Way back when I started my first big paper in Classical History, I got in touch with a fellow named David Anthony who was doing some really interesting work on early horseback riding. I ended up using some of his papers for my work to support the idea that the Mycenaeans not only drove chariots but also rode horses. I have since then followed his work on and off, lately more off then on. A couple of weeks ago, Elio reminded me to check what he’s been up to next (I think we were discussing my lack of ideas for a final Classical History paper ;P), and to my surprise and delight I found that he published a book last year titled The Horse, The Wheel and Language. How Bronze Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World.

I immediately ordered it from Amazon.co.uk, and since it arrived a few days ago it has provided me with some very exciting reading material. I really like comparative linguistics, I find it completely fascinating, and of course I am thrilled to be reading anything focused on the importance of the horse in the development of human civilizations. Now, I was already in agreement with Anthony on his major point regarding the often argued point of where the Indo-European Homeland lies, but even so I think the book presents his case very well and in a way that is readable even for those who aren’t experts within the various areas. The linguistic sections are less fact-intensive than the archaeological, but even those are pretty readable (though you may want to skim some of the more detailed lists of finds at various sites), and overall I have found it very well-written. Lots of fascinating points are made about the development of cultures.

And now I really want to do my next paper on something that ties together Bronze Age Greece, the horse and Indo-European myths and religion. My first paper was sort of in that direction, but ended up being broad rather than particularly in-depth. Not sure if there’s enough material to work with, however, and its definitely not an area of expertise by any of the professors here in Gothenburg.

Before I get on with the gushing over pretty things, allow me to squeal. I won a contest! Specifically, SL Posers inaugural Flickr contest. My entries can be seen here and here. Now I will have even more fabulous LAP poses to play with. Poor Ran (he’s the photographer) will not get a moment free. ;) So, what’s on the menu today, other than showing off sexy poses? Well, a new fabulous dress from Adam n Eve (the colour is absolutely sinful), some more Tekeli-li jewellery and a skin reminder.

I am procrastinating, and that always gets me thinking about all sorts of things. Today’s random thoughts (actually, they’re not so much random as meandering little sidetracks sparked by a couple of things) concern some wishful thinking about skin selling approaches in SL and a little pet peeve about something resulting from the many recent virtual copyright cases (and no, its not no-mod hair this time, though I still dislike that).

This week, the last week of the semester, I finally managed to get around to private lesson in addition to my final regular lesson. Its been a few months since the last one, and I have been feeling that lately. I really wanted to get some serious work in on the weaknesses that have troubled me the most lately; my poor sense of rhythm and my lack of co-ordination. And, of course, I wanted some quality time with Murphy.

But before I dive into the lesson on Monday, what did happen last week? Well, I wasn’t alone there, so we had a theory lesson. Horse anatomy, in fact, and Campino and Nikita got painted up with green marker pens to show various bones and angles. I enjoy these sorts of things (the anatomy, not putting green marks on horses), and it fit in well with my homework about dog anatomy for the show training class I have been attending for a few Thursdays (the last one was this week), though I am not very good at it so far. I imagine it takes a lot of practice to get an eye for what is or isn’t a good angle, for example.

I have had my eye on Naergilien Wunderlich’s store for a while now. She is an RL costume designer who is reproducing many of her own designs for Second Life. Her store includes a lot of Victorian clothing, some Elizabethan outfits, and some outfits inspired by various period or fantasy movies. In addition to this, she has a separate store for modern clothing and she has also made a few photorealistic skins as well. Most recently she has added her first batch of period.appropriate hairs. It was this latest addition that prompted me to finally pick up a few things.

When it rains, and pours. sachi Vixen of Adam n Eve has released not one but two new male skin lines in the space of two days, and there was much rejoicing since it’s been a good while since she’s done a new male skin for sale. This review is of the first one, the David, which is available in four tones along with four facial hair options; each purchased skin comes with the option of head hair and bald. The tones run from relatively pale to quite dark, and the face (when compared to the second skin, Nicholas) seems a bit younger. 

