It's almost time for the Dublin Horse Show, the annual trip to Nirvana for Irish horse people — not that there aren't other shows in the country, I thoroughly enjoyed Tattersalls last year — but this is the biggie, and people attend from all round the nation, and indeed, the world, and there is so …
What I Learned in a Lesson: Looking Where I Am Going {February 2013}
I just came across this, as a draft labelled '2013/02/06'* Is that June 2nd, or the second of the sixth? No, I think it's February, as this is an American platform, is WordPress. I wonder why we do the dates differently, here? Today is the 24th of the fourth, or 24 April. As we would …
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It’s A Conspiracy!
Which, upon reflection, could go either way. The Universe is either conspiring to drive me demented, or is conspiring to tide me over for the next ten days-to-fortnight until I am back in the saddle. Or, I am spending way too much time on t'internet... because I am still grounded. Here are the top 11 …
O, Dignity! Whither?
I'll just leave this here. *** 'Whither'!
Hey, Injury, Have You Met Insult?
I should have just taken the fall. I had already taken one, you see, and was raging that it was going to happen all over again, within ten minutes — if that — of the first toss. And it was a toss, a drop-the-head, shake-the-enormous-chestnut-arse kind of chucking off, complete with squeal. Coming around to …
Fear of Flying Off: Hacking Terrors Fully Laid to Rest on Three Rock
That is Three Rock Mountain, as seen, with zoom, from my kitchen window. Located in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Co Dublin, and accessed through Tick Nock Forest, the summit is 444 metres/1,457 feet high. I rode it up once, and was preparing to ride up it again. Given my dread of hacking, the first time had been …
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Baby’s First Long Boots: So Proud
A DIRECT AND MEASURABLE RESULT of all this riding: I can haz long boots. I have had to shop, and very gladly with it, at justchaps.com, because they were the only crowd that catered to folks like me who are not in possession of assembly line calves. They do carry spectacular half chaps adorned with …
And Flights of Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest…
... which is not entirely inappropriate, as our Mercury was a famous TV star, playing Henry VIII's primary mount in The Tudors. The shrieks that ensued the first time I saw him on the telly! [Mercury, not Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.] The sad news was shared in the yard today: Merc, who was probably around a thousand …
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Acting As If: Lady Of Livery
I knew something was up, that something was out of joint: I have been out of 'real' time for the last while, between bereavement and jet lag — a lethal combo, do try to avoid it as best you can, is my advice to you — so I knew I was in trouble the moment …
Riding in Cars with Dads
John James Conley: 22 June, 1941 — 12 March, 2013 It's winter, January, and in Ireland, the sun is already going down at 2 in the afternoon. The light is blue and chilly and sharp, and yet you can see, just around the edges of the sky, a bit of warmth, a bit of what …
MANY BRAVE FOOLS 