moonv6

It might be worth mentioning at some point what I've been doing for the last two weeks, and how it made me feel.

( geeky angst... )

From a personal standpoint, it reminded me that we actually do produce a product that does operate in real-world networks, which sometimes do some interesting and unusual things. Now I'm thinking about what we should bring to, and what we should test at phase 2 of the test, which will be in February. I'm motivated again, how about that.

Oh, and I have to hand it to the local catering company. In two weeks, we didn't have the same breakfast or lunch twice, and it was all uniformly good (not outstanding, but good).

other than that, mrs. lincoln

...the theater was great.

At my skating lesson yesterday morning, we had a substitute instructor. His name is Yevgenie, and Francie describes him as a typical Russian coach. He's a bit of a taskmaster, but he's a brilliant skater, and he's actually a very good instructor. Instead of having everyone doing the same thing, he was flitting between the 5 students, giving everyone brief but intense attention, and giving precise, insightful, and helpful comments. Inside of 5 minutes, I was doing effortless, elegant mohawk turns, something I've been struggling with for almost a year.

---

Today I went riding for the first time in at least a month. When I got there, people were already tacking up for a trail ride. (This happens once in a blue moon, at least when I'm around.) Cheyenne hates being in a stall, at all, for any length of time, and I had to go do things like negotiate which saddle to use (another rider was using his regular one) and find a martingale. So he was in a lather before we even got out of the barn.

The last time I tried to take him on a group ride, he refused to leave the ring. He planted his feet, and wouldn't budge, regardless of kicking, regardless of the crop, regardless of flicking the reins in his eyes. So we stayed behind and did ring-work that time.

This time, I trotted him around several times, and trotted him out the gate. And it just worked. He was in the lead, which was the only place for him today. He was a handful, but I think he would have been much worse if he was behind someone. It was mostly walk-trot, with one very slow canter, almost a western gait.

The trails through the woods are, for the most part, rocky, narrow, undulating, and twisty. He's sure-footed, and not at all afraid of wooden bridges. He's really pretty sane for a nut-bar. It helped that we didn't run into any other horses, dogs, bikes, etc.

Actually, I should amend that. We met up with another rider before getting onto the main trail. Cheyenne must have not noticed Monica and Bandy, even though they were standing right in front of us, because when they moved, he spooked and threw me. I landed on my butt, but still holding the reins, and he didn't try to run off with me.

Horeses have a really good sense of direction. He knew when we were heading home, and started throwing his head, and pulling at the bit, and dancing around. The last time I was out alone with him, I made the mistake of letting him run when he got like this (it was a good running trail, he likes to go fast, and I like to go fast), and he became totally unmanageable, and ran all the way home. So this time, we walked all the way back. He wasn't happy, but I let him do about 10 laps around the ring at full hand-gallop as soon as we got in.

He's going to be a really good horse if he ever gets enough work. And if not, he's got a target pattern in the middle of his forehead...