Horses & Other Interests
T-shirt for sale in Athens.
Ellen, author of The Chronicles of the $700 Pony [Half Halt 2006] & The Further Adventures of the $700 Pony [Half Halt 2008], is now living the ex-pat life and touring the world with her family.
Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2014
List of my A to Z posts
![atoz [2014] - BANNER - 910](https://rodneyssaga.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/atoz-2014-banner-910.jpg)
To continue the A to Z theme, I will render the blog title in various alphabets over the four Sundays in April.
Binary
01010010 01101111 01100100 01101110 01100101 01111001 00100111 01110011 00100000 01010011 01100001 01100111 01100001
Hex
52 6f 64 6e 65 79 27 73 20 53 61 67 61
Base64
Um9kbmV5J3MgU2FnYQ==
ASCII
82 111 100 110 101 121 39 115 32 83 97 103 97
Courtesy of paulschou.net: TRANSLATOR, BINARY
Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2014
List of my A to Z posts
My Horse Shopping Fairy Godmother [HHPR#1] offered to look at some horses at a off-track Thoroughbred recycling facility. She asked me which ones I liked on the website. I dunno. All of them? A horse that will solve my problems & then fart rainbows? The grinding wheels of time and despair have rendered me useless on the subject.
Here’s what my long-suffering groundperson had to say:
“Tell her you don’t care about looks (except brown, TB, and 1/2 the boy bits underneath). Tell her you want inquisitive (smart) boys built uphill and don’t pull like a freight train under saddle. Move towards a jump rather than away when presented with the option (either under saddle or in hand) Height of jump not important. Attitude towards jump important. Willing to walk on a long rein without help from rider. Remind her that you are an amateur, not very complicated, and can’t dance, so rhythm and spots are not your forte. Oh, and are likely to go “AAAAAHHHHH, you fix”, every 15th to 20th fence. He doesn’t have to do all 15 fences alone. Just one out of 15. (Often fence 4 or 5 on course after the first few have gone well).”
Does this man know me or what?
Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2014
List of my A to Z posts
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Gratuitous Pasture Pic
View from the roof of the barn.
How have our two been faring while I’ve been lost in Alphabetland? Quite well, thank you.
Mathilda
Since the last mare report [Morning Graze], Mathilda has had a low-grade spring fever – not the good kind – and a mild relapse of her secondary injury [Getting Ready, Fine. So Far]. Dread was had by all. Fortunately, she chugged through.
Unfortunately, meds put her off her feed. We try to handle minor problems with supportive care where possible. She’s still lost more weight than she can spare from when medication was required. To get the weight back, we’ve fiddled with her diet, yet again. We’ve switched from brand X to brand Y. Similar feed, different company. Both reputable national feeds, but the new one appears to strike her fancy. Not Senior. Never Senior. Bleh. We’ve also put her on chopped hay. Short pieces. Easier to eat. Duh.
Her attitude is terrific and she is awash in Spring Fever! The frisky kind. I won’t say she is getting better. That would be tempting fate. Let’s just say that I have stopped having a panic attack immediately upon waking. There is still anxiety. Just not immediately.
Rodney
Rodney has been working industriously on his ground work: weaving around cones, walking over poles, trotting in hand, and jumping on the line.
Given the massive come-apart he had last summer when asked to trot in hand [Weekend, Progress], his recent efforts have been stellar. Given the grand plans I had when I bought him, such small victories are frustrating.
While I was away in Georgia [Show Report], the mice played. The in-hand, trot fence topped out at 3′, the height of the schooling standards. (To be clear, no one was riding. Rodney jumps solo at the end of a long leadline. Kinda like lunging without having the horse as far away from the operator.) He walked to the vicinity of the jump, trot/cantered two strides, hopped over, and landed without a fuss or a head shake.
If that wasn’t enough to celebrate, when I got home that evening he had the oddest attitude: calm, sensible, and relaxed. Usually when Rodney has a good day, he’s tickled. You can tell he’s proud of not being the dumbest kid in class. We in turn are tickled when he is calm-for-Rodney. That night he was flat-out calm. He had the air of a seasoned campaigner content after a good day’s work. Mature.
It only lasted one night. He spooked at me the next morning when I went into his stall. I don’t know where the attitude came from. I don’t know what we do to get it back. For now, it’s nice to know that such an attitude is in there.
Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2014
List of my A to Z posts
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Gratuitous Pasture Sunset
When I went off to DragonCon, I considered wearing a costume but didn’t want to expend the time & money on something I would wear once. I compromised on genre-appropriate shirts with the understanding that they would become my new barn shirts. Here they are:
This has been misinterpreted [Dog Show]. Also from ThinkGeek. Design no longer listed on website.
Shirt used as impromptu cat bed. Not an unusual fate in my house.
Also from ThinkGeek. Also ditto.
BrickShirts. Design also no longer listed. I guess they have to keep changing to keep selling.
Plus a shirt with an map of the subway from Alice in Wonderland that has gone walkabout – the shirt, not the Wonderland subway. That never existed.
Image from here. Also from ThinkGeek, but also no longer available.
Googling for the above image led me to this:
An Alice mosaic on the wall of a NYC subway station. Public art done right. IRT 1, 50th st.
Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2014
List of my A to Z posts
Update
T-shirt in its future as barn shirt [Proper Walk Protocol]
Saw the Alice mural IRL [Spotted in NYC 2017]
Reading this page,
![Saddle Seat Equitation by Helen Crabtree [Western 1970, rev 1982, reprint 1999] p254.](https://rodneyssaga.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/crabtree-p254.jpg)
I realized that sidesaddle IS saddle seat. Hunt seat sidesaddle is a retrofit.
Historically
Back in the 19th century, Frederico Caprilli had not been born and there was no forward seat. What we now call saddle seat was just plain riding.
Positionally
Many years ago, I had the good fortune to show sidesaddle.
This is hunt seat sidesaddle. Saddle seat tack/attire would have a different bridle, a derby instead of a bowler, shorter boots, and longer jacket & skirt. The horse is George. Bless his stodgy self.
To maintain a hunt seat position, I had to fight to keep my weight centered in the saddle. The whole construction invited me to put my butt on the cantle. Exactly were my saddle seat instructors keep telling me to sit. Note, this does not mean “in the back seat” nor behind the motion but physically toward the rear of the saddle. The rider is still in balance, just farther back.
When riding in a side-saddle, my hands had to be up because my knee was in the way. I had to work to keep my hands down to follow the mouth of a Thoroughbred going in a long, low, hunter frame.
Metaphorically
I mentally unwrap my leg from around the pommel, drop it down alongside the horse, and voila – saddle seat.
Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2014
List of my A to Z posts
Virtual Brush Box 