My plan for the week was to ride Rags after the rain passed, if it wasn’t too muddy…however, the little norther came howling in dry and far too blustery for a ride Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday through Friday was another attack of gut trouble. So today I got back on him when not feeling quite Read More…
Category: life beyond writing
Another Footstone On the Fitness Trail
I can’t really call one size down in jeans a “milestone”…so, “footstone” or maybe “furlongstone” (that actually has a nice feel to it…furlongstone…) But this morning I switched out of one size jeans into the next size down. These are (gasp, gasp for some people) men’s jeans, which I like because a) they’re better made, Read More…
Ride 37: Rags Tries It On…Nappy Sunday
I don’t know why the English (and Scots & Irish) call “wanting to turn back” or stopping at a fence napping, but they do. Rags has not previously been really bad about that, but today…today he was *determined* to turn back and we had several tussles that involved stopping, whirling around to try for it, Read More…
Ride 36: More Than Two Miles in 35 Minutes.
Rags is developing into a teenager horse in some ways. Megan Elphick, whose YouTube channel I visit regularly, commented on training horses that they go through a stage when they begin to think they know how to do stuff and the rider is superfluous except as a passenger. They’ve learned some basic dressage, and they’ve Read More…
Odds & Ends
Several red oaks in the back yard, covered with flower tassels and releasing LOTS of golden pollen, now have tiny reddish-beige leaves, all furry and pleated tightly. The youngest bur oak (not up to my waist yet) has popped some buds. The cedar elms (Ulmus crassifolia) in the Near Meadow (and elsewhere) are in a Read More…
Ride 35: A Perfect Evening Ride
Today was a lovely day, clear, cooler than it has been (though quite warm in the sun in the afternoon until about 4pm, not stifling) and with just enough breeze. Yesterday, I’d gotten a new pair of riding tights, summer-weight, ordered last week. They’re a style recommended by one of the staff at the Dover Read More…
Third Hand: Useless But Interesting
I think this happened after the last concussion, but I’m not sure. Not much more than five years, certainly not ten, I think; I haven’t always had a third invisible hand and partial arm hanging on the wrong side of my body. It started while I was distracted. I gradually I became aware that one Read More…
Ride 34: Trip to Tack Store + Evening Ride
Today’s tack haul included two saddle pads, 1 pair of riding tights, Coat Defense for Rags’ itchy spots he rubs raw, a new belt to replace the one I knew wasn’t *really* lost but that would not declare itself until I replaced it (even as I took out the new one to show R-, and Read More…
Ride 33: Testing Late Afternoon Temps
Daylight Savings Time creates real difficulties for those who need training/riding schedules to mesh with open hours for other businesses at a distance. It shifts the hours of useful light toward after-5pm, and removes those hours from before 8am, making mornings darker and evenings lighter. Actual day-length changes only in response to the yearly circuit, Read More…
Ride 32: Heat, Wind, Scary Things, Shedding
Due to various things, some socially unmentionable (nobody wants to hear about certain common minor illnesses, right? RIGHT!!), some related to DST, some related to stuff-that-had-to-be-done, today was the first day this week I actually made it onto Rags. Storms, rain, mud (no deterrent to UK riders, who are used to rain and mud; I Read More…