minor epiphanies

Eat before riding - prevents blood sugar bonking and improves chances at transcendence. Also helps keep the fingers warm at 16 fahrenheits.

Also, if I find myself thinking I need new clothes I MUST DO LAUNDRY before actually yielding to that impulse.

religion again

I found this piece in the New Scientist that suggests that humans have a predisposition to religiosity, which is interesting. The most telling point to me is the place where atheists and agnostics were interviewed:

they often tacitly attribute purpose to significant or traumatic moments in their lives, as if some agency were intervening to make it happen. "They don't completely exorcise the ghost of god - they just muzzle it," Bering says

I find myself thinking about that. I ask the parking pixies to find me a space when trying to park downtown, but I don't actually think it works. And if it doesn't work, I think OK, I'll do that errand on foot. I have stopped cursing things because if I don't believe in a God and salvation there is no particular reason to believe in hell either.

Anyhow. I digress.

horses: three, all bareback, nothing but walking really
fabric: done, and done early too
exercise: circus, not terribly stressful but definitely something.

The horses were Wild when I got there this morning. It was cold and bright and blowing hard and they were all perky and bright and excited. I rode Kaboose a little, mostly walking. I am working on assuming that most of her horrible expressions are bluster, rather than intention. So far, that is working pretty well. We are also experimenting with soothing things rather than wearing-out things. When I lunged her, when she was at the place with the indoor, it seemed to rev her up more than take the edge off. Spending a lot of time walking and bending before working seemed to sooth her and let her relax into the work we were going to do.

When I pulled her bridle off outside, I was impressed by how orange her ears were against the blue sky. Bob was there, so we bridled the two younger dark girls, and he rode Penny (who hated the mounting part but was great for everything else) and I rode Ruby and we stomped around some. Bob was enchanted with how direct his feel was of Penny's back, and how warm and toasty she was. He has problems with circulation in his hands and feet, so keeping warm is a big thing in the winter. We swapped horses, and he had a blast bopping about on Ruby. I rode Penny, and Kaboose stood in the path and made horrible faces at us whenever we went past. Bob was laughing with delight. I feel like I made another convert.