Hippoi Athanatoi

From Fleur last week to Gamir this week (or rather, Gamir last week and Fleur the week before that, since I am late again). I suspected that this meant we’d be focusing on cantering (since Murphy’s canter isn’t exactly the best, and Sammy is getting a little too old to do canter-focused lessons), and that turned out to be the case. Gamir has a very good canter. In fact, he’s almost a little too easy to work with, but it gives me plenty of room to concentrate on my own problems.

Yesterday we were at a show at a working dog club not too far away from here, for Ringos début in the open class since he is now past 2 years of age. Boxers were, for once, not the first breed to be judged in their ring, so we only had to get up at 7 am to be there at 9 am. Quite a difference from getting up at 3 am for the last show.

Ringo started the morning by being very lively. He clearly knows that early mornings with the whole family getting ready means a dog show. Didn’t help my nerves, of course, that he decided to be pretty feisty. The judge for the show would be one that previously had given him a 2 for quality, in large parts because he really misbehaved. So, I was not expecting more than a 1 today and that only if he managed to behave.

Yesterday’s lesson was interesting in several ways. There was a slightly surprising change of horses, as we stayed with the circles theme, but I was still moved from Murphy to Fleur. This time of the year, though, she’s pretty good. Not as lazy as during the summer, and not as skittish and full of energy as when it gets really cold. Not that it was warm yesterday, especially not as we ended up riding in the paddock to have a lot of extra room. But after feeling chilly initially it ended up being quite refreshing, actually.

After an agonizingly long wait (okay, two and a half weeks, but it felt like years ;P) we finally got Ringo’s X-ray results today. And he’s got excellent hips and knees, whee!

Oops. I forgot all about last week. Though, we didn’t actually ride, so there wasn’t that much to report. We had a theory lesson which consisted of our instructor riding one of the regular lesson horses. She discussed (and demonstrated) obedience and preparation (mainly for corners, circles and other curved paths), and also gave some tips on how to ride a dressage program, since that’s part of our goal for this semester.

It was very interesting to watch the change in the horse’s movements and carriage as the lesson progressed, and also to see just how many things he would ttry to see if he could get away once she put more demands on him. Remaining consistent in what you ask of the horse, even when it tries all sorts of tricks to avoid work, is one of the hardest things. Especially for those of us who just ride lessons once a week. Getting the right feeling for how much pressure to apply, and whether you are doing it right and the horse is being contrary or if you’re actually doing it wrong, is darn hard.

And that sort of played into today’s lesson, at least for me.

This week there was a small revelation. Hands. Specifically, their position. It matters.

I mean, I knew that before, but I thought I had mine at an okay height. Today, my instructor had me raise my hands quite a bit above my default position, and I found it made a big difference when it came to doing what she wants me to do with my shoulders (that is, getting them back and getting them relaxed).

I am not sure if she noticed it because I was decided to try Murphy without the help reins (actually, I forgot them, but I had been thinking about skipping them since during my last private lesson I rode without them and she suggested they may have been hampering me), and that changes his head position and my hand position a bit.

We continued to work on circles, and while it was a bit of a struggle at first, I did find I got better results without the help reins. Especially once I got my hands raised up a bit. I feels to me as if Murphy is easier to get into a proper form without the reins, and he also feels more supple. However, the form is less steady, perhaps because he’s so supple.

Once we were done with the warmup, we did the same exercise for most of the lesson, just varying the direction. We’d start by trotting on the long sides and then walking on the short sides, which included a 10 meter circle. Then we’d switch to walking on the long sides and trotting on the short sides and through the circle. Plenty of transitions between straight and curved paths to pay attention to, and transitions between walk and trot (sometimes at the same time as the straight to curved or vice versa transitions). Just the thing to make Murphy nice and supple, and towards the end he was getting kind of liquid.

So, now I have another body part that I need to get used to having in a different position. I’ll have to be careful not to overdo it, though.

Today Ringo finally had his knees and his hips x-rayed (a bit late, as its usually done between 12 and 18 months, but we wanted to make sure he’d finished developing). This is a standard procedure for boxers, as the breed has some minor issues with their knees and some more major issues with their hips (hip dysplasia). Knees without any negative remarks and hips of at least type A or B are required for any dog used for breeding. You also need the same result to be allowed to get the title of KORAD which is given to dogs who pass a mental evaluation and a conformation evaluation done between the ages of two and four.

