Hippoi Athanatoi

Today the whole family went to Slottskogen, a park in Gothenburg with assorted animals such as seals, a myriad of birds (including a few peacocks), several varieties of goats and various deer types. This is something we’ve done with all of our previous dogs, as its usually an excellent way of getting them used to lots of people as well as introducing them to all sorts of animals.

Ringo, alas, turned out to be much more interested in children. Baby strollers are a particular favourite. We kept trying to get him to notice the various animals, but only a few of them got him to look for any length of time. Of course, it used to be much easier years ago when you were allowed to feed the animals. They then congregated near the fences and we have a few shots of our first dog standing with his paws on the fence and sniffing something with very large horns that was standing up against the other side of the fence. These days, when the animals know they’re not getting anything from the visitors, they see no reason at all to come up close. Much better for their health, no doubt, but I did like getting up close and personal with them when I was younger.

The only ones who came up at all close were some goats and one of the peacocks, and Ringo did seem at least somewhat interested in them. But the highlight of the walk for him was probably meeting another boxer. He can be such a speciest little dog.

It took some effort this year, but we finally managed to put together a decent-sized order of books to bring along for our vacation. In case we’re not alone in suffering a shortage of ideas for what to read, we figured we’d share a few of the titles we’re picking up as well as some of the books we’ve either read recently or will be picking up as soon as they’re released.

Last lesson of the semester today. Fortunately, our regular instructor was well enough that she was there today, so we were able to hand over the coffee and chocolate that I had bought for her from the group. Unfortunately, I still wasn’t able to book a private lesson with her on Murphy for Thursday as I had planned, since some wicked pony had bitten Murphy right where the saddle would be. Apparently several of them had come on with bite marks, so it looks like the boys had quite a rowdy time in the field the other day. ;P

So, no Murphy for me today, and probably not on Thursday either, unless I decide to do a bareback private lesson. Still considering whether that’d be worth it or not. If not, I might still call in tomorrow and book one on another horse. Perhaps Sammy, whom I rode today for the second week in a row. Though, I had planned to work on my seat, and Sammy isn’t exactly great for that. But I’ll ponder it some. Otherwise, this was likely the last bit of riding for me for about two months.

Looks like being late with these is becoming a habit. Then again, this week wasn’t overly exciting either. Our poor instructor was no longer ill, but now she was injured instead. Her (very large) horse ended up spooking as she took him in from the field, and landed on her foot. So, we had a replacement this week too (and may have one next week too, which means I won’t manage another private lesson before the semester ends, darnit). She allowed us to pick horses ourselves (we usually get them selected for us), and I ended up second-to-last. Fortunately, Sammy was left, and though I was a bit miffed about missing out on both Murphy and Nelson, I really like Sammy too and haven’t had a chance to ride him for ages. And now that he’s the oldest horse in the stables and nearing 20, I do feel I have to take the chances I get to ride him, since he surely must be nearing his retirement (though, so far he’s doing pretty well, being a sturdy Irish horse).

So, today we had another show. A big, national all-breed show about an hour away from where we live. Despite the size of the show, however, with some 1200 dogs both Saturday and Sunday, there were only 5 boxers entered. We knew this in advance, and we also knew that boxers were going first in their ring and Ringo was going first of the boxers. So, it could be either a very short day or a fairly long one. As it turned out, it ended up being a long one, but not for the right reasons. Which, in this too darned hot weather (I am burned to a crisp in places, despite putting on lots of sunlotion and trying to stay in the shade) wasn’t all that welcome.

The third chapter of The Mirador is now up at Sarah Monette’s official website. This is the sequel to Mélusine and The Virtu, and this chapter (like the two earlier previews) is a real treat.

A late report again. I better make sure this doesn’t become a habit. Though I had a passable excuse this time, since we didn’t really do much yesterday. Our regular instructor was sick, and the replacement had decided we were going to trek out. Never mind that we had already done that once this semester and we really aren’t supposed to have to do it more than once since it isn’t exactly great value for our money. So, some of us were less than happy.

And I got even unhappier when she told me I could pick between Nelson and Sammy. Now, I ride both, and I really like them, but outdoors? Sammy .... no way, as much as I love him. He gets very frisky, and he’s much too big for me outdoors. Nelson is small enough, but I had a feeling he’d be very lively and without our regular instructor around I wasn’t going to take the chance. So, I said I couldn’t come along unless I could get Murphy. She said she couldn’t change the horse lists, but fortunately one of the regular instructors was there and she said it was okay to switch out Sammy for Murphy. Whew.

