Hippoi Athanatoi

Daniel Abraham, an excellent writer currently best known for his Long Price Quartet (beginning with A Shadow in Summer), has begun to post on his blog about an informal symposium on epic fantasy that he organized involving a number of authors, including George R.R. Martin, S.M. Stirling, Walter Jon Williams, Melinda Snodgrass, and others. His first post outlines very broadly some interesting areas in which the discussion ranged, and he promises more details posts in the future giving readers a fuller idea on these topics. Definitely something to keep an eye out for.

We had a theory lesson this week, so there’s not too much to report on. We had a horse down in the arena (Winston was the lucky volunteer ;) and our instructor demonstrated some lunging for us. We discussed various kinds of equipment and their pros and cons as well as how to handle problems one may encounter while lunging a horse. On the whole, she prefers ground driving or working them loose, though she only does the latter with horses she knows are suitable for it. They don’t use lunging a lot at the riding school either (basically, its just done for demonstration purposes), so most of the horses aren’t used to it at all. They do some ground driving occasionally when getting a horse back to work after an injury, but generally they work them under the saddle.

Winston was a pretty decent subject to work with (though he did try to kick me a few times in the stables as I got him ready ;P). He was relatively okay with lunging, but he did try some evasive tactics, giving her a chance to show various ways of countering them. Next time we have a theory lesson, we’ll probably do lunging again, and try to get some hands-on practice in. I am already looking forward to getting dizzy. ;P I have tried it a few times, and that has been the inevitable result each time.

Javelin (formerly the maintainer of the PennMUSH codebase and still the owner of M*U*S*H) has been running a series of MU*-related podcasts called Tinytalk for a while now. Some time ago, he contacted me and asked if I was interested in taking part in a segment he wanted to do focusing on women and MU*ing. Since I like what he’s doing (and okay, since I like talking, too ;), I said yes.

About a week ago, he sent some questions (originally, it was supposed to be a discussion with several women, but he had to do it as a montage instead since times conflicted) and last Friday we did the interview over Skype. As usual when I talk ‘in public’, I forgot to breathe and talked a bit too fast, though Elio insists I don’t sound too stupid. So, since I foolishly trust him, here’s the link to the show.

After I was too tired to post Tuesday evening, it completely slipped my mind yesterday. Bad Linda. Especially since the lesson was a distinct improvement from the previous two weeks. I was still on Fleur, but since the weather had warmed up again (thank you, global warming, depriving me of a proper autumn ;P), she was distinctly more mellow (read: almost lazy, which I have no issues with). That girl really is like a thermometer.

We continued to work on keeping a steady rhythm (we’ve also added some lateral work these last weeks, and there a good rhythm has always been a big weakness of mine), and after an initial chat with my instructor about how to tackle some of the issues I have with Fleur, I got a much better grasp on how to ride her. Since she’s got a short stride, and is getting a little stiffer (she’s 15-16, I believe), its pointless to ask for too much forward-going right off. Instead, I need to keep her fairly short (her long neck tends to stick up otherwise) and engage the hindlegs to ride her forward to a hand that isn’t so far away.

My instructor was still asking me for more activity at a few points during the lesson, but overall I rode about as effectively as I ever get around to when not taking a private lesson (not only do I get passive when I am nervous, I also get passive when I think too much about what I am doing, so constant nagging helps with that last bit at least. ;), and Fleur certainly worked pretty well. So, a nice change from the last few weeks, though if its cold for our next jumping lesson I’d be very happy to switch horses still.

Today was the first lesson of Ringo’s new course: tracking. Since the next obedience course isn’t scheduled until April (which is just as well, because he needs a lot of training before then), we decided to indulge his interest in tracking in order to give him something to spend some of all his energy on. So, now I am sitting here with really sore hands, because he was (as usual) absolutely wild when getting to meet with other dogs and do super-fun things like follow a track made by dragging a deer hoof over the ground.

