Somewhere over the Rainbow...: Spring ramblings

This week has been very good here weather-wise, it seems spring has finally arrived. I have had a very good week horse-wise too! The only blip occurred on Sunday as I woke up with very bad nausea and had planned to take R out on a hack. I won't go into details but I was really sick and all I could do was lie in bed or on sofa all day. I couldn't eat much either, so while the sickness finally seemed to have receded by Monday, I was still feeling quite weak and feeble, and didn't fancy much climbing on a horse, so luckily Annika lunged R for me. I had to even ask Tim come and help muck out as I wasn't feeling very strong and didn't want to drive my car due to feeling quite 'out of it'. Rainbow, thus, had most of Friday (I had lunged her on Fri morning though), Saturday (we were out doing vintage car things in Silverstone) and Sunday off . She spent the whole weekend in the field with mates. Lucky girl.

But we were back with a vengeance yesterday and attended the evening lesson for 'good' adult riders. Rainbow has been attending those lessons with the other lady rider (often when I'm busy with work), but I haven't ever been able to get in as it's a very over-subscribed and popular slot – so often Rainbow gets in but I don't!

I was feeling very calm and I think my new riding breeches have excellent grip on the saddle. Full seat breeches. So I currently feel quite well-planted-in in the saddle. I am occasionally using a running martingale on Rainbow now (mainly on hacks) because it helps her keep her head in the correct position and perhaps gives me a little more security. She also has a tendency to put her head up when raising canter, which throws me off balance a bit and makes our canter transitions quite rubbish. I think it's a 'learned' thing, as it means to R that I can't ask canter effectively, so she gets away with trotting on longer. Anyway, martingale I used and it wasn't really needed except I noticed it helped during canters, as she tries to pull upwards. Annika was gave us very nice feedback again and said that we are looking better every time. I get R to go soft, etc. She also commented on how healthy R looks at the moment. I concur; she is looking healthy and happy, and I am feeling more confident. I also try to put more thought into my riding, even on the group lessons, so keep repeating and thinking about the instructions I have been given by instructors... on my position, how to ask for transitions and keeping the outside rein consistent, etc.

Below a little more about what else happened yesterday. Those strictly interested in horse only can stop reading here.

World Book Night

It was a gorgeous day and I headed to the yard early before the evening riding lesson, as I had books to give away.

I had been chosen this year as one of the World Book Night Giver (I think WBN is a UK and US thing but other countries have their derivations), so I had 20 books to give away. I had made a pledge to the organisers in my online application to hand out the books at the stables, where actually quite a large array of people, from all different walks of life, pass through: people who aren't that highly educated; people who are highly educated; people with disabilities; people on benefits; people with lots of wealth; people with not much wealth; people from different countries; and I don't think I have mentioned but there are also occasionally people working/helping out there who are currently residing in one of Her Majesty's institutions. So a really big array of people. And without wanting to sound like I lead a very sheltered life, the yard is a place where I get 'exposed' to all these different people, as in my e.g. professional life, I seem to only see lots of people who are a lot like me. And it can get a little boring. Our yard is a bit like the village pub :).

The point of the World Book Night is to spread the joy of reading and especially reading for pleasure. It's a startling statistic that 1/3 of households in Britain don't have a single book in them. And it's also a known fact that children of households that don't own a single book – any kind of book – don't often go on to higher education or succeed as well those who have access to a book.

So WBN encourages the Givers to try and find people who don't read regularly or at all. I did my best and I did manage to hand out books to those who confessed not being readers. But I did also hand them out to people who read more regularly. Everyone that I approached were happy to receive a free book and many hadn't heard about WBN, so I feel like I have spread the word... Excusing the pun! How couldn't I do my bit when my whole livelihood is based on spreading the written word. Life without books and reading would be life without imagination, without knowledge, without betterment – it would be a life shackled within the confines of one's situation and potentially the place of birth, without possibility of changing one's destination or making decisions for oneself. For so many people this is still true, and we don't have to go to the third world to find these people.

So here you are, the lucky reader of this blog, reading something just because you can. You are probably hoping to read about horses, but here you are, casually doing something you don't have to think about or something that doesn't take effort at all. Reading. Above all, reading for pleasure. Also, many of you may be reading this in a language that isn't your mother tongue. Now that's a pretty lucky place to be, isn't it?

Those who could be bothered to read all the way will be rewarded with photos of my chickens in our garden this week and pics of Rainbow and me from yesterday :)