Hippoi Athanatoi

This Tuesday I was, once again, reminded that I could really, really use a pair of longer legs when riding. I don’t suppose they sell extensions anywhere? ;P

I was put on Sammy instead of Murphy, and while I love the old fellow dearly, he’s rather broad. For stumpy-legged me, that means that even just sitting straight up and down, my legs don’t quite end up in the right position. And if I start trying to have a more forward leg, or a leg drawn back a bit, it gets even dicier. As we were doing shoulder in work, and were asked to have our inner leg a little forward (to emphasize to the horse that it should wrap around the leg a bit) and our outer leg a bit back, I struggled quite a bit.

I don’t have great leg position to start with, and when it becomes physically difficult to get into a certain position, I tend to avoid it as I don’t much care for discomfort. I am trying to improve it a bit by doing leg exercises again, to make them a bit stronger and a bit more supple, since it did help when I did that regularly some time ago. But there’s no getting around the fact that my build is not great for riding and that my seat (which needs work to start with) deteriorates very quickly as soon as I get onto something that is a little too big. I imagine that if I rode more regularly and if my seat and my coordination was much better, I could compensate for my shortcomings more easily. But as it is, it takes very little to throw off my precariously gained balance.

So, that lesson ended up being a lot about my body, and I didn’t have as much success with Sammy as I would have liked. However, I did manage to act on one error from the week before, namely how I was handling his outside. This week, I concentrated a lot on riding his outside forward to the outer hand, and I think it made quite a difference.

Last week was a theory lesson, and another round of loose jumping, so I didn’t have too much to say about that. The most interesting bit was seeing how Vermir, a relatively newcomer to the stables, followed our instructor around. They’d had a bit of an argument some days before about who should be in charge. He clearly lost. ;)

Yesterday, we were back to dressage. I got Murphy, but unfortunately both him and I were lacking a little in motivation. Or perhaps it was just my slight lack of focus that did it, though it wouldn’t be the first time that he decided he wasn’t keen on working. He was also in a really bad mood towards the other horses, although he was quite pleasant to deal with in the stables.

More snow, more frisky horses, more jittery nerves. That’s about what I had expected from today’s lessons, and its more or less what I got. Since I knew there hadn’t been any lessons for a few days because of Easter, and since its been cold and snowy for a whole week now, I expected Fleur to be quite a handful if I got her again. Which, of course, I did.

Fortunately, she had been exercised some, though she wasn’t exactly calmer today as my instructor had thought she would be. In fact, she was a bit more tense, and I wasn’t able to get her working quite as well as last week at walk and trot. However, because there was only three of us, we had plenty of time and room for the warm-up and I was able to get some more cantering in before we started jumping. At first, I kept her way too short again and got her bouncing up and down more than she cantered forward, but then I forced myself to let her have a bit more rein, and she actually didn’t really increase her pace, she just stopped bouncing. So, getting to feel that before we started jumping helped keep me from pulling her back too much and losing the flow entirely.

My plans to post a timely account were foiled by figure skating and by Easter. However, last week’s lesson can be summarized quite well like this: It was cold, Fleur was jumpy, she spooked me but at least I stayed on her the whole lesson.

I may not have mentioned it in so many words before, but I am about the least brave rider you will find. I was in a somewhat bad accident when was about 10, and I never regained the confidence I had before then. For the first few years after the accident, I freaked out if a horse so much thought about doing something I hadn’t asked it to do. Eventually, it got a little bit better, but now the natural timidity that comes with getting older has kicked in, leaving me with a fairly limited range of horses that I can handle.

Whew, the Men’s final turned out to be a very exciting affair. A lot of nerves meant less than perfect skates by most of the top 6 guys, but some of the ones further down with nothing to lose really did fabulously. Just like in the Europeans, the second-ranked of the two Swedes, Adrian Schultheiss, did better in the Long program than our number one, Kristoffer Berntsson, and placed one spot ahead of him in the final ranking. It looked like they would end up 14th and 15th, which would have meant just one skater next year in the Worlds, but then one of the favourites, Tomas Verner, fell through entirely and ended up below them. And 13th and 14th is enough for two skaters next year.

Two real surprises were Sergei Voronov and Kevin van der Perren. Voronov had done really badly in the Short, but he’s got a lot of talent and showed it all in his Free program. He placed 4th today, which in total moved him up from 15th to 7th. Pretty darn amazing, and Russia gets two skaters next year. Big yay. And Kevin van der Perren, well, he jumped amazingly. And so did Brian Joubert, who really went out there fully determined to make up for his mistakes yesterday. Amazing program, and he finished with a roar (and with a kiss for the ice, heh). I so hoped he’d take the gold again, but the last man out, leader Jeffrey Buttle, held it together. He didn’t seem to have any nerves at all, and his win was in the end with a comfortable margin.