Apparently, I am still starved from my long bout of very little reading, because yesterday another book found itself devoured at a rather alarming pace. Of course, Kushiel’s Mercy is admittedly not the first Jacqueline Carey book that I have finished in a day, and as I was feeling a bit down yesterday it proved an excellent way of drowning my sorrows. In short, it didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of lasting longer than a day.

As I popped over to check out Calla’s new store this morning, I ran into Tekelili Tantalus of Tekeli-li. Just the other day he released his latest set of fantasy jewellery, and he made me a very happy girl by giving me a copy of the full set. I guess that means I’ll catch up on some of the older releases that I don’t have yet instead with the funds intended for that purchase. ;) Alternatively, I’ll see if I can’t persuade Ran to let me buy him a copy of the new set too, because unlike past Tekeli-li releases this one is intended as a unisex set. As such, it includes two sizes of the bracelets and the choker.

There won’t be much of a report for today’s lesson, as we’re having theory. Well, unless I am the only one showing up so I get to ride again, which is vaguely possible considering the time of the year and the collision between the match between Sweden and Greece. In fact, I am tempted to stay at home myself, but I probably won’t as I need to try to arrange a private lesson for next week. That’s our last week of riding until August.

So, why am I posting now, then? To catch up on last week’s lesson, of course. ;P

I ended up on Gamir, and since the paddock was incredibly dry and dusty, we rode indoors. It wasn’t too hot, actually, but hot enough that Gamir started out soft and limber from the get-go. That was quite different from how he tends to be in winter. We warmed up mostly on our own, so we didn’t get a lot of feedback right then, but it felt to me as if he moved with a longer strider rather than a quicker stride when asked to move forward a bit more. Keeping my mind on the difference is, slowly but surely, making me more aware of what exactly is happening.

The lesson itself focused on working towards a half-pass, though we started out just doing a leg-yield with the neck flexion in the direction of movement as opposed to away from the direction of movement. We then added the bend of the horses body once we were able to get good sideways movement while retaining the neck flexion. At a walk, I was able to more or less sort this out. Gamir is well-schooled and finds moving sideways pretty easy, though maintaining the flexion and the right amount of forward movement takes a bit more work. At a trot, it did not go so well. These sort of exercises demand a lot from my own body control and co-ordination, and I pretty much twist myself into a pretzel trying to do it at a trot.

I was pretty pleased with the start of the lesson, not the least because I felt as if I had a better grasp on how Gamir was moving, but I need to work a lot on my co-ordination. I suspect that if I wasn’t riding, it would be a lot worse in general, and I should probably get back to taking dancing lessons to work on it outside of the riding.

After a few weeks of no shows, we had another one today. This was the same show that last year went very poorly, as the raspy speaker system spooked Ringo. He ended up with a 2 then, so I was definitely hoping to do better than that today. Of course, the last show (the boxer special last month) also resulted in a 2, though we have since heard that the judge there was so tough and so keen on handing out 2s that more blue ribbons had to be prepared. Still, he’s a little too round right now, since the heat has meant we can’t exercise him as much as we usually do, and his muscle tone is not as good as it was a month ago. With this in mind, I tried to keep my expectations realistic.

I have read appallingly little of late. Somehow, I just slipped out of a very long habit and ended up spending what normally has been reading time on other things. When I finally got around to picking up a book that has been on my to-read list for a long while, I ended up devouring it in a day of rather frantic reading, which showed me just how poorly I had fed my addiction of late. And, of course, it also showed that the book in question was so good that I couldn’t put it down. This was not a surprise, however, since C.S Friedman’s Coldfire trilogy ranks very high on my list of favourite books, and I am glad that my high hopes for her first new book in a very long while were fulfilled.

