midweek roundup

[lagilman]

Work: Woke up this morning with the thought that "Mad Cats and Englishmen" really wants to expand into a novel. Possibly YA. Either I need to beat that idea into submission, or someone better perfect that "out-of-the-vat work-capable clone" thing PDQ.

Am head-down in HARD MAGIC, meanwhile, and can almost see the light at the end of the (very)rough draft. Almost. Hopefully, it's not another rock-dragon. Once the draft is done, then I can go back and do my graphite edit, finding all the plot-faults and dropped threads that are endemic (for me) to the first mad rush of storytelling. I have always envied people who can think a story out all the way through and then just write it -- me, even working from an outline it still comes in layers, one on top of the other, and then folded together with a (hopefully) subtle hand.

So long as I don't get sick again (avert!) I should make deadline without panic. Having said that, however...

Play: Riding, week Nine: Back on CD. I love my sweet Sancho, but the truth is I enjoy riding CD a lot more. He has more of a jounce to his movement, true, but he's also not quite so barrel-girthed, making it easier for me to keep my leg steady. He's also more of a challenge -- if Sancho teaches me how I should be doing something, CD teaches me how to tell my horse to do something with me.

Anyway, I was allowed back into my stirrups, and seem to have internalized last week's lesson, because when I used a little too much leg and CD went from "nice canter" to "hyperdrive!canter" rather than losing my balance I leaned back and went along for the wheee. And it was very much whee -- I think C. expected me to be freaked out but I had a blast*. And it was my decision to pull back to a trot, not his; that's important.

Still having some trouble with my cornering, and there's stuff C. hasn't even touched on that I know I need to dig into...have to trust C. that she'll know when I should start focusing on it.

No lesson next week. Already I'm in withdrawal. What I'm going to do over the summer, when C. and I seem to be alternating Time Away, I don't know....

Research: I'm not sure if this should fall under the category of work or play, so I'm breaking it out on its own. I am compiling a stack (okay, a leaning tower) of materal, but not letting myself delve into it until the rough draft of HM is done. Talk about a carrot! Politics and geography and cartography and chemical analysis and that's even before I get to the wine-making stuff! *has her geek on*




*there is a woman who takes her lesson the same time I do, and she's a pretty good beginning rider except that I get the feeling she's got this inner OMG HORSE! fear going on. So when CD decided to make like the racehorse he ain't, my main concern was not for me, but that she'd get spooked. Thankfully, she seemd a little unnerved ("is my horse gonna do that?") but okay.

Comments

[controuble.livejournal.com]

I haven't ridden in about 25 years - wonder if I'm too old to start doing it again? Or if it's too expensive these days. I will have to slow down on the cons and the book and art purchases if I do. Don't know if I can do that - I am very much a creature of habit and my largest habit these days is reading.

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Take your books...to the barn!

[lagilman]

I hadn't ridden (except occasional trail rides while on vacation) in almost twenty years wwhen I started up again this year. It is expensive, sadly -- insurance costs alone ahve driven a lot of good stables out of business, and made others hike their rates just to keep up. I made the conscious decision to give up some things in exchange for this, yeah. So far, not regretting it.

There's also a feeling of immense satisfaction in knowing that, while I don't have the ultra-slender thighs so beloved of fashion, I can control a [trained] thousand-pound animal with leg pressure and a steady hand.

(plus, as has been discussed in earlier horseplay threads, my glutes look fabulous. *grin*)

[controuble.livejournal.com]

I didn't think to ask, but do you ride English or Western saddle? The phrase "trail rides" made me wonder. I used to ride English and even took jumping and dressage lessons many years ago. I'm going to have to check out the stables around here - I know there are some, but not if they offer lessons without owning your own horse. I gave my riding boots and clothes to my niece many years ago, so there's another expense. The boots have to cost more now than they did back then!

[lagilman]

My training (from ages 9ish to 20ish) was English (hunter-jumper, but not dressage). I did some very basic Western training, but it was more of a casual thing. The trail riding was all Western, or bareback.

You can get around buying boots -- I have a pair of half-chaps that I wear with an old pair of heeled walking shoes that do the trick for now, and a hell of a lot cheaper than even crap boots would be! And most stables have loaner helmets, when you're taking lessons.

If you can, try to find a stable where they let you actually work with the horse. It took me a few visits, but now they expect me to want to tack up my own ride and groom him cool, after -- there's a level of connection then that you don't get when presented with a fully tacked-up horse. IMO, anyway.

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

"Yet they work with us willingly (well, mostly, except when they don't want to)."

Sounds like cats! ;-)

[lagilman]

Horses are all, "Pfft, I'm so going back to the barn..."

*snarf* So farking true. Except when they're all "um, boss? Sorry 'bout that. I can has carrot anyway?"

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Go read this:

http://www.dressagedaily.com/2008/dd_200803/dd_20080315-braun.html

And then the first bio here:

http://www.tamarackhill.com/Graduates/graduates.htm

And then ask again whether you're too old to ride. :-p

[controuble.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know I'm not too old - IF I had kept up with it. Most of the older people I know who ride never stopped.
It's nice to see people even older than I am doing so well at it.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

I don't know how old you are, but there are a whole whole lot of more or less middle-aged folks who rode as kids or young adults and then stopped for a variety of reasons and come back to the sport many years later. We call 'em reriders. They're awesome. :)

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

I think a sampling of at least one bottle from every US appellation (AVA) --- FOR RESEARCH(!), of course, is in order. Tax deductible for sure!

[lagilman]

Hah. You think I'm going to limit it to the US? This is multi-national research, m'friend, multi-national!

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

That's a whole lotta samplin'!

[rosenhaus.livejournal.com]

I have a friend in Richmond, VA, who is a French wine distributor. if you would like him as a possible research contact let me know off-journal.

[handlebar605.livejournal.com]

She's slightly mistaken, it's not _just_ her glutes which look "fabulous"