Thread: Posted especially for Ash

DiDi A Hack to the Rock

Well for some onlookers, riding a horse is all about mounting up and heading off towards the pub. In actual fact hacking out is not as simple as that. Mt previous horse, Joe was easy enough to ride so long as he was behaving. Once you’d got him out of the yard and on his way, all you had to do was sit there and urge him on until you got to the pub car park. Then providing Joe would agree to wait, you had a glass of red, went back into the car park, unhitched the Boy and rode home. Joe came home like a steam train. Easy peasy. But DiDi, my new mare, is a different kettle of fish.


DiDi is not a 12 year old, well used, experienced, go anywhere gelding. DiDi is a young and pretty Irish mare. She’s sensitive, she’s agile and she hasn’t seen much of life - yet. So when you decide to take DiDi down to the pub it is a whole different ball game. For a start, on DiDi, you might not get there. Certainly you’ve got to pick the right day. There must be no wind otherwise every time a bush waves in the breeze, DiDi thinks it is going to eat her. Similarly it mustn’t be a humid day - otherwise the midges will get her and she will quickly start to shake her head violently. Nor can you do it at the wrong time of the day such as when the villagers are coming home from work or school, for then Girlie has to keep ducking into the lay-bys and she hasn’t learnt as yet how to tuck her bum in and out of the way of the cars.


The rider has to keep the horse going forward and straight at all times and that calls for just the right length of rein from hand to bit and quite a bit of leg pressure. However if the midges are about then DiDi will regularly reach down and snatch the reins out of the rider’s hands with the result that the rider has to get his/her balance back and re-establish the optimum length of rein. DiDi can’t be allowed to ride with her nose in the air as she is won’t to do.


Then for DiDi there are the bogies: all those things that go: “snap, crackle and pop“. Our Girlie, when doing a mini startlet will take a step sideways : it’s fast, it’s powerful and it comes without warning. As for the rider, well, he or she’s got to open the legs and drop down deep into the saddle, thereby relying on full body weight to offset the forces of motion generated by the horse’s violent sideways movement. The problem is that DiDi can startle so often, that it feels you are sitting on a long legged spider, tip toeing along a blade of grass. The penalty to the rider for getting it wrong can be severe, including a sudden, undignified contact with the road surface.


DiDi is not an aggressive horse, in fact she is kind, gentle and as soft as butter. But she has had previously in her 8 plus years of life just one female rider and her for only two years of riding together. At an age of rising eight, a horse is still learning its role in life. She is not yet fully comfortable in this XX1st century mechanical world, which is too noisy and very frightening. DiDi is still relying on her inherited behaviour patterns to cope with living alongside humans but that means whenever she meets something she feels she can’t cope with, then she will instinctively want to run away. That’s the moment she needs to feel the reassuring legs, hands and weight of her rider, who must in turn be ready to impart confidence back to his trusting steed.


Any motor cyclist will be keen to point out that he has for his two wheeled high powered vehicle: brakes to stop with; handle bars to steer with and a throttle lever so as to speed up or to slow down. A horse rider may by using the aids, persuade a powerful horse to move faster or slower but there is no accurate speed control for equines. The rider can point the horse’s head, but the horse can, if it wants to, run off to the right even if the head is pointing to the left. Oh and some naughty horses learn to rear and buck, which is a chapter of its own to discuss. Actually one of the hardest things for the rider to achieve on demand is to get a young horse to stand still when asked to do so. Luckily DiDi will most likely stand at the appropriate moments.


Of course no experienced rider takes a young horse out into the lanes until he or she feels that the horse is safe enough to try but in order to make a horse traffic proof, one has to expose the horse to the vicissitudes of civilisation especially cars, tractors, aircraft, birds and barking dogs. DiDi needs such exposure: she’s got to understand her rider and she’s got to take him out and bring him back home safely In order to learn to be a confident hack, then she has got to hack out, initially in the company of a mature horse.