After looking over what I wrote about Ringo’s mental evaluation test a few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to write up a more thorough description of what it was like. Especially since we were so nervous in advance that we didn’t bother to get a hold of a video camera like most everyone else does these days, and the regular camera hadn’t been charged up so we ran out of batteries halfways in. Oops. ;P For those who aren’t familiar with this sort of test it might also give a better idea of what its like. One important thing to keep in mind is that although the scale is 1-5 for each test, the numbers don’t mean the same each time. Sometimes you want a 1, sometimes you want a 5 and sometimes something in-between. It also depends on the breed what you want, since they’re bred to do different things in certain situations.

It may be Sunday now, but I am still a little sore from last Tuesday’s lesson. Or, well, more from carrying out all the materials needed to build our little jumping course. Since we had a double jumping lesson, our instructor had put together a course consisting of 10 fences. Ouch. Lots of fun to jump, less fun to drag out and even less fun to drag back in afterwards.

One of my semi-regular blog reads is Deep Genre, where a number of sf and fantasy authors post about writing and related subjects. This morning, a post from yesterday by David Louis Edelman caught my eye. Its called Building Character(s) and contains a concise list of ideas for how to make a fully fleshed-out main character.

Of course, some of it doesn’t quite translate to a collaborative environment such as a MUSH, and some doesn’t work so well for having a character that evolves during play. Personally, I like starting with a more-or-less fully fleshed-out character, but I know that a lot of people prefer having more of a sketch to start with and letting the rest come from being on the game and interacting with other players. Both approaches are equally valid, though from the point of view of a game admin, I prefer the former since its easier to deal with at the application stage.

In any case, I think I will have to write up an article on how these ideas could translate to MU*ing, though I am thinking it will show up on the Blood of Dragons webpage rather than here. Given our rather extensive CharGen system, that sort of thing could perhaps be helpful.

I was trying to be a good girl yesterday (at least in terms of not spending all my hard-earned Lindens too impulsively), but we all know what happens to good intentions, right? In this case, mine took wing and flew out the window as soon as I saw the forum post announcing a new jewellery set from Tekeli-li. Off I went to check out the new offering, and moments later I was teleporting back home with a much higher ARC than when I arrived. Oops. ;)

This week, I blame Eurovision for my tardiness in posting. ;) Though, there wasn’t much to write about either, since we did our little once-per-semester tour in the nearby woods last Tuesday. Some of the horses had been sick with a mild virus, so it was decided that not doing anything strenuous was best. Since I was put on Murphy, that was fine by me. Riding outside of the arena or paddock is always something that makes me a little nervous, though Murphy is pretty reliable and that makes all the difference. This time, I had a very good ride. We got to do a fair bit of trotting and cantering for once (after all the development in the area, we don’t have a lot of good paths to use), and it even made me wish we had some jumps we could do. Murphy would have loved that.

When I saw the Lord Edward suit at the Fleur-Nicky Ree Spring Ball, being worn by a model, I just had to get it. It’s perhaps the most gorgeous piece of 18th century-inspired clothing I’ve seen in SL. The brocaded waistcoat, the big buttons against the green stripes, the aged lace, the knee-high stockings—just utter perfection, precisely the thing to suit this particular avatar (based on a roleplaying character I’ve always supposed existed in a sort of broadly 17th-18th century sort of setting). Alas, Nicky hadn’t gotten it into her store then, so it was an anxious few days until I could finally get my hands of it.

We’ve finally added a bunch of new pictures of Ringo. There’s one addition to the 2007 gallery, the rest are in the newly added 2008 gallery. They’re mainly from the last show, the boxerspecial on the 11th of May, and from his MH test on the 17th of May. I am also working on a more thorough description of what happened during his testing, which may be up in a day or two.

Last week was taken up with worrying about the dog’s test on Saturday, so of course it totally slipped my mind to write about my last lesson. Given that its already Tuesday again, its definitely time to get it done now.

I was put on Gamir instead of Murphy this time, and given that we ended up focusing on a lot of canter work I suspect that was a rather purposeful shift. Gamir needs much less help with his canter, so he’s a good horse for me to work on doing less. Which I still need to work on. A lot. ;P I also managed to continue the trend from last week of mistaking a higher stride frequency for a longer stride when working on varying the tempo, both during the warm-up and during the actual canter work.

