It's Aliiiive!
Oct. 2nd, 2005 02:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseFinally: Book is done. Lipizzan evaluations are done. Great Cleanup is done.
Well, Book actually needs a final smitch of polish and then printout on shiny new fast (zipppp!) printer before email delivery and hardcopy delivery tomorrow. Normally I write fast, clean first draft that flows straight out and gets proofing and word-fixing and comma-chasing and then it may need a bit of expansion here and there, but that's pretty much it.
Not this one.
It grew like a spell by one of its own mages. First an outline of the scene, then color washes one by one, layer by layer, until there was enough depth to it to go on to the next scene--but I might go back to previous scenes several times and add more color, until finally the last scene condescended to appear. That needs a bit of color wash and probably will need more at revision stage but Ye Ed., who has been Extremely Patient, is tapping her foot and it really needs to move on. It's four months late already and I have another book due December 31st that really, like, seriously needs its own time.
Evaluations were preceded by Great Cleanup, which started as a work weekend with various volunteers to spiff up the barn a bit and turned into a five-week, all-day-every-day, obsessive-compulsive monster. First we decided we needed to cut brush around the barn and give the giant pepper tree a haircut. Then Teacher Who Must Be Obeyed said we should rent a tamper and haul in some dirt and level off the breezeway in front of the stallion stall. And we should fix up the fence a bit. And we should do some small repairs. And we should haul off all the old metal panels and old rolls of defunct fencing. And . . .
Five weeks. Every day. In hundred-degree heat. Then come in and shower and hydrate and add another color wash to Book. Then when the sun got low, go back out and clean up some more. Then come in and shower again and hydrate again and work on Book some more.
I didn't ride horses. We did work with the Girlz: they needed to be trained to load on the trailer, and to be trained to present in hand for evals, which involved meeting their runners and learning to walk and trot beside them and learning to show off at liberty (running around free). Keed got his Teacher Torture, which left him with the delusion that He and only He was worthy to be a Riding Horse.
Finally, the day before the big event, we hauled off the last load of farp and hacked the last bush we were going to hack, and stood back and it was good. I could see the barn from the house for the first time in years, the Party Tree had a table and chairs under it (and people much appreciated the cool shade and ringside view), and the goat had a new apartment: a 12x12 pen that opened onto a 16x20 "paddock" which would (and did) hold a horse overnight if needed.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
whitezinnia and I went to Home Depot and got some plants to put outside the front door of the house, making a nice little bit of garden, and that was all we had time to do.
Then came evals weekend, which turned into a large pajama party here. What with one thing and another, all but one of the horses ended up staying here, which added to the Cleanup in that we had to rearrange stalls and goat pen to accommodate them all. And no, the barn had not been repaired; we were operating on minimal roofage. One stallion was here for almost three weeks; his new owner had him shipped from California, and she hauled her trailer from Oklahoma to have him evaluated before she took him home. I had some Angst about two stallions on the place, but Pooka, who was greatly rattled by so many physical changes, sighed and relaxed as soon as the new boy arrived. Love those Vienna genes. New guy was just 5 and never bred, so did very nicely in junior-stallion position; we rigged a covered pen for him apart from the others but still in the middle of everything, put up hot tape for a paddock, and he was happy.
Friday night of evals, we had four stallions here, scattered around the stalls, with my mares and gelding in the arena and a mare, filly, and gelding in the guest pen alongside, for 14 horses all told (Ember was still here, one baby on board). Except for keed trying to claim the mare and baby (of which the mare took an exceedingly dim view), life was not too difficult; keed spent the night in the stallion stall beside the arena--Pook was in his paddock up above--and moped all night, but tough cookies. Evals morning started at 5 a.m. so we could get everybody loaded and caravanned to Tucson for the event, which went exceeding well in spite of a change in arena footing that meant only one lightweight filly was able to move worth anything. We should have had four or five horses with a perfect-10 gait score, but only the yearling got it. The others said No Way.
All the local talent did well; we have good horses in this region. My guys placed nicely up there, even Ephiny who is in a truly parlous state of Uglies--the judge just laughed and used her as an example of how young Lipizzans can look awful but grow into beautiful horses. Pooka hit a terrible growth phase right before evals: he actually got dinged for being "light on bone," which is totally not Mr. Chunky Doodle, and he was rump-high and messed up behind and his movement went to pieces because he also dinged up his front feet so badly being a testosteroned-out twit that they had to be rebuilt (he still has plastic feet). He still got a premium score (80.5 percent, with a 9 and "wunderbar!" for his canter, i.e. rhythmic wallow in awful footing). I'll get him redone later on when he's finally done growing, but meanwhile he's more than approved for breeding, he's among the highest-scoring stallions in the country and he was high-score stallion for the day.
