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dancinghorseThe return to reality after a time away is always a little surreal, as one eases back into the routine and faces the things one shut in the Denial Cupboard and appreciates the little bits of the familiar that make the place home.
This is by way of saying I'm about to tackle the mentee backlog, the proofs due next week, and the assorted lesser bits that have been waiting for my ka to finish trundling back from Dallas. I've been escaping into writing--a very productive form of work evasion in that it results in a deadline met and a ms. delivered. Soon. I hope. We're past the scrape-and-slog and into the obsessive racking up of pages. Always a good sign.
The Mountain's Call, supposedly out in mass market in September, has shipped as of now--my author copies arrived this week. Those who have been waiting for the paperback, go forth and buy many copies. Buy them for all your friends. Shower them on your relatives. The final volume of that series, Shattered Dance, is still an October trade paperback, so there will be a bit of wait for that still. But fear not, there will be a second series; book four is due at the New Year.
Today is a Rainy Day: so rare in the desert as to be almost nonexistent. It's cool, cloudy, drizzly. Some areas have been inundated with inches of rain, and I should go out later and see if the Pantano is in flood. We've had a lot less here, just enough to make mud and cancel the morning's lessons. The desert is heaving a huge sigh. The monsoon continues to be good and strong, a month in, which is a major blessing in this period of millennial drought.
Yesterday as I was preparing to longe Pandora, the arena started to run and flap everywhere. It was wall-to-wall quail families, the same color as the ground: mothers and fathers and regiments of youngsters of various sizes. We had almost no babies in our bone-dry spring, but as soon as the rains came, the families started getting bigger. There are baby bunnies here and there, too, feeding on the new green. And flowers. We had nothing all spring, just bare brown earth, and now it's popping out with wild zinnia and brittlebush and paperflower and desert marigold. There's grass--springing back from the dead--and the bare sticks of ocotillo are covered with little teardrop-shaped leaves.
Riding since the clinic has been most interesting. The hand thing that didn't really make sense with a horse I didn't know, is coming clear with my own horses. I know their quirks and rhythms, and I know what they need or expect; I can experiment. I'm discovering that I have to make a synthesis. Get on, do TL exercises with the seat, then when that's plugged in, ask for the engagement and keep the engagement from the very start of the ride. It's a major seat exercise to do that hand massage, and for Pandora it's a great help to her balance and softness. She really appreciates that additional aid.
Capria is interesting in a very different way. For the most part she wants my hand very quiet with a clear supporting contact; give her that, and the seat and leg bringing her into engagement, and she puts herself on the bit. The problem spots--walk to trot and anything to do with the canter--are where the hand thing makes a great difference. It fills in a hole in the support system. But it has to be very very soft and brief, and as soon as she responds, I have to stop. Too active or strong a hand makes her go llama. She wants seat and then leg and then only if those don't provide enough support, hand.
Haven't tried da Pook yet; he had the rained-out lesson today. Saturday.
TL says all of this is a continuum and hand has to follow a developed seat. If you just sit there seesawing the reins, the horse drops his back and you don't get the effect. You have to use your seat and legs to engage him first, then ask with the hands. It's a subtlety: a thin line between full use of the aids and the terrible sin of hand-riding or riding from front to back.
For sure after Capria was done, her back was pumped and she was all soft--big deal for her. She has a back like a hammock when she's not ridden right.
I think I learned something at the clinic. Yes.
This is by way of saying I'm about to tackle the mentee backlog, the proofs due next week, and the assorted lesser bits that have been waiting for my ka to finish trundling back from Dallas. I've been escaping into writing--a very productive form of work evasion in that it results in a deadline met and a ms. delivered. Soon. I hope. We're past the scrape-and-slog and into the obsessive racking up of pages. Always a good sign.
The Mountain's Call, supposedly out in mass market in September, has shipped as of now--my author copies arrived this week. Those who have been waiting for the paperback, go forth and buy many copies. Buy them for all your friends. Shower them on your relatives. The final volume of that series, Shattered Dance, is still an October trade paperback, so there will be a bit of wait for that still. But fear not, there will be a second series; book four is due at the New Year.
Today is a Rainy Day: so rare in the desert as to be almost nonexistent. It's cool, cloudy, drizzly. Some areas have been inundated with inches of rain, and I should go out later and see if the Pantano is in flood. We've had a lot less here, just enough to make mud and cancel the morning's lessons. The desert is heaving a huge sigh. The monsoon continues to be good and strong, a month in, which is a major blessing in this period of millennial drought.
Yesterday as I was preparing to longe Pandora, the arena started to run and flap everywhere. It was wall-to-wall quail families, the same color as the ground: mothers and fathers and regiments of youngsters of various sizes. We had almost no babies in our bone-dry spring, but as soon as the rains came, the families started getting bigger. There are baby bunnies here and there, too, feeding on the new green. And flowers. We had nothing all spring, just bare brown earth, and now it's popping out with wild zinnia and brittlebush and paperflower and desert marigold. There's grass--springing back from the dead--and the bare sticks of ocotillo are covered with little teardrop-shaped leaves.
