Neepity!

[dancinghorse]

Yes, an actual entry as opposed to quizzage and memeage.  Rewrite continues but needs to be done preferably last week.  Book should end up having mutated from "sucks rocks" to "it rocks."  Or so we hope.  Computer hell is being held at bay, but I'm writing on one and e-mailing on another and it is complicated.  I have earlier comments that haven't been responded to, and definitely wanted to welcome bettym  to the crew and thank you for the lovely words about Kingdom of the Grail.

Anent your question, Berber or Barb horses are north African horses--ram-nosed and sturdy, usually--and Spanish horses are the horses of the Iberian  peninsula, which are distinct from the Arab and have a different look.  They're usually bigger, stockier, and have convex heads--a lot of them have been bred for fighting bulls, so they're big on sitting down and zipping out of there.  There's a whole pura raza thing going on now (claiming that the Spanish horse is "pure" and has nothing else in it), but older texts note that the Iberian had Arab and Barb blood crossed in during the time of the Moors.  The Arab is the desert horse of Arabia, with imports into Egypt--basically it followed the Islamic expansions.  This is a small, light, fast animal with a distinctive dished head and big eyes and nostrils, adapted to being a desert running machine.

Life has consisted primarily of farm work, riding, and rewriting.  We've had lessons, and those have gone well.  Keed is doing ever so nicely for Joni.  Camilla is still figuring out this forward thing, but she will now trot beautifully alongside me in hand, matching my speed exactly, which is very cool and a very good sign that she realizes she has a forward gear.  When I sit on her, she'll offer some forward steps.  Today she was a bit wild with the wind and a threat of storm, but she settled down very nicely.  It's slow, but it's working.

Pook and I have been having Discussions about my aids.  Outside aids, specifically.  Mine aren't there, he says.  He needs them there.  Or he's going to go sproink! and veer off toward the fence.  Last week Joni put us on the longe so I would stop being anxious about the whole thing, and relax and let him move, which he kindly did.  In between lessons, I got into another pulling match with him (outside rein gone, inside rein with me locked on it, blocking inside hind, sending him veering off).  So, today Joni worked on  that outside hand and told me,  wincing as she said, "Pull him!" Adding that she would never ever tell anyone else to do this, but since I've been dropping the rein, if she says pull...my hand stays put.  I feel as if I'm pulling, but what I'm actually doing is keeping my hand steady.   Et voila. 

Amazing how our paradigms work, and how what we think we're doing may the opposite of what's actually happening.  I think my hand is steady when it's creeping up his neck and he's losing his balance.  When I think I'm pulling, all I'm doing is not letting go.  Very odd.  But effective.  Pook said, "Now you're talking!", relaxed, chewed, and settled into the circle. 

Oh yes.  This horse is sub-Intro only because I am.  Once I get a clue, he'll be headed up the levels.  (Now if someone would just offer a nice batch of clues on ebay....)

It's been interesting too to work with Camilla and Pooka pretty much one right after the other.  We've talked about this, how their issues are identical but their responses are diametrically opposite.  Joni happened to mention a conversation she had with a Lipp client who worked with a very good trainer recently (with great results), but the trainer had this thing that "With all Lipps you must keep a clear contact at all times."  Joni had been training the horse using no contact at times--releasing rein and letting him find his own balance.  We've realized that it's a matter of mindsets--forward or not-forward.  Keed, not-forward, needs a very open door in front.  Ditto Camilla.  Offer a contact and, in the early stages, they feel shut down.  Whereas Pook and Capria, being very forward-thinking horses (in times of stress, instead of growing roots, they beat feet out of there), have to have the clear sense of support on sides particularly in the front, so when they start to lose balance, they've got that barre to touch (barre, bit, very similar in effect here).  They need a very supportive seat and aids and a lot of encouragement to sit down and lift the front end, then they feel balanced.  Whereas keed will sit down and get stuck.  He needs to feel a lot of freedom in front of him.   Camilla, being totally green, quite simply backs up and won't stop. 

It's illuminating to consider these different methodologies and see how they fit different horses.  Whether the horse thinks forward/run or stop/freeze has so much to do with how she responds to training.  So with Pook, we did a lot of longeing under saddle.  With Camilla we do free longeing (a line makes her feel constricted) and we're letting her figure out her own  forward with me on  her.  I do the forward work with her in hand--and she's really feeling different, as if she's opened up to what's in front of her.  (And oh my is she beautiful when she moves.)  With Pook we could have Joni in the middle urging him on, but that would be a bad idea with Camilla.  It needs to be her idea.

In other notes--Pook had a serious attack of the whees today.  No camcorder handy, of course.  He just had to cut loose.  Then he was Mr. Perfect Riding Stallion.

And--this will have the proper effect on horsepeople, but sound very odd otherwise: Since last week, he has peed under saddle.  It's a huge thing.  Means he's relaxed and comfortable to da max.  Of course now we have to train him to do it in warmup and not stop at X and whizz the judge, but we'll work on that.

Further news: Arizona is on the Lipizzan evaluation circuit in mid to late September.  We have a venue in Elgin (Lipizzan Park, about an hour from here) and we're working on a program.  Evaluator will be the former director of the SRS and the state stud at Piber.  Naturally I'll be there with bells on.  In recent years, evaluations have been restricted to the PNW and, occasionally, the East Coast.  This is the first time they've been in Arizona, as far as I know, and the first time in eight years that they've been in the lower left corner of the US at all.  I hope we can get enough horses and auditors to make it work.  We'll have demos as well, and maybe a small show, though that needs some serious logistical work.

And now Rewrite Hell is calling.  Also, horses, who want their dinner.  Someday it will be a book (version 2.0) and my life will revert to...more deadlines!