New Horseblog at Book View Cafe

http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2010/07/12/coevolution/

Our BlogGoddess put up a Share button. Look! It works!

And besides, hey. Neep.

I am going to die if this humidity keeps up. Sauna doesn't begin to cover it. Morning horse chores, GAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH. And precious little rain to show for it, though last night was beautifully cool (and damp) thanks to the storms that danced around us but barely touched us.

My brain, meanwhile, is soggy cottage cheese. And I have Work To Do.

Lo, We Are Mighty

For today, we wrote Exactly 1200 words of outline/story sketch/very very very very rough initial Stuff on Sekrit Projekt.

Camilla got a ride in the dusk, buzz-bombed by bat. She had happy ears, because she got her turn even though Ephiny got all the daylight, humph! Miss E wore saddle and bridle, did balance work, learned about weight in stirrups. She's been wobbling all over the place like a cheap folding table when she wears the saddle. Tonight she learned that when weight goes in the stirrup, you get a leg at each corner and you stand. She learned this on the right side first--that cranky right leg instead of coming up for a kick opted to root itself in earth and she stood. There was much praise of her Awesomeness. Which she ate up with a spoon. Ephiny loves to be Awesome.

She's almost ready. Just a tiny bit more thinky time and setup, and she'll have me on her back. I'll do that in a session with S--two weeks, give or take.

For anyone who says you have to start them while they're young and weak, because when they're mature they're too strong and therefore dangerous, I have this to say: A big, giant razzberry. 8yo Ephiny is grown into herself, has a clue how to balance, is pretty comfortable in her body, and has enough brain cells to handle the concept of work. She's had to learn the habit of obedience, as all young horses do, and she's needed time to get used to the idea of steady work, but she's got a wonderful mind and her body is ready to handle whatever I ask of it.

It does help that as a 3yo she was trailer-trained and taken to her breeding-stock evaluations (she passed, needless to say), and she's since been handled and played with regularly. She hasn't been a wild child all her life. But this late start has been a good thing, and she's taken to it very nicely. I'm looking forward to finally sitting on her.

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