This week's adventures
Oct. 14th, 2004 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseCatching up on various adventures. It's been another busy one, though lower on stress than in recent months. I owe a lot of e-mail. My bad.
Saturday the parentals and I went to Willcox. This is a small agricultural town about an hour east of here, and meant a trip through Texas Canyon, which is always lovely. The roadsides in places were lined with Mexican sunflowers. We were checking out orchards and pumpkin patches--October necessities--and taking a day off. Ended up with a bag of apples (the sign said Red Delicious, but my money's on Romes) and a nice pumpkin, and some catclaw bush honey for me and a jar of all-fruit jam for my dad. We pigged out on homemade pumpkin ice cream made in an old-fashioned generator-run ice-cream maker complete with the paddles and the crushed ice, and while in line for the restroom, I looked up and saw, up in a corner of the roofed porch right above the crowds of people buying apples and jams and honey and eating lunch, three cream-and-brown bats hanging upside down. They looked like a sort of odd wasps' nest, until I saw one shift a wing, and made out the big ears and the little mousy faces. They were sound asleep and seemed quite relaxed in spite of all the activity right under them.
Most of the week I've been working on Song of Unmaking. Let's hear it for Attack Novels. I know I'm having fun when I break out in a smile when I realize it's time to get to work on the day's pages. About 40 since last Friday and that includes taking Saturday off. I'll be picking up the pace as it gets closer to the end.
Horse adventures include the usual rides on the usual suspects. Da Pook is rapidly becoming solid on trails. Monday evening we went for a mosey, and he decided that the lady walking her fluffy collie was being menaced by the strange-looking predator. Naturally he had to arch his neck, snort!!! and start to dance. He has a piaffe as well as his natural gait the passage. The woman was wide-eyed. You don't often run into Dancing White Horses of Vienna on back roads in Arizona.
Lesson neep happened today because Joni is signed up for a triathlon this weekend. All was going well for her keed-ride until she started working on Lengthen Stride in Canter and keed objected by throwing up his back end...just as Joni was tipped a bit forward for the downstride of the canter. Keed's front end folded up and he somersaulted. The trajectory was right on top of Joni--but he tucked and rolled and swung with his neck and managed to come down sideways instead of headfirst. Instead of getting crushed by half a ton of falling horse, Joni ended up with a pretty badly bruised knee, but nothing ruptured or broken (this is good because her other knee is missing its I believe ACL thanks to a skiing mishap). Keed is OK except for a couple of small dings on one foreleg. We hope Joni will manage the triathlon. She got back on, of course, and continued his canter work. I doubt keed will ever have that tantrum again. He was very unhappy about it, totally embarrassed and sorry he lost his rider. We had to spend quite a bit of time reassuring him that he hadn't done a terrible thing. Like my human-go-splat off Pook a while back, it was pilot error mostly, though horse tantrum was definitely part of it.
After that, Joni settled on a stool with an icepack, and I had my lesson on da Pook. Speaking of splattitude, there was a hot wire loose near where he went nuts that time, and the wind was howling--I had grit in my eyes, and the wire was making cracking noises. Pook's reaction, since I stayed securely in the middle, was a couple of scooch-spooks and a fair amount of mild sidling. Another horse would have been leaping and spinning. Not da Pook in his new, improved, mature and confident incarnation.
Lesson was on maintaining correct aids through sidling and throwing of left shoulder, which is the new right shoulder--he's switched crooked sides. Must resist tendency to pull him right when he's veering left. We showed Teacher that his walk has improved tremendously (he's more relaxed--when he's tense, he paces) and his trot is much stronger and more sure of itself. We did a trot serpentine, which would have floored me a month ago when he was trying to tell me fifty feet of trot in a straight line was enough, Mom! Transitions up and down are getting better. The hills he does on the trail are building muscle like crazy.
He has been christened Thighmaster. He's a serious workout in that area--doesn't feel like it while it's happening, but afterwards, oww. Mostly it's about a Very Wide horse who wants a Very Deep seat and Very Subtle aids. If I'm even slightly tense in the hips, he locks up. This is forcing me to be a much better rider. He won't take crank-and-jam rein aids, either. Hands must be very quiet. I was quite a bit better with that this week than last. He's more patient than Capria and has no old tapes to run through, plus he's much stronger over the back than she is. Part of that's conformation--Camilla is yay strong, too, with a similar short back and Serious drive train--and then there's the testosterone factor. Mo' Powah!
No ride for Camilla. Her back is out again--her walk has lost its overstep and she stands there grinding her teeth. Baby's hurting. I have a message in to the chiropractic vet. Hopefully she can get some Feelgood Fingers in the next week or so.
Still ahead: More Attack Novel. More Horse Adventures. And World Fantasy in Tempe over Halloween. Horsesitter is lined up--she's delighted to get a Pooka fix--and roommate is ready and willin'. I debated not going, but I don't want to stand up a first-time con attendee, and I probably won't make another one for quite a few years unless I suddenly get rich and hire Barn Staff.