So nowadays a trip down to the Rock is not just a saunter for a glass of red. With DiDi it has become an adrenaline soaked expedition. Slowly she is getting the idea but it will take some time before she is as good at the game as Joe was. Luckily for the Old Man, he’s got a few bottles of red tucked away in the cupboard at home.

Dv

DiDi and the Muzzle Nudge

I firmly believe that horses attempt to communicate with their human handlers but because the form of communication is not always obvious the meanings of any messages do not sometimes get across DiDi has one distinct expression of communication: she puts her snout against my chest and gives a nudge. If I am not careful or unguarded sometimes the force exerted by her will put me on the back foot. On other occasions the nudge is much more gentle. I have been told by numerous equine cogniscenti that such a gesture is to be rebuffed forcibly. However I am loathe to correct her because in all truth I am not sure what she is trying to communicate. It is also virtually the only act of communication which she makes to me so if I deny it or inhibit it, how else is she try to make contact with me?


The traditional viewpoint is that this nudge is a mark of supreme disrespect but I am not so sure. I cannot believe that I, virtually her only day to day handler, am viewed by her with disrespect. I certainly don’t feel that she regards me as an enemy. I don’t feel either that she is testing my strength, as was suggested by one horse trainer. Anyway, when handling her I have the advantage with the training halter or the bit. She can’t match her full strength against me without hurting herself and by now she must have learned this fact. Incidentally any tension I exert through the bit or the halter on her nose or poll will be instantly released when the force generated by her is reduced. Noticeably on other occasions she complies readily when she’ll move away from me when reacting to the minimum of finger pressure against her chest.

So what can the muzzle nudge mean?
It could be: “Don’t do that!”
or equally : “Do, do that!”
At teatime it might be: “Where’s my bucket!”
Or equally : “Where’s my bucket?” (if you read the difference between ! & ?)

Of course the nudge could mean lots of things because as I have explained, she’s not exactly well equipped to communicate with a human. In similar style, as a human, I use the word “Oi” in a variety of ways.
Is the nudge an act of aggression? Is it a request or a demand? Is it “please” or “no thank you”? Or, is a nudge all of these things?


Incidentally, I can never ever recollect an instance where she has put her ears back and come at me in anger. Her temperament is absolutely benevolent.
I can touch this horse wherever I feel it appropriate to touch her.
I can brush mud off her face even when the dirt lies close to her eye.
I can wash her mouth when she is sticky from horse lick made from treacle.
I can reach down between her legs to do up the buckles of her rug.
I can stand immediately in front of her and even lean against her rump.
I can comb out and pull her hair.
I can use scissors to trim her fringe


DiDi does have one other obvious communicative move and that is to hold back when we are moving forwards. For example when I go to collect her from the field and after I have fitted her leading halter, she might suddenly stand firm and resist the slight pressure from me to move on. She might even throw in a nudge, Now I have a rule: first I ask her to move with 4ozs of pressure, then I insist she moves with 4lbs of pressure, then I demand she moves with over 4lbs of pressure - most of the pressure comes down onto the poll or the nose. I assume that what she has been saying by resistance is : “ I don’t want to go in”. I suppose as a response, I could leave her out in the field. Then she will miss her tea but it is doubtful if she would associate missing her tea with her disobedience. However I don’t want her ever to feel nervous about missing her meal, that would create other problems. Incidentally once we are out of the field and onto the track, she’ll usually walk at my shoulder. The exceptions are when the wind is blowing or the hunt is about or after a bout of high jinx in the pasture with the other horses But on those occasions any young horse is not in full control of its emotions.


I have noticed that from time to time as I step forwards to affix the halter, she’ll turn her head and move away. All I have to do is follow her and call “Wait!” and then she will stand, However recently I have wondered whether she has recognised me by sight only perhaps because I may not actually have spoken to her. In future I am always going to say “hello” when I come alongside her. I cannot be confident that she recognises me by sight after all that she will have seen is my face. Now it is important for the reader to understand that in nearly all other respects this is an obedient horse which will obey instantly, so long as the meaning of the aid or command is understood. Even if through fright she has pulled away from me, she won’t go far maybe just a few feet away at most. Even when she shies, it is rare that she’ll take more than a step away as part of the evasion.


