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We Are Flying Solo

January 12, 2012

Mollusks, Musings, and Magazines

Multi-day meetings about mussel ecology and endangered species planning keep me away from my equine musings.  Well, at least from writing about them.

My truck hurtles back north at night, escaping the museum meeting-room in the city as fast as possible in its farm-quest.  Encore and I are working on contact and connection.

He accepts the contact quite willingly and is steady, but I think he is ready to do more.  I ask for more connection, building on what I learned from the video clinic and in our lesson.  The first day I tried it, it was brilliant -- his hocks were underneath him, everything was incredibly connected and through and THERE.  Replication....is a good bit more difficult.

We walk that fine balance between riding forward into the contact (good) and pulling back into the contact (very bad) and it takes a lot of concentration to stay on the correct side of the line, despite the fact that my brain knows good and well what my body SHOULD be doing.

Piled next to my bed in a haphazard pile of paper and cat hair:

--Training the Three Day Event Horse and Rider by Jimmy Wofford (buy it now, I command thee)
--The Principles of Riding by the German National Equestrian Federation, the same yellow paperback that's been on my shelf since the mid-eighties, cheap glue and all
--Two recent issues of Practical Horseman
--Dressage in Harmony by Walter Zettl
--Henry James' Midnight Song by Carol de Chellis Hill (Hey, even a hardcore eventer needs a brain break)

I pick out passages and read and re-read and visualize and read again.  If I can just do this enough times, it will surely stick.

We have a date with David on Saturday for a jumping lesson and a date with UPS on Tuesday for a dressage saddle to try.  Rest assured, you shall hear about both.

5 comments:

  1. My coach has been attempting to loan me that Jimmy Wofford book for almost a year now! Every time she sets it somewhere to give to me, it disappears. When she brings it with her, it gets forgotten in the car. Etc, etc. I'm starting to think the book has something against me. You know things aren't going well when inanimate objects start holding grudges...

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  2. Why is the Wofford book so expensive! On amazon it's like $80! Please tell me its that good?

    Also, wondering if you got a chance somewhere to send out the stuff I got from your solo stash?

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  3. Amazon thinks the book is out of print despite Jimmy telling them otherwise so ignore them. Both Bit of Britain and Pony Club sell it for normal price. It is that god though.

    Also Tatiana I have your stuff in a box but due to bad shit plus meetings have not escaped to post office yet. You have my deepest apologies and I promise it will go out shortly.

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  4. I did a bunch of ecology work in high school and college. Very interesting. Best conference ever was the protozoal parasitology meeting in Bozeman, MT.

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  5. I have the first too. I'm iffy about Zettl since he jumped on the pepperoni bandwagon.

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