JUNE 2007 Riding out sucks. It’s boring. Up the road, down the road, up the road, good luck if your mount has the munchies, spending half the time in walk, it is dull, dull, dull— And it scares me stupid. My first walk out— and in fairness, I had no business being on the back …
Gran Feckin’ Prix, Baby!
DECEMBER 2006 ‘Anybody ever jumped before?’ Are you kidding me? It’s December, the middle. I have been riding for… thirteen weeks? Twice a week now since the middle of November so that’s more like sixteen weeks if you count the other days as weeks, as one lesson per week, and— oh, stop it. I’m still …
See You Next Tuesday
GRRRRRRRRRRRRR Last night, my lesson mates and I, during a diatribe by the instructor [unintentionally provoked by yours truly], were implicitly lumped in with ‘some people’, who take up horse riding in order to look pretty. Pretty? Pretty? What exactly makes one look pretty when one is riding? Is it the dusty hands covered in …
Some La-La Land of Inter-Species Mind Meld
22, SEPTEMBER 2007 Yeeeeah, there’s that cynicism that I mentioned. It’s the part of me that stands outside of experience— any experience— coolly observes throughout, and then proceeds to examine it to death, mostly, I suppose, to stop me over-emoting in any given situation. Which is, in turn, ridiculous because I come at everything, every …
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I Trot, Therefore I Am
MY SECOND LESSON [16 SEPTEMBER, 2007] I’ve been thinking about trotting all week. Everyday. Waiting for the bus, walking to get a salad at lunch, staring ahead of myself, bored, at work. Some of the seemingly unintelligible sounds issuing from the mouth of last Saturday’s instructor [this is the correct term, not teacher] appear to …
Rebel, Instead
I suppose I could have reminded Fiona that I'd asked for Charlie. I am rather more... assertive than many of the other riders, when it comes to the allocation of school horses. But, eh, I don't know— no, I do know. I'm putting off my trial-by-Charlie until— until whenever. So Fiona says, 'You're on Rebel,' …
There’s Always a First Time
9 SEPTEMBER, 2006 The wee girls circle round and round, legs pounding the sides of their ponies, and I am feeling breathless. As excited as I was to take my first horse riding lesson, well— I’d actually have to be on a horse to have it, and they’re big, aren’t they, and watching those kids …
Getting Up There
MARCH, 2007 I have finally gone beyond standing next to the horse like a pillock. A great, stupid, beginner pillock. A pillock looking gormless [although by definition one doubts a pillock can be considered to have gorm], waiting to be told to get up there, instructor bringing over the block, holding the horse, leaning on …
MANY BRAVE FOOLS 