining me at Secret Poems. Hope you found something to your taste. The problem with horses - at least in my experience - is that the riding is so wonderful you want to keep going and you completely forget that you won't be able to move for days afterwards, at least if you only do it occasionally. But it's always worth the pain.

Sandra Leigh said...

Welcome, Mairi. I did that, didn't I? I signed on to follow Secret Poems, then ran off without leaving a comment. How rude. Somebody must have called my name, or turned me around three times and let me go... I'll go back now and tell you how much I liked your poem.

mouse (aka kimy) said...

the number of whoops moments I've had on horses have convinced me never to get back in the saddle! no matter what that old adage advises!

Sandra Leigh said...

You are a wise mouse.

The Silver Fox said...

I love the fact that "The Music Man" (set in 1910, wasn't it?) mentions "Captain Billy's Whiz-Bang," which didn't exist until after WWI.

Anonymous said...

Sandra, for sure! Tho' working on a ranch for a bit, I did manage to learn the correct way :) Now if I just had an airplane ladder!

Sandra Leigh said...

Silver Fox, really? I never caught that, because it's way before my time. ;>)

Subtorp77, I content myself now with gazing longingly at horses as they go by. Much easier on the spine.

Anonymous said...

Sandra, my Mom loves the Hallamore Clydesdales. Such majestic creatures! They're featured in one of my older posts ( some-where ).

The Silver Fox said...

Before my time too! ;-) But while researching -- of all things -- comic books, years ago, I learned that Captain Billy's Whiz-Bang was started by WWI vet Captain William Fawcett after the war. It was the foundation of a publishing house which gave us Captain Marvel (in the oddly-named Whiz Comics) roughly twenty years later!

Thus endeth the history lesson...

Anonymous said...

That's quite an "Oops!" tale.
And, you're not the only one blessed with pop culture..."underexposure" we'll call it. I've heard that song, I don't know how many times, and didn't know it was her.
The "Music Man" vid, not my cup o' tea, but it felt like a great old movie and it had Buddy Hackett. He was the kind of comedian about whom it's been said, "He could make you laugh reading the phone book."

Great TT post!

tony said...

Horses are a bit of a mystery to me.......I could never drive them!They took no notice!Cowboys in Films make it look SO EASY!

Sandra Leigh said...

subtorp77, Clydesdales make me think of giant redwoods that move. Fabulous.

Silver Fox, thank you for the history lesson (which is also a writing lesson - do your research before you write!

A. Decker, LOL - I didn't even know the song.

Not a Music Man fan? Heresy, I say. ;>)

Tony, I think they used stuffed horses in those old westerns.

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