BlueHeron, maybe because you guys like to change your avatars so much, the meme isn't happening in the blogger brain, in your particular area of the mass internet thingy dingy.
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Memetics. How do we pick up on things? Where does it start?
Here's a really old newspaper pic of a girlfriend from my First/Worst barn, riding the AngloArab "Baska". About 1971 or so, after I left. Baska looks gaunt here. F/W guy died not long after. I don't remember what happened to Baska. I hope the girl shown riding him bought him, and they lived happily ever after. I hope.
Baska was an incredibly beautifully correct TB/Arab cross. Oh, was he forward! His idea of natural head carriage is about what you see here. Very similar to AofG's Arab mare,in his head carriage.
Look how much bit Baska has. That happened after I left. Baska had been wearing a snaffle, as far as I remember.. Baska could jump a 6' fence,if he felt like it. Or he'd just run away with you. I couldn't ride Baska to save my life. Baska was this girl's special buddy, just as this horse, The Saxon, was mine. Here we are in 1966 at Maplevalley Winter Schooling Show, Green Jumper Division.. The Saxon was a big old raw-boned TB/?? chestnut gelding, 16.2 or so.
My creepiac F/W "instructor" received these photo proofs after a show where I'd won some good ribbons. He was absolutely furious. The other proofs looked like this.
Talk about poster child for bad riding. But F/W never said what was wrong! I had no idea. I liked the one where my heels were down, and blew it up on a photo-copier. F/W could never articulate what I was doing wrong. And I was frightened by his anger. If you don't know what you are doing wrong, how is it fixed? Bear in mind I've been riding all of a year, at this point. I'm freakin' 11. So, I'm doing SOMEthing wrong, enough to anger the F/W creepyoid. And, I was afraid to ask.
Not a very good meme. How could I mime something, if I didn't know HOW?
I'm really good at seeing patterns, and learning to mime things. Look at That, BH!! I can't always remember "how" I learned, or gestalted whatever. Just who I is/was. I hope it doesn't get worse:) I'm very affected by what I read. Always have been. Constant reader, I was/is.
Getting On the Horse
I think part of our "brain freeze-up" when we get on, is the volume of how much you want to know, how much you want to achieve. It's overwhelming. It's part of why I think it's so important to work with your horse before you ride him. Check him out. How's he leading? Nicely? Good. How's he behaving? Standing? Good. Think about what ever you want to do with him. If he isn't with you on the ground, he won't be, under saddle.
Just think directly at him. Stay in his moment. Not yours. Yours fades away. of course, you are laying your hands all over him, by grooming and polishing him. But you are also memorizing him again. They can and do change a bit every day. Today is always new to your horse.
Relax as you groom him. I have never understood the avalanche of quicker, easier, better ways to not actually groom your horse, yourself. Ick, so dirty.. Dirt is GOOD for you. Not a lot. Honestly, massage & chiro have their places with those poor creatures damaged by us, but the healthy ones? Out in a field, doing light work, if any? A darned good grooming is all any horse wants from us. Feels soooo Goood, done right.
I'd stand in the aisle of the barn I briefly part-boarded at, and be struck by how little grooming anyone seemed to be doing. It was the "get it over with" part, the "gossip away" part. Horses find that insulting. "Why are you here?" thinks the horse.
But if you groom him up, his attitude softens. You can do massage and gentle flexings of all of his parts, to see how he's feeling. It just shows that you care.
GoLightly did have a fine coat, like the fiction. He did not woolly up in the winter. Whatever draft genes he had did not express in his coat. Oh, I wish I had a conformation shot of GoLightly!
I have a horrible shot of us cooling out, after that school.
Here it is..
Laugh away. Yes, crowds gathered to see my nickles. George Morris would be appalled. Shocked and appalled:) Yes, indeed. (Thanks, Mr. & Mrs. Small.)
I'm not finished, but I feel like I should say SOMEthing.
26 comments:
GL,
I think this is a great shot of you and Golightly.
Great heel there girlfriend, I don't think mine was ever that good.
OH and FIRST!!!
I like that shot also, GL. It is so relevent.
No really, it says it all. Riding is hard work, no shortcuts and being expert takes time. Long time.
Holly Cow! THAT is GoLightly?
Stunning shoulder on that boy. What was his breeding? Wow. What a horse.
You know, horses make us get out of memes. Because horses do not communicate with memes, so we have to abandon them if we want to truly communicate with them. Balancing reins and horse shoes, now those are memes. But actually listening to and understanding a horse? Total anti-memetic. lol.
Still can't get over that horse called GoLightly. Gotta go look at him again...
More Edward Gal,for BlueHeron
Although I liked the first video I saw, better....
A titch short in the neck, here and there.
Maybe I need a new 'puter monitor.
Nothing else could ever compare to GoLightly, for me.
Welllll, maybe Top
:)
Or, sigh, Johnnnny.
Or that new colt (& filly) of Fern's..
or kestrel's filly and colt....
Anyone got an antidote for horse fever?
Right!
Empty wallet.
Works every time.
