Hay in Her Pockets

I needed a new picture to go with my HorseNation Wednesday book reviews, so here it is: 

While I wouldn’t really advocate riding and reading, Sadie did make a surprisingly comfy reading pillow.

I just finished reading Blaze of Glory by M. Garzon.  You can check out her author’s website HERE.  And you can read my full review over at HorseNation HERE.

The book is marketed as YA, but I think anyone who enjoys the Romance genre (and PONIES!!) will like it– the horse stuff (focusing mostly on jumpers and polo ponies) is spot-on (well, from what I can tell– I don’t know anything about polo).  I will say, as a disclaimer, that it deals with mature issues so it might be better for older teen readers.

I just finished reading The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation
and Snowman has joined the list of horses I wish I’d known in person.  You can read my full book review for HorseNation.com here.  I’m pretty sure if you loved Seabiscuit, you’ll love Snowman too.

Last week, I reviewed one of my favorite books for Horse Nation.  You can read my full review HERE. Basically, Mattie, the main character and narrator is the epitome of a HorseGirl:  smart, witty, brazen, tough…  And the book is great (the Coen Brothers’ movie version ain’t so bad either, but I believe in doing things in the proper order, which is, of course, book First, movie Second).

I stumbled across the book Wake of Forgiveness the other day.  If you’re a fan of Cormac McCarthy, Bruce Machart might just be his heir apparent.

I admit, the cover is what grabbed my attention.

But then I read the book, and it turns out the cover isn’t the only interesting thing about it.  

You can read my full review HERE, on Horse Nation.

Here’s my full review of a cute book for the younger set:  Shadow, the Curious Morgan Horse.  Even though this book is really intended for 6-8 year olds, The Kid (who is almost 15 months old) yells his head off and frantically points at this book whenever he sees it because he LOVES the pictures.  But it’s not like you need a kid to enjoy a good picture book.  You can pretend they’re for your nieces or nephews or friend’s kids or whomever, but really, you have my permission to collect picture books for yourself. They’re just so darn cute.

When I mount up to ride, I pretty much always have a plan or a goal in mind.  As in, I’m going to work on leg yielding today.  Or, I’m going to force myself to practice posting trot with no stirrups.  Or, I’m going to do a lot of suppling exercises.  In fact, I’m so goal oriented that if I just want to ride “for fun” I either have to go for a trail ride with a friend (as opposed to a conditioning ride or a gallop practice) or I have to ride bareback.

But sometimes the goal I have in mind doesn’t seem so great once I feel what horse I’m sitting on.  As in, am I riding perfect project pony Lindy, or am I riding her ADHD twin?  Am I astride lazy Sadie or zippy Sadie?  Am I on Professor Clue or Racehorse Clue?  I’ve learned (and re-learned) it’s a good thing to check in with your horse’s mood and adjust accordingly, because it is just counter-productive to try to force an agenda.

For instance, the other day I rode Lindy for the first time in over a week (turns out I wasn’t feeling too hardcore when it finally decided to rain and rain the other week).  I really wanted to ride, but Sadie pulled both her front shoes (darn rain!) and the farrier and I decided to leave her barefoot since more rain is coming.  She’s still feeling a bit sore.  Anyway, Lindy got put into rotation since she needs to work sometime. I thought she might be too silly to even be worth riding, so I lunged her.  She was better than expected.  I thought cool!  We’ll be able to pick up right where we left off the last time I rode her.

Nope.

But that’s OK.  We managed to get some decent bending and some semi-coordinating work over poles done and then I called it quits.  It was a little bit of a bummer since the last time I rode her, Lindy was so fabulous.  As in, I came inside gushing about what a cool horse she is turning into and how nice she’s going be.  Those things are still true, but some days she still *really* feels  like a super green project pony.  If I’d stayed focused on the idea that Lindy was going to be fabulous every time I rode her, I have a feeling we’d both end up pretty frustrated.  But thankfully I remembered (and I don’t always) to adjust my goal to the horse I was sitting on;  we were able to get some good work done, and neither of us was frustrated by the end.

Now let’s hope I can squeeze in a few more rides in between the rain.  Because another thing that really helps with horse training is consistency.

I got a little behind on posting my book reviews.  Here’s the one from the Wednesday before last, in all it’s glory.  It’s about Riding Lessons: A Novel, which was the first novel by Sara Gruen (of Water for Elephants fame).

I’ve been busy reading and writing book reviews!

Here’s the latest one on Horse Nation, about Georgina Bloomberg’s just-released YA Novel, the second in her series, My Favorite Mistake: An A Circuit Novel (Circuit Novels).  I’m still trying to figure out why that’s the title!

To read my review on Horse Nation, click HERE!

(also, be warned, there’s a major spoiler in the review)