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Aug. 24th, 2011 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickMy garmin is borking dates and times, which is bugging me. I am hoping that it will do better here on its own. (Like that ever works, I know.)
Today there was Olivia and Jaycee but not Alannah. She'd said she might not make it today but should be able to ride Thursday and Friday. That'll be 4x a week for this week, which is pretty good.
Since we had no compelling reason (Alannah's tears) not to power trot, power trotting was in evidence. I told Olivia if she could trot Ceres past Whimser on power trotting straightaways, I'd give her a dollar. (Ceres *has* a big enough trot to get past Whimsy but I don't think Olivia can get it out of her. Ceres has a freaking Roadster Pony big trot. However, big trot is a balancing act because, at the upper end of the "trot" range, it is less effort for a horse to canter instead. Without some handholding -- contact on the reins and encouragement of seat -- a horse will tend to slip into canter instead of working harder at the trot. Olivia has not yet got the chops to big trot her pony past Whimsy but perhaps financial incentives will spur her to try harder.) No dollars were lost or won today, but we can always try again tomorrow.
Laps of the buckwheat field are getting boring, but we can't go anywhere on paved roads because I have no feet on my horse. Callie has no feet. Ceres, who has rock-hard feet, is starting to trip more than she used to. We need shoes. Shoes. We Need Shoes. Until them, more lapping of the buckwheat field. *sigh* Perhaps we'll also go over to the other field for variety. That's a nice change ofpacescenery. (Pace is always trotting.)
We did 4.63 miles at 4.9 mph (average speed). We need to be going faster. Today there were tears from Jaycee, who doesn't really have the seat that she thinks she has. We were going downhill (the mostly-flat buckwheat field has some actual slope to it) and around the turn on the field at a pretty good clip and she tipped forward (from the more jackhammer-y downhill trotting) and lost her seat and it looked bad there for a minute. But then she got her horse stopped and didn't fall off and it was fine. Well, except for the tears. These children, they are soft. Soft, modern children. Why are there tears when nothing *bad* has happened?
C'mon, 9 and 11 year old little girls, man up! Grow a freaking pair, already. ("Jess? What does that mean?" "My bad. I meant 'toughen up'." --> Long ago, I learned that it was not a good idea to honestly and fully answer questions posed by other people's children if the questions were about sex, biology, religion, economics, morality, faith, or, really, anything important at all. People have f-ing views about that shit and a lot of them lie to their kids for reasons that are beyond me. Putting forth an explanation (literal and fully correct, with sociological commentary) of the expression grow a pair is not something parents want me to do for their nine year old daughters.)
It is at times like these that I realize my metaphors for being tough, determined, and fearless are firmly rooted in annoyingly stereotypical assumptions about gender. *sigh* This is crap-ass bullshit. English, she is not the language she thinks she is. Well, there's no way I'm ever going to say something like, "That's it, sweetie, be a strong little princess!" so manly metaphor of drill instructors it is. Fortunately for me, none of the little girls are from Texas.
I don't stand around making with the comforting when there are tears. Got your seat back? Got your stirrups and reins straightened out? Helmet on properly? (Child's helmet needs to be adjusted to fit her properly, which I will attend to tomorrow afternoon.) Ready for more trotting? (That last is a rhetorical question, because there will BE more trotting. The physical "ready" has been checked out with the preceding questions. Not terribly worried about the mental "ready".) Okay, then. Medium trot, and off we go.
Today there was Olivia and Jaycee but not Alannah. She'd said she might not make it today but should be able to ride Thursday and Friday. That'll be 4x a week for this week, which is pretty good.
Since we had no compelling reason (Alannah's tears) not to power trot, power trotting was in evidence. I told Olivia if she could trot Ceres past Whimser on power trotting straightaways, I'd give her a dollar. (Ceres *has* a big enough trot to get past Whimsy but I don't think Olivia can get it out of her. Ceres has a freaking Roadster Pony big trot. However, big trot is a balancing act because, at the upper end of the "trot" range, it is less effort for a horse to canter instead. Without some handholding -- contact on the reins and encouragement of seat -- a horse will tend to slip into canter instead of working harder at the trot. Olivia has not yet got the chops to big trot her pony past Whimsy but perhaps financial incentives will spur her to try harder.) No dollars were lost or won today, but we can always try again tomorrow.
Laps of the buckwheat field are getting boring, but we can't go anywhere on paved roads because I have no feet on my horse. Callie has no feet. Ceres, who has rock-hard feet, is starting to trip more than she used to. We need shoes. Shoes. We Need Shoes. Until them, more lapping of the buckwheat field. *sigh* Perhaps we'll also go over to the other field for variety. That's a nice change of
We did 4.63 miles at 4.9 mph (average speed). We need to be going faster. Today there were tears from Jaycee, who doesn't really have the seat that she thinks she has. We were going downhill (the mostly-flat buckwheat field has some actual slope to it) and around the turn on the field at a pretty good clip and she tipped forward (from the more jackhammer-y downhill trotting) and lost her seat and it looked bad there for a minute. But then she got her horse stopped and didn't fall off and it was fine. Well, except for the tears. These children, they are soft. Soft, modern children. Why are there tears when nothing *bad* has happened?
C'mon, 9 and 11 year old little girls, man up! Grow a freaking pair, already. ("Jess? What does that mean?" "My bad. I meant 'toughen up'." --> Long ago, I learned that it was not a good idea to honestly and fully answer questions posed by other people's children if the questions were about sex, biology, religion, economics, morality, faith, or, really, anything important at all. People have f-ing views about that shit and a lot of them lie to their kids for reasons that are beyond me. Putting forth an explanation (literal and fully correct, with sociological commentary) of the expression grow a pair is not something parents want me to do for their nine year old daughters.)
It is at times like these that I realize my metaphors for being tough, determined, and fearless are firmly rooted in annoyingly stereotypical assumptions about gender. *sigh* This is crap-ass bullshit. English, she is not the language she thinks she is. Well, there's no way I'm ever going to say something like, "That's it, sweetie, be a strong little princess!" so manly metaphor of drill instructors it is. Fortunately for me, none of the little girls are from Texas.
I don't stand around making with the comforting when there are tears. Got your seat back? Got your stirrups and reins straightened out? Helmet on properly? (Child's helmet needs to be adjusted to fit her properly, which I will attend to tomorrow afternoon.) Ready for more trotting? (That last is a rhetorical question, because there will BE more trotting. The physical "ready" has been checked out with the preceding questions. Not terribly worried about the mental "ready".) Okay, then. Medium trot, and off we go.