I like that horse. Form and function...that's what I see. Like a beautifully balanced machine. I bet he was wonderful. I'm envious. Was he as uphill as he appears in that picture. Man, what a shoulder. He looks strong and elegant, not a 'pretty boy' type. Handsome.
I like the shot of you and GoLightly,Its real ,not posed and you look so right on him!
I love that pic... It's a natural photo
Told ya I can't remember what I write!
I still wonder about the anesthetic I was given, 3? times before I was 5.
Anesthetic was pretty new then.
Mom was a smoker. dad too. Heck, everybody!
I can memorize.
But I can delete too, sometimes involuntarily.
weeeeeird.
That cooling out photo makes me want to go outside and get straight to work.
Then as I try to wrench the door open, pulling back against the suction of the air-conditioning, I realize that it really is 98 degrees with 90% humidity, and sense prevails.
The horses drip quietly in the stalls, and wait for the evening. Perhaps I'll get on one, then.
eleven years old, GoL! wow, what guts. And I love the one of you on Go Lightly. He is so handsome- I like his strong shoulder, as well. Some uphill is good for the jumps. Great photos all around of you!!. thanks for sharing :)
oh, and George Morris would love your heels.
Yeah, but not the state of my boots. Or my filthy used for everything chaps. Or of course, the tank top. Or the lack of helmet...
Union Square, cut that out. I'll cry, or something.
It was a blasted hot day that day. We schooled at 10am, and it was already 85 plus humdiity. I was gasping for air, there.
I usually rode at between 6-7am, through that long hot humid Toronto summer of 1984. I thankfully taught in the evenings, and mornings only on the weekends.
wowsolongago.
I really like that picture too!
It's a moment captured perfectly.
Those chaps happen to suit you I think:)
The woman who took that shot was (?) a professional photographer.
She may still be one, I dunno.
She was new at horse-shooting, though;)
Those shots of me on Saxon are perfect examples of what happens to your horses front end when you jump ahead of him, i.e. throw your weight forward, before he's actually taken off, so you are weighting his shoulders.
Leg hanging is kinda inevitable:)
The Saxon was my buddy, until he was sold down the road. He came back after he'd put a pole through his front hoof. He was never quite the same after that.
No comments on Baska??
I thought you Ayrab people would be ooohing at him.
Humpfh.
True, he was an AngloAyrab;)
and the pic is a tad fuzzy.
I know what he looks like, still.
He's a bone-rack there, compared to when I left that F/W barn.
Only that I'm happy I'm not the girl on his back.
I lost my nerve for riding the Ayrabs at about 18.
My old dressage instructor used me to break all her Arab babies when I was a kid.. dang skinny little things. All they have to do is stop and I go right over their non-existent shoulders.
Union Square, welcome!!
Be berry berry careful
I haz Ayrab readers on here.
I think one of them is ..
eeeeeek, RUN!!!
Oh, whew, false alarm. I could have sworn I heard HP coming up
Funny, just noticed, not much sweat on that old boy, GL. You must have wicked it up!!
Explain all the pads under that saddle, please.
Oh, NCC, it's an OLD picture. I lightened it considerably. GoLightly is sweating, but he never got as hot as I did;)
His dear old nose is blowing.
I was using my old flat-as-a-pancake saddle. The extra pads under the cantle were to keep the saddle level on his back. As Paddy called them, shaped like a "banjo".
I don't think there's an arab born who can'T teleport.
They have shoulders. They've just disappeared.
Oops.
Be nice...or I'll make you ride a paint horse that will make you suck air. lol You'll be wishing you were sitting on an Arab.
I never knew a paint horse that couldn't dump me.
Wait there was one - oh nevermind, she dumped me too.
At the eventing barn, we called her "TBX" on entry forms. So no one knew she was a breeding stock paint.
Yeah I wonder why she felt the need to dump me. Poor victim of English prejudice! Forced to hide her identity and pose as a common cross-bred!
But really, I'm most afraid of Appaloosas.
...Thanks for the welcome!!
US- my first "real" horse was a Appy mare. No real appytude there. Think she is the only one I was never dumped from. Of course, that woulld take energy and that was reserved for chewing.
GL,
Great riding for new rider. Those were big jumps for little kid. Every time I meet a 10-12 at the stable I realize how young I was when I start jumping and riding large horses. Geez, you were just a little kid doing an incredible job.
I Loooove the GL shot. I dunno I have this liking for real life photography.
He IS a lovely horse... man. :)
US - I never thought in a million years I'd like an Arab. I liked big WB's and pretty much anything but them... secretely I did think they were pretty but CRAZY! I'd never ride one of those crazy beasts!
Accidentally fell in love with one two years ago just trying to find A horse to ride when I had no $$$ ... he'll be my first horse iiiin man a matter of days. As GL put it he is my special buddy. Never ridden a horse I clicked with more - even when he decides teleporting is necessary. :)
Arabs just throw their brain down the trail a ways and have to teleport to catch up, LOL! Guess that's why I love them.
GL, what fabulous pics! You is berry brave kidlet indeed, and I love the pic of you on GL. Real riding, just for joy, is balm for the soul...and should be more ribbon worthy than any show ring ride can ever be.
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