Once again, a threshold crossed with no warning. The weather has cleared up to the extent that the sun comes out towards the end of the day. The summer is waning — it's getting that bit darker, again, earlier — and out we go on a ride out to take advantage of the grudging seasonability. …
The Lesson of the Fifth Fence
I keep seeing it: over the double, and there's that fence. Just sitting there. The number five in black on the red placard. There it is, and there we go, Delilah and I, right past it as opposed to over it. I tell myself I felt a hesitation in her stride. Well? What are we …
Is That What Life Coaching is About?
So, I've become complacent, I know that. In light of trying not to be lazy, I took Tango for my private lesson. Big, windy sigh. I can't begin to know what is really going on with him — you can't get close enough to get a physical feeling off him. It's not just that he's …
Certainty; Assurance; Reliance
It feels so different, to get on Delilah. I sit there, relaxed, the reins in good grasp, but in the waiting to go: nothing. Not nothing, exactly, but the absence of doubt; perturbation; anxiety. I know as well as anyone that what you bring to the horse is communicated to the horse. It was the …
The Boy is Back in Town
OR LOOSE BOX, RATHER I was running late on Tuesday, stupid second bus blew right by and I had to wait another fifteen minutes for the next one to take me across the river, to Nassau Street, to the walk to the LUAS, further delay caused by some poxy tourist buying tram tickets one by …
Tango: Two
I'll never learn. I don't know if it's me creating the actuality from the thought, or just being aware of the logic of the allocation of the horses, but I woke up on Wednesday and knew. Three days in row as I'm off on holiday- today in fact, right this minute just about, blogging from …
Spirits Officially Lifted
I must admit I was dragging my feet to the yard today. Just general malaise, a poor awakening, a rush out the door, a day spent indoors, changeable weather, and a feeling that none of my friends are up there, anymore. I mooched around Delilah's box, her bum firmly presented to the world at large. …
I Have Set My Life Upon a Cast…
AND I WILL STAND THE HAZARD OF THE DIE When I made up all those lessons I'd missed in late autumn of 2006, it became quite plain that I was going to have to continue to ride twice a week. Fairly sharpish, it got into my head that three times a week was the way …
Cure for the Common Cold?
Got a return visit from a virus or whatever it was that I had felt impinging on my wellbeing the week of the shoot. Didn't want it then, and didn't want it now. I decided to take the best cure I know — other than hot whiskey — and head out to my lesson anyway. …
Onwards and Upwards and Overwards
I got up on Ruby, and the sensation of hovering, only somewhat anchored, in mid-air, have disappeared. Waiting for the rest of the ride to mount, I felt something I've never felt on a horse before— her sides were positively heaving, my legs moving with the bellowing of her breathing. I called across the arena …
MANY BRAVE FOOLS 