Live from the Bunker
Aug. 16th, 2004 02:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseKind of a catch-all post for probably the week--life is on fast-forward x 300 and there's no energy for lj.
For them as has asked about equestrian programming in at the Olympics, you can run a search here. All of it is on Bravo, mostly in the wee hours. Eventing dressage finished up today, with the other phases to follow. Grand Prix dressage gets going sometime around the weekend and into next week. Eventing dressage features a lot of things Capria can do (and keed and Pook at a much lower level). Grand Prix dressage is the fancy stuff I hope Pook and Camilla will do sometime in the next decade. (Yes, it takes that long to do it right.)
Pages make progress. Nicely encouraging inspiration from reviews of The Mountain's Call, which are starting to come in--all positive so far. I'll be doing launch stuff next month, all online at the eHarlequin site--there will be a discussion group for the book, a chat on the 13th, and other delights. Including a contest I'd better think up soon, because the prizes have come in.
My niece from Maine has been visiting--interesting to have a teenager around. She's nuts for the horses, which helps.
Said horses are hummin' along. Lessons of late have featured a new wrinkle: Ground Poles. These are, in my case, 8ft landscaping poles from Home Depot, which when arranged in patterns on the ground, do interesting things for a horse's rhythm, suspension, and way of going. The thing started as a way to get Pook off his front end and stop his pulling shoes, but he panicked when asked to do them in walk so we bagged that. However as long as they were there, Joni decided to incorporate them into lessons. I pulled Pook out of lessons so we could work through everything on our own, and started doing them on Capria--and Capria loooooooves poles. She'll do any combination at any height, and her back will never move. She simply picks her feet up higher.
Well. With my new&improved hands and much improved seat, poles have given her a chance to really get her gaits sorted out. We've been having a great time walking and trotting them, varying length of stride and combining the poles with figures and transitions. Canter soon, I'm sure. She's stopped getting rushy and she's getting a really nice light trot.
Then we decided to try keed on them. Keed is in a truly parlous growth phase that just keeps getting more tragic--no back muscles, tubular barrel, and he's suddenly a lot narrower. He's very annoyed with himself because his body isn't cooperating. Poles, however...poles are keed nirvana. He loooooooves poles. He has his mother's talent for them and they suit his busy brain. He'll hit each space spang in the middle--even if one of the poles is spaced out a bit--with great rhythm and happy ears on.
Yesterday Capria was busy giving my niece a lesson, and Camilla has something going on with her back and needs the Feelgood Lady before I try to sit on her, so I grabbed da Pook, ready or not, and had a lesson.
He was ready, bless 'im. Our steering problems are gone. We're much more confident--he's been having actual rides Out On The Road, as in Trail Stallion First Class (Spookproof and Ready to Rumble), and that's been feeding into our ring work. His trot is getting more solid (and Joni fixed a hand problem that was messing with it). And lo and behold, he wanted the poles too. And not just walk poles, either. He wanted to trot.
First couple of rounds were a bit interesting, but then he got into the groove and he aced it. No panic. No freakies. Just a solid trot-trot-trot, six poles in a row. Did wonders for his walk and trot, too.
I'm pleased. The work we've been doing has been showing results, and he's making good progress. Now to get keed through his growth phase, get the Feelgood Lady in for Camilla, and on to the next level.
For them as has asked about equestrian programming in at the Olympics, you can run a search here. All of it is on Bravo, mostly in the wee hours. Eventing dressage finished up today, with the other phases to follow. Grand Prix dressage gets going sometime around the weekend and into next week. Eventing dressage features a lot of things Capria can do (and keed and Pook at a much lower level). Grand Prix dressage is the fancy stuff I hope Pook and Camilla will do sometime in the next decade. (Yes, it takes that long to do it right.)
Pages make progress. Nicely encouraging inspiration from reviews of The Mountain's Call, which are starting to come in--all positive so far. I'll be doing launch stuff next month, all online at the eHarlequin site--there will be a discussion group for the book, a chat on the 13th, and other delights. Including a contest I'd better think up soon, because the prizes have come in.
My niece from Maine has been visiting--interesting to have a teenager around. She's nuts for the horses, which helps.
Said horses are hummin' along. Lessons of late have featured a new wrinkle: Ground Poles. These are, in my case, 8ft landscaping poles from Home Depot, which when arranged in patterns on the ground, do interesting things for a horse's rhythm, suspension, and way of going. The thing started as a way to get Pook off his front end and stop his pulling shoes, but he panicked when asked to do them in walk so we bagged that. However as long as they were there, Joni decided to incorporate them into lessons. I pulled Pook out of lessons so we could work through everything on our own, and started doing them on Capria--and Capria loooooooves poles. She'll do any combination at any height, and her back will never move. She simply picks her feet up higher.
Well. With my new&improved hands and much improved seat, poles have given her a chance to really get her gaits sorted out. We've been having a great time walking and trotting them, varying length of stride and combining the poles with figures and transitions. Canter soon, I'm sure. She's stopped getting rushy and she's getting a really nice light trot.
Then we decided to try keed on them. Keed is in a truly parlous growth phase that just keeps getting more tragic--no back muscles, tubular barrel, and he's suddenly a lot narrower. He's very annoyed with himself because his body isn't cooperating. Poles, however...poles are keed nirvana. He loooooooves poles. He has his mother's talent for them and they suit his busy brain. He'll hit each space spang in the middle--even if one of the poles is spaced out a bit--with great rhythm and happy ears on.
Yesterday Capria was busy giving my niece a lesson, and Camilla has something going on with her back and needs the Feelgood Lady before I try to sit on her, so I grabbed da Pook, ready or not, and had a lesson.
He was ready, bless 'im. Our steering problems are gone. We're much more confident--he's been having actual rides Out On The Road, as in Trail Stallion First Class (Spookproof and Ready to Rumble), and that's been feeding into our ring work. His trot is getting more solid (and Joni fixed a hand problem that was messing with it). And lo and behold, he wanted the poles too. And not just walk poles, either. He wanted to trot.
First couple of rounds were a bit interesting, but then he got into the groove and he aced it. No panic. No freakies. Just a solid trot-trot-trot, six poles in a row. Did wonders for his walk and trot, too.
I'm pleased. The work we've been doing has been showing results, and he's making good progress. Now to get keed through his growth phase, get the Feelgood Lady in for Camilla, and on to the next level.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-08-16 03:17 pm (UTC)Is that Interesting in the Chinese sense? ;)
How'd Shenny's lesson go? She must've been on cloud nine.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-16 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-16 10:04 pm (UTC)Today I watched the tape of the eventing dressage. I have a question. I understand that you should be quiet and still while riding, but they were all spurring the hell out of the horses. I was quite shocked. Also, not one of them can float like your babies.
By the by, the commentator seemed to really approve of the foot overreach. Guess Pook has to remove his front hoofs from the spots a bit faster.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-17 06:42 am (UTC)Hang in there--good for you that the pages are cooperating.