dancinghorse | OMG teh Neep!

...among other things.

First, Announcements:

Torture Lady clinic October 20th-22nd. There will be lots of people here, but more people (and horses) always welcome. If you coveted the Seat of Velcro at the Harald clinic, this is where I got it.

There will be a Horse Camp from October 27th-29th. Overnight slots are full at this point, but there is space available for day campers (and we can waitlist you for an overnight). Stop on by before you head to World Fantasy!

Lipizzan Weekends are available between WFC and Thanksgiving. Inquire for availability. (Certain Parties are not limited to these dates.)

Details of Camp and Weekends are here. Or email capriole at smoe dot org with subject line "Horse Camp" or "Lipizzan Weekend."

The rest of life consists of rain, more rain, mud, toadstools, grass in my formerly utterly bare arena, and yet more rain. Also, rain. Riding does continue in between storms, and for a miracle, we managed a lesson yesterday.

Project Pooka proceeds apace. The goal is to equalize the muscles of his neck and get him moving truly straight and with his neck at a normal (for a baroque stallion) angle. I've been longeing him around the storms, and little by little he's started stretching and relaxing as he moves. He still locks his neck in the trot, but not as much.

So, yesterday we upped the ante by having me ride him. First he had a longe, and he was very laid back and almost sleepy; from the looks, he was having an endorphin rush just stretching his neck and moving freely. We noticed that his left-side muscle is smaller and he's carrying himself straighter. When asked by Teacher to equalize the sides of his neck, he did; clearly it felt good as his eyes got even sleepier.

When I mounted, he was totally solid--no dropping the back or shifting balance. My job first was to get both hindlegs in gear, then ask for him to soften through the body. No right bend yet, as such, because his neck is still rebuilding itself. Instead I was to make sure his ears stayed level (the right ear tends to tilt downward as he bulges the left side of his jaw). This meant maintaining a steady and balanced seat, keeping his spine between my seatbones, and angling the bit/reins to remind him to keep his ears level. He really does get it; it wasn't hard at all.

Short lesson but effective, and I'll longe him two or three times and then ride next Thursday. Sunday I'm also taking a lesson--making up for lost lessons--but that will be on Pandora. She's softening nicely but I need some input on where to go next.

Teacher seemed pleased by my post-SRS Guy position and even hands. Much better, she said. We noted that it's ever so much easier to have The Hands on a baroque stallion with a big wide neck that comes right up where you need your hands to be. Teacher also noted that the finger thing is very, very small and subtle and goes with a whole lot of seatwork.

I did finally get up the guts to watch my clinic DVD's--and was very pleasantly surprised. It all looked a whole lot better than it felt. And my elbows weren't bad and my hands weren't actively awful, though there's a lot of work to do there. Seat was almost totally solid, with a few exceptions. We are told it was much admired at the time.

What we were not told until yesterday, by SRS Guy's driver and Native Guide, was that SRS Guy said, "She's a good rider."

Well, drop me through the floor.

casacorona kindly put on her Copywriter hat and wrote it up in proper form:

"Judith Tarr is a good rider." -- Harald Bauer, Bereiter, Spanish Riding
School of Vienna

That will keep me going for a while--about as long as it takes one of the Fat White Guys to chop me down to size. (Probably in about another 6 hours.)

Of course now I have to work my steadily decreasing tail off to live up to it. And do my damnedest to get both Pook and me there next summer.

We're working on it. Every time I ride him, he reminds me just how well he's made for this--he's so light and soft and all there. And I'm riding better, which makes it easier for him.