Having just 'sat' an exam, as they say over here, I'm thinking about learning. I love learning new things. As I explained in item number one here, I'm a bit of a chancer when it comes to studying. In this case, as always, I managed to study the right things, enough to know, once I …
I’m It
EIGHT THINGS YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME Anne from smellshorsey has tagged me to play an internet meme, originated by Rebecca Laffer-Smith at The Writer's Roundabout. I am delighted to join in, particular due to the first item on my list: 1] I'm supposed to be studying for a social psychology exam. I'm sitting the …
My, My, My
I was so delighted [and relieved] to have Delilah again on Saturday. The ride is coalescing— we are closed to n00bs, now, and that helps— and even though we've had different instructors for the last bunch of weeks, things are going well. I was told that Delilah was cranky, but she seemed to be going …
Space Cowgirl
MORE OHMMMMMM [ALSO: IS IT BULLSHIT? PART 2] Yeah, spacing out. 'Dissociating' as it is known in psychological parlance. It's been kind of a hobby of mine for years. A coping skill, I suppose, that I've mostly been aware of, often calling it by the harmless name of daydreaming. It is not a terrible defect …
Ohmmmmmmm
I didn't realise something was going on until we started jumping. It had all the hallmarks of being a really good hour: only three of us in the ride, I had Rebel, personally bridled by me, the going was a teeny bit slippy in the indoor, but we were going and going, at least twenty …
Fall the Seventh
I AM A RIDER What a day. It’s exactly the kind of day that causes Dubliners to remark to one another, known and unknown: ‘What a day!’ Bright, clear, bluest sky, the sun with some heat still in it, but the breath of a nip in the air. Simply gorgeous. Add to this the fact …
Fall the Sixth
SEPTEMBER 2007 We’re jumping a course. A course! It’s my second one, and I. Love. It. I’m on Delilah, and she’s not crazy about the sand arena, it's hard on her and therefore it’s harder for me to keep my arse in the saddle in the canter. But we’re going great guns the second time …
Falls: The Fourth and Fifth
JULY, 2007 I try another stable for a private lesson. I feel like I’m having an affair. ‘Pluto’ [names changed to protect the innocent and stubborn] is a strong, well-built cob. He had been taken in from the field directly into the lesson. Yeah, good idea. He takes a moment at M, every time we …
This is What Happens On Saturdays
OCTOBER 2006 I get up. I leave the flat in good time, to do some errands in town, maybe meet a friend for a cuppa, and eat [usually, unspeakably, to my abject horror, as if it’s beyond my control, at McDonalds] and in my morbid fear of missing the number 63 bus at 13.00, I …
The Shittiest Hour Yet
28 OCTOBER, 2006 It was the shittiest hour yet. There was, of course, no way of knowing how shitty it was going to be. It’s my eighth week of lessons, Argo and I an indissoluble team. I’m feeling pretty good, considering that all I did was walk for my entire first lesson, two short months …
MANY BRAVE FOOLS 