No, you need not brace yourself for another long-winded tirade from yours truly. It is simply that I feel the need to provide a preamble to my parting shot on the now-completed World Equestrian Games.

Just when I thought I had this whole “WEG thing” out of my system, two events in recent days have prodded my sluggish brain back into motion. The first of these provocations is the happy arrival of several WONDERFUL photographs taken by my longtime friend, Herr Wolfgang Plitzner, perhaps the greatest exposer-of-film employed by Die Aachener Zeitung (Aachen’s hometown newspaper). That’s Wolfgang in the photo there. He and I are doing our best imitation of thorns bracketing a rose as we flanked Ms. Joan Gilchrist (former editor of the New Zealand edition of the venerable magazine Horse and Pony) at the end of a splendid evening out in Belgium (yes, beer was consumed, but what happens in Belgium stays in Belgium).

How could I behold the expanse of green that unfolds behind my wonderful wife, Ruth, and I as we stood in the dressage stadium and NOT be moved to reflect upon that fantastic week of sport?

The second instigation of the ruminations that follow is the arrival of the August twenty-fifth edition of another esteemed publication, The Chronicle of the Horse. More specifically, in this number of the Chronicle, the remarks of Catherine Haddad concerning the selection process for the dressage team that represented the red, white, and blue at the WEG have pushed me off my dime of inertia.

Thus, you may choose which or both of these instigators you wish to credit or to blame for prompting the views that follow. Ultimately, it will be my fault or my bright idea. I can certainly live with either.