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I had all sorts of plans for yesterday's post.  Since it was Grand National day, I was going to write a tribute to one of my childhood heroes, the indefatigable Spartan Missile (who came second to Aldaniti in 1981 and whose story was almost as miraculous) and to express my mixed feelings for horse racing and the Grand National in general, but circumstances got the better of me.  I was, for once, engaged in other things which did not involve computers and writing.

My friend H invited us both over to her home in Midlothian for the day to meet up and hang out.  H was my best mate when we were in our teens - we shared a love of books and reading, enjoyed horse-riding and discovered the Star Wars movies together when ROTJ came out in 1983.  We were each Maids (or Matrons?) of Honour at each other's respective weddings, and I'll never forget the way she took a day off work and came all the way from Fife to Renfrewshire so she could hold my hand on the dreadful, terrible day when my horse Squire was put to sleep.

I was the cricket of the twosome, while she was undoubtedly the ant.  While I was enjoying the life of a Bohemian, horse-owning  archaeologist at Uni, she was training hard to succeed at a real profession.  She's now a dentist, with a couple of practices, a nice smallholding in the country, and two very elegant horses, Rocky and Mac.  She's always been a scarily competent horse-rider.  She regularly competes at dressage and eventing, and has a dazzling display of rosettes to prove it.

When I go horse-riding every week, I'm presented with a horse, which I ride for an hour, then pop back in its box.  I untack it occasionally.  My friend, by contrast, looks after her own horses.  This meant that our hour's ride also involved all the necessary tasks that go with the territory of horse-ownership.  We retrieved the horses, and enjoyed a leisurely plod back from the field, then went through the rigmarole of grooming.  There was a bit of mucking-out.  There were feeds to be made up.  And at the end of it all, two sweaty horses had to be washed and made comfortable before they were turned out for a few hours in the evening.

It was a relaxing experience.  In the presence of a horse, all the stresses and concerns of day-to-day life just melt away.  They're very patient, amiable animals, who accept your presence with grace and dignity.  I was given the task of brushing the mud off Rocky, and was rewarded with a gentle tug on my pony-tail as Rocky chewed my hair. in an attempt to reciprocate. 

I still enjoy working with horses, but yesterday brought home just how much of a bind they are.  I was introduced to several devoted, dedicated women there who think the world of their horses and who obviously spend every spare moment in their presence.  The hideous realm of the Katie-Price clones was a world away - the women I spoke to were pleasantly scruffy, and completely lacking in airs and affectations.
 
My friend is very much a follower of the 'Classical' School of Horsemanship, which is now in vogue amongst enlightened horse-owners.  It has origins in the writings of Xenephon, who was one of the Ancient Greeks who followed the 'Nothing forced is every beautiful' school of horsemanship. 

It always makes me smile, how the Athenian-born Xenephon advocates care and sympathy in the handling of horses.  Xenephon moved to Sparta, and became an apologist for everything Spartan, so presumably his writings reflect attitudes common amongst Spartan cavalry personnel at the time.  Since the Spartan education system was a particularly brutal one, it seems surprising that they treated their horses with such sympathy.  But now these ancient writings are being held up as examples for horse-owners and riders living here, in the modern world, and the result is a happy, well-balanced horse (both physically and psychologically) which is a joy to behold. 

Riding such well-schooled horses showed up my own inadequacies only too clearly, but the problems were relatively easy to fix, and once I was given some instructions on how to improve my position, the results were remarkable.  I didn't even have to ask Rocky to go down into an 'outline' and work; he did it naturally.  And for once I felt truly competent and at one with the horse.

It was a wonderful experience, but it's one I'm unlikely to replicate at the local riding school.  I'm already facing the prospect of cutting back lessons to one a fortnight because of my forthcoming drop in wages, so perhaps it's the time to completely reappraise my future.  But how can I move up a level when I can't afford to get private lessons with a really good instructor?  And how can I get more practice when I can't afford to share a horse, let alone buy one of my own?

My friend's suggestion was that I come over to see her on a regular basis and ride her horses.  This is a very tempting proposal.  But it's a long way to go for a horse-riding masterclass, and the environmentalist in me recoils in horror at the thought of embarking on such a foolhardy escapade. 

And there's another problem.  In the course of the day, time slid by inexorably, with the world moving at a different pace, a horse's pace.  Before I knew it, it was evening,  The whole day was gone, in what felt like a blink of an eye...

Letting the world slip by as you let yourself get seduced by Horse Time is a lovely, luxurious way of enjoying life.  But when you wake up the following day, you realise that a whole day has been lost where you could have been making progress on writing or editing a novel.  To have nothing to occupy my time all day but writing and caring for horses is my idea of an idyllic lifestyle, and one which I covet beyond measure, but the more time passes, the more it seems further out of my grasp.  I find that life's too short to get things done at the best of times - can I really afford to make it get any shorter still?

So...  First four day week has passed, and what have I got to show for my time writing-wise?  Um, well... Absolutely nothing, I'm afraid!

Date: 2010-04-11 03:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] treenahasthaal.livejournal.com
You must say a big "Hi!" to H for me!! : ) A lovely person, and I'm chuffed she's done so well. : )

Date: 2010-04-11 10:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] apollinaris.livejournal.com
I used Twitter to get a 2nd place in the Grand National and won an nice reward (on an each-way bet).

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