Since he saw us put the track down, it was a little hard to get him to track with his nose down all the time, and he also went waaaaay too fast (when competing, the dog isn’t allowed to pull on the leash, so we have some work left), but he more or less got the idea and happily grabbed and carried the hoof. We sure can’t complain about his interesting in grabbing things.

After we had finished up, we passed by where they do agility training, and tried out one of the obstacles (a big, inverted V) with him. First two tries, he ran to the top and then jumped off because he didn’t see he could go down the other side. Third time, he did it properly and really fast. He sure isn’t afraid of heights. In fact, a teensy bit more caution would probably not be a bad thing. But oh no, he’s a boxer through and through.

As I had suspected, I got Fleur this week too. I did ask what else was on the menu (no Murphy, presumably since two other groups jumped today), and I did consider whether I might dare to try Martino again or perhaps Winston. But ... no. I’ll have a chat with my instructor about them, though, to see if she thinks any of them might suit me, at least for non-canter work. Somehow, I do need more options. With Gamir and Sammy almost never being used for our lessons, and Nelson’s weight limit having been lowered, that means I am pretty much down to just Murphy and Fleur. And for winter, that’s no good, since Fleur will become increasingly lively.

Today was better than last week, since we didn’t do any cantering, but I was timid in my riding and the results weren’t too impressive. It wasn’t just all an issue with my nerves, though. Partly, I wasn’t getting a good grip on how to counter her putting her head up. I tend to shorten the reins a bit much and try to pack her together, instead of riding her forward and getting her to come down that way, so she ends up becoming too passive. Eventually, however, I got myself to ride her on longer reins and to ride her more forward, and the last three walk to trot transitions came out fairly well. Her lateral work also improved throughout the lesson, just a lot more slowly than if I had been riding effectively all along.

Towards the end of the class, a disturbance in the form of a very vocal stallion outside was introduced. Someone had decided to take their stallion to the riding school for some socializing training, and all the girls were very interested when we walked outside. Handsome fellow, certainly.

Today was not a particularly good day in terms of my riding at least. I was back on Fleur, and unfortunately she showed the same tendencies that she showed last time outdoors towards easily getting tense and stressed. And since today’s exercise involved mixing trotting and cantering with the transition in a more or less fixed location, she ended up getting very rushy every time we neared that spot. Add to that a new horse that ended up shying as he got too close to Fleur, thereby scaring the silly little girl, and there was plenty for my nerves to get rattled by.

Most of the time, I simply couldn’t get myself to sit back down and ride her, I just kept curling up and leaning forward, with a cramped grip on reins that I kept way too short. She did canter fairly well—really well for being Fleur, actually, whenever we got onto a circle, but that was because she slowed down a bit then, which immediately relaxed me a bit so that I sat down properly and gave her some more rein. But as soon as she had a straight stretch ahead of her, she tensed up and put her head up. And if there’s anything I can’t stand, its a horse that feels tense. I can deal with lively or strong as long as the horse doesn’t feel tense. Sammy, for example, gets really charged up by these exercises too, but he doesn’t get tense. With Fleur, and some others, the tension makes it feel as if I am sitting ‘on top’ of them rather than ‘in’ them. Which logically makes no sense, but that’s the sensation I get. I feel like I could get tossed off at any moment.

So, not good. I really ought to ride her again next week, but I am not sure it will do much good now. Gamir would be nice, if she doesn’t want to put me on Murphy again. He can also get tense, but usually I can work it through on him, so that might be a good one to tackle. I am getting really bothered again by the lack of horses that I can ride, though, and everything new that they buy is either too small or too big. We haven’t had a new mid-sized (150-160 cm) horse for a very long while.

By the time that it was time to head off to the stables yesterday, I was definitely ready for a relaxing riding lesson after struggling for most of the day with an extremely annoying translation (I hate extreme sports shows ;P). Fortunately, a rather muddy but eager (he clearly hadn’t been ridden yet) Murphy was waiting at the stables.

That about sums up today’s dog show. Ringo has been a bit on the feisty side this week, and I had my concerns, especially as he did turn out to be very lively as we got to the show. However, he settled down after a while, and I actually thought it might work out okay.

