Ah, Saturday. I have missed many a lesson, by choice and due to injury, and now, due to global pandemic. #StayHome and read about my very first horseback riding lesson. It's the very first thing I ever wrote about my experience, well before Many Brave Fools was even a glimmer in my eye. It's also …
The Great Outdoors, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cross Country
I hated horseback riding outside from the start. As I recount in Many Brave Fools, the fear started when I went on a ride out without ever having taken a lesson. The horse took off on me (the horse lightly cantered over a puddle and I went flying); my coccyx took the brunt; it would …
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Many Brave Fools at the Dublin Horse Show 2019
Just... can barely cope. I tried to write about my first Dublin Horse Show in 2007. I didn't even know there was one until someone asked was I going, and I was like whaaaat are you even talking about. I remember having to go sit myself down after only half an hour in the Main …
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This Picture!
Look how happy I am! Look how sweet his eye is! That is all. *** Many Brave Fools: A Story of Addiction, Dysfunction, Codependency… and Horses is AVAILABLE NOW. Order your copy today: > In the US, click on over to Trafalgar Square Books’ site. > In the UK and Europe, visit Quiller Publishing’s page.
Keeping an Open Heart [A Post from 2012]
Here's Many Brave Fools in a nutshell! *** Keeping an Open Heart I was talking to a pal the other day, about a bunch of things that are going on for me at the moment, and in conclusion I said, 'Well, I'm keeping an open heart.' The thing is, I know I was going to say that …
Bye, Bye, Bye, Delilah
I reckoned something was wrong when she didn't turn around in her stable to come say hello. Delilah stood facing the back wall, and when she slowly swung her head around to look at me, she looked like there was a world of hurt in her eye. She picked up a hoof and put it …
Putting The Mockers On Myself…
...ahhh, just can't resist, though. I am off for The Christmas in seven weeks. I have — hang on — 12 lessons left. 'Sue!' I am shouting at myself, 'Don't!' I have only come off Connell three times this year. I came off Connell three times in one lesson, once. Holy moly, that was a bad …
‘Get Out of My Face, Woman!’
Received wisdom has it that if you hold up a hand in front of a horse, it will investigate it with its mouth, mainly to see is it edible or not. They like to have a good sniff of a head collar, bridle, or any implement of grooming, juuuuust to make sure — even though …
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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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 …
MANY BRAVE FOOLS 