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Apr. 5th, 2009 03:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI'm thirty-nine today. There was cake. The cake was very good and I have half of it at my house for me for later, which is even better. I shall enjoy it thoroughly.
In other news, took the red idiot out for a spin, which she did tolerably at. After that, I made her stand around bareback so that I could practice recapturing my youth.
Against all expectations, including my own, it turns out that Nicknick stands fairly pleasantly while a person tries to leap aboard her. Wow.
She stands pleasantly when a person attempting to leap aboard *fails* and winds up accidently kicking her in the hip on the near side with a sneakered foot.
It turns out that Goof stands pleasantly while a person, having leapt and failed, hangs onto her side, one foot/ankle/shin/knee on side B of her body with the entire rest of the person on side A of her body clinging like an ineffectual limpet.
She stands pleasantly (perhaps with an amused expression on her face, though that may just be me imagining things) when the hanging person gives up and drops to the ground in an ungraceful plop.
She stands pleasantly while the (puffing from exertion, now) person learns to go from "hanging" as previously described to "sitting" by way of activating the right leg (you get on horses from the left side, so the right leg is the one that kicks up and over) and foot against her off (right-hand-side) hip to lever the person's ass up onto her. I rather figured she'd leap for that one. She didn't move.
And, finally, she stands pleasantly when a person, having finally gotten the hang of the mechanics of the thing, swings aboard to a sitting position with nothing but net. (Twice. I was tired, so two was all I could manage. Tomorrow is another day.) Go Nicknick.
So that the studio audience has some idea of the skillset involved, here, Nicknick is a quarter inch shy of 4'8" at the part where you have to swing aboard her. (She is not that big for an equine.) On me, 4'8" is about my collarbones.
My leaping-aboard is not graceful yet but now that I know it's possible, I think it will get better with some practice. I laughed a lot. Cass (helping by holding the horse) laughed a lot. The entire thing was surprisingly fun, if a hell of a lot like work.
I think there will have to be rather a lot more standing-still practice followed by some standing-still-with-a-saddle practice (saddle makes horse about two inches taller) before we progress to horse-walking-forward and vaulting on while she's in motion. I'll be sure to keep you all posted on my progress.
Today I also spread all the horse shit mulch on my roses and shrubberies and so forth. That came out about exactly right but I will need more once the blueberry bushes come in (I ordered six, I think) and once I get the garden planted I'm going to mulch that, too, to keep the weeds down. (Six inches of horse shit mulch will kill most any weed from sprouting up.)
In other news, took the red idiot out for a spin, which she did tolerably at. After that, I made her stand around bareback so that I could practice recapturing my youth.
Against all expectations, including my own, it turns out that Nicknick stands fairly pleasantly while a person tries to leap aboard her. Wow.
She stands pleasantly when a person attempting to leap aboard *fails* and winds up accidently kicking her in the hip on the near side with a sneakered foot.
It turns out that Goof stands pleasantly while a person, having leapt and failed, hangs onto her side, one foot/ankle/shin/knee on side B of her body with the entire rest of the person on side A of her body clinging like an ineffectual limpet.
She stands pleasantly (perhaps with an amused expression on her face, though that may just be me imagining things) when the hanging person gives up and drops to the ground in an ungraceful plop.
She stands pleasantly while the (puffing from exertion, now) person learns to go from "hanging" as previously described to "sitting" by way of activating the right leg (you get on horses from the left side, so the right leg is the one that kicks up and over) and foot against her off (right-hand-side) hip to lever the person's ass up onto her. I rather figured she'd leap for that one. She didn't move.
And, finally, she stands pleasantly when a person, having finally gotten the hang of the mechanics of the thing, swings aboard to a sitting position with nothing but net. (Twice. I was tired, so two was all I could manage. Tomorrow is another day.) Go Nicknick.
So that the studio audience has some idea of the skillset involved, here, Nicknick is a quarter inch shy of 4'8" at the part where you have to swing aboard her. (She is not that big for an equine.) On me, 4'8" is about my collarbones.
My leaping-aboard is not graceful yet but now that I know it's possible, I think it will get better with some practice. I laughed a lot. Cass (helping by holding the horse) laughed a lot. The entire thing was surprisingly fun, if a hell of a lot like work.
I think there will have to be rather a lot more standing-still practice followed by some standing-still-with-a-saddle practice (saddle makes horse about two inches taller) before we progress to horse-walking-forward and vaulting on while she's in motion. I'll be sure to keep you all posted on my progress.
Today I also spread all the horse shit mulch on my roses and shrubberies and so forth. That came out about exactly right but I will need more once the blueberry bushes come in (I ordered six, I think) and once I get the garden planted I'm going to mulch that, too, to keep the weeds down. (Six inches of horse shit mulch will kill most any weed from sprouting up.)