Murphy was pretty sweaty already from being in the previous class (not that they worked hard, but the weather here is currently too darn hot), but he had nothing against another lesson once he realized we were riding out. He just loves that. And on the whole, it was a pretty nice ride. For once, we actually got to canter some (and Nelson got to buck a lot, proving my point about him being a little frisky), and Murphy really liked that. I would just love to do some eventing-style jumping on him. Irish horses have it in their blood. When we got back in, I made sure to sponge him off thoroughly, and he just loved it. It was nice and quiet in the stables, and it was good to spend some extra time with him. So, I felt pretty good about the whole evening, all things considered.

Subterranean Press has just announced that they’ll be producing limited editions of the first two Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson. If the limited edition run does well, Subterranean will produce limited editions of the following books. Besides the high-quality that Subterranean promises to bring to the book, one of the most exciting things about it all is that Michael Komarck will be providing the full-color interior illustrations. He’s a fabulous artist who’s created what’s widely-considered the definitive depiction of Jaime Lannister, and promises to be a name fans of genre art will be hearing quite a lot of in the future.

My arms and legs had definitely not recovered from Tuesday’s lesson, but I was set to have a private lesson today, so they just had to come along even so. Fortunately, the rain and thunder that had been forecasted had disappeared entirely in favour of suddenly very summery weather, so I was in for a very pleasant lesson in the outdoor paddock.

When we got to the stables, all the horses save Nelson and Murphy were out in the field. Nelson was being ridden for a private lesson just before me and I was going to be riding Murphy. Neither of them looked very happy to be left indoors, however, though they did have a nice big pile of hay each to make up for it. Still, Murphy is a lot more mellow when the stables are quiet, so he was quite polite while he was groomed and tacked up. Once it was time to lead him down to the paddock, however, he suddenly seemed quite confused about where we were going in the middle of the day, while all the other horses were elsewhere. Spotting Nelson already in the paddock seemed to sort the situation out for him, though.

Now that was one tiring riding lesson I had yesterday. I collapsed into bed with rather wobbly arms and legs at least one or two hours earlier than I usually need to sleep.

For this, I blame Nelson and our instructor. Then again, she did warn us at the start of the class that we’d be really sore tomorrow. Of course, that was after I had booked a private lesson for Thursday. That’ll be interesting. ;P

The things you do when you’re into dogs (and horses, too). Like getting up at 6 am on a Sunday morning to head off to a dog show. Of course, not just any dog show, but Ringo’s first official dog show. He turned 9 months 6 days ago, making him eligible for the Junior class (for dogs 9 to 15 months old) at the official all-boxer show for the boxer club in the area where we live.

The promotional blitz for Babylon 5: The Lost Tales has begun ahead of its July 24th release date, and fans of the series will appreciate some of the material that’s now making the rounds. We’ve gathered links from far and wide to share with the fans, and you can read our reviews of B5’s pilot and first season if you’re wondering about the show but just aren’t quite sure about it.

Despite not riding yesterday (or perhaps because, since it always seems to wake me up), I was dead tired when I got back from the theory lesson and managed to completely forget about posting. So, it’ll have to be a quickie today, since I’ve got a Discovery show to subtitle. Of course, since it was a theory lesson, there’s less to report anyhow.

Though, we did get to try something I’d never done before: long reining. That is, you walk behind the horse with a pair of long reins and try to get it to do some useful work. This can be done either to prepare the horse for driving it or as a substitute for riding. Apparently they use it a bit at the riding school when exercising the smaller ponies that none of the instructors can ride.

No matter how often I try to get started blogging ‘properly’ (that is, with some regularity) I can’t seem to get the decision to stick except for when it comes to chronicling my riding lessons. This may be due to everything else I do being terribly boring and really not worth writing about. It may also be the result of me being a nit picky perfectionist with certain hang-ups about either doing something ‘properly’ or not doing it at all. So when I do have stuff to post about, it feels silly to do so if its on an irregular basis. This usually leads to an end result of no posts at all. However, I am trying very hard as of a few days ago to keep myself in a writing mode as often as possible, so I might just as well use this as one of the exercises. Without, that is, trying to set any goals about doing it regularly.

Via SF Scope and the Science Fiction Book club blog, we’ve learned that Lloyd Alexander—the author of such memorable Young Adult books such as the Prydain and Westmark series—passed away while in hospice care, two weeks after the death of his wife of 62 years. He will be missed.