So, now we’re in for a nervous couple of weeks as we wait for the results (the x-rays are sent off to be analysed by the Swedish Kennel Club), though the vet who did the x-rays seemed to think it looked pretty good. That is, she first did a set she wasn’t happy with (the positioning of the dog is very important, and small deviations can change the final result), but when they redid them she seemed to think they came out fine. However, that’s far from a guarantee of anything, so I am telling myself not to take anything for granted.

I’ll start this week’s lesson report with a daaaaaaaaarn. Not about the lesson, but about that jump off in the Olympic show jumping yesterday. If only that pesky last fence would have stayed up, feh. A shared gold would have been just fine by us (though I suppose it may not have been exactly the same time for both riders if the fence hadn’t come down), since we don’t have one yet, and I would have loved for an equestrian sport to be our ‘saviour’ in these Olympics. Rolf-Göran Bengtsson is also a great example of how you don’t have to be filthy rich to succeed in show jumping ... just filthy talented. ;)

Anyway, with that out of my system, what about the lesson? Well, no Olympic-level jumping for us, that’s for sure. Or dressage, for that matter.

Today is Ringo’s 2nd birthday. We got him some ice-cream cake (well, he didn’t get the whole to himself) and a new toy. The cake was served at the kitchen table (he loves sitting on the chair there) and he managed to eat off a plate without making too much of a mess. The new toy, a long-legged turtle with two squeaky and two rattly legs, proved an instant success. Which, of course, meant it wasn’t likely to be long-lived. In fact, he tore up one leg and cracked open one rattle within about 5-10 minutes. Hopefully, the little monster didn’t swallow too many of the tiny little steel balls in the rattle.

I think I am going to start a business making boxer-proof toys. From kevlar. That might do it.

But he sure had fun, at least.

After a few days of resting my arms and hands, I am finally up to writing a report about our trip to this years Swedish Boxer Championships. Ok, maybe that’s a little bit of an exagerration, but I did get quite worn out by handling Ringo for a whole day around a lot of people and a lot of dogs.

It began with a very early start (we left at about 3.30 ... am), and while we didn’t stay for the whole thing we were still away until about 5 pm. By which time I was quite knackered. The weather was rather cold and windy for most of the day, and Ringo was not as well-behaved as he has been for most shows this year. Outside of the ring, he was pretty stress-free (but he was very excited to meet his brother again, and his brother’s ‘girlfriend’, aka the breeder’s gorgeous new puppy girl from Italy), but inside he was a bit of a handful. Not as bad as he has been in the past, but enough to up my heart rate quite a bit.

Yesterday marked the beginning of a new semester at the riding school. As usual, that meant a weigh-in, and to my surprise I found myself much lower than expected. At 59 kg (minus clothes, which I do usually wear when riding ;P), I was almost light enough to add a few more ponies to my list of allowed horses. I guess the limit is at 60 kg, whereas the limit I have been worrying about (aka the Murphy-riding limit) must be 65 kg. I had actually thought he was at max 60 kg and the other ponies at max 55 kg, so that’s a nice surprise. Of course, it makes me tempted to try and drop another kilo. That is starting to get a little lean, though.

Either way, what matters right now is that my lessons for this autumn got off to a great start on Murphy. Whom, btw, seemed very happy to see me and seemed to be in quite a good mood in general. So glad to see he was fine. This was in fact the first time they had had a summer when all horses stayed injury free. Hopefully that won’t lead to a mass of injuries now. :P They did have to put one horse down, Amadeus, but he had been lame for a long while now. Quite young, but also quite large, and he was clearly developing a chronic injury. They also sold one pony who didn’t like it much at the stables, and got another one to replace it.

A bit of shameless promotion for Blood of Dragons, our A Song of Ice and Fire MUSH. We are, as always, looking for more players for the game (I want enough of a population to open Dorne, darnit!), especially now that the usual summer slowdown has claimed a few more victims. We did have a well-attended execution yesterday, though, so maybe some of those idlers will end up a little shorter…

In any case, if anyone’s curious, point a telnet client to bod.westeros.org:3000. Alternatively, read more about the game on the webpage or the forum.

