A Story of Addiction, Dysfunction, Codependency… and Horses
OR DO I? Off I went, to have my weirdly strong reading glasses checked, the ones I got before the Rona kicked off, and I was taking my usual informal poll of how many people were going about masked. Informal statistic: not many. On my corner sits a real estate agent whose plate glass windows …
Continue reading "I Need to Stop Talking to People Like They Are Horses"
I was cleaning out the inbox of one of my email addys [and forwarding some stuff to another one LOL] when I came across the below. This is from 2018 which in 2020 time-framing is exactly one million years ago. I had started writing about this while away from my desk; I sent it to …
Continue reading "On Replacement Horses and Not Freaking Out"
I began this post on 21st May. I'm leaving it as and adding to it now, in June. *** Horses give out only that which they receive because, as prey, they are prepared to react to changes in their surroundings. They have evolved as a species due to this alertness and preparedness. “Horses have ensured …
Continue reading "Started Talking About Fear in May; In June, Black Lives Matter"
The worst days are the ones when I ought to be up the yard. As a writer and freelancer, I'm good at managing my time. I have stuff to get done and I know how much energy each task takes, and, more likely, how much anxiety I have to be generating around a deadline until …
An experienced horse person might read about my first successful crack at a course and scoff. If I was bothered by that, it might serve to minimise the sheer joy I can still tap into when I think about it. Luckily: not bothered. In the same way, there's a lot of chat on socials about …
I'm going to block quote this, because: yeah. "Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation so difficult that it seems like a long-drawn crisis; we cannot solve it; there is no way to escape. Such a problem will occupy our thoughts continually—round and round it goes and the more we think about it, the more …
Getting back into One Day at a Time is nothing like getting into a warm, welcoming bath (I'd say another Al-Anon day-by-day book, Courage to Change, is more like that). Nope, this is more like sitting down with a friend who is all about the tough love. They have your best at heart but are …
We had a riding club dressage competition (unlike the last time, it was not one day event-style, so there was no jumping) and once again, I learned more than the test. I felt confident that I knew what I was doing, as regards having memorised the thing; I was not 100% convinced that the final …
Hmmm, can't immediately recall when this was (too lazy to for a trawl through the posts), but it's a while ago — cannot imagine getting Cathal round a course of 80s at this stage... *** We didn't jump on Tuesday, and we didn't jump on Saturday, and I woke up on Sunday wondering, Do I …
Continue reading "No Pictures, No Ribbons, No Nothing — But a Really Good Round"
We didn't jump on Tuesday, and we didn't jump on Saturday, and I woke up on Sunday wondering, Do I remember how to jump? I ride often, but I haven't been riding for very long, and so stuff like that gets into my head. In the beginning, even up until my second year, time taken …
Continue reading "No Pictures, No Ribbons, No Nothing — But a Really Good Round"
MANY BRAVE FOOLS 