There is one other small but regular act of disobedience. When I am picking out her feet, she will readily lift three of them but the fourth, the right fore, she’ll often snatch back before I have finished getting rid of the dirt. I have associated this with some sensitivity in the sole of the foot. She will push me away by striking out with her foot and not her snout.


So we are back to the nudge. Is this an act of disobedience, bossiness or something else? I think I am going to have to record the incidence of nudges. I need to know what they mean.

Divus, I don't understand why you don't think people are interested in your writing. I liked both these little pieces very much.

Having had horses growing up I can easily identify with the adrenaline-soaked adventure of riding a nervous horse and the puzzlement of the muzzle nudge. Any time that our horses nudged me I took it as an assertive thing but not necessarily aggressive. Seemed like it was the usual way of communicating that they REALLY wanted something (more scratching behind the ears when the halter is taken off, another handful of oats, etc.) The only bad thing is when the nudge becomes a nip though our horses usually didn't go that far.

I hope you post up more about DiDi! And if you're looking for critical feedback on the writing I can offer that, too. That's usually reserved for the second read through, not that anything jumped out at me.

Very nice stories, Divus! As the owner of a sweet horse myself, I certainly identified with all that you've said here.
I agree with Foxee about the muzzle nudge not always being an aggressive thing, more likely assertive. The only trouble with that is, that if she's touching you with her muzzle whenever she feels like it, instead of when you've invited it, then she isn't respecting you. Just my opinion, for what it's worth.
Keep the stories coming, they're wonderful!

Foxee
One of the reasons for my joining this forum recently was to assess which genre of story to think of using for an electronc book perhaps thru Kindle. Surprisingly the story thread on this forum which has attracted the most vewers is about Joe my previous horse. I knew this to be a possible result because stories of Joe have been well received elsewhere but my thinkng is that for horse riders the stories are not technical enough although for the general market they are too technical.
Already I could make three medium sized books out of stories about Joe from articles already in the computor. ie Joe - a pocket history, & Joe going Classical (teaching Joe to go on the bit) & Joe and the impact of a serious accident on both horse and rider)

There are enough stories about DiDi to make 2 books but the text is aimed at the owner who has just taken on a new horse.

There are a few stories about other horses which could make a small collection of anecdotes about the horses in my life. I think these would appeal to horse riders.

But the horse market is probably small. The stories are anecdotes and as such neither instructional nor Anna Sewell.

Posted already on this forum are also stories about dogs, grumpy old men and social/family history - but there is not yet enough material to make a book - but I could work on the themes if I felt they had struck a chord in enough readers.

There is also a 25,000 words novellette with sex as a central but essential theme. The theme, the lead character has the scope for development

I am playing at the moment with a sc fi theme based on Quadrapods - nasty little things that fell out of the sky.

The question to me is which genre offers the best chance of success. Which is the market for my style of writing?

My neighbour does a fair critique but not for style or content.

If I went for horses, then I could also feed in photographs or drawings which is where I believe electronic books are going.

What I personally need to do is to decide which way to go.

Foxee, you are an unbiased observer, your blunt comments would be much appreciated.

PS Back in my profile, there is an album with photos of Joe and DiDi - and me for that matter.

Gumby, thanks for the kind words.

What has to be borne in mind is that DiDi is Erish from County Cork and no Irish mare with a mother named Molly will ever pay obeisance to an Englishman.

But I suspect that the nudging has to do with the fact that I have made her addicted to horse biscuits - deliberately.

Please read my note to Foxee, your comments gratefully received also.

What has to be borne in mind is that DiDi is Erish from County Cork and no Irish mare with a mother named Molly will ever pay obeisance to an Englishman.

