It's been an odd week ( Read more... )

The boy with hackles
lies curled in standard issue -
rests like a promise.

Tonight at the stables we had SIDEWAYS rain.  And not just sideways.  It was ANTARCTIC sideways rain.  The type that doesn’t so much fall, as punch you in the brain via your earhole.

Ideal circumstances for stumbling around a ten acre paddock in the dark looking for a cranky thoroughbred.

I think I have gone deaf from the sideways rain.  *shakes ( Read more... )

When asking a horse to extend at the trot, you're asking for more length in the stride, but not necessarily more speed.  So where you would normally cover one side of the arena in 10 strides, you do it in 7 or 8 magnificent floating steps with a lovely flick at the end of the hooves if you're lucky.

Or if you're me - you ask for an extension and ( Read more... )

What follows is an actual transcript of a conversation I had with K yesterday.

Me: So, riddle me this, Batman…I’m having my lesson on Sam last Sunday at that clinic, and I’ve got a good working trot coming round the left rein past A.  I remember to ask early, and we turn down the three quarter line perfectly - I mean PERFECTLY - he’s bent like an ( Read more... )

I am beset on all sides by heartbreak this week.  My friends are all falling out of love.  Why do people say they fell out of love?  Shouldn’t it be ran out of love?  FLED love?  Knocking over furniture on the way to the door?  Or is that just me…

That smudge on your calendars at the end of March?  That’s actually the rubber I laid leaving the last ( Read more... )

There's this thing you can do with horses, see.  It's not a nice thing, so I'll preface this with the normal don't-try-this-at-home-kids disclaimer.  It's called Overfacing.  Overfacing occurs when you frustrate your horse by giving impossible or contradictory instructions until he flips his lid entirely and stops listening to everything including  ( Read more... )