Today, the time had come for Ringo’s ‘MH’ test, which is an evaluation of his mentality. In general, it is done between 12 and 18 months of age, but we felt Ringo was too immature this autumn and then it took until now before the local boxer club arranged another one. Given that he has shown a fear of fireworks as well as reacted to gun shots, I was very nervous about taking the test (the last part of the test is four gun shots). In fact, I almost changed my mind about doing it today, as late as when we were out there and ready to start. But we decided to go ahead anyway, and given the end result I am very glad that we did it. Instead of scraping by on the shots, Ringo passed with the best possible score. Whew!

Now, mind you, I am pretty certain it had a lot to do with him being dead tired at that stage, because he had been so keyed up earlier and managed to get himself quite worn out from lots of pulling and from his usual sensitivity to warmth. However, even taking that into account, his reaction was miles better than I had expected. He also surprised us (less positively so) by not doing so great when it came to gripping things and when it came to curiosity. At home, he’s ferocious when it comes to grabbing and holding onto things, and tug of war his a favourite game. He also tends to be pretty curious. But today, he was actually quite reserved. I think he becomes a bit more passive when he has a lot to process, basically. It seems to be either going totally bonkers because his brain overheats, or becoming very pensive.

He also showed some very interesting reactions to people. If the helpers initiated contact with him, he went wild with joy, jumping up in their faces. If they did nothing, he just sniffed them and ignored them. To some degree, I think this is because of his age; he’s started to learn that if someone doesn’t show interest in him, he’s supposed to ignore them. In any case, we were thrilled with him passing with such a good result on the shooting, and it was interesting to see how he reacted to the other parts of the test.

Yesterday, Ayesha Bisiani of Skin Within launched yet another addition to her line of gorgeous and highly distinctive female skins. The new addition is called Zarya, and it is intended as a Greek skin. Certainly, Zarya’s olive complexion, slightly toned body and wide variety of stunning makeups are definitely worthy of a classical goddess.

We sure had a busy weekend. First a kennelclub show on Saturday and then the boxerspecial on Sunday. The common denominator for both was hot weather and a very well-behaved Ringo.

No, I don’t miss last week entirely. We didn’t ride, as we will be doing a double-length jumping lesson in a few weeks. This week, though? Well, I almost didn’t ride this week either, since a lovely norovirus (also known as “winter vomiting disease") decided to forget that it was May and struck me down with a vengeance on Monday. I was sick as a whole pack of dogs, and while the worst was over on Tuesday, I was still very weak then. But, I took a bunch of pain killers and some fruit sugar to perk me up, and headed off.

What do you get if you mix a limited edition fantasy makeup from Skin Within with a fae costume from Adam n Eve and some gorgeous accessories from Tekeli-li? A pretty striking result, if I may say so myself, but do read on and see if you agree with me.

In a remarkable move, Archaia Studio Press has made almost all the issues of its flagship title, Artesia, available for free at Wowio. This includes all three initial series of six issues, through Artesia Afire. The on-going Artesia Besieged, however, is not included, nor are the annuals Smylie created.

Artesia is, hands down, the best epic fantasy being produced in American comics. There is now absolutely no excuse to give these a try.

Its been slow on the show front since January, though I have actually had plenty of other things (like our weekly trips up to the local club to train the little monster) I could have posted about. I’ve just been very lazy. That’ll have to change now. Today was the first of three shows in May, with the other two coming up the 10th and the 11th. We’ll have to hope for a better result there. ;) Today’s judge did not much care for Ringo, and we did not go on from the individual evaluation. This was the evaluation:

Male under development. Needs stronger sex characteristics in his head, somewhat small teeth, dark eyes, head needs to be somewhat larger for the body. Powerful neck, adequate length. Needs to come up a little on his legs, open forearm angles. Good muscle tone, somewhat thin coat today, good guard hairs, beautiful stripes. Needs steadier movements. Accessible and lively temperament.