Ahhh, that explains it all.

Originally Posted by Divus

Foxee
One of the reasons for my joining this forum recently was to assess which genre of story to think of using for an electronc book perhaps thru Kindle.

I think this is a great idea! My former English teacher is a voracious reader and a staunch Kindle user. She would really enjoy your stories. She can't be the only one out there, Divus.

Surprisingly the story thread on this forum which has attracted the most vewers is about Joe my previous horse. I knew this to be a possible result because stories of Joe have been well received elsewhere but my thinkng is that for horse riders the stories are not technical enough although for the general market they are too technical.
Already I could make three medium sized books out of stories about Joe from articles already in the computor. ie Joe - a pocket history, & Joe going Classical (teaching Joe to go on the bit) & Joe and the impact of a serious accident on both horse and rider)

There are enough stories about DiDi to make 2 books but the text is aimed at the owner who has just taken on a new horse.

There are a few stories about other horses which could make a small collection of anecdotes about the horses in my life. I think these would appeal to horse riders.

But the horse market is probably small. The stories are anecdotes and as such neither instructional nor Anna Sewell.

WHAT? The horse market is probably small? My dear man, you suffer from pessimism. If you make your stories accessible for as wide an age group as possible (as I think the ones above are) then everyone from my daughter (who is 10, just got her first Paso Fino that lives at her grandmother's house, and is completely horse-crazy) to my mother (the grandmother, horse-crazy and has little time to read long books...short stories would be great!) to the next-door neighbor (you want to talk horse-crazy? This man got a pony for his granddaughter to ride. He brings 'Beauty' the pony into his kitchen with him and they eat breakfast together. Not have a market? Do you know how many people who love horses but are trapped in the suburbs or the cities and would welcome the first-person insight that you give?

If you continue to write little pieces that allow your reader to stand right beside you and vicariously live the experience...you DO have a market.

Posted already on this forum are also stories about dogs, grumpy old men and social/family history - but there is not yet enough material to make a book - but I could work on the themes if I felt they had struck a chord in enough readers.

I think they're worth working on. Most people have dogs/grumpy old men/family history somewhere in their cultural make-up. They're generally things people can relate to.

There is also a 25,000 words novellette with sex as a central but essential theme. The theme, the lead character has the scope for development

I am playing at the moment with a sc fi theme based on Quadrapods - nasty little things that fell out of the sky.

The question to me is which genre offers the best chance of success. Which is the market for my style of writing?

My neighbour does a fair critique but not for style or content.

I don't think you can blanket this many different things with one market. Your style may be the same for each of them but the horse and dog stories will probably be a different market from the sex-centered novelette which would end up in a different market than the Sci-Fi story (which sounds interesting).

If I went for horses, then I could also feed in photographs or drawings which is where I believe electronic books are going.

That can't hurt. I'll just repeat here...when we go to the library my 10-year-old is always looking for 'horse books'. Always.

What I personally need to do is to decide which way to go.

Yep. Don't get discouraged by that. We all have to make those decisions...just go ahead with the writing and if you have things critiqued here you can specifically ask what market the piece might fit in. Even if you don't end up wanting to publish it for whatever reason, you'll get a sense of markets that way.

Foxee, you are an unbiased observer, your blunt comments would be much appreciated.

I think that's about as blunt as I can get.

PS Back in my profile, there is an album with photos of Joe and DiDi - and me for that matter.

Going to go peek.

Well, Foxee - you give me encouragement. Thank you very much for your comments.

The book 'Joe goes Classical' was prepared for a publisher but never went off.

