It's 16.52 and the sun is blazing away! Well, the sky is still remarkably light, which is more like it. But still! Roll on springtime! The yard was a death trap yesterday, ice everywhere, people getting stuck in the car park, and no way were any of us going to be anywhere but the indoor. …
Every Thursday Isn’t the Same…
I rode last night at 7 to make up for Tuesday being snowed out. I realised that I couldn't get home at 9pm, and then get up for 6am to get back to the yard for 9am. So I switched my Thursday lesson to 2.15. I met a friend in town for a coffee and …
Back to the Future
EVERY THURSDAY IS THE SAME... 10.30 a.m. I march/limp down the road. The sun is fully up, and I take grateful pulls from my echinacea-laced water bottle. It is so good to be here, right here, right now, fully alive and having worked hard. The mountains rise up above me as I walk down the …
On a Scale of One to Ten
My usual Saturday lift to the yard was unavailable last week, so I did the bus-to-the-taxi thing. Dublin taxi men are never at a loss for conversation, and when I get into the car in all my riding clobber, well, sit back and start talking horses. I'd never had this dude before — I'm a …
Working on the, er Ground, Part II
More work on the bus. I spend a lot of time on buses. I wish I could spend more time on trains, nothing like a train for daydreaming out the window. So, on the bus, and I took a quick scan of my posture, which was appalling: shoulders hunched and down, bowed over just enough …
In the Region of the Lumbar
A couple of weeks ago, as Sharon and I did our regular post-lesson car-talk, she said, 'Your arse is really, really in the saddle!' Well, that is celestial music to my ears. And while it's mostly all in the hips, my lower back had finally entered into my cantering. As I progress, more and more …
THE UNTHINKABLE
I was behind the clock all day: woke, late, feeling just that little bit under the weather, and what weather to be under. We didn't get hit nearly as bad as the UK, but we've had some snow, snow that's mostly been blanketing the Dublin Mountains. I feel like I've only gotten over being ill …
Ending the Silence
It's been a while. I've been thinking about a lot of posts, without actually getting around to actually posting them. Been a bit busy, working on the tweaks required on my next novel, The Fidelity Project, a good enough excuse, I suppose... this required some thinking, too, in the midst of all the other weekly, …
Magical Endorphins
All it took was another lesson, and all those muscles that had bunched up in shock unfurled again. It's always been my experience that whatever hurts after you horseride will feel better once you put your body back into position, and get those lovely, lovely endogenous opiates flowin'. So all of Thursday's aches and pains …
The Fruits of What I Am Like
Back in October, I wrote about the lengths I'm willing to go to get people to buy my novel, Drama Queen, egregious links notwithstanding. My latest caper was appearing in a panto, which was a legitimate journalistic assignment... along with an ad thrown in the programme for free [which I designed myself, sigh.] Here it …
MANY BRAVE FOOLS 