Result: UKL-2

Some of these things sound quite strange to us, since they contradict things previously said, so we’re chalking it up mostly to the judge. ;) His coat is, however, not great at the moment, so that may affect the other two shows too.

What was great today, however, was his behaviour. Well, great for him, anyway. It seems like weekly training at the club has gotten him to be a little more responsive to me when around a lot of dogs and a lot of people. I have also learned a couple of good tricks for dealing with him when he goes into overdrive, such as just pulling the leash down and standing on it, and I finally remembered to take my time when he did act up rather than hurrying up because I worry so much about being an inconvenience. So, instead of pressing ahead with a dog hanging from my arm and growling at me, I stopped him, waited until he gave in (basically, he had to cool off a bit so I could communicate with him again, since he just ends up totally blocked when he gets too excited), and gave him some treats. I also picked up some useful tips about showing him at a show training this last Tuesday, and I think it helped a lot with keeping him posed fairly nicely in front of the judge.

So, despite a lack of red ribbons, I am pleased with the day, and I hope it made a positive impression on Ringo.

As I sat down to write this post, I realized that I would once again be running into vocabulary issues, and that I probably need to tackle this sooner rather than later. I do have a horse terminology dictionary which goes from English to Swedish and from Swedish to English, but it doesn’t cover as many dressage terms as I would like and some of them I am a little suspicious of. Some searching around seems to have uncovered what I needed for this post, however. 

This Tuesday I was, once again, reminded that I could really, really use a pair of longer legs when riding. I don’t suppose they sell extensions anywhere? ;P

I was put on Sammy instead of Murphy, and while I love the old fellow dearly, he’s rather broad. For stumpy-legged me, that means that even just sitting straight up and down, my legs don’t quite end up in the right position. And if I start trying to have a more forward leg, or a leg drawn back a bit, it gets even dicier. As we were doing shoulder in work, and were asked to have our inner leg a little forward (to emphasize to the horse that it should wrap around the leg a bit) and our outer leg a bit back, I struggled quite a bit.

I don’t have great leg position to start with, and when it becomes physically difficult to get into a certain position, I tend to avoid it as I don’t much care for discomfort. I am trying to improve it a bit by doing leg exercises again, to make them a bit stronger and a bit more supple, since it did help when I did that regularly some time ago. But there’s no getting around the fact that my build is not great for riding and that my seat (which needs work to start with) deteriorates very quickly as soon as I get onto something that is a little too big. I imagine that if I rode more regularly and if my seat and my coordination was much better, I could compensate for my shortcomings more easily. But as it is, it takes very little to throw off my precariously gained balance.

So, that lesson ended up being a lot about my body, and I didn’t have as much success with Sammy as I would have liked. However, I did manage to act on one error from the week before, namely how I was handling his outside. This week, I concentrated a lot on riding his outside forward to the outer hand, and I think it made quite a difference.

Lately, Ran and myself have started to develop a slight addiction to silent sparrow. We’ve had an interest in hyasynth Tiramisu’s gorgeous Victorian and Gothic offerings for some time, and picked up a few pieces (as well as many very lovely freebies), but it has been the most recent releases that have had us eagerly opening up any notecards from her group to see what is on offer. Today the Beloved suit arrived, available in a male and a female version, and we realized we just had to get ourselves a matching set. 

For the last few days, I have been sauntering about in rather less than what one probably ought to wear in public, but I simply have had too much fun wearing the new Crochet silks from Adam n Eve to take them off unless I am going somewhere .... well, respectable. ;)

Now, silks from Adam n Eve are generally of a style than you can wear in most areas, as they tend to feature full skirts and tops that amount to a bit more than pasties. The Crochet silk is from a similar cut, with one of the four bottom-half options being a full skirt (the other are a mini-skirt, a loin-cloth style skirt and harem pants), but as the name suggest the material isn’t all that covering.