I suppose its really nice to see Canada get a gold again, though as I said in the last post, I really wanted it to go to Europe. Buttle is also a bit of a ... bland skater. Good technique, but not a stellar jumper or a stellar performer. For soft and artistic, he can’t touch Stephane Lambiel (or really, the much improved Johnny Weir, who came in third), and for powerful and explosive, he can’t touch Joubert (who really worked on selling his program today). But still, well deserved on the day. Now I expect I will spend the evening searching for figure skating videos on Youtube. ;P

I have been been a pretty big figure skating fan since 87 or 88, with the first strong memory I have of watching being the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, where I was terribly disappointed to see Brian Orser lose to Brian Boitano. Since then, I have caught most of the big contest that we get on TV here; Europeans, Worlds and Olympics. The Men’s event has always been a favourite (nothing at all to do with the eye candy ... ;P), with brilliant Russian skaters such as Yagudin and Plushenko being my all-time favourites, but to begin with Pairs was my second favourite. Somewhere along the line, however, it changed to Ice Dancing, thanks to some Russian couples and the French Duchesnay siblings. Its another French couple that are my overall favourites, however, namely Anissina/Peizerat.

And what does this have to do with anything? Well, yesterday, Elio and I spent most of the day in Scandinavium, watching the Men’s Short program in the figure skating World Championships. Yes, Elio is now a fan too. He may not scream along with the girls, but just as he goes to the horse show with me every year, he watches most of the figure skating on TV with me too. Though he’s pickier about only watching the best and the ones that have caught his attention. Right now, we’re watching the Men’s Free program on TV (and the first Swedish contestant just did brilliantly again, yay!) and I am wishing I was back in Scandinavium, because I had such a fabulous time yesterday. When we arrived and I sat down to watch the first skater, it was such a thrill to finally see it live. It was almost a little surreal, and gave me a new perspective of the sport.

And yes, of course it is a sport. Probably one of the hardest out there. It may be judged in the end, but the combination if athletic and artistic ability needed is staggering.

Bad Linda. I missed posting about last week, and now just about all I can remember is that I rode Sammy and he (as usual) got really frisky when we did the cantering because it was an exercise were we did the transitions in the same spots each lap. I think I was fairly pleased with the overall result, though.

I am also going to have to keep this weeks posting fairly short and sweet, because my arm is very strained from the work I’ve had this week. I was back on Murphy again, but unfortunately it was because Sammy had injured himself. He had both front legs wrapped and a small cut on the left. He’d apparently come in hurt from the field, though our instructor hadn’t been around just then so she wasn’t sure how bad it was. I hope it isn’t too bad, since he’s getting on in years. I made sure to give him some extra treats and petting, but he did look a bit bothered by one of the legs at least.

Murphy was, once again, in stubborn pony mode. He tried all sorts of evasions with me to start, though it actually made sure to remind me to ride him with fairly high demands right off, so in a sense that was just good. I think this was probably the most ‘tough’ I have been during a regular lesson, and it really paid off. I informed him I wanted him to work, and soon enough he was working. That is, as long as I kept after him. He was very quick to slip into contrary mode, even though he clearly enjoyed the work.

I managed to get some fairly good trot on my own, especially once I removed my stirrups after the warm-up was done, and then with some help in the canter it came out nicely too. The transitions to canter actually worked pretty darn well right off (I do so much better without my stirrups), but the transitions from canter were more of the ‘falling into trot’ kind. So I was told to ask for more work in the transition, and to just lay my whip against his outer hindleg during the transition to get it more under him. It made quite a difference. It still came out a bit ‘rough’, because Murphy’s coordination isn’t great, but at least he retained momentum and hindleg activity.

On the whole, being more decisive and a bit ‘tougher’ right off paid off, and for the most part Murphy had fun too. I just wish I could ride all horses without stirrups for a while, because it makes a big difference. Of course, then I’ll probably forget how to use stirrups, which might not be so good.

The first chapter of Kushiel’s Mercy can now be found on Jacqueline Carey’s website. The book is due out in June.

Another week on Gamir turned into another week on Murphy, and I wasn’t exactly about to complain about that. Murphy seemed pretty pleased too, especially when treated to many minty treats. I am not entirely sure what he (or any of the other horses) think of my occasional habit of ... well ... sort of ... singing to them as I tack them up, but at least they don’t run away in fear. Of course, they are tethered ...

