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Nov. 15th, 2008 01:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI had a morning round of activity.
I drove to 629 to open the basement so that Willie could get the key to fix the upstairs bathroom floor today. I would have done that last night but I forgot after staying late to do the lease with the new Mexicans. (Different Mexicans, not from New Mexico).
Since I was already out and about, I popped in to Heather's for a spot of watching Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder. As an excuse to visit, I dropped off sample size curries at Heather's from the most recent two curry projects. I'm not sure they'll really appeal to her, but whatever. She can try them anyway.
Heather fed me some of the official chocolate cake that her mom had made. They jointly suspected that this cake (the one I sampled) was not the official chocolate cake (Mrs. Weaver's) but it was. There was, later, another chocolate cake that grandpa liked better but I've no idea what one that was nor do I have any interest in discovering it even though it is allegedly chocolateier. (In my world, there is such a thing as too chocolate.) Mrs. Weaver's is absolutely everything I want in a chocolate cake. It defines perfection and is the standard to which all others are compared. (I will eat other chocolate cake and willingly, to boot. However, since my rubric for chocolate cake is "Is this cake Mrs. Weaver's cake?", all other chocolate cakes invariably fall short.)
After that, I stopped at WalMart. Our WalMar has recently reorganized/redecorated and I hate it. I can't find anything and I hate the layout. I don't want to buy fresh food (it's not a Super WalMart, it's a regular WalMart) at my WalMart and resent them giving over floor space from durable items and unspoilable dry goods I might need to fucking groceries (like milk. WTF? it's a fucking commodity. Why is WalMart selling milk?) that I could get at a real grocery store, several of which are in the area. Their new bagging thing, though, the carousel deal? That's pretty damn cool. While I was there, I and forgot to buy fabric sheets (damn) but did get everything else on my list, fuming all the while about where the fuck they moved things. (Not to defend WalMart, but I feel duty bound to mention that even if their redesign was carefully planned to ease people into the new layout, with high visibility signs and sensibly organized departments and stuff, even if it was the best possible redesign on the face of the planet, I would still hate it. I usually hate change on principle.)
I stopped at La's on the way home and handed Hazel (La's grandma, lives with La) some of the puff pastry cookies (palm leaves, made sort of like the Joy of Cooking says to make 'em.) and told her to let at least some of them for until La got home to try them. Hazel said "Just one?" *grin* We'll see if La gets any at all. If they all get gone, I can make there be more. They're easy once the puff pastry stuff is made and I have half of the batch I made left for further experiments.
Hazel allowed as how she'd like the recipe for making 'em. (She doesn't eat much anymore. Like my grandma, she doesn't seem to get much out of what she DOES eat... so scarfing down puff pastry is not a problem, here. We'd like to see Hazel with a bit more meat on her bones.) I am not sure that having the recipe would help her any. She's ninety some years old (not exaggerating) and her people mostly cook for her these days. I could explain to La or Trys or Liss how to make puff pastry but I would lay pretty decent money opposite of it ever happening. They don't like cooking. It just doesn't appeal to them. They are, however, a reasonably enthusiastic and appreciative audience for eating things. I make stuff, they eat stuff. It's a good relationship.
I got a brief (but productive) spin on the red idiot before lunch today, too.
I worked on bending right. This still needs work. I'm doing something wrong and I don't know what it is, will have to ask pony lady to look at my form. I experimented with different positions and stuff and nothing really seemed to click. I might have made some headway, but there was nothing obvious that screamed Success! *sigh* I think this is me and not her, very frustrating.
I also did a set or two of straight-line lengthen/collect/lengthen/collect transition practice at the walk. That went well, for a first effort. She wobbled some between the reins but I got her straightened out and on both of 'em without too much effort. She is really starting to listen to my legs. She's also learning how to stretch down and into contact, which is quite nice. Another day or two of this one and I think she'll have it at the walk.
