Hippoi Athanatoi

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.

Today was the second lesson of Ringo’s obedience course. This is stage two of basic obedience and after my dad had him for all of stage one (which he did this spring), I had said I’d do at least some of stage two. Last week, I had too much work to go along, but today I decided I could take the time out. It proved to be an ... interesting experience.

I was much too tired to post last night about the first of the regular lessons for the semester, and since I am still kind of sluggish (plus I’ve got three Meerkat Manor episodes to subtitle for Animal Planet), this will probably turn out a bit briefer than usual.

That’s not to say, however, that it wasn’t an interesting lesson. First, there was the dreaded weigh-in, which went well. However, since there was quite few of us (some people had probably missed the change in starting time), a lot of horses got to sit (err, stand) this one out. So, I ended up with Fleur. This time of the year I am okay with riding her in the outdoor arena, because warm weather makes her rather laid-back and not very skittish, though this time there was another, unexpected problem. Fleur, you see, would not have passed a weigh-in herself. In fact, she looks like she’ll drop a pair of foals any moment, and sitting on her felt a little like sitting on a barrel. Add to that an overly-polished saddle (darn kids ;P) and a pair of old breeches without the fully lined legs and seat I have become accustomed to and you have a recipe for an unsteady seat.

Today it was time for the second of my private lessons this week, and once again I was put on Murphy. Before we got started, however, we had some little issues to deal with. As I went to fetch his tack, I saw that one of the ponies, Ida, was loose in her stall. Since her halter hung neatly in its place, I thought that maybe she was left loose for some reason. But while I was wondering about this another horse, Spitfire, ended up walking out of his stall and out of the stable. Clearly, someone had forgotten to get them tied up properly after taking them in from the field. So, as I was alone in the stable, I had to go after Spitfire and get him back in. He wasn’t entirely keen on this idea, but fortunately he didn’t object too much once I had gotten a hold of him.

After seven long weeks of no riding and no close encounters with any equines at all, it was finally time today for the first of the two private lessons I had booked as a warm-up to the proper lessons starting next week. As usual, I’ve spent the last week or so worrying that Murphy wouldn’t be alright (that’s the worst part about the summer break at the riding school), though yesterday when I called up to confirm the time I made sure to ask who I’d be getting for my lessons. I was more than a little thrilled to find out that I had been put on Murphy for both lessons.

Today it was time for another much too early morning. And this time we only had to drive about 30 minutes away, so imagine how early we’ll need to get up for the next one (that’s the Swedish Boxer Championships, so its worth the extra effort) that is closer to 4 hours away. Anyway, today was a smaller affair. An official show for working dogs, with 10 boxers signed up. One of them being our little ... handful (that sounds nicer than hellion, I think).

Daniel Abraham’s debut novel, A Shadow in Summer, has seen its paperback version finally released. First in the Long Price Quartet, the paperback release precedes the publication of the next installment of the series, A Betrayal in Winter

Summer vacation usually means a chance to catch up on some reading, and this year was no different, though it took some effort rounding up enough books to keep us happy for two weeks. Clearly, we’ve been slacking when it comes to finding new things to try out. In the end, however, we ended up finding some new favourites, both among recent and older books.

One thing that I’ve always wanted done are portraits of mine (and Elio’s) various MUSH characters. I’ve toyed with the idea of commissioning art, but the kind of artists I tend to really like have a habit of being rather far out of my price range. I also have such specific ideas for my characters that I’ve sort of resigned myself to the fact that the only way I will get what I want is if I learn to paint really, really well myself.

That still holds true when it comes to ‘real’ art, but in the mean time (while I am trying to learn to paint, that is) I have found one way of at least what I think are pretty good representations of my characters: Second Life.

It sort of started with GRRM’s Second Life appearance. Elio already had an account, though he had only used it a few times to check things out, but for this event we spent a few Linden dollars to make his avatar look more presentable. And it was then that it hit me that this could be a really neat way of creating character portraits. As a result, I ended up creating an account, and now I’ve spent more than a few hours the last few months creating a custom avatar shape for each of my characters. In addition to that, we’ve purchased skin, hair and pretty clothes, and the first few portrait pictures are now up in the Art gallery.

A few pictures from the show last Sunday have been added to the Ringo 2007 gallery. Next time, I think we’ll see if we can’t get a bit of filming done as well (and hopefully he won’t act like a rabid little monster just then).

The fourth chapter of The Mirador can now be read on Sarah Monette’s official website, and if offers another tantalizing teaser (which may or may not make the wait easier) for the book that is due out in August.

On Saturday, we set on our annual summer trip to our house in the area of Sundsvall. This year, however, we didn’t do the whole 700+ km drive in one go. Instead, we did about half on Saturday, then stayed the night at a tiny camping place in the middle of nowhere. On Sunday morning, we got up way too early to get ready ... for a boxer show. Somehow, we had decided it would be a good idea to go to a dog show along the way. So, at around 8 am on Sunday morning, we arrived at a cosy little dog club, also in the middle of nowhere, to join a pretty large gathering of (mostly) happy, tail-wagging boxers and their owners.