Homelife: adendum
Oct. 11th, 2004 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumI forgot a couple of the highlights of that ride. The wild career upslope was just this side of terrifying. I trust that horse to not lose his footing/go someplace he's going to fall, but I don't trust him to not get going so fast he can't lose me in a sudden evolution, nor elect to go faster than I want. Since he is a swell goer, and a sweet ride at a gallop, this isn't usually a problem... but I was in the odd posistion of loving the idea of flying up the slope, and being unable to feel I had complete control, lest I take his head at a point he really needed it, and we dump. Having had him fall out from under me on a surface transition once [less fun for me than him... he was in decent shape in a couple of days, I was unsound for weeks] the thought of doing that on the side of a mountain, even ones as soft as the sandy hill of Morro Bay, was not on my list of things to do. Had I been trying to use the irons, I'd've been forced to bail out... so I am a better rider, it seems, than I seem to think, or my lack of recent practice would indicate.
But just before it, I looked over to the right, across the draw/box canyon to see a mule deer buck. Still as death and bigger than life. He was side on to us and the only thing that moved was the point of his head, and that very slowly. Not a twitch of ear or tail for the best part of ten minutes as we watched him. The only thing which would have kept a hunter from potting him, as easily as punching holes in a target was the difficulty of recovering the carcass. I wish I'd had a camera, because he was, though young, a large, and beautiful specimen.
After the gallivant we were on more shaded terrain (in the eucalyptus forest... if/when that ever burns it will be awful. Eucalyptus is one of the most explosive timbers in the world. Those wonderful oils, which make it evident a stand of gum trees is about... with that redolent odor of cough drops; smellable for miles on a warm summer day, are volatile, and they outgas in the heat until they get a spark... Pawhoomph, a whole stand is ablaze, and no way to cut a firebreak, or do a backburn, but I digress) we had a slew of roots and erosion breaks, so up the slope, at a moderate canter and sans irons, (and he with a mane removed by mules) we jumped them. The highest was maybe 14", but still a glorious thing... free and easy, with a bunching of liquid motion that the rider gets to share... and a sense that one is truly invincible... can surmount anything and carry the day, prize in hand to a cheering crowd.
Which made the news of Christopher Reeve's death the slightest bit more poignant. There, but for the twists of fate, I might go, because I somehow doubt the last fall I took was the last fall I'll take.
But just before it, I looked over to the right, across the draw/box canyon to see a mule deer buck. Still as death and bigger than life. He was side on to us and the only thing that moved was the point of his head, and that very slowly. Not a twitch of ear or tail for the best part of ten minutes as we watched him. The only thing which would have kept a hunter from potting him, as easily as punching holes in a target was the difficulty of recovering the carcass. I wish I'd had a camera, because he was, though young, a large, and beautiful specimen.
After the gallivant we were on more shaded terrain (in the eucalyptus forest... if/when that ever burns it will be awful. Eucalyptus is one of the most explosive timbers in the world. Those wonderful oils, which make it evident a stand of gum trees is about... with that redolent odor of cough drops; smellable for miles on a warm summer day, are volatile, and they outgas in the heat until they get a spark... Pawhoomph, a whole stand is ablaze, and no way to cut a firebreak, or do a backburn, but I digress) we had a slew of roots and erosion breaks, so up the slope, at a moderate canter and sans irons, (and he with a mane removed by mules) we jumped them. The highest was maybe 14", but still a glorious thing... free and easy, with a bunching of liquid motion that the rider gets to share... and a sense that one is truly invincible... can surmount anything and carry the day, prize in hand to a cheering crowd.
Which made the news of Christopher Reeve's death the slightest bit more poignant. There, but for the twists of fate, I might go, because I somehow doubt the last fall I took was the last fall I'll take.
