Last night I dreamed that I was in the middle of the Olympic Games. They were happening downtown where I work, so I figured I’d just walk around to see what I could see. I ended up in some wooden stands around a three-sided rectangular track. The floor of the track was wood, and it had wooden walls about four feet high all around, with posts at intervals supporting a wooden roof. It reminded me of a U-shaped covered bridge, but with the sides mostly open. The spectator benches were on the outside, and judges sat inside the U.
Along the track there were obstacles. There were short gates, high gates, gaps in the floor, and ropes that had to be stepped over and ducked under at the same time. It turned out the event was sort of a dressage obstacle course, and the winner would be the horse and rider that made it through the fastest. Penalty tubes would be added for obstacles not avoided appropriately, as well as rinding form.
I was excited, because I saw from the leader board that this was the final round, and that my friends’ two sons had made it to the finals, and I’d get to see them ride. I watched the riders and horses go through the track, one by one. Some balked at a jump, or got hung up in the ropes, or fouled one or another of the obstacles.
But of the eight riding in the finals, four got through well, it seemed, with no errors that I could see. But of course I was no expert. Two of these four were my friends’ boys. One of them was a girl on a white and brown paint horse. One of them was a centaur, an *actual* centaur. It didn’t seem very fair to me, but it must have been allowable, since everyone could SEE the centaurity of him, and no one was objecting.
It was going to be a few minutes after the last rider before the scores would be posted, so I wandered around a bit. I met and congratulated the centaur on his clean ride. I found my friends’ youngest boy, who said he knew he hadn’t done as well as his brother. I wanted to reassure or console him, but he said it was okay. The hoof beat rhythms were interesting, and he wanted to try out the sounds of the different paces on a drum set. He was only riding because he’d done the trials with his brother for fun.
I saw his brother then, and went to greet him. So I was by his side when the scores were posted, and he became the youngest person to ever medal in that event, and... he had taken the gold! I was crying and hugging him, then his family was there, and we were all so thrilled. I was going to go plan a party for him, but then I woke up.
