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Yeesh, I had thought that 2010 had been a tough one — I remember saying to a friend, somewhere around October of that year, ‘I cannot wait to see the back of 2010.’
And now we’re all rolling our eyes at one another, shaking our heads and hoping for better in 2012… which is exactly correct. Read the rest of this entry »
Just in time, too.
I think the cold weather had something to do with it, but everyone was kicking up their heels this last week of term.
Now, as far as Tuesday was concerned, the wind didn’t help keep the lads settled down. We’re fairly used to the wind, up there on that big hill, but this was like nothing we’d ever heard. It was relentless, and the clatter on the steel roof crescendoed upon crescendo until I was sure someone was going to go ballistic. At one stage, Winston and Rebel seemed determined to have a bit of a race, but it didn’t come to much. Spuddie broke out into a canter, unasked, as well. We made it through, though, even if it did sound like the roof was going to fall in.
Saturday: too cold to watch the first lesson, so it was with some surprise that Connell came back to the indoor carrying a different rider. Seems he did that squealing/bucking/galloping thing, and it necessitated a switcheroo.
I wasn’t bothered. Still cresting the confidence wave, it didn’t even occur to me to be bothered. Or if it did, it didn’t even last the length of the thought. So I got up there and we made our way down to the indoor, where the wind was still blowing from Tuesday, and the horses in the field we had to pass were going mennnnnnntal. Connell did a little muscle bunching, precipitate to reacting, but we managed to get past without incident.
We had a good, solid flat lesson, and I don’t care if it was because he was hopped up on the notion of two weeks of freedom, Con was positively springy, and felt great. When we got to the canter, there was the usual right-rein power struggle, and when I did get it off him, there it was, that little squeeeEEEEE and a buck and the first two steps were like wooHOOOOOO — and I just sat back and had none of that. Fantastic.
We were meant to get a little more cantering in towards the end, but the horses in the field decided it was New Year’s Eve or something and were racketing all over the place. They were far enough away that the humans didn’t notice them until we noticed that the horses we were riding noticed and that they wanted to join the party. Or were freaked out. Or both.
As we were queueing up to leave, I said to the instructor, ‘Hey, I’m nervous.’ I’ve got a streak going here, and I’m not going to wreck it. She grabbed Con’s bridle and walked with us until we were well past the critical juncture.
It takes a lot of confidence to admit you’re afraid. That’s kind of awesome, isn’t it?
Like this:
[MOJO IS A GOOD NAME FOR A HORSE] It’s been a year and half since I joined the Saturday lesson, since The Injury, since despite It, I tried to jump in my first Saturday lesson, fell on my head, and have been struggling week by week, Saturday by Saturday, to like it again. Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t even know where to start, because I want to start with the punchline.
Hmmm, let’s see. Weather: squally. It waited to bucket down until we pulled into the car park at the yard. It was cold, which just makes me want to go to the loo every five minutes. I had hoped to use Connell’s saddle instead of Rebel’s — Reb’s girth is rubbish — but I had to liberate said saddle from the floor of Con’s loose box; he had somehow wiggled out of it, and dumped it, and it was liberally dotted with poo.
Rebel let me bridle him without dislocating my shoulders! I can do this with authority now, but every single time it is like, Hey! Rebel let me bridle him without dislocating my shoulders!
I’m humming to myself as I think, doot dah doot dah doooo… yeah, okay, feck it, we jumped over 1m10 last night. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve occasionally had video cameras in lessons, with mixed results. I’ve got some footage of me and Reb doing some jumping, from a few years ago. The fences are so small as to be almost non-existent, and we were both clearly bored. There is also some of Delilah and I slogging around the lower arena, before it got spruced up. There are puddles everywhere and we didn’t do anything.
Then there are the times when we’ve wished someone had thought to bring the stupid camera, like the night it was just myself and Rebel, and Claire and Spuddie, and we jumped higher than we have in a year.
That someone would be me, as one of my journalism gigs is reviewing gadgets. Last Tuesday, I came to the yard fully prepared not only to test the camera but also to finally — hopefully — get some good footage.
The result was really interesting. Read the rest of this entry »
