Hippoi Athanatoi

This is a bit of a repeat of something I wrote on ElectricSoup a little while ago. I figured it would fit right in here, as well as give me a chance to plug what did come out of that discussion, the new MUSHlist at community.pennmush.org.

This Tuesday, the spring semester starter. A week earlier than usual, so I was a bit concerned about the weigh-in, seeing how close to Christmas it was. But it worked out fine, so I have the same selection of horses as the last few semesters, including Murphy. I didn’t get him, though. We were doing more canter work, so she put me on Gamir so I could concentrate on myself instead of having to help out Murphy so much. As always, getting Gamir ready is a bit unsettling, as he can get really grumpy, but I found that bribing him worked really well to distract him when he was being saddled. He’s not at all mean-spirited, he just has bad associations to being saddled, so distracting him is a pretty good method.

I am, once again, exhausted after taking Ringo to another show. This time, however, my efforts did pay off better than yesterday. He got his first prize for quality, though he only placed fourth (aka last) of the dogs that were awarded the red ribbon for quality. This probably had something to do with his behaviour (which was better than yesterday but still not good) but also with the fact that the judge apparently prefers lots of white markings on boxers, and Ringo is a ‘plain’ rather than ‘flashy’ boxer with hardly any white at all.

I started off by doing lots and lots of practice runs in the ring. This did seem to have some effect, because during the initial run with all the dogs in his class, he didn’t act up. He then waited pretty patiently (I did work a lot with him, though, asking him to sit, lie down, crawl, etc) as the dogs ahead of him received their individual evaluations. Then it kind of went pearshaped when the very nice judge said an enthusiastic hello. If we had been allowed to run before she checked his teeth, I think we would have done much better, but as usual I was too shy to ask for this. As it was now,  he got really charged up and picked a fight with me when we were doing our run alone. Elio had to step in and correct him with some water. ;P He remained very excited, though, and I was convinced for a while that she’d send us off because he wouldn’t stand still after running either.

Fortunately, she’s a boxer owner, and she told me to calm him down first by just asking him to sit or lie down. Once I heard from her that she was okay with me taking a bit of extra time, I relaxed so much and was able to get him to stand decently. I thanked her profusely for her understanding, and I was so thrilled that I ended up with a red ribbon. I did get my hopes up as I saw she was taking her time to write her critique, but I didn’t dare to believe it until the ribbon was handed to me. Whew. Ringo then behaved nicely for the rest of his time in the ring, even stood quite well as she did her final comparisons, and the fourth place felt very good to me.

It was further improved as one of the major and most skilled breeders and showers came up to us to talk about our problems with Ringo. He gave us soem very good advice, and said that we need to get much better at seeing when Ringo is about to get all wound up, because once he gets there its too late. He gets totally blocked and just won’t listen to anything. So learning to break off the behaviour when he starts thinking about it is what we need to do. Harry also noted that since he is ‘plain’ but has a very good head, we should aim mainly for speciality shows (arranged by the Boxer club or, I would guess, the working dog club, since we have done well at such shows too) since those judges aren’t as focused on the flashy white markings and are more likely to appreciate his breed characteristics. Given this, getting a first prize for quality here felt even better.

So, I am glad we went. We also managed to acquire a replacement for a favourite toy that was torn apart a while ago, a duck that quacks. Ringo is now a very happy boy.

Dog show time again. Actually, Ringo has been to another show these past few months, but my parents had him then (they were visiting my brother in Stockholm) so there wasn’t much to report other than the fact that he behaved very, very badly. I will, however, belatedly be adding the critique from that show. You see, it goes nicely with the critique from today, which was also pretty terrible on account of him behaving very, very badly. Basically, the judges kind of rule him out right off because they don’t get a good look at him. And I have no issue with that. I just don’t know what to do about the fact that he gets so incredibly wound up. Today, I didn’t have any sleeves for him to bite. So, he did what he did with my dad last time and attacked my feet. He’s very resourceful. ;P He almost had me thinking he’d do fine, as he posed nicely at first. But then, when we were due to run together with the other dogs, he turned into mini-Cujo.

Oh well. ;P We did have some fun to lighten up things, though. While taking him out to the fairly nicely arranged doggy toilet (an area with sawdust and little tree stumps for the discerning male dog ;P), he ended up doing that whole back-leg kick and scratch after peeing. He did it so vigorously that he almost sent a poor chihuahua flying and probably shocked it for life when the sawdust came flying. He also got sawdust all over, I think, a little yorkie that looked like he had been groomed and readied for the show. Oops. ;P

Head is good for his age. Well-proportioned. Chest is adequate for his age, the topline could be somewhat better. Adequate angles. Very sloppy movements, needs to be better behaved.

Oh, I almost forgot. ;P We have another show tomorrow, heh. We’ll see if I want to look like an idiot two days in a row or not. But I am trying to tell myself that this is all just social training for him right now. ;P

This week, I figured I had better get my post out on time, or Christmas would swallow it up entirely.

For the last lesson of this semester, our instructor decided to give as many of us as possible horses we really like. So, I got Murphy. Not ideal for the exercise, but I was nevertheless very pleased. It has been a while since I rode him, after all. I am not sure he had missed me, though, because while I tried to get all the mud off him, his teeth came perilously close to my nose. ;P Not my fault that he was all dirty, but he seemed to feel it was.

But a slow poster. I am late again. But oh well, its December.

We’re stuck with the later time slot for next year, but its too pricey for me to go to private lessons right now, so I will try riding at that time a few times. If it doesn’t work out, I will try to move to an earlier timeslot on Mondays. They also have a good instructor, though I am concerned there are too many juniors (and thus smaller, lighter riders) in the group for me to be able to get the less weight-carrying horses as often as I need them.

