Yeesh, I had thought that 2010 had been a tough one — I remember saying to a friend, somewhere around October of that year, 'I cannot wait to see the back of 2010.' And now we're all rolling our eyes at one another, shaking our heads and hoping for better in 2012... which is exactly …
Horsey Hols
Just in time, too. I think the cold weather had something to do with it, but everyone was kicking up their heels this last week of term. Now, as far as Tuesday was concerned, the wind didn’t help keep the lads settled down. We’re fairly used to the wind, up there on that big hill, …
Mojo: The Return
[MOJO IS A GOOD NAME FOR A HORSE] It's been a year and half since I joined the Saturday lesson, since The Injury, since despite It, I tried to jump in my first Saturday lesson, fell on my head, and have been struggling week by week, Saturday by Saturday, to like it again. Not the …
No Pictures, But It Did Happen
I don't even know where to start, because I want to start with the punchline. Hmmm, let's see. Weather: squally. It waited to bucket down until we pulled into the car park at the yard. It was cold, which just makes me want to go to the loo every five minutes. I had hoped to …
Seeing Is Not Believing
We've occasionally had video cameras in lessons, with mixed results. I've got some footage of me and Reb doing some jumping, from a few years ago. The fences are so small as to be almost non-existent, and we were both clearly bored. There is also some of Delilah and I slogging around the lower arena, …
Experience + Confidence = Not Falling on Yer Arse
When I started to write the above yesterday, I thought it was going to read: Experience + [Something] = Confidence. I suppose there's more than one way to formulate an equation. Equating would not have been my strong suit, back in my schooldays. I am fairly certain that I am the maths version of illiterate, …
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Just Riding
Rebel has been off, and you know something, I missed the little bugger. He had been off quite a while last year with suspensory ligament damage; at the time, I had yanked my medial ligament all out of shape and was semi-limping around with a support bandage on my knee. We had the same injury! …
Two by Two
Hey, anyone doubting the transformative effects of 11.11.11, check this out: I totally manifested the lesson I wanted on Saturday. We were idly warming up in open order — or I was, idly; I really shouldn't speak for all my lesson mates. There is something wonderful, though, about these Saturdays, and the way we all …
Everything Connects
I can feel the arch of my foot getting back to normal. Normal-ish. As I got up on Connell last night, I remembered how I couldn't get myself up there because of The Injury. I still get little twinges, little pulls that tell me that the network of tendons and ligaments and muscle, and whatever, …
Every So Often…
... we are sitting around, we lessonmates, waiting for the lesson to begin, and we sigh. We sigh and wish we were around the horses every day. As a job, like. I've been saying it more and more often, and not always to horse people. I've been saying it to people who work in offices …
MANY BRAVE FOOLS 