Then we did some walk-trot transitions. We've got gorgeous upward transitions (after three iterations of "I put my feet back half an inch and kind of *nod* and think trot" == trot, she was up to speed, there. Smart horse.) and some progress on downward ones. Transitions are hard, so I'm not setting the bar super high, here. She can hold a frame and work in one at the walk, reasonably well. She is *starting* to have a frame at the trot. However, she sometimes comes undone at the point of transition, loses her stuff, and I don't have enough leg/seat at the trot to get her back quickly. (I am not going to fall off or anything, but I need more consistent and constant leg/foot control at the trot to have any effective aids, here. Framing up the horse is not something that you do just with your hands and the reins and stuff. Framing up a horse *ends* with the hands, but there's got to be driving forward from the hindquarters. That happens from the rider's legs. Legs, first, to drive the horse forward. Hands, later, to catch the horse on the bit and curl her up ("collection" is largely a measure of how curled up the horse is) as much as you want. You don't *start* with the curling up part because then you've got no spring, no impulsion, no oomph. So when I'm here talking about frame, that is not a hands thing first. It's a legs thing first.) I do have enough chops at the walk, now, but these things take time and practice, so I'm not concerned. We'll get better as we practice.
In terms of improving her trail riding skills, we did some circles (not-very-nice) out near the road as cars went by. At least she didn't lose her mind, so it could have been worse. "Near" the road means twenty feet away, here. We're going to work up to "right along the road" over time and see how that works.
I also worked on my sitting trot -- when cued for a trot, Goof starts off with a jog, kind of. She's rough as sin so it's never going to be smooth, no matter what she does, but her initial jog is sort of sittable. If I remember to relax and kind of flop *with* her, she rounds up onto the bit and does a really nice trot, looks like a damn show horse. (It was a medium trot, not a huge, extended effort, but it showed willing and was totally impulsion-y and had self-carriage and she was even and balanced and on the bit and stuff. I'll take that, I will.) I got maybe ten strides of that at one go, which I was really pleased with for a first effort. (I also do not have a good enough sitting trot on other people's trained horses to get a big extension on the trained horses. So, the fact that she does it at all for me, when I'm not an expert and she has no idea what I want, really, that's very encouraging.)
Anyway, it was a good horse day with Nick and the fact that it started pouring rain on us halfway through didn't dampen my enthusiasm in the slightest.
I drove to 629 to open the basement so that Willie could get the key to fix the upstairs bathroom floor today. I would have done that last night but I forgot after staying late to do the lease with the new Mexicans. (Different Mexicans, not from New Mexico).
Since I was already out and about, I popped in to Heather's for a spot of watching Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder. As an excuse to visit, I dropped off sample size curries at Heather's from the most recent two curry projects. I'm not sure they'll really appeal to her, but whatever. She can try them anyway.
Heather fed me some of the official chocolate cake that her mom had made. They jointly suspected that this cake (the one I sampled) was not the official chocolate cake (Mrs. Weaver's) but it was. There was, later, another chocolate cake that grandpa liked better but I've no idea what one that was nor do I have any interest in discovering it even though it is allegedly chocolateier. (In my world, there is such a thing as too chocolate.) Mrs. Weaver's is absolutely everything I want in a chocolate cake. It defines perfection and is the standard to which all others are compared. (I will eat other chocolate cake and willingly, to boot. However, since my rubric for chocolate cake is "Is this cake Mrs. Weaver's cake?", all other chocolate cakes invariably fall short.)
After that, I stopped at WalMart. Our WalMar has recently reorganized/redecorated and I hate it. I can't find anything and I hate the layout. I don't want to buy fresh food (it's not a Super WalMart, it's a regular WalMart) at my WalMart and resent them giving over floor space from durable items and unspoilable dry goods I might need to fucking groceries (like milk. WTF? it's a fucking commodity. Why is WalMart selling milk?) that I could get at a real grocery store, several of which are in the area. Their new bagging thing, though, the carousel deal? That's pretty damn cool. While I was there, I and forgot to buy fabric sheets (damn) but did get everything else on my list, fuming all the while about where the fuck they moved things. (Not to defend WalMart, but I feel duty bound to mention that even if their redesign was carefully planned to ease people into the new layout, with high visibility signs and sensibly organized departments and stuff, even if it was the best possible redesign on the face of the planet, I would still hate it. I usually hate change on principle.)