The news has been spreading like wildfire that Brandon Sanderson, author of Elantris and the Mistborn series, has been personally chosen by Robert Jordan’s wife and editor, Harriet McDougal, to complete the final book in the Wheel of Time Series, A Memory of Light. A press release and links to further information can be found here.

If you haven’t picked up all the Christmas gifts (for yourself or others) yet, perhaps some ideas of interest can be found on our little list of books that we wouldn’t have minded getting (except for the fact that we already have them all).

So, about that lesson…

We jumped. Properly this time, so Sammy wasn’t allowed to take part, and I was put on Gamir. My instructor noted that she had used Sammy twice last week for those basic exercises (our lesson and one more), and she wouldn’t make that mistake again. By the second time, he caught on a wee bit too quick (he always does that if you have the same exercise twice in a week) and did it even faster. Oops.

I still haven’t done my lesson report for this week, mainly because I am upset that the schedule is changing next year and I am not sure how to be able to manage a weekly lesson unless I move to private tuition which would be lots of fun but also a lot more expensive. In the meantime, however, I (or rather, Elio) came across an interesting paper about the horses in Tolkien. Made me very inspired to try for something horse-related for the next big paper (the final requirement for the new Masters degree) that I may be starting next semester. Something about horses in the Iliad and/or in Greek myth and religion would be interesting, if I can formulate a good question to discuss. And then, if I continue with the Literature, maybe something on horses in fantasy…

Of course, a more practical approach might be to write something involving horses that could actually pay for my riding. Or at the very least, getting some horse-related translation jobs. I am so tired of motocross and surfing. ;P

Today, it was sort-of-dressage, sort-of-jumping. Our instructor had decided to use some small jumps in order to once again get us to ride forward enough and to help us get enough lift and suspension in the canter to facilitate a change of leading leg.

And despite this, I was still on Sammy. A little peculiar, perhaps, since dear old Sammy hasn’t jumped for ... oh, at least 5 and probably more like 7 or more years. He was one of the best (well, most eager, anyway) jumpers in the stable before, but then he went and tore a muscle in a hindleg. This has shortened his stride somewhat and, since he was never a careful jumper in the first place, made them concerned about him tearing that muscle again if overextending himself. So, he was pulled from jumping.

Its been a while since last, but today it was time for the second to last of this years shows. It was also time for my dad to take over the handling, to see if Ringo might behave a little better and to get some practice in because they’ll be taking him to the last show for the year in Stockholm.

This was also the first time for Ringo in the 15-24 month class, since he turned 15 months three days ago. This meant his odds were pretty poor, since he’d likely be the least developed dog in his class. It also meant that more entries were likely, since more people show in this class than in the junior class. So, instead of being alone, he was up against three other dogs. And though he did get his first price for quality (as he has gotten at all but one show so far), he ended up placing last of the four.

His behaviour was better than with me (he jumps up on my father too, but stops when told to do so, at least for a while before trying again), though he was hard to get interested in posing well or running with a bit more interest as he was very easily distracted by just about anything. I think he probably would have needed to be worked with more before the class started, but my dad is a bit more laid-back than me. ;) In the meantime, I was extremely nervous, more so than when handling him myself. ;P

Overall, the judge wasn’t too happy with the behaviour of any of the dogs. None of them got a CK and he told all the handlers that they needed to get them to behave better. The critique .... well, it sounds very positive, but either it wasn’t quite enough anyway or he didn’t really consider the order too carefully. It did seem like he was in a hurry to get the troublemakers out of there. ;)

Masculine male. Dark eyes, good expression, good width and depth of muzzle. Noble neck. Square, substantial body. Good angles, suitable bone structure. Good coat and brindling. Moves well when he wants to. Very lively.

I just realized that I completely forgot my lesson report this week. Bad Linda. Though, I did have a pile of subtitling and course work. But still. In any case, it’ll have to be a briefer one or I will end up putting it off again.

I was on Sammy this week too and we continued to work on cantering, though first she had us emphasize obedience during (in particular) transitions as we warmed up. For me, this was particularly useful, since one of the difficulties with Sammy is getting him to not trot like a harness racing horse after cantering. He still did this a few times, but after he realized that that kept resulting in a gentle but firm halt, he started improving. He’s a very clever fellow, and if you set strict limits, he gets the point pretty quickly.

I also focused a lot on actually riding his canter from the get-go, and the results were overall pretty good. The really hard part about Sammy, though, is that he’s very good at giving you a nice, easy trot or a nice, easy canter that feels very comfortable. He’s learned a thing or two about escaping work during all his years at the riding school, and its easy to be fooled into not actually asking him to work properly.

Another cold Tuesday (with some snow, in fact) and I was again concerned about getting Fleur. Fortunately, it seems my instructor has decided I’ll be on Sammy for the canter work, which is just fine by me. His canter is certainly a lot better than both Fleur’s and Murphy’s, and he’s pretty solid most of the time (except when people set off fire crackers right outside the arena ... ;P). I was, however, a bit jealous to see that someone else got to ride last weeks new arrival, a pretty grey Arabian mare who is just the right size. But fortunately that means she’ll be in my weight class too, and since she was a little frisky yesterday, I guess I can wait a few weeks to try her out. ;) I do hope they keep her, though. We need more big ponies/small horses.

I had some papers to deal with this week, so the lesson report ended up falling by the wayside for a few days. It was, however, a lesson well worth reporting on. I had worried that I’d be back on Fleur (it was pretty cold, so I figured she’d be frisky) since Murphy had done two jumping classes earlier in the day, but I was pleasantly surprised to find myself on Sammy. That’s a rare treat these days, since the big Irish boy is the oldest horse in the stables and mostly used for lower level lessons.