Saturday the parentals and I went to Willcox. This is a small agricultural town about an hour east of here, and meant a trip through Texas Canyon, which is always lovely. The roadsides in places were lined with Mexican sunflowers. We were checking out orchards and pumpkin patches--October necessities--and taking a day off. Ended up with a bag of apples (the sign said Red Delicious, but my money's on Romes) and a nice pumpkin, and some catclaw bush honey for me and a jar of all-fruit jam for my dad. We pigged out on homemade pumpkin ice cream made in an old-fashioned generator-run ice-cream maker complete with the paddles and the crushed ice, and while in line for the restroom, I looked up and saw, up in a corner of the roofed porch right above the crowds of people buying apples and jams and honey and eating lunch, three cream-and-brown bats hanging upside down. They looked like a sort of odd wasps' nest, until I saw one shift a wing, and made out the big ears and the little mousy faces. They were sound asleep and seemed quite relaxed in spite of all the activity right under them.
Most of the week I've been working on Song of Unmaking. Let's hear it for Attack Novels. I know I'm having fun when I break out in a smile when I realize it's time to get to work on the day's pages. About 40 since last Friday and that includes taking Saturday off. I'll be picking up the pace as it gets closer to the end.
Horse adventures include the usual rides on the usual suspects. Da Pook is rapidly becoming solid on trails. Monday evening we went for a mosey, and he decided that the lady walking her fluffy collie was being menaced by the strange-looking predator. Naturally he had to arch his neck, snort!!! and start to dance. He has a piaffe as well as his natural gait the passage. The woman was wide-eyed. You don't often run into Dancing White Horses of Vienna on back roads in Arizona.
Lesson neep happened today because Joni is signed up for a triathlon this weekend. All was going well for her keed-ride until she started working on Lengthen Stride in Canter and keed objected by throwing up his back end...just as Joni was tipped a bit forward for the downstride of the canter. Keed's front end folded up and he somersaulted. The trajectory was right on top of Joni--but he tucked and rolled and swung with his neck and managed to come down sideways instead of headfirst. Instead of getting crushed by half a ton of falling horse, Joni ended up with a pretty badly bruised knee, but nothing ruptured or broken (this is good because her other knee is missing its I believe ACL thanks to a skiing mishap). Keed is OK except for a couple of small dings on one foreleg. We hope Joni will manage the triathlon. She got back on, of course, and continued his canter work. I doubt keed will ever have that tantrum again. He was very unhappy about it, totally embarrassed and sorry he lost his rider. We had to spend quite a bit of time reassuring him that he hadn't done a terrible thing. Like my human-go-splat off Pook a while back, it was pilot error mostly, though horse tantrum was definitely part of it.
After that, Joni settled on a stool with an icepack, and I had my lesson on da Pook. Speaking of splattitude, there was a hot wire loose near where he went nuts that time, and the wind was howling--I had grit in my eyes, and the wire was making cracking noises. Pook's reaction, since I stayed securely in the middle, was a couple of scooch-spooks and a fair amount of mild sidling. Another horse would have been leaping and spinning. Not da Pook in his new, improved, mature and confident incarnation.
Lesson was on maintaining correct aids through sidling and throwing of left shoulder, which is the new right shoulder--he's switched crooked sides. Must resist tendency to pull him right when he's veering left. We showed Teacher that his walk has improved tremendously (he's more relaxed--when he's tense, he paces) and his trot is much stronger and more sure of itself. We did a trot serpentine, which would have floored me a month ago when he was trying to tell me fifty feet of trot in a straight line was enough, Mom! Transitions up and down are getting better. The hills he does on the trail are building muscle like crazy.
He has been christened Thighmaster. He's a serious workout in that area--doesn't feel like it while it's happening, but afterwards, oww. Mostly it's about a Very Wide horse who wants a Very Deep seat and Very Subtle aids. If I'm even slightly tense in the hips, he locks up. This is forcing me to be a much better rider. He won't take crank-and-jam rein aids, either. Hands must be very quiet. I was quite a bit better with that this week than last. He's more patient than Capria and has no old tapes to run through, plus he's much stronger over the back than she is. Part of that's conformation--Camilla is yay strong, too, with a similar short back and Serious drive train--and then there's the testosterone factor. Mo' Powah!
No ride for Camilla. Her back is out again--her walk has lost its overstep and she stands there grinding her teeth. Baby's hurting. I have a message in to the chiropractic vet. Hopefully she can get some Feelgood Fingers in the next week or so.
Still ahead: More Attack Novel. More Horse Adventures. And World Fantasy in Tempe over Halloween. Horsesitter is lined up--she's delighted to get a Pooka fix--and roommate is ready and willin'. I debated not going, but I don't want to stand up a first-time con attendee, and I probably won't make another one for quite a few years unless I suddenly get rich and hire Barn Staff.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 12:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-15 03:59 am (UTC)Hear, hear! That's exactly how I felt last week writing the novella. I couldn't get my brain to *stop*, and I was all excited about writing *more*! Hooray for Attack Novels!
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Date: 2004-10-15 06:02 pm (UTC)Wow, I would have loved to see your dancing horse on a dusty trail. No wonder that woman was wide-eyed.
I felt the same way about World Fantasy and I will be going too. Hey, when will it ever be held this close to me? I expect we'll get to meet if we do all get together to remember Kath.