I Speak of Dreams

Weekend Report

Went to the Pebble Beach Spring Horse Show to observe Jumper Girl and Claudius. 

As usual, we stayed at the Beachcomber in Pacific Grove

Saturday she had one good round and one oopsie -- Claudius stumbled and JG fell off, landing on her feet.  No harm, no foul -- but no ribbons either.

Saturday night dinner was at the Rio Grill.  When we went there several years ago, they had a grilled Romaine salad.  I was disappointed that it was not on the menu any more.  The smokehouse chicken was excellent.

Sunday morning JG rode first thing.  The sun was just peeking out of the fog and the white tents were terrifying to Claudius (again).   This time he stopped instead of zooming away.

Even though Sunday was disappointing, I see huge improvements in JG's riding. 

Fugly Horse of the Day!: A Horse's View of Natural Horsemanship

Link: Fugly Horse of the Day!: A Horse's View of Natural Horsemanship.

Initially I went along with it. I'd lope around the pen real nice like, and everyone would oooh and cooo over my "natural horse" abilities. Then, just when everyone had gathered around to watch, I would see the SCARIEST!! (tehehehe) Shadow in the history of scary shadows and switch directions and take off with my rider clinging terrified to my back. Every other horse on the place was envious of me because their owners would take them out back and beat them with that overpriced stick when no one was watching, but I knew my Phyllis would not.

Eventually Philly (as I like to call her) gave up on the whole natural horse idea when Pat tried to talk her into jumping me without a bridle over some barrels. Off we went in search of another guru. In our search we found Monty. He threw a string at a horse and talked to the horse with winks and stares. I spent some time with his clinic horses. I saw the demonstration where an unbroken 2 year old became an overnight Reiner. Later I talked to the 2 year old. He was actually 5 and had been doing this same routine for about 5 clinics now.

More House Blathering #3

Today was moving day for my horse, who is going to live at a friend's farm.  He can be a pain to load in a 2-horse trailer.  Being raised in Germany, I suspect he didn't see one until I imported him.

But he loaded like a champ, didn't step on me (that'd happened a couple of times) and didn't try to crawl out the hatch.

Whew.  Back to packing.

Final Pacific Grove Update: Radiant

Jumper Girl competed in the 3' 3" Showjumping Derby (a biggish step up, since she didn't ride from September-May), and came in 5th out a field of about 40.  Twenty-one jumping efforts, including a triple combination of a one-stride to a two-stride. 

When JG was still riding ponies, we would discuss less-than-perfect results with the question: "Pilot error or pony error?".

No un-corrected pilot errors.  One brilliant pilot course-correction.  No pony errors, and in fact, one or two pony-saves-the-bacon moments.

Oh!  Ponies are a maximum of 58 inches tall, measured (more or less) at the base of the mane (the withers).  Claudius is at least 67 inches tall, and quite long.  So speaking of Claudius as a "pony" is a bit of an in-joke.

There's a lovely photo of Claudius and JG from the derby, with Claudius jumping in excellent form and a big grin from JG, that I'll post in a couple of weeks.

Previous JG-Claudius photos are packed away--I don't have any on the harddrive, for some reason.

What pleasure is greater than seeing your child's pride in achievement?

Equestrian Humor

A friend sent me the link to Trish's compilation of equestrian humor.  I particularly recommend How Many Horses Does  It Take To Change A Light Bulb?

Horses: Breathing and Breathing

Bora Zivkovic , who writes as Coturnix at Blog Around The Clock, has a great post on how horses breathe in the different gaits, and how a rider can use his or her breath to influence the horse.  Link: A Blog Around The Clock : Running, breathing and being a horse.

One of the most important things in riding horses, something I always did and always taught, although it is rarely taught by others or mentioned in books, is the necessity for the rider to breath in sync with the horse's movement. This is especially important when riding a nervous or spirited young horse who would otherwise explode. When trotting - three steps for inhale, three for exhale. Canter is more complicated.

Bora's post was prompted by Chris Clarke's post, here (with a cool movie!).

A link to all of Bora's horse posts.

Brain Injury: The Hidden Danger in Youth Sports

Have you, or your child, ever suffered a "ding" or a "bellringer" when playing a sport?  That's a concussion: mild traumatic brain injury.

Mark Emmons published an excellent article on concussion in youth sports in the Mercury News, which you should read if your child is involved in any type of sport. 

Then head over to Heads Up, the CDC's initiative to raise awareness of the dangers of concussion in youth sport.

Teach athletes and parents that it’s not smart to play with a concussion. Sometimes players and parents wrongly believe that it shows strength and courage to play injured. Discourage others from pressuring injured athletes to play. Don’t let athletes persuade you that they’re “just fine” after they have sustained any bump or blow to the head. Ask if players have ever had a concussion.

   

Girls Horse Club

Via a post at BlogHer, I found another horse blog -- GirlsHorseClub.com.

A New Way of Sharing Multimedia Projects

When I was marketing a horse, I had the tiresome chore of (a) shooting video of the horse in action  (b) editing the various shots (c) replicating it, and  (d) distributing it.

That was a number of years ago, but now there's help -- Limber Media.  It is an online service that will take your video images  (miniDV, DVD, or VHS tape), scan it into their online editing service, and help you with production and distribution.

I can see a lot of applications for this service besides selling horses, of course, like sample videos for artists and entertainers,  making a whole bunch of "here's the new baby!"  videos for distant relatives,  teachers distributing mini-lessons on subjects of interest, etc. etc.

Disclosure: I heard about Limber Media via my nephew Jesse Robbins, and he has more than a passing interest in the company's principal, Allegra Searle-LeBel.  Limber Media's blog is here.

More on Horses Jumping

I made another horse jumping video, herewith:

Each time I make a video, I learn something. Or somethings.