I'll ask my neighbour to cast his eyes over it again and we'll look at what going along wth Kindle entails

Good idea. And as you discover what you need to do feel free to share it. I'm new to the ebook idea and warming to it slowly. Very slowly!

love the content, sounds oh so familiar and is easily accessible to another horse lover

(i'm so glad you found us here :) and have a few technical nits for your consideration


__________________

DiDi A Hack to the Rock
Well for some onlookers, riding a horse is all about mounting up and heading off towards the pub. In actual fact hacking out is not as simple as that. Mt previous horse, Joe was easy enough to ride so long as he was behaving. Once you’d got him out of the yard and on his way, all you had to do was sit there and urge him on until you got to the pub car park. Then, providing Joe would agree to wait, you had a glass of red, went back into the car park, unhitched the Boy and rode home. Joe came home like a steam train. Easy peasy. But DiDi, my new mare, is a different kettle of fish.

I would look at a re-write to remove some of the you's somehow, nothing major, a word twist here and there to get around them, they are a little off putting and push me out of the story rather than pull me in. Another way of saying this is show, instead of tell ...

e.g.

Once you’d got him out of the yard and on his way,
becomes ...
Once out of the yard and on his way,

DiDi is not a 12 year old, well used, experienced, go anywhere gelding. DiDi is a young and pretty Irish mare. She’s sensitive, she’s agile and she hasn’t seen much of life - yet. So when you decide to take DiDi down to the pub it is a whole different ball game. For a start, on DiDi, you might not get there. Certainly you’ve got to pick the right day. There must be no wind otherwise every time a bush waves in the breeze, DiDi thinks it is going to eat her. Similarly it mustn’t be a humid day - otherwise the midges will get her and she will quickly start to shake her head violently. Nor can you do it at the wrong time of the day such as when the villagers are coming home from work or school, for then Girlie has to keep ducking into the lay-bys and she hasn’t learnt as yet how to tuck her bum in and out of the way of the (omit) cars.

There's those you's again. Not as many this time, but I'm pointing them out so you think about them next time you write lol You's are a bit like I's i.e. I went, I saw, I did, I didn't is the same as He went, He saw, He did, He didn't - now apply it to You went, You saw, You did, You didn't - same thing and becomes tedious to read.

for me, the adverb is awkward

The rider has to keep the horse going forward and straight at all times and that calls for just the right length of rein from hand to bit and quite a bit of leg pressure. However if the midges are about then DiDi will regularly reach down and snatch the reins out of the rider’s hands with the result that the rider has to get his/her balance back and re-establish the optimum length of rein. DiDi can’t be allowed to ride with her nose in the air as she is won’t to do.


Then for DiDi there are the bogies: all those things that go: “snap, crackle and pop“. Our Girlie, when doing a mini startlet will take a step sideways : it’s fast, it’s powerful and it comes without warning. As for the rider, well, he or she’s got to open the legs and drop down deep into the saddle, thereby relying on full body weight to offset the forces of motion generated by the horse’s violent sideways movement. The problem is that DiDi can startle so often, that it feels you are sitting on a long legged spider, tip toeing along a blade of grass. The penalty to the rider for getting it wrong can be severe, including a sudden, undignified contact with the road surface.


DiDi is not an aggressive horse, in fact she is kind, gentle and as soft as butter. But she has had previously in her 8 plus years of life just one female rider and her for only two years of riding together. At an age of rising eight, a horse is still learning its role in life. She is not yet fully comfortable in this XX1st century mechanical world, which is too noisy and very frightening. DiDi is still relying on her inherited behaviour patterns to cope with living alongside humans but that means whenever she meets something she feels she can’t cope with, then she will instinctively want to run away. That’s the moment she needs to feel the reassuring legs, hands and weight of her rider, who must in turn be ready to impart confidence back to his trusting steed.


Any motor cyclist will be keen to point out that he has for his two wheeled high powered vehicle: brakes to stop with; handle bars to steer with and a throttle lever so as to speed up or to slow down. A horse rider may by using the aids, persuade a powerful horse to move faster or slower but there is no accurate speed control for equines. The rider can point the horse’s head, but the horse can, if it wants to, run off to the right even if the head is pointing to the left. Oh and some naughty horses learn to rear and buck, which is a chapter of its own to discuss. Actually one of the hardest things for the rider to achieve on demand is to get a young horse to stand still when asked to do so. Luckily DiDi will most likely stand at the appropriate moments.