Star of the day was Camilla. In spite of her attempt to take a runner's head off with a sky-high kick (which got her a markdown on temperament) and her flat refusal to show her spectacular gaits in that muck (netting her an 8 instead of 10 for her trot), she scored 85.5 (second highest of the day) with 9's across the board and the comment, "She should be sold to Austria to improve the breed!" The judge referred to her as effectively best in show (first place was the yearling who condescended to actually, and spectacularly, move, but she didn't score so well on conformation), saying she was the best example of Lipizzan type at the evals. We were pleased. We've always felt that Camilla is the best horse on the farm. It's good to have this corroborated by an expert.
The Girlz did extremely well for their ages and growth phases, got their provisional scores (permanent scores don't happen until after age 4) which were both well up in breeding-approval territory (with the comment that both would improve considerably with maturity), and had a very nice experience for their first trip away from home. They spent the day in a big shady pen under the trees, were much admired, and now they want to do it every weekend.
Once evals were over, as in, the last guests left Monday and that was Tuesday, the barn crew finally arrived. By Wednesday night I had a brand-new four-stall shedrow barn. With roof and everything. It's amazing how well it works; I already have trouble remembering the old configuration. There is still a bit of tweakage to be done, to finish adding two porta-pens with portable shelter along the end, but meanwhile it's in use and the horses seem quite pleased with it.
And I got my two weeks to bunker down and get Book done. Which I did. Or will tonight. Yes. I've even been riding; Pook has just had some longeing but keed and Capria are back up on full routine, and Pandora is on the roster. Camilla will get her innings over the next week or so. And Ephiny. Wants. WORK. Oh dear. Ephiny much enjoyed her training for evals, though she wore herself out, poor baby, trying so very hard to be perfectly calm. Ephiny is a classic overachiever.
While all this was going on, up in Seattle, Tia was getting weaned, trained, and moved to my friend Linda's (aka Knight's mom at Imperial Farm) for a couple of months until she'd old enough to be shipped down here. She had her big move on evals day, and has settled in nicely, I'm told. I've got email in to shippers to find out who can haul her down here after Lipizzan Convergence in early November (same weekend as World Fantasy). I hope I can get that sorted out this week.
Today we finally had real lessons. Keed got Teacher Torture. Capria and I got Torture as well. She is a different horse in the new saddle--her quirks and fusses are nearly gone, she doesn't rush or go llama, she does still throw her right shoulder and fuss about using her right hind but it's much reduced. It's lovely to feel how she is: light and soft like a soap bubble, and she actually has some suspension in her trot. She's not the mover the kids are, but she has a nice free stride and a nice rhythm when she isn't being pinched right under my seat.
We did find out, alack, that Teacher's saddle Will Not Work for keed--two weeks of work more than once a week and he filled out so much the pinch behind the withers was back in full force. Sigh. At least we have one that will work, same one that works for his mom, so he's not saddle-less. But Teacher is going to be buying a new saddle--since she also now officially owns Gaudia (she finished paying for her over evals weekend, and the husband gave the go-ahead for her to join the family, so the papers are now in Teacher's name), who will never be able to use that particular saddle anyway, it's time to accept the inevitable.
Lipizzans are just bloody wide in the back is all.
So now the horse population here is seven. It may drop to five if Teacher gets things sorted out and takes keed on lease and Gaudia permanently, then up to six when Tia gets here. They'll be rattling around out there; it's been 8 or 9 in residence for months. People are saying I should board some horses. I am considering it. They could cover the bills for my lot.
We'll see. For now I'm trying to get my breath after months of flat-out marathon run. Next event is the big Lipizzan to-do November 4th-6th, next book deadline is December 31st. Two books are out now: King's Blood from Roc and Song of Unmaking from Luna. Also in December, a story in the latest Friends of Valdemar antho, and soon after that, an intro to the new edition of Mary Shelley's The Last Man from the U of Nebraska. Coming next year: Shattered Dance from Luna and working title The Serpent and the Rose from Tor.
