No, thank you rowdy gang back there in the peanut gallery, I have not gone ‘round the bend. If my reference to Mister Bowie’s song has obtained the interest of even a few of the disinterested and the disaffected, then it is a nod toward popular culture well worth the doing.

The changes to which I refer are of the dressage sort. Even more specifically, I make reference to the flying changes of the two male riders representing the USA, Guenter Seidel and Steffen Peters. As I noted in an article from the 23rd of this month (“Our (Wonderful) American Melting Pot” Steffen Peters Raises the Bar), the only bobble in Steffen’s ride was his (and Floriano’s, of course) addition of two extra flying changes to the fifteen that the FEI rules call for.

In this morning’s (Friday’s, the 25th) contesting for the Deutsche Bank Preis the other of our “boy riders” displayed a similar propensity for an ever-so-minor slip in the flying changes. (Cue David Bowie, if you please, maestro). Fans of cult author Jack Finney (his book “Time and Again,” to be specific) may wonder if this double dip of flying changes is not a tailor made example of Finney’s synchronicity. I will leave that debate to the boys and girls in the back row of our audience (I hear them humming already, “Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.”)

Far more important for the A and B students in the front of the room is the solid fact that Guenter and Aragon’s ride this afternoon (with only 14 rides remaining) has place them fourth with a score of 70.560! Barring several acts of God in the rest of the day’s sport, this score should be sufficient to bring Guenter and Aragon home safe and dry. What’s that you say? You don’t grasp the idiom? It means that the score should guarantee that they pass through to Saturday night’s Grand Prix Special. God willing and the creek don’t rise. Let’s here it for low-running creeks!

Post: Now that I have broached the subject of the Saturday evening conclusion to the dressage riding, permit me to warn you that the Special is not scheduled to end until 11:45 p.m. Since Ruth (the long-suffering and ever-faithful) have a fearsomely early Sunday morning flight back to the U.S. from Cologne, you will be spared any summary thoughts I may have on the dressage portion of the games. You may now count your blessings as you see fit.