cold cold cold books cold

yah, I will go riding.

'm just waiting till the temp tops 15F, because that is just my own stupid mental limit to exactly how cold it can be and I still have to get to ride. It was 0F (-17C) early this morning, and it is still cooooold.

I finished a strange little book yesterday. It was like the person had read all the stable intrigue/horse show/girl&pony stories, and reproduced them all together in one lumpy book, without actually understanding how any of it works: how to keep a horse sound, what judges look for in a hunter class or an equitation class, how to train a horse to jump, what a jumping class looks like, the work that actually happens when a horse is shod or worked, or put away. I found it very frustrating, and kind of funny.

On the other hand, Monica Dickens has a perfect grip on what it takes to keep horses. I have House at Land's End which I've read repeatedly and love, and Follyfoot which I haven't read, and looks like it was part of a series, even perhaps part of a series that the BBC made a kid's TV show out of. I started Follyfoot and it made me laugh twice in the first chapter, from the correctness of the descriptions of the people and the horses. She is the author of one of the other adult riding books, called Talking of Horses. I recommend it highly, just for the happy descriptions of rides she has taken and horses she has loved.

The last adult book is an extremely hard to find object called A Breed of Horses. Moyra Williams, the woman who wrote it, found a two year old she liked the looks of, bought her, and then bred her and took amazing notes on the growing up and training of the resulting horses. She even has a giant table in the back of characteristics of the different offspring at key points in their careers. There are used copies around, which is good, because for years it was unfindable, and well worth the read. While she looks at breeding and training, she is also trying to tease apart some feeling for inherited and taught traits in horses. I like the tone of the writing as much as anything she says, and there are some descriptions of horses' responses to things (pasture mates, new experiences, object) that crack me up.

cold cold cold ponies cold

horse: check
exercise: minimal
fabric: check

I sense a theme.

I did ride. The red mare was a little high from a week off, but walking and trotting solidly and with interest. We even cantered a little. Cantering is bugging me because she pins her ears back and makes horrible faces and it feels unsteady and unhappy in ways I can't quite analyze because I am working on being in the center of her and not falling off and not yanking on her and bendbendbend. There were standards with poles on the ground, so we invented tiny courses, stepping over the poles and bending and turning and finding the next fence. She cares about it, I think, I also think she worries a little. I don't think she's had much schooling over fences. We could maybe try that.

After tons of walk and steady trotting and everything we headed out to the outdoor ring to cool out. She walked along with her head waay down, pushing her nose along in the snow and (I think) eating it, or licking at it. The only other footprints in the ring were ours from a week and a half ago - these people simply don't go outside in winter - I don't know how they can stand it. Part way around the second time, she just folded up under me and rolled. I was laughing so hard at her I couldn't grump - she's been wearing a blanket since she's been at the boarding stable, and I think it itches. She is starting to shed out under it, and she was unusually happy about being scratched during grooming. Rolling with a blanket on must be terribly unsatisfying.

I think she might have slipped on the ice and banged herself up some. She was certainly tiptoeing across the plate ice in the driveway today, and looking carefully at the footing. Interesting watching horses think.