Yes, I did all that in the middle of all this, you need to ask?
Well, Book actually needs a final smitch of polish and then printout on shiny new fast (zipppp!) printer before email delivery and hardcopy delivery tomorrow. Normally I write fast, clean first draft that flows straight out and gets proofing and word-fixing and comma-chasing and then it may need a bit of expansion here and there, but that's pretty much it.
Not this one.
It grew like a spell by one of its own mages. First an outline of the scene, then color washes one by one, layer by layer, until there was enough depth to it to go on to the next scene--but I might go back to previous scenes several times and add more color, until finally the last scene condescended to appear. That needs a bit of color wash and probably will need more at revision stage but Ye Ed., who has been Extremely Patient, is tapping her foot and it really needs to move on. It's four months late already and I have another book due December 31st that really, like, seriously needs its own time.
Evaluations were preceded by Great Cleanup, which started as a work weekend with various volunteers to spiff up the barn a bit and turned into a five-week, all-day-every-day, obsessive-compulsive monster. First we decided we needed to cut brush around the barn and give the giant pepper tree a haircut. Then Teacher Who Must Be Obeyed said we should rent a tamper and haul in some dirt and level off the breezeway in front of the stallion stall. And we should fix up the fence a bit. And we should do some small repairs. And we should haul off all the old metal panels and old rolls of defunct fencing. And . . .
Five weeks. Every day. In hundred-degree heat. Then come in and shower and hydrate and add another color wash to Book. Then when the sun got low, go back out and clean up some more. Then come in and shower again and hydrate again and work on Book some more.
I didn't ride horses. We did work with the Girlz: they needed to be trained to load on the trailer, and to be trained to present in hand for evals, which involved meeting their runners and learning to walk and trot beside them and learning to show off at liberty (running around free). Keed got his Teacher Torture, which left him with the delusion that He and only He was worthy to be a Riding Horse.
Finally, the day before the big event, we hauled off the last load of farp and hacked the last bush we were going to hack, and stood back and it was good. I could see the barn from the house for the first time in years, the Party Tree had a table and chairs under it (and people much appreciated the cool shade and ringside view), and the goat had a new apartment: a 12x12 pen that opened onto a 16x20 "paddock" which would (and did) hold a horse overnight if needed.
whitezinnia and I went to Home Depot and got some plants to put outside the front door of the house, making a nice little bit of garden, and that was all we had time to do.Then came evals weekend, which turned into a large pajama party here. What with one thing and another, all but one of the horses ended up staying here, which added to the Cleanup in that we had to rearrange stalls and goat pen to accommodate them all. And no, the barn had not been repaired; we were operating on minimal roofage. One stallion was here for almost three weeks; his new owner had him shipped from California, and she hauled her trailer from Oklahoma to have him evaluated before she took him home. I had some Angst about two stallions on the place, but Pooka, who was greatly rattled by so many physical changes, sighed and relaxed as soon as the new boy arrived. Love those Vienna genes. New guy was just 5 and never bred, so did very nicely in junior-stallion position; we rigged a covered pen for him apart from the others but still in the middle of everything, put up hot tape for a paddock, and he was happy.
Friday night of evals, we had four stallions here, scattered around the stalls, with my mares and gelding in the arena and a mare, filly, and gelding in the guest pen alongside, for 14 horses all told (Ember was still here, one baby on board). Except for keed trying to claim the mare and baby (of which the mare took an exceedingly dim view), life was not too difficult; keed spent the night in the stallion stall beside the arena--Pook was in his paddock up above--and moped all night, but tough cookies. Evals morning started at 5 a.m. so we could get everybody loaded and caravanned to Tucson for the event, which went exceeding well in spite of a change in arena footing that meant only one lightweight filly was able to move worth anything. We should have had four or five horses with a perfect-10 gait score, but only the yearling got it. The others said No Way.
All the local talent did well; we have good horses in this region. My guys placed nicely up there, even Ephiny who is in a truly parlous state of Uglies--the judge just laughed and used her as an example of how young Lipizzans can look awful but grow into beautiful horses. Pooka hit a terrible growth phase right before evals: he actually got dinged for being "light on bone," which is totally not Mr. Chunky Doodle, and he was rump-high and messed up behind and his movement went to pieces because he also dinged up his front feet so badly being a testosteroned-out twit that they had to be rebuilt (he still has plastic feet). He still got a premium score (80.5 percent, with a 9 and "wunderbar!" for his canter, i.e. rhythmic wallow in awful footing). I'll get him redone later on when he's finally done growing, but meanwhile he's more than approved for breeding, he's among the highest-scoring stallions in the country and he was high-score stallion for the day.