After last week’s luxury of being all alone, it was back to a regular lesson and back to someone other than Murphy. In this case, Gamir. The worst part about him is how surly he is to get ready, but last time I managed pretty well with plenty of bribes, and it worked fine this time too. He basically needs to be distracted a lot to keep him from getting testy. He was probably also fairly comfortable as far as his back goes, because he didn’t feel particularly stiff (like he sometimes can be) once we got started.

Yesterday I struggled with my translation work as my right arm and shoulder started ached something fiercely. Most likely, its a repetitive strain injury of some kind, which is not exactly great if I am considering a career at the keyboard. I have had smaller issues over the years, but over the last weeks it has escalated, making each new job progressively more painful. So, that depressed me.

Until, that is, I got to the stables and got a nice surprise. We were supposed to have a theory lesson, but its a winter holiday week for schools so we had lots of early cancellations and the one other person who was supposed to show up called and said he wouldn’t come. So ... the instructor asked me if I wanted to ride instead? Did I? Oh yes. Fortunately, I had worn okay clothing for riding, since I had expected us to be in the stables for the theory. So, I had my coat and my gloves, though just regular non-riding tights and walking boots. But with a borrowed hat and whip I was ready to go. And I got Murphy, too. Of course, he was a little surprised to quickly get tacked up (we were a bit late since the fellow called just as the lesson started to say he wouldn’t come ;P) and to not get any candy, since I had forgotten to bring any. But he complied. ;)

I am so out of my routine of posting Tuesday evening or Wednesday that it isn’t funny. No wonder I don’t get much else done on time either, and its all a sure sign that I really need a lot more equi-theraphy than just once a week right now.

The lesson was, of course, good. Of course in the sense that I was on Murphy, so its hard for it not to be good. Even when, as the case was this time, Murphy wasn’t all that enthusiastic. In fact, to start with I was worried he was a bit sick, as he was very sluggish and kept trying to stop. It didn’t really feel like disobedience either, and until he had a poop in a corner his sides felt a bit bloated. The poop was fine, though, and the instructor took a listen to his gut and pronounced an all clear. He remained a little ‘off’, though, but I would guess he was just a bit tired.

Or maybe he was grumpy because Nelson was being a pest in the stables. He kept standing with his head across into Murphy’s stall, jealous of the attention (and the treats), and when I turned Murphy around after tacking him up he tried to take a bit out of him. ;P I bet he’s in trouble next time they’re out together.

Late again. ;P Definitely starting a trend, here. Though, there wasn’t that much to reflect on this time, to be honest. The lesson came out a little light-weight. Enjoyable, though, not the least because I was finally back on Murphy. Probably because we did some combined jumping and flatwork again in preparation for next weeks jumping.

Whether Murphy was as happy to see me again, I am not sure. As soon as I got on him, it became very evident that he’d done mostly lessons for lower groups lately. He questioned everything and tried every trick in the book and then some to escape work. In fact, most of the horses seemed to have a bad day, because at the end of the lesson our instructor said she was pleased with us but disappointed with the horses because they had kept getting it wrong even when we did it right. Of course, that’s a good learning experience. Pushing the button does not always get the expected result. And I needed a refresher course in being firm as well as more clever than my horse. ;P

Murphy did shape up after he realized I was not an easy-to-fool beginner, so I don’t think he did particularly poorly. I had some issues with the exercise, of course, since it involved getting the right canter-lead again. I still don’t have a good sense of it, but I am working on not looking down to check. At least not looking down with my whole head. I do think my canter transitions are getting pretty solid, though. I sit quite still most of the time.

Afterwards, Murphy seemed discontent with my demands during the lesson, because his teeth got a wee bit close to my face as I took his saddle off. ;P

Well, there was no comparison between this week’s lesson and last week’s, but no surprise there. I was on Sammy again, though, and I was glad I got a chance to actually work on him a bit. He started off the day by accidentally biting me, however. He was really muddy, and he is very sensitive about how he is being brushed, so he didn’t appreciate the process of getting the mud out at all. As a result, he kept snapping at me, but without actually intending to hit because he’s too well-mannered for that. Then he misjudged the distance and got me across the knuckles (owwie) and boy did he look very ashamed of himself afterwards. Stod very still too for the rest of the grooming and tacking up.

Last week was ... no good, though it didn’t really have with the riding to do. As a result, I was barely there mentally for most of the class, and the results were predictable. We were supposed to work on more precise control over legs and shoulders, down to controlling which leg started walking first from a halt. Just the stuff I need to develop more of a feeling for, so I hope we continue with it today. I did manage a bit more control than usual over Sammy’s body (my control over my own body is still ... debatable), and some pretty decent trotting, but that’s about all I recall.