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I swung around the side of the barn and headed for the door — and there he was! Read the rest of this entry »
I’m too embarrassd to check out when was the last time I checked in.
But, here I am! Still not done with the memoire-based essay book proposal, gotta finish the second sample chapter [on falling; I believe I could write an entire book about that at this stage], and have been sort of hoarding words for that. As I expect to seriously begin looking for a horse – talk about burying the lede – I’m hoarding that experience, too.
Has my horseriding become so circumscribed, then? Read the rest of this entry »
ISN’T A WORD, BUT IT IS A STATE OF MIND I’ve gotten a little distracted lately, and have been wallowing in a state of distractination for the last wee while. Read the rest of this entry »
REBEL HAS THEM And he wasn’t nearly as excited as I would have been. Plus: pedicure! Ah, well, he’s no metrosexual — despite being a gelding and all.
When the snow was coming down a couple of months ago, so was my moral. I was out having coffee with a friend, prior to heading out for a later-than-usual private lesson, and I just felt so bad about my riding that I didn’t even want to go. The white stuff kept falling, then stopping, then falling again, and the actual practicalities — would I even be able to get back from the yard in this weather? — were falling down when faced with my fear that I was actually crap at this and that I should stop. Read the rest of this entry »
NOT FOR ME! NOT YET! But I will — I will! — be undergoing this process sometime, so when Sharon asked me to accompany her to Kilkenny to check out a chestnut mare, I was not going to say no. Read the rest of this entry »
Well, I ride Morris really well in the walk.
The trot… we’re working on it.
I’m not sure why, but it’s almost like I get on a horse I don’t know very well, and forget everything. I don’t know what that is. But when exhorted to rise from my hips rather than my legs — which I do perfectly naturally on Amigo and Rebel — it was like it was new information.
If the mind forgets, then at least the muscles remember, and as soon as I was told to do everything [that I already know how to do], I did them, and things got better.
In the exhortation — elbows in, hands down, rise from the hip, etc — also came the recommendation: heart to the sky.
I lifted my heart to the sky. It not only helped my posture, but it made me feel good all over. Lighter. More open. More confident.
Heart to the sky. I think I’ll walk down the road that way.
You couldn’t move around here for being faced with announcements about the imminence of my debut novel, Drama Queen.
Er, well, I’ve got a second book coming out, uh, on Thursday. The Fidelity Project is suffering from ’second child’ syndrome, in which, after the fluttering and fear-of-dropping, and pinning nappies backwards of the first one, the second is more like, ‘Oh, right, there you are.’ I suspect, not only not having any kids, but also having been the first-born.
ANYWAY. Do buy it, and enjoy!
So, in my own inimitable way, I’ve started telling people, should they ask, ‘Yeah, well, I ride three times a week at one place, and one time a week at another place.’
Uh. What? Read the rest of this entry »
BUT WILL NEVER, EVER SAY
‘Yes. Yes. I understand what you’re telling me. Yes, I can hear you, and intellectually, what you’re saying makes total sense. Intuitively, maybe not. It’s hard to imagine that if my horse is dropping his inside shoulder while we’re cantering a circle, that if I open up the inside rein, he will straighten up. I am positive that you are correct. You do, of course, know more than I do. But right this second, on this animal, I feel like, if I open the rein, WE ARE GOING TO SPIN AND SPIN AND DIG A FECKIN’ HOLE TO CHINA!!!!!’
‘I understand that the thing I am doing is wrong. I realise that this horse is not like that horse, and that — even though you’re not saying this exactly, I know that you’re thinking it — if my seat were better, and if my balance were better, then I would be riding this horse better, and it wouldn’t matter that he feels so remarkable, shockingly different but I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL HORSEPERSON AND IT TAKES ME A FEW LESSONS BEFORE I GET USED TO A NEW HORSE!!!!!’
‘Thank you for your feedback. I’m sure it must be frustrating, watching people do the same thing incorrectly, over and over and over. I sure it must make you completely crazy to think that nothing is sinking in. It is certainly frustrating for me, making progress in one area and falling back in others! The thing is, though, that I think I’m in a weird place, that I’m on the cusp of hopefully making an excellent advancement in my riding and all I ask is that YOU PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT I’VE ONLY BEEN DOING THIS FOR TWO AND HALF YEARS!’
‘I do take this seriously, and I wouldn’t be riding three times a week [four] if I didn’t. But, for me, the WHOLE POINT OF THIS IS THAT IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE FUN!’
Whew. Needed to get that off my chest. All better now.