Riding since the clinic has been most interesting. The hand thing that didn't really make sense with a horse I didn't know, is coming clear with my own horses. I know their quirks and rhythms, and I know what they need or expect; I can experiment. I'm discovering that I have to make a synthesis. Get on, do TL exercises with the seat, then when that's plugged in, ask for the engagement and keep the engagement from the very start of the ride. It's a major seat exercise to do that hand massage, and for Pandora it's a great help to her balance and softness. She really appreciates that additional aid.
Capria is interesting in a very different way. For the most part she wants my hand very quiet with a clear supporting contact; give her that, and the seat and leg bringing her into engagement, and she puts herself on the bit. The problem spots--walk to trot and anything to do with the canter--are where the hand thing makes a great difference. It fills in a hole in the support system. But it has to be very very soft and brief, and as soon as she responds, I have to stop. Too active or strong a hand makes her go llama. She wants seat and then leg and then only if those don't provide enough support, hand.
Haven't tried da Pook yet; he had the rained-out lesson today. Saturday.
TL says all of this is a continuum and hand has to follow a developed seat. If you just sit there seesawing the reins, the horse drops his back and you don't get the effect. You have to use your seat and legs to engage him first, then ask with the hands. It's a subtlety: a thin line between full use of the aids and the terrible sin of hand-riding or riding from front to back.
For sure after Capria was done, her back was pumped and she was all soft--big deal for her. She has a back like a hammock when she's not ridden right.
I think I learned something at the clinic. Yes.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-27 05:29 pm (UTC)we are into our hot dry season now, after June being the cooler, rainy season as usual, though it started early (last couple of weeks of may) and was hot for a couple of weeks, and then cooled again for the first half of July (which was Good for the fires).
The fires have started again though. A couple of days of rain would be nice.
And thanks for the neep -- it helps to answer some of my questions about how the hands fit in with the aids.
And I had no doubt you learned something ;) That was a given. The best prepared students may take a while to integrate it all, but they also can take the most out of things....
no subject
Date: 2006-07-27 05:42 pm (UTC)Thank you. I was feeling very slow of wit, while the riders around me were having their revelations and saying how well they understood. I kept getting tangled up in, "But what about the other aids? Where do they fit in? Is there a rhythm? Is there a system to it?"
On horses I know well, yes, there is a rhythm. Also, a calibration. Pandora needs a lot, Capria wants almost none--but when she wants it, she Wants It. Doing it this way, I have a clearer sense of the other aids; instead of overwhelming them with the easy hand effect (a warning TL gave and it's well taken), it enhances them. I find I don't want to go tweaky-tweaky with the fingers unless the horse feels right, and in order to feel right, she has to have me sitting and aiding correctly. Then I can ask for that little bit extra.
Stay safe! I hope the fires stay well away from you.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-27 05:46 pm (UTC)I truly do envy you and your inspirational ponies; and your current desert view. I don't envy you in the desert most days, but when its in bloom? I wish I could see!
no subject
Date: 2006-07-27 05:47 pm (UTC)Plus, it's always better with horses you know.
as for the fires, so far, so good - the closest is an hour plus driving away. And the winds are blowing so that we don't yet have smoke hitting us. *knock on wood*
I'm a TAD worried, because
no subject
Date: 2006-07-27 06:06 pm (UTC)Anon
hi
Date: 2006-07-27 06:33 pm (UTC)Nice to hear you were able to come away from the clinic with something and be able to apply it to your own horses.
We have finally gotten some rain up here in Minnesota and our tan grass is starting to produce tender shoots of green again. I miss walking across the soft lush grass in bare feet, for so long it was like the thorns on a cactus.
I hope your riding progresses more and at your next clinic you will feel the difference,
A fan,
Noele
no subject
Date: 2006-07-27 08:54 pm (UTC)I bet your herd is talking amongst themselves. "Where do you think she was last week? She certainly has gotten better since she left and came back. "
no subject
Date: 2006-07-27 08:59 pm (UTC)*hee* indeed. and Pooka is saying "*huff* goes away. abandons me. strange horse smells on her. Hrrmph. And THEN cancels teacher torture because of a little moisture. Hrrmph."
And the girlz are probably saying to Pook: "just wait! you'll see. It's worth it! ;)."
no subject
Date: 2006-07-27 11:04 pm (UTC)I've been so conditioned to be careful with my hands, to stay clear of the seesawing, that my current instructor sometimes ends up having to tell me to use them more to do something with the energy I've created with my legs and seat. After all, most riding school horses need all the support they can get, with seat and legs as well as hands.
But using them just the right amount, and in just the right way, certainly isn't easy. Its probably easier to learn to be more active with your hands, though, than to learn to tone them down if you've been using them too much.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-28 05:31 am (UTC)OH My
Date: 2006-07-28 04:11 pm (UTC)Can I have the link to this Nuzzler, that you speak of? You really do NOT want to see what came up on my computer when I typed in NUZZLER!!! OH MY!! What a great laugh for a friday.
Noele
butting in ;)
Date: 2006-07-28 05:18 pm (UTC)http://www.reactorpanel.com/RPstore/product.php?productid=18&cat=0&page=1
;)
Re: OH My
Date: 2006-07-29 10:03 pm (UTC)Hey, I know about sort of search/site. If you go to "lynnsite.com" instead of "lynnesite.com" you get quite the porn site. :-*