Life Among the Lipizzans

I am full of Awefulness

Tue, 08 Aug 2017 19:20:57 GMT

Because I think I'll post frequently and I up and disappear. It's been that kind of year. Catch-up bit below for those who don't facebook or twitter.

So now I'm here because central clearing house for Stuff I Need To Get Out There, and I mean to try to be here at least semi-regularly for just stuff instead of disappearing again, so we'll see.

First off, I have had a rash of postponements and cancellations, which means serious absence of grocery funds for cats, dog, horses, and me, so:

EDITING AND HORSE CAMP FLASH SALE!

Between now and the 15th, we are offering discounts on:

1. CAMP LIPIZZAN, aka Horse Camp for Writers

Book and pay $200 deposit on or before the 15th and get $25 off.

Book a 4 night/5 day Camp and pay in full and get $50 off (that's one free night).

Dates available from September through May. Email me at capriole at that gmail thang for dates and details.

2. EDITING AND WRITING MENTORING OF ALL SORTS

$50 off the standard 5-hour package ($250 for a $300 value)

Current and past clients most welcome--as always, everybody gets the sale.

I'm booking for August as well as for dates in the fall, so if you have something you'd like done by the end of the month, I can start next week (see above re. cancellations and postponements).

Smaller packages also available, email to discuss. I can review your submission package for an agent or publisher (synopsis plus chapters), help with your synopsis, check out your horse details, brainstorm plot and characters--lots of possibilities.

Cats and ponies and dog will appreciate this very much.

In other news, I have a brand-new story in an anthology that came out today: NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED. 19 stories by an amazing mix of authors, on the six-month anniversary of the (in)famous snark at Elizabeth Warren. We heard that and, en masse, we just could not resist. So to speak.

And as for where I've been, April ended with a really good Camp Lipizzan. I don't remember May. I think I was riding horses a lot. And working a lot. June started off with another lovely Camp, then blew up into the hottest June on record for Tucson, which is pretty damn hot. July then became the wettest on record, but at least it wasn't hot. Relatively speaking. And now it is August and I feel as if I'm emerging from hibernation, except it's summer so it's estivation. We're hacking our way through the exuberance of greenery that burgeoned after all the rain, hoping the arena dries out so I can ride the horses who are not safe to ride on trails (i.e., Pooka and Ephiny), and riding the trail ponies as much weather permits. And working. With more editing to come, I hope, and writing as it always is, because a writer never really stops.

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Revving up the Starfury for another voyage

Fri, 14 Apr 2017 23:42:31 GMT

I've always likened riding Pooka to flying a Starfury with warp engines engaged. Apparently this is visible to others, because Evil Gelding's rider observed this morning that "He looks like a bomb about to go off."

He is making distinct progress, and improving in significant increments. After a ride when he yanked my entire chain, locked his neck on the left and did his best to fly into the fence, and generally played some very old and very irritating tapes--my arm ached after that ride, and my fingers had actual tendinitis--I decided to Take Steps, which included a neck massage before rather than after the ride, and no more letting him make like a bulldozer. Thanks to Ephiny, who is quite a bit larger and quite a bit more dangerous, pound for pound (and slam for slam), I've learned to get my weight into my feet, breathe, and not fight back. Fighting back is not a good idea with a horse who has the full testerone-powered neck, either. No way I'll win.

So next ride he got the massage till his neck was squidgy and his eyes were melty, then to the ride, and we still had the pull and the drag, but less so. And less again the next time. And so on.

And today we had walkies Out, then a short ride Out, though he became jiggy on the way home (another old tape: lock his back and sproing me up off it). And so into the arena to calm down, with bendy bits and not fighting back. And lo and behold, no more bulldozer.

Now we can work on the rest of him, including the sproingy-back trick and the locky-shoulders trick. And then we'll have a horse we can work with, rather than a Starfury with its controls locked in Warp Factor Ten Zillion.

I thank Ephiny for this. She actually allowed me on her back on Wednesday, having determined that I had sufficient Zen to be granted the privilege. There were still many moments of more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger, but she was content at the end.

I've concluded that Ephiny is an Enlightened Master. Since we are on no schedule with her, and since she's outright dangerous if we impose our human agenda, both S and I have been letting her do the teaching. We spent months, and I am not exaggerating, tacking up, prepping for rides, and spending the entire session, every session, on the ground, in hand, breathing, grounding, and modulating our aids to the merest whisper of a nearly silent whisper. Asking, "May I mount?" Being told No. Usually by spinning fiercely off the block, or just not approaching it at all.

It was extremely frustrating until I got Gabriella and Pooka going. No way I was riding until I had learned the lessons she was bound and determined to teach.

Those lessons were:

Breathe. Don't hold your breath.

Get your center of balance out from between your ears. Pour it into your feet.

Forget the task-orientation. My biggest flaw as a rider: Get task in mind, go stiff, stop listening to horse. Get in horse's way. Perform task badly or not at all.

Spine in a Line. See above re. Breathing and Balance. Crooked spine means horse off balance means horse leaning on human means horse gets flipping means horse freaks out. Straight spine, no freakout. A little bend goes a long way.

And oh my, does all that translate to riding. Does It Ever.

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Monday, Monday

Mon, 10 Apr 2017 20:55:09 GMT

As Mondays go, this hasn't been terrible so far. Knock silicon and all that. The past two Mondays have been accompanied by feelings of Everything Is Awful and There Is No Hope. Today is more like, OK, work to do, work to do. Work is being done. Stuff is getting dealt with. I am, for values of Mondayness, Mighty.

Probably there is an asteroid waiting to drop on me.

This week is the calm before a storm of guests and Horse Camp for Writers. Hence the work work work. Must clear desk before the deluge. I am trying to keep up with the horsework as well as the rest, having somewhat blown off everybody but Pooka last week because of weather and work. Last night I worked Ephiny a bit before dark, and was reminded that for all her extreme degree of difficulty and her firm refusal to accept anything from me unless it is Perfect, she's become, to a degree, the Home Horse.

Not that Pooka is not the Main Riding Squeeze. At all. He remains my favorite riding horse in the world. But Ephiny has quietly taken over Capria's job of being Home. She demands that I be balanced inside and out, quiet and patient and calm. Always. Which means that when the Testosterone Bomb is locked and loaded, I pretend he's Ephiny, and the adventure becomes much less adventurous.

To think I had her on the sales list for years. No wonder she kept trying to kill me. I DID NOT GET THE POINT EPONADAMMIT.

Now I sort of mostly do. She is a My Horse and a Heart Horse and the fact she is also a Force of Nature is totally part of the deal. She will still hurt me if I get on her last nerve (and she has a whole row of those), but that happens seldom now. Her job is to be the horse I need most, and that apparently is a Whole Lotta Horse who needs a Whole Lotta Zen.

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Hey, the Gang's (Mostly) All Here!

Thu, 06 Apr 2017 06:38:51 GMT

The import from Livejournal so far seems to have gone without noticeable issues, and all my posts appear to be here. I am relieved. And happy to see so many familiar icons and handles. Hello, hello! Hi, everybody!

I am also thinking I would like to post more regularly again. It's new-toy syndrome, but also a factor of this year in general, in which I've been both going back to roots and discovering new shoots and branches. Grounding myself, so I can fly higher. And writing personal blog entries (as opposed to public essays) seems like a thing I should get back to doing.

People have missed the horse neep, for one thing. And there are ruminations on life and politics and such that really do need more scope than a twitter feed, even if one has mastered the art of the megathread.

We'll see how it goes. But I like the feel of this. It's a way forward, grounded in a useful part of the past. I like that, too.

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