Mane-ic Monday

Ok, that's a terrible play on "Manic," but in case you didn't guess, you're getting a horsey post!

First, a few interesting observations since Calico joined my life:

Correlation:

More than doubled my word count in one month on the WIP I started back in March.  (Granted, horses are important to the plot).

Sent out 2 queries for my other novel, plus 3 other queries.  (Granted, it's also September.)

Causation:

Figured out how current WIP will end!  (Got some ideas from time with Renée, but it was a chat with the woman who's boarding Calico that sent the "ping" of the lightbulb - Thanks Sue!)

xx

Besides those writing related things, I had my first formal riding lesson With My Own Horse this weekend, too.  Most of the lesson:  The Importance of the Right Saddle.

You WILL see a metaphor post on saddles and writing.

But it was a great lesson.  Calico has only had minimal training in her life.  (Her prior Mom went nice and slow and had to spend many years teaching the poor girl that Humans Can Be Nice - particularly after 12 horrible years of life as a PMU mare.)  Despite that, she picked up things very quickly and demonstrated a work ethic that made me proud.  (And I average 12-hours a day Monday-Thursday, and 5-6 hours on Sunday and Friday!)

Even better than that, her sweet and patient personality really shone through!  And that's more important than anything!

So, from now on, she will also be known as MM-o-A:  Mare Made of Awesome!

Why?

Well, besides sitting through three different saddle changes (one of which I got stuck on and couldn't get my freaking leg over the back of to dismount!) without more than a sigh, besides our continued re-figuring-out of her bitless bridle, besides being kind of stuck on cross ties and her stall while tacked during a few adventures today, she especially impressed me with how sweet she was with my good friends' two kids: aged 2 and 1.  And my friends. And me.  All today.

After our adventures in tacking (did I mention till I got her it's been well over a year since I tacked any horse?  and even then it was sporadic?), we started with the 2 year old first.  Calico has a nice smooth gait anyway, but she didn't have any problem and kept slowing and stopping (gently) whenever the little girl was coming close to being off balance.  We walked for a good 10 or so minutes.  Then my friend, Caroline got on her, and she was very good for Caroline, even breaking into a little trot on command!  Then the 1-year-old wanted to be with his Mommy, so we sat him on Caroline's lap and went back to leading in circles.  Too cute!!  After that, Dad Jesse wanted a turn.  He was able to mount right from the ground and readjust the saddle (because I need more practice with tack) right on her back.  Not a flinch.  Once we got all adjusted again, she walked a few more laps with Jesse.  Then, I decided to get a little daring.  (After all, Jesse is an EMT and Caroline works at a doctor's office.)  I got on Cali bareback.  Ooooh - she has the best back I've ever ridden bare on! (Shut up all of you sick-minded people!)  I was as comfy as I would have been in the saddle, and she was even more responsive to the leaning and turning.  Then, Caroline took a turn, and she was even better for Caroline!

After that, the kids were quite tired, needed food, and Cali had worked quite enough for the day.

Tomorrow we'll do some trotting on the lunge line and continue working on the mysterious "Whoa!" command that she's not entirely keen on.

Hm… not quite knowing when to stop?  Yep, yet another thing this horse has in common with me.  J  MM-of-A!

… of course, I forgot to grab my camera for the riding part, why do you ask?

Jesse took some pix with his iPhone, so I'm hoping to have something posted sooner or later.  ;)

In any case, I've just spent two pages talking about my awesome horse.  :)  My blogging requirement is complete.