A Trip Around The Sun

Central Time Zone, USA

When I started this project, I thought the resulting photo sets would represent the rhythm of the year. Not so much. The individual entries were kinda cool. I find the aggregate to be less that a sum of its parts. Oh well. Don’t know until you try.

Winter Solstice
Vernal Equinox
Summer Solstice
Autumnal Equinox

New Equipment: Clickers

Milton & I have a new project.

clicker two
clicker pack

As soon as I ordered a set from clickertraining.com, I found my stash of old, box-style clickers.

clicker box front

clicker box back

The new design has a quieter click, “for classes or sound sensitive animals.” The new shape, “is always in a clickable position no matter how you hold it.” (ibid). I like the fact that you can’t hold it backwards, but am having trouble getting used to smaller click. Milton hears it just fine.

Dont cov

Yes, I’ve tried clicker training before, both dogs and horses. They’ve done great. I’ve been a mess. Having read Karen Pryor’s Don’t Shoot the Dog [S&S 1984, revised Bantam 1999] and Lads before the Wind [Harper & Row 1975, expanded edition Sunshine 2000] multiple times, I had theories playing bumper cars in my head. What if I reward the wrong thing? What if I reward the right thing at the wrong time? Should I be shaping? What if …?

Lads cov

Enough.

This time, no books, no DVDs. Just a pile of carrots, a clicker, and a horse. What is the worst that could happen? I turn him into a carrot mooch? He already is. I derail his show career? He doesn’t have one. We spend time together? As long as he gets treats out of it, Milton’s happy.

Allons-y!

Take A Seat

On Boot Camp 2015, Progress Report 1, Joan made the following comment:

“Remember your alignment (of your spine), get your ribs out of your waist, shoulders back and down, put them in your back pockets, ground yourself on your sitz bones, move with your breath, inhale up, exhale down, shoulders over your hips, hips over your knees, knees over your feet. Hold a neutral position, relax into it. Breath into it…

Sounds like every riding lesson you’ve ever had, right? These are directives from her chair yoga class. I guess body control is the same whether one is sitting on a horse or in a chair. Thank you, Joan.

Joan on RS: Something Completely Different

What advice from other places have you heard that mirrors riding advice?

Text Art: T is for Tweet

Alphabet 2015
S is for Stepping Stone
R is for Rodney
Q is for Quilt
P is for Peppermint
O is for Outstanding
N is for Nail
M is for Mathilda
L is for Longe Line
K is for Kopertox(R)
J is for Jump
I is for Irons
H is for Hay
G is for Green Grass
F is for Feed
E is for Eventing
D is for Dressage
C is for Caesar
B is for Boot
A Is For Appaloosa

Referral Saturday: Horseback Reads

Update, August 2018: Site has been discontinued.

hbr Facebook 1

Equine author Maggie Dana is on a new site for horsey authors, Horseback Reads: “I’m really excited and honored to be among these writers. I like their books and they’re also great people … from all over. The gal who started the site is from Ottawa, and our most distant author is Kate Lattey (middle-grade/YA) in New Zealand. The rest of us are scattered around the US. I’m the token Brit.”

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000032_00020]

Maggie explains further: “Authors in Horseback Reads are Tudor Robins, Maggie Dana, Barbara Morgenroth, Kate Lattey, Mara Dabrishus, Natalie Keller Reinert, and Kim Ablon Whitney. Kate is a Pony Club leader in New Zealand and she actively competes in show jumping, Mara is a librarian, Kim is a former Medal rider and now a USEF “R” judge, Natalie was once a racehorse exercise rider. The rest of us either now own or have owned horses and we’ve all competed. Four of us have been traditionally published and together, we bring a wealth of knowledge and stories to Horseback Reads.”

Tudor Robins (the site’s originator) explains why these authors chose to work together: “We’re a mix of hybrid and indie published authors. We’re all writing for lovers of equestrian fiction … adult, YA, and middle-grade readers.”

“Horse-lovers tend to be book-lovers and we know there’s a big collective audience out there. We also know, as individual authors, that our readers can’t get enough of our particular books, and read much faster than we can write. To satisfy our readers, and tap into the larger pool of horse-loving readers, seven of us decided to band together. We don’t believe we’re in competition – rather we think we’re in cahoots – to keep our readers happy, to keep them reading, to make sure when they finish one horse book, and reach for another, one of us has a great book waiting for them.”

Thank you, Maggie. Good luck with the new venture.
~~~
Confession: I don’t often read horse books for entertainment, Dick Francis aside. Nor do I read books about firefighting, nor about Life in the South. I’m DOING those things. Why do I need to read about them? I am more likely to read for vicarious experience of something I would never do, for example The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World . . . via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes by Carl Hoffman [Broadway 2010].

I offer the Horseback Reads page on the theory that others may feel differently.

Websites
Horseback Reads, Facebook
Maggie Dana
Timber Ridge Riders

Maggie on RS
You’re Not Done Yet: Writing the Book Is Just the First Step
Judging a Book by its Cover
Keeping Secrets

Previous Referral Saturdays
Cover Girl
Snark-o-licious
Adieu