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 Crop Chronicles: Failure To Communicate
It is fair to say I was obsessed with crops when I started riding. It is fair to say I am still losing and gaining long sticks fourteen years on. Below please find the first repost of the series known [only to me] as The Crop Chronicles. OCTOBER 18, 2006 I am reminded of the …
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‘The Power To Change Our Own Lives’
How in the world did I survive One Day At A Time In Al-Anon? Insert craughing emoji here. The page for today talks about acceptance, insofar it does not mean accepting a 'degrading situation' but rather accepting what the facts of the situation are, and making decisions according to the facts. Hahahahaha, facts: facts could …
Today’s ODAT Reading: Oof.
Oh man. That little blue book absolutely does not pull any punches. Without a breath of hesitation, I shot straight back into victim mode as I read it. It's about silence, and how the Al-Anon partner often uses it as a tool of spite. Hang on, I thought, as I read the text, cautioning the …
Seriously, Though: ODAT
As we call it in the rooms. Oof. Not gonna lie, this little blue book still gives me the shudders. I bought it, resisting, and read it, unwilling. But after buying it and becoming willing, that's when the changes — the courage to change — started taking effect. Copyright prevents me from publishing a photo …
One Day At A Time
All the folks who need meetings and can't get them have really been on my mind, due to social distancing and the current health climate. I've always been a fan of the twelve-step slogans and found them to be my way in to grasping the principles of the programme. Here's an excerpt from Many Brave …
Talking with Talking In The Barn
This is a terrific blog featuring Q&As with all sorts of horsey people — like me! Go here for my chat with FJ! *** 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 …
Many Brave Fools and the Equus Film & Arts Festival 2019
Delighted to announce I am in contention for an award at this year's Equus Film & Arts Festival at the Kentucky Horse Park, 5-8 December. Gutted to say I can't be there to partake in this literal festival of horsey books and films, filmmakers and authors, panels and all sorts of activities. I am in …
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As Good As a Rosette
What's the big deal, you wonder? It's only an auld piece of paper... Well, what happened was: we had a flat lesson in the upper arena. I am well over any fear of William losing what's left of his sanity up there — famous last words, but 'from the brain to the rein'. I have …
Have I Ever Told You My Michael Palin Story?
So: At the end of the taught year in my masters at Trinity, I moved to Stoneybatter after having lived in city centre. Of a Saturday, I loved to stroll down Manor Street, across a series of laneways and underpopulated byways, into the shopping district, always ending up at Easons bookshop. One Saturday I was …
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