Of course no experienced rider takes a young horse out into the lanes until he or she feels that the horse is safe enough to try but in order to make a horse traffic proof, one has to expose the horse to the vicissitudes of civilisation especially cars, tractors, aircraft, birds and barking dogs. DiDi needs such exposure: she’s got to understand her rider and she’s got to take him out and bring him back home safely In order to learn to be a confident hack, then she has got to hack out, initially in the company of a mature horse.


So nowadays a trip down to the Rock is not just a saunter for a glass of red. With DiDi it has become an adrenaline soaked expedition. Slowly she is getting the idea but it will take some time before she is as good at the game as Joe was. Luckily for the Old Man, he’s got a few bottles of red tucked away in the cupboard at home.

Dv


__________________

I've run out of time to pick the rest apart (I haven't done this for a long while and have forgotten how time consuming it can be ;) and hope my criticism is received in the spirit given (as in, trying to be helpful). I found it a little wordy in places but was otherwise transfixed.

Just wondering if you have considered posting in the Writers' Workshop to help further with the technical side of things? (The content is down and your voice is wonderful, now to add the polish brush over the top). One cannot post the same thread twice, but perhaps your next piece could go there? Have a look around, take your time, see what you think and watch how others go about it. If you do decide to post in there, give folks a bit of an idea of what you are asking for and feel free to share your thoughts on other member's work, (erh, did I put the apostrophe in the right place? lol). I find the critique process just another way to improve our own writing.

Last but not least, I want to thank you, Divus for sharing your wonderful tales of adventure with us.

Much enjoyed and best wishes, ash :)

P.S. I'm pretty sure my daughter would love your stories too. She's an avid reader and always on the look out for interesting hands on horsey stuff.

Ash, Thank you for your comments. I 'll try what you have suggested.

I am one of those writers who do not think before we write. The words come very much as I might have spoken them.
Until I read back what I have written I have no idea of what I 'said'.

If I stop to think before I write, I lose the train of thought.

Then if read the writing back too often, with a vew to correction, then my brain can't read it as it was actually written.
The only way to cope, is to have in one's mind the traps not to fall into - and 'you' is one such trap.

Writing is all a bit like riding a horse, we don't think what we do - we have done it before we thought.

I shall look through some threads on the Writer's Workshop

Dv

Originally Posted by Divus

I am one of those writers who do not think before we write. The words come very much as I might have spoken them.
Until I read back what I have written I have no idea of what I 'said'.

If I stop to think before I write, I lose the train of thought.

Divus, this is actually the best possible way to write a first draft in my opinion. A lot of people have a hard time fighting the urge to edit as they write and it can really mess up the process of initially getting the writing down on the page. So if you already work this way, you're ahead!

Originally Posted by Divus

There is one other small but regular act of disobedience. When I am picking out her feet, she will readily lift three of them but the fourth, the right fore, she’ll often snatch back before I have finished getting rid of the dirt.

You learn something new every day.

Here was me thinking a horse's right and left feet would be described the same way as its right and left sides - off-side and near-side - and so when I saw this, I had to go and google it all, didn't I, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Well, there you go.

(I still refer to a car's wheels and mudguards in horse terms - OSF, NSR, etc. Avoids confusion with those people who don't know their left from their right)

Oh Ox,

There would be so many advantages to be gained if DiDi would respond to the same controls as a car.
I am sitting thinking of which control I'd instal first - I think 'brakes' would be the most useful.

However I've thought of a snag - she might then demand petrol instead of grass as a fuel.

But would my car then start to jump up and down?
and would you fancy stuffing the petrol tank with grass

and the insurance for the horse is more expensive than for my car.

And what about the roses - no manure.

With hindsight, I think I'll stick with "right fore"