Ending December

[glenatron]

Sounds like everyone had a good christmas, which is excellent news. I enjoyed myself seeing both families, getting gnarled by small ( but about twice the size she was a month ago ) puppy on Christmas day and being replaced in sleepsy_mouse's affections by her ginger cat on Boxing day. We were going to call in at Lakeside ( a stupid-big mall by the Dartford Bridge ) on the way home so I could buy some new trousers as the only jeans I have that aren't ripped to shreds are my novelty ripped-jeans jeans. Unfortunately everyone else had the idea of january sales in their tiny minds and we took one look at the queues for parking and dashed off, pausing only at a big old tack-shop on the way home.

We have still not been able to get sleepsy_mouse's christmas present home- it's a hen-house which is one inch taller than the boot of my car and one inch wider than the boot of hers. This is more than just a little frustrating but I'm sure we'll think of something.

Today we had another lesson with Julian, and once again it was amazing. If I had learned as much in five hours of instruction as I'm getting in each half-hour session I would feel I was getting value for money. As it is, I'm getting so much out of these lessons they are effectively free. Brilliant stuff! Today when we were starting out and I was riding in walk with my eyes closed it felt no different to with my eyes open- when we had our first lesson it felt very different and much less stable. I've stopped feeling like there is any forward and backward movement in walk, it's just a steady rocking of the pony's barrel. I'm sure that stuff like this is probably obvious to most people who ride but it feels to me like someone is switching the lights on one after another.

Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be a little more clement and we will be able to go for a long wander out with our own ponies.

In the meantime, I got Portal for Christmas and a possibly psychopathic robotic test-mistress is trying to persuade me the tasks I have been set are impossible...

Comments

[evil-c.livejournal.com]

I'm going to get Asher over to Julian in the spring. Riding with eyes closed is goooooooood thing to do!

I tried Lizzie with sprouts today. Have never heard of feeding ponies sprouts but tried after seeing your photo of your pony eating them. Lizzie very much approves. Will try the others with then next week too :-D

[gemmabowles.livejournal.com]

ah, i love the mad life threatening crush-like war that is the january sales. its the best of fun, and the most satisfying when you find the one and last piece of clothing that everyone else around you was looking for. mwaha.

where is this hen house? for a bitta petrol money i can bring the range rover over and deliver it somewhere if its not a million miles away?

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

The henhouse is at Scats in Godalming, it needs to get to our house in Farnham, a total of about 8 miles. If you were passing and you could take half an hour to help us out I would certainly cover your petrol money and be in your debt...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Asher will love it- an amazing instructor and what a nice man.

[gemmabowles.livejournal.com]

thats not far, its on the roundabout isnt it? something like that. ide only need a postcode anyway. well if you think it will fit in the range rover (inc back seats down) then ide be more than happy to. im guessing they will be open from the 2nd jan so can pencil in that day if you want, perhaps midday so i can do ponies either side?

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

That would be brilliant. I'll sort you out with a map, but it's probably easier if I meet you at Scats and help you bring it over from there as it's a two-person job to carry it ( not stupidly heavy but stupidly awkward in shape ) - I'll drop you an email.

[z111.livejournal.com]

I used to do a lot of eyes closed w/t but then forgot about it for ages.

Last time I tried it again, I felt dizzy and disoriented.

I should give it another go.

[z111.livejournal.com]

Sprouts?? Like bean sprouts?

I often wonder whether my horses would eat stuff like celery...

[evil-c.livejournal.com]

Brussel Sprouts.

[z111.livejournal.com]

We call them brussels sprouts. Do you?

[penella22.livejournal.com]

that was one of my favorite parts of those 'Zen of Horses' lessons i took last spring - was riding with my eyes closed...it's amazing how much it grounds you and brings your perspective into the present moment. Definitely reveals when you're off in outer space thinking about everything BUT the present moment, and fixes that in a heartbeat. This guy sounds so fantastic, it's great you get to take lessons with him.
I actually think the stuff you're learning is very simple, but advanced. Some people get to a quite high level of competition without ever realizing things like the motion of the walk is very much side to side, or without being able to ride with their eyes closed. It's amazing stuff...so exciting to learn isn't it? Reminds me just a little bit of the simple brilliance of the riding clinics I did ages ago with Francois Lemaire de Ruffieu from the Cadre Noir. What he said was often simple but brilliant like that too. Although from the sounds of things Julian is even better... :-)

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Well I know that Julian trained with Charles Harris ( who was the first brit to do the full course with the Spanish Riding School ) and Nuno Oliviera among others so his style is absolutely from those classical roots, although from the Spanish rather than French side of things.

He quotes Charles Harris saying that the mark of true genius is to take something very simple and make it even simpler. That certainly seems to be his aim.

It makes me appreciate how lucky we are to be in this part of the world- I may whinge about how crowded it is, but the best teachers and clinicians must necessarily be within a few hours travel just because there isn't room for them to be any further away and still be in the UK...