Approximate flight time, each way: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Temperature difference: 40 degrees (UGH)
Hours in Virginia: 44.5 (9 p.m. Friday to 5:30 p.m. Sunday)
Number of lessons scheduled: 25
Oldest horse, with youngest person: 21 (Billy), 12 (Kristin)
Youngest horse: 5
Oldest person: Age is just a number!

Breeds represented: 8 (Warmbloods, Thoroughbreds, Arabians; one Friesian, one PRE, one Quarter Pony, one splendid Irish horse of unknown but sturdy origins, and one Welsh Cob-TB.)

My freshman year of college, I was given a guitar, and I vowed to learn to play it because 1) folks who play the guitar are super cool, 2) I now owned a guitar, and 3) the boy who said he'd teach me was really cute.

As it turns out, I'm not very good at the guitar, and I gave up pretty fast. But it wasn't my lack of talent that kept me from being a super cool guitar player. It was that I didn't want to learn how to play the guitar; I wanted to know how to play the guitar. The learning part really stinks.

Ah, horses. So beautiful, out in their fields, eating the grass, living in harmony with nature.

Hah! Not.

Greetings from the press corner at the World Dressage Masters! I'm here doing a live blog for the Chronicle - if you'd like to tune in, check it out here; the freestyle starts at 7:30 on Saturday night, and you can read the archives after the event.

My mother has spent the last few years exploring meditation as a means of relaxing her wound-tight mind. Mrs. Sprieser is an incredible, fierce and brilliant woman who has achieved much in her career by possessing, among other things, a tremendous type-A personality, by which I come honestly. I've never been a good sleeper. As a result, she's been on my case to try to get into meditation as well lately.