I forgot to be nervous on my first day back in the saddle. Okay, granted, I was still literally 'high' from jet lag {and perhaps figuratively, too: I do believe that I leave part of myself up there, negotiating time zones, until I re-enter my body}. I had a new plan coming back from the …
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 …
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, …
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! …
Itchy and Scratchy
Hey, this is weird: About two months ago — months — I received my first kick. Tango was in the lesson, and Connell and I were behind him. Tango is much the same, stopping when he wants, backing up at will, making a chaos of things. So there we were, going around on the left …
‘I Am Not Falling Off This !@&ing Horse!’
Okay, the thing is, since the injury, which was last year, I have been falling off. Also okay, I'd like to blame it all on that, but sure, I can't. Not really. But let's say that the injury has loomed large in my mind, effecting the way I ride. Okay, that makes sense. Anyway: A …
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Independence Day
IN DECEMBER So I got on Connell and he balked. I asked again, more firmly, for him to walk on, and he shook his big butt. Oh, no you don't, thought I. 'Oh, no you don't,' I said. 'Dude,' I said, and his near ear twitched back towards me. 'I have been riding Rebel for …
Nearside!
The snow had mostly melted, and I was willing to risk the roads and the laneway, and get to my Saturday lesson. I had this thought, all the way up, on the bus, that today might be the day that I try to mount from the left again. See, I was a little worried about …
Offside, Too
At the end of the session to which I brought this new injury, my physio and I looked at my foot and just shook our heads. This was going to be one for the books. I was limping. I had on my magnets, and I had on the compression bandage. I was popping arnica tablets …
Jumping for Joy
I made my way, last Monday, to Festina; I passed the entire bus journey querying my calf. I had spent the entire two weeks off with my mind entirely focused on my leg. I found myself isolating at home in the evenings, devoting all my time to the healing of this wound. Ice, arnica tablets, …
MANY BRAVE FOOLS 