Hah.

Yesterday the time came for our epic double jumping lesson. The weather and the season (it was now much darker in the evening than two weeks ago) conspired against us, however, and we were forced to set the course up indoors rather than in the paddock. A little disappointing, since I had looked forward to jumping Murphy outdoors, but it was rather chilly and dark. Plus, it takes a lot more work to carry all the materials out into the paddock. Not to mention back in again after the lesson. As it was, I still ended up carrying way too much for my back anyway to get us started at a somewhat reasonable hour, since the lesson before us was more than a little late.

Late again. Came up against a pair of deadlines, and one of them won. The other is still looming, but a break was needed. Another riding lesson would have been nice, too, but at least I’ve got a double dose of jumping to look forward to for next week. And, hopefully, Murphy as well, since we got to put down requests for horses for next week’s double feature.

A very belated entry, but I’ve been quite knackered since I got back last night. It ended up being a pretty tough lesson (in retrospect, I think we should have gone for the hacking out that had been planned, but was changed since we did it twice last semester ;P) and for me it was not the right time of the month for that. So, I’ve been pretty useless today.

It was, however, a good lesson. I had Murphy and once again we worked on maintaining a set cadence and a suitable pace, regardless of gait. In particular, we were supposed to make transitions from one gait to another without changes in cadence.

I am not entirely coherent at the moment, due to having started the day at 3 am in the morning to attend the Swedish Boxer Championships. It was a 3.5 hour drive there and a 3.5 hour drive back, plus lots of tense waiting around at the show area. So, I am feeling kind of mushy. It was worth the effort, though. It was quite something special to see all those lovely boxers and, of course, to get a chance to meet Ringo’s breeders, his brother (Riddles Rod Stewart), his mother (Riddles Paula Abdul) and his aunt (Riddles Petula Clark).

The actual show went pretty well. For once, Ringo behaved pretty darn well (though the judge didn’t quite think it was enough), though I made some silly mistakes and got some good tips on how to improve things in the future. The competition was very tough, however. There were at least 15 males in the junior class, about twice the size of any other we’ve entered. The breeder helped lower my expectations by saying that it was entirely possible that both Ringo and his brother would get 2’s at this stage, since they need more development. So, when Ringo actually got a 1, I was pretty pleased. He didn’t, however, place among the top 5. Whether he was close or not, I don’t know. The judge didn’t seem to care too much for dogs of his type, though, since his brother only got a 2 (very strange, since they’re really similar). The critique was one of those without anything negative (save for the show training bit) but also without that something extra:

Medium-sized, good bone. Masculine. Correct topline and chest, good angels. Typical head expression, correct muzzle, dark eyes. Moves well but needs more show training.

Not too much to report today, as we had a theory lesson. Well, practical theory lesson, but anyway. We had Spitfire down in the arena to do some loose jumping. Next to Gamir, he’s one of the most skilled jumpers we have in the stable, having competed internationally at a fairly high level. He ended up with us because he failed a veterinary inspection before a sale, and the riding school gambled on his problems not being recurring ones. So far, he’s been very sound, and he’s a very good jumper. Just a little on the hot side, though, and in combination with his size that means there’s no way I’ll ever be riding him.

What we did today was a pretty basic two-jump setup, which we used to observe how his technique changed with the height of the obstacles. Being as experienced as he is, he didn’t have much of an issue with judging the distance for himself, though he certainly didn’t jump any higher than he had to either. He’s a pretty gutsy horse who isn’t scared about occasionally knocking into a rail. It would have been interesting to have a few more horses down, to compare techniques, but having just him storm around in there was probably safest. ;)

Today, Ringo turned 1. When I got back from my riding lesson, he was treated to some ribs (minus the bones) and some ice cream. He seemed to like it. ;) He also got a days reprieve from training, but tomorrow I better get him back on track, considering the show on Sunday. But today he got to be just a birthday boxer.