I stopped at La's on the way home and handed Hazel (La's grandma, lives with La) some of the puff pastry cookies (palm leaves, made sort of like the Joy of Cooking says to make 'em.) and told her to let at least some of them for until La got home to try them. Hazel said "Just one?" *grin* We'll see if La gets any at all. If they all get gone, I can make there be more. They're easy once the puff pastry stuff is made and I have half of the batch I made left for further experiments.
Hazel allowed as how she'd like the recipe for making 'em. (She doesn't eat much anymore. Like my grandma, she doesn't seem to get much out of what she DOES eat... so scarfing down puff pastry is not a problem, here. We'd like to see Hazel with a bit more meat on her bones.) I am not sure that having the recipe would help her any. She's ninety some years old (not exaggerating) and her people mostly cook for her these days. I could explain to La or Trys or Liss how to make puff pastry but I would lay pretty decent money opposite of it ever happening. They don't like cooking. It just doesn't appeal to them. They are, however, a reasonably enthusiastic and appreciative audience for eating things. I make stuff, they eat stuff. It's a good relationship.
I got a brief (but productive) spin on the red idiot before lunch today, too.
I worked on bending right. This still needs work. I'm doing something wrong and I don't know what it is, will have to ask pony lady to look at my form. I experimented with different positions and stuff and nothing really seemed to click. I might have made some headway, but there was nothing obvious that screamed Success! *sigh* I think this is me and not her, very frustrating.
I also did a set or two of straight-line lengthen/collect/lengthen/collect transition practice at the walk. That went well, for a first effort. She wobbled some between the reins but I got her straightened out and on both of 'em without too much effort. She is really starting to listen to my legs. She's also learning how to stretch down and into contact, which is quite nice. Another day or two of this one and I think she'll have it at the walk.
Then we did some walk-trot transitions. We've got gorgeous upward transitions (after three iterations of "I put my feet back half an inch and kind of *nod* and think trot" == trot, she was up to speed, there. Smart horse.) and some progress on downward ones. Transitions are hard, so I'm not setting the bar super high, here. She can hold a frame and work in one at the walk, reasonably well. She is *starting* to have a frame at the trot. However, she sometimes comes undone at the point of transition, loses her stuff, and I don't have enough leg/seat at the trot to get her back quickly. (I am not going to fall off or anything, but I need more consistent and constant leg/foot control at the trot to have any effective aids, here. Framing up the horse is not something that you do just with your hands and the reins and stuff. Framing up a horse *ends* with the hands, but there's got to be driving forward from the hindquarters. That happens from the rider's legs. Legs, first, to drive the horse forward. Hands, later, to catch the horse on the bit and curl her up ("collection" is largely a measure of how curled up the horse is) as much as you want. You don't *start* with the curling up part because then you've got no spring, no impulsion, no oomph. So when I'm here talking about frame, that is not a hands thing first. It's a legs thing first.) I do have enough chops at the walk, now, but these things take time and practice, so I'm not concerned. We'll get better as we practice.
In terms of improving her trail riding skills, we did some circles (not-very-nice) out near the road as cars went by. At least she didn't lose her mind, so it could have been worse. "Near" the road means twenty feet away, here. We're going to work up to "right along the road" over time and see how that works.
I also worked on my sitting trot -- when cued for a trot, Goof starts off with a jog, kind of. She's rough as sin so it's never going to be smooth, no matter what she does, but her initial jog is sort of sittable. If I remember to relax and kind of flop *with* her, she rounds up onto the bit and does a really nice trot, looks like a damn show horse. (It was a medium trot, not a huge, extended effort, but it showed willing and was totally impulsion-y and had self-carriage and she was even and balanced and on the bit and stuff. I'll take that, I will.) I got maybe ten strides of that at one go, which I was really pleased with for a first effort. (I also do not have a good enough sitting trot on other people's trained horses to get a big extension on the trained horses. So, the fact that she does it at all for me, when I'm not an expert and she has no idea what I want, really, that's very encouraging.)
Anyway, it was a good horse day with Nick and the fact that it started pouring rain on us halfway through didn't dampen my enthusiasm in the slightest.