Star of the day was Camilla. In spite of her attempt to take a runner's head off with a sky-high kick (which got her a markdown on temperament) and her flat refusal to show her spectacular gaits in that muck (netting her an 8 instead of 10 for her trot), she scored 85.5 (second highest of the day) with 9's across the board and the comment, "She should be sold to Austria to improve the breed!" The judge referred to her as effectively best in show (first place was the yearling who condescended to actually, and spectacularly, move, but she didn't score so well on conformation), saying she was the best example of Lipizzan type at the evals. We were pleased. We've always felt that Camilla is the best horse on the farm. It's good to have this corroborated by an expert.
The Girlz did extremely well for their ages and growth phases, got their provisional scores (permanent scores don't happen until after age 4) which were both well up in breeding-approval territory (with the comment that both would improve considerably with maturity), and had a very nice experience for their first trip away from home. They spent the day in a big shady pen under the trees, were much admired, and now they want to do it every weekend.
Once evals were over, as in, the last guests left Monday and that was Tuesday, the barn crew finally arrived. By Wednesday night I had a brand-new four-stall shedrow barn. With roof and everything. It's amazing how well it works; I already have trouble remembering the old configuration. There is still a bit of tweakage to be done, to finish adding two porta-pens with portable shelter along the end, but meanwhile it's in use and the horses seem quite pleased with it.
And I got my two weeks to bunker down and get Book done. Which I did. Or will tonight. Yes. I've even been riding; Pook has just had some longeing but keed and Capria are back up on full routine, and Pandora is on the roster. Camilla will get her innings over the next week or so. And Ephiny. Wants. WORK. Oh dear. Ephiny much enjoyed her training for evals, though she wore herself out, poor baby, trying so very hard to be perfectly calm. Ephiny is a classic overachiever.
While all this was going on, up in Seattle, Tia was getting weaned, trained, and moved to my friend Linda's (aka Knight's mom at Imperial Farm) for a couple of months until she'd old enough to be shipped down here. She had her big move on evals day, and has settled in nicely, I'm told. I've got email in to shippers to find out who can haul her down here after Lipizzan Convergence in early November (same weekend as World Fantasy). I hope I can get that sorted out this week.
Today we finally had real lessons. Keed got Teacher Torture. Capria and I got Torture as well. She is a different horse in the new saddle--her quirks and fusses are nearly gone, she doesn't rush or go llama, she does still throw her right shoulder and fuss about using her right hind but it's much reduced. It's lovely to feel how she is: light and soft like a soap bubble, and she actually has some suspension in her trot. She's not the mover the kids are, but she has a nice free stride and a nice rhythm when she isn't being pinched right under my seat.
We did find out, alack, that Teacher's saddle Will Not Work for keed--two weeks of work more than once a week and he filled out so much the pinch behind the withers was back in full force. Sigh. At least we have one that will work, same one that works for his mom, so he's not saddle-less. But Teacher is going to be buying a new saddle--since she also now officially owns Gaudia (she finished paying for her over evals weekend, and the husband gave the go-ahead for her to join the family, so the papers are now in Teacher's name), who will never be able to use that particular saddle anyway, it's time to accept the inevitable.
Lipizzans are just bloody wide in the back is all.
So now the horse population here is seven. It may drop to five if Teacher gets things sorted out and takes keed on lease and Gaudia permanently, then up to six when Tia gets here. They'll be rattling around out there; it's been 8 or 9 in residence for months. People are saying I should board some horses. I am considering it. They could cover the bills for my lot.
We'll see. For now I'm trying to get my breath after months of flat-out marathon run. Next event is the big Lipizzan to-do November 4th-6th, next book deadline is December 31st. Two books are out now: King's Blood from Roc and Song of Unmaking from Luna. Also in December, a story in the latest Friends of Valdemar antho, and soon after that, an intro to the new edition of Mary Shelley's The Last Man from the U of Nebraska. Coming next year: Shattered Dance from Luna and working title The Serpent and the Rose from Tor.
Yes, I did all that in the middle of all this, you need to ask?
