Equestrian Studies

Years ago, I used to study there, as a student of equestrian studies. What you are thinking, at least what I hope you are thinking, is 'what the fuck?'

I went there twice a week. My teacher was the totally adorable Sumter Hazard. NO, this is not a character out of a Harry Potter novel (I cannot believe I just referred to a J.K.Rowling book as a 'novel'). Sumter was, and remains, my teacher of all things 'horse'.

This is English 'balanced seat' riding. The saddle is very small and light. It has no 'horn' (the thing you hold onto on a Western saddle). Nor reins. You grab hold of the horse's main (it's OK, the horse is used to it). You do not try to stay seated in the saddle, as you DO in Western riding, but rather, you 'bounce' up and down in it. This takes a lot of practice.

You learn to walk, canter, trot, and finally, if you are lucky, gallop.

AND THEN, you learn to JUMP!

Jumping is where is gets really fucking scary. At first, you learn blinded, with both arms out-spread... like you are flying through the air, which of course in fact you are about to do.

You have to put complete trust in the horse, because he/she is going to do the jump, not you. You are just going to pray, big time.

I never had a horse let me down.

My favorite mount was, and still is, Tecumseh. He has only one eye. A riding accident caused him to lose his left eye. He just had a 'socket' there. It didn't seem to bother him, not that he could talk to me about it, but when riding him, there was and still is a kind of mutual agreement. When I ride him, I AM his left eye. He cannot see in that direction, SOOOO he depends upon me to not lead him over a cliff.

This is a big responsibility, as neither one of us wants to leap into the Reichenberg Falls. We do not want that final solution to our problems.

When you are riding 'balanced seat', all of your directions to the horse are via calves and feet. Actually, you do not use your arms or hands at all, except to hold onto the horse's mane.

I also insist on doing my own 'tack'. 'Tacking' is the preparation of the mount ... brushing, saddling, placing the bit (which can be a little scary, as you are forcing the horses' mouth open to position this iron rod. You just know the horse just wants to bite off a few of your fingers.

If'n you don't tack properly, you are just begging for a 'Christopher Reeves' to happen.

Anyway, that was longer than I anticipated. Good Night for now.

Be good ... or at least Be Careful..

 R

Western to the left, English to the right.

Rich Romano

richardjromano@gmail.com
(845) 518-7982

	0 AM (20 minutes ago)

Perhaps the most beautiful music ever written ...

Gustav Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony ... the last movement ... the fifth movement ...

Why I care? Well, it is because it is probably the most PERFECT piece of music EVER composed. I cry ever time I listen to it. Even more the the ending of Puccini's La Boheme.

I cannot post a listen-to link here, but seek it out.

Everything I ever cared about is in this half-hour movement.

Create your life again ... just listen to it.

Your friend always ... Rich

It has been a while ... but not really

I had a few rough years, but I survived. Why? I do not know. I fainted several times, due to lack of food or water, or stress. But I am OK now. I still have the same friends and supporters. At least I hope so.

Well, I am also 68 years old now. And yes, that is old. But I do not think about it. Hm, I realize I'm not using contractions much .

Living in Poughkeepsie, New York now. and happy.

More to come. I'm just distracted now ... ooo ... I just did watch the C.S.Lewis movie version of 'The Chronicles of Nania: the Lion and the Witch and the Wardrobe' I loved it.

Well, for now, be good, stay steady, and know that good times mix with bad.

Rich

The woman and the scarf ... a true story

I was in a small store, a 'dollar' store, in the neighborhood. Nothing in the store sells for more than a dollar.

I like shopping there. It makes me happy. And I like the people I meet there.

I had recently picked out a few things, some food, etc., and was waiting on the check-out line. A elderly woman was ahead of me. She was dressed in 'rags', so to speak, and she had only one item to check-out, a pretty pink silk scarf for her hair.

When she reached the check-out station, she was short of money. She had like 80 cents in change, and the scarf cost a dollar. She offered the change to the check-out person. He told her 'no way' ... one dollar or no sale'.

I was astonished by this! This woman wanted only to look pretty with this scarf.  I didn''t say anything to either of the people involved, but I wanted to so bad. I just threw a dollar on the counter to pay for the scarf.

How cruel can we be to each other. All the woman wanted was to look pretty. All the clerk wanted was his dollar. Isn't there more to life than that?

She did look pretty with the scarf on, and I'll never forget that little incident, right here in Poughkeepsie, NYS.

God Bless.

Rich

Three-second short-term memory ... why I want to be a guppy!

I have a little fish tank ... well not really little ... kind of little ... 3 gallon size. Think, 3 gallon milk containers, only filled with water and artificial plants and a little kind of bridge, and rocks, and, of course water. And two little guppies.

Guppies are 'tropical' fish. They expect and like 'warm' water, but are very tolerant, like they really have a choice.

I have two fan-tail guppies. They are both male.

This is visually evident immediately upon seeing them, yet I am always, not almost always, always asked how I know that.

So ... here are two important, but little known, apparently, fish facts.

Like most of the animal kingdom, and certainly all of the plant kingdom, the male of the species is always way ahead in terms of beauty. Consider a male vs. a female cardinal (that is a type of bird, OK). The male is vibrant red ... he almost 'defines' the color 'red'. The female is about the color of warm turd. Unlucky.

A male guppy is vibrantly colored .. red, orange, blue, etc. . A female guppy looks like death.  So it is easy to sex a guppy.

But here is a little known fact, that, as usual on this blog, will change your life. Your life is one way NOW, and in a second, it will be different forever.

A guppy, all fish actually, have a short-term memory of approximately three seconds!

When my guppy number-one, say Rocky, meets guppy number-two, say Rich, they say 'hello', in guppy terms, whatever. Then Rocky takes a swing to the left, then to the right, then meets Rich again. It is like 'hello new guppy'. No remembrance of the previous meeting.

Even a small tank, like a 3 galllon one, represents a lifetime to a guppy. With each circuit of the tank, the little guppy is seeing each feature, rock, water, plant, etc., like for the first time. Each circuit is a brand-new adventure.

Think how wonderful life would be if it worked that way for us lowly humans. Guilt would certainly go out the window, along with a long list of other annoying things.

I wanna be a guppy so bad.

Rich

It's Alive!

At the risk of this becoming a collection of video clips, I could not resist adding this one. The pregenitor of all horror clips...



Enjoy!

Rich