Today we had our first show in a couple of months. Since we haven’t had much chance to train Ringo with a lot of dogs around him during the summer, I was expecting him to be rather charged up. He also started the morning off by being a little hellion already at home, so I was expecting a very bad day in the ring. It wasn’t even very warm, which might have helped to tire him out. ;P

When we got to the show (this one was quite close by, at least), he was his usual whirling dervish self for the first 30 minutes. But then he mostly came back down on the ground. Still, I was quite nervous when it was time to get into the ring. Unfortunately, we weren’t alone either. ;) Still, Ringo surprised me by not pulling too much at all as we ran the first lap, even though he was behind the other dog. He then waited mostly patiently while the other dog was evaluated.

Once it was time for our individual evaluation, he was lively (as usual) when the judge (a very nice fellow) checked his teeth, his head and made sure he still had two testicles. But then he actually didn’t act up on the individual run either. Well, he made one move to do so, but I managed to curb it. The judge looked him over some more, and then wanted us to run again. That’s unusual, so I figured there was something he wasn’t quite happy with, even though I thought Ringo had done pretty well (and I had tried to keep in mind some of the tips from the handlar class we did in spring).

We did get our 1 for quality, but when we were called back in with the other dog, he decided pretty quickly on that one after asking us to run to more laps. He preferred his muzzle (said Ringo’s was a little too short and also too narrow) and preferred his gaits (he thought Ringo’s were a little unsteady, even though he had good propulsion). The other dog was a rather English boxer, and that type is preferred by many judges here. His slightly longer muzzle is, as far as I can tell, typical of that type. So, not much to be done about that. The gaits ... well, we’ll need to try to work on getting him to concentrate more, so he runs mroe steadily.

Though I doubt we can work any miracles until next weekend, when we probably will be heading off to the Swedish boxer championships. Provided we don’t back out of doing the 4-hour-drive each way. ;P

Medium-sized, powerfully built. Good proportions. Masculine head, good eyes and ears. Somewhat short muzzle that is somewhat narrow. Adequate withers, firm back, big-boned. Fairly well-balanced, ground-covering strides, good propulsion. Good temper, eager to work.

Over the last two weeks of vacationing in our little cottage near Sundsvall (that’s up along the eastern coast of Sweden, pretty much in the middle of the country lengthwise), I have continued the little reading frenzy that resulted in a couple of reviews before we left. Since I now have some class work to catch up for a summer class on writing historical novels), these books will have to be satisfied with shorter commentaries rather than full reviews.

Way back when I started my first big paper in Classical History, I got in touch with a fellow named David Anthony who was doing some really interesting work on early horseback riding. I ended up using some of his papers for my work to support the idea that the Mycenaeans not only drove chariots but also rode horses. I have since then followed his work on and off, lately more off then on. A couple of weeks ago, Elio reminded me to check what he’s been up to next (I think we were discussing my lack of ideas for a final Classical History paper ;P), and to my surprise and delight I found that he published a book last year titled The Horse, The Wheel and Language. How Bronze Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World.

I immediately ordered it from Amazon.co.uk, and since it arrived a few days ago it has provided me with some very exciting reading material. I really like comparative linguistics, I find it completely fascinating, and of course I am thrilled to be reading anything focused on the importance of the horse in the development of human civilizations. Now, I was already in agreement with Anthony on his major point regarding the often argued point of where the Indo-European Homeland lies, but even so I think the book presents his case very well and in a way that is readable even for those who aren’t experts within the various areas. The linguistic sections are less fact-intensive than the archaeological, but even those are pretty readable (though you may want to skim some of the more detailed lists of finds at various sites), and overall I have found it very well-written. Lots of fascinating points are made about the development of cultures.

And now I really want to do my next paper on something that ties together Bronze Age Greece, the horse and Indo-European myths and religion. My first paper was sort of in that direction, but ended up being broad rather than particularly in-depth. Not sure if there’s enough material to work with, however, and its definitely not an area of expertise by any of the professors here in Gothenburg.