Jane and I have promised ourselves a pony once we get through with this push.
[An American proverb: There has to be a pony underneath all this stable-cleaning.] [Sanitized version.]
But progress is happening.
Writing my little fingers off.
by CJ | Aug 3, 2015 | Journal | 54 comments
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Better get a mule. I don’t think a pony will be able to carry the six of you; felines, writers and elves.
Well maybe a Welsh pony, but the first picture I got was of a Shetland.
The Shetland pony works fine if hitched to a cart. Could pull the whole household. They’re stubborn little beggars though and not always cooperative. I agree with you, a Welsh Cobb or a mule is a much better bet.
I don’t know what model year it was, but the other day I saw a white Prius and my first thought was “That looks like an Imperial Storm Trooper.”
I’ve also seen two 4-door Mini’s. That is sooooo wrong.
Have you seen any of the pint-sized Le Cars yet? DH and I first saw them in Paris, and goggled over the fact that 2 of them fit in 1 standard sized parking space.
I;ve seen some “Smart Cars”–on the freeway by brave and foolish drivers.
The suggestion of a pony got me thinking, eventually of songs.
Ponies, by John Denver.
Cheyenne Anthem, by Kansas.
Galloping Horses, from the album, New Impossibilities, featuring Chinese music and Western orchestra.
Night of the Flying Horses, ibid.
As dashing as a knight on his charger might be, I think some English or Scottish boy with a horse and cart might be more my speed. Heh.
Though being Texan, a cowboy and his pony might suit me more.
—–
A random night-time noise last night prompted a science fiction thriller idea that may or may not merge with another that’s been sitting on the back burner for some time. I think the two connect, but I’m not sure how.
So I’m writing out the start of the new idea to see how it goes, then I expect to stop to outline some plot and an ending.
If I get a finished story out of this, it’ll be the first time in quite a while; but it’s a goal.
Back in Pomona, by John Stewart (a song about racehorses).
Let the Big Horse Run, by John Steward (another song about racehorses)….
If I had a boat
I’d go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I’d ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat
Lyle Lovett, “If I had a boat”
I vote an Icelandic Pony (or, as they insist there, “horse”). I just got back from Iceland (and Scotland) a couple weeks ago. Highlight of Iceland, and fulfillment of a longstanding dream, was riding through the Icelandic countryside with others on the island’s (very steady, sturdy and willing) horses. I hadn’t ridden in some 30+ years, but found it very easy and secure-feeling to do so. We trotted a lot and, for Several brief times, cantered and I think I hit one of the unique and very smooth gaits the Icelandic horse has, known as a “tlot” (no idea how to spell it but I bet it is etymologically related to “trot.” Ls and Rs can interchange fairly easily and the Icelanders have particularly weirdly evolved Ls already).
My new dream: getting back to Iceland next year for a much longer than 2 hours ride!
Some years ago, friends online introduced me to music by Sigur Rós, an Icelandic band. “Post-rock,” with unusual use and playing styles on instruments. The lead singer tends to sing in an otherworldly, almost elven falsetto. It’s quite affecting. For quite a while, they were my top favorite. Still one of my favorites. They have a different style than their countrywoman Björk. If you give their music a try, I hope you like it. If not, well, hey, everybody’s different.
Wow, iTunes is going for random variety tonight. I’m listening while writing. But I *like* variety.
Huh, it’s been so long since I last heard, “Short Supply” by Tracy Chapman that I didn’t remember it. This says it’s off her “Matters of the Heart” album, which I should be plenty familiar with.
Great song, a real reminder why she’s so talented. Great sentiments too.
Hah, I wish I knew how to ride. That sounds great. Summer in Iceland sounds interesting, if cold. I like warm weather, but home weather is too hot for anybody right now. Good thing I’m native, but I’m still not used to it.
In Norway, as a guest of the national sf convention, I got to visit a model farm museum, where they had some of the Fjord Ponies. I fell in love. Pale manes with a black core right down the middle, so if Trojan-clipped, you have these neat manes with a racing stripe if you look down from above. They’re so adapted to the cold they don’t like hot Oslo summers, so they’re not always at the museum, as I recall, during the worst of the heat. But what beautiful fellows!
Is Sheji-con doing pony rides in the park? That might be a good deal of fun!
@Tommie – couldn’t get ponies or horses rented.
@Raesean – I’ve generally seen it as tolt which is a sort of running walk, very smooth and fast and was generally the traveling gait for long distance during the middle ages. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekn8BEZhbJs starting at about 01:44. This same gait is known as the rack or singlefoot in American Saddlebred horses. Icelandic horses are generally bred to exhibit the tolt, whereas only a one specific breed is purposely bred for that four-step gait (only some American Saddlebreds exhibit natural ability at the rack; Tennessee Walking horses generally do no use the same pattern of footfalls in their running walk and don’t show such high knee action).
There is, however, the Loofe Carousel, which is amazingly energetic and quite beautiful…ponies in the Park right next to Worldcon.
during one of my off times last year, I walked down to the park in the afternoon and sat and watched the people riding the Loofe Carousel. Something that struck me as very touching and very wonderful were two people holding a girl who had been brought to the carousel in a wheelchair. They didn’t put her on a bench, they put her on one of the ponies and they stood on either side of the pony and held onto her to make sure she didn’t fall.
The carousel has the requisite “brass rings” that you can capture, as well. There is a history of the carousel on the wall. I was especially intrigued to see that the electric motor that runs the carousel is really not all that big, nor was the original motor. I didn’t ride, though…now I wish I had….
Is that the same gait as the Peruvian Paso horses? Wikipedia
I believe it is similar to Peruvian Paso Fino, Missouri Foxtrotters, Gaited Morgans, Rocky Mountain Horse, American Saddlebreds, and Tennessee Walking Horse, as well as some newly recognized breeds such as the Spotted Saddle Horse. A walk is a four-beat gait, as is the tolt, running walk and rack. Most of the difference is in the height they raise the knees, how long the suspension phase between hoof falls, how quickly they turnover the stride, and how far underneath their bodies their hind feet land (especially whether the hoofprints of the hind legs pass the hoofprints of the forelegs during the same four-beat stride).
I suspect it is spelt Tolt, but was (poorly) spelling it by ear and memory and swear I heard in the Icelanders’ pronunciation at “Tl” start to the word… After doing my post above, I thought “wait, doesn’t it end with an “lt” sound too?
I hadn’t realized the the Tolt was the same as the Rack (which I have only read about in my horse-mad youth and neve experienced). In Iceland, they present the gait as something quite unique to their horses.
CJ (or Ready4More), do you know if the Norse Fjord ponies are ancestral to the Icelandic ones?
BCS: Iceland was delightfully cool: in the high 50 degrees Farenheit to low 60’s: no worry about over-heating at all while being energetic!
My sister loved going to Iceland for her holidays; once she went for two weeks on horseback helping move a herd of these horses from summer to winter pasture (or maybe the other way round, I forget), with several Icelandic wranglers and a small group of horseloving tourists to help.
She has three of them at home, one momma and her son, and another gelding the same age, which she got as a foal with his elderly mum when her foal was born, to keep hers company an relieve her young mare of the stress of being herd-leader, which was a bit much for the young first-time mum.
Luckily, they are very easy horses to care for, as she tore her knee ligament two years ago and hasn’t been able to ride since then: if they’ve got open access to their meadow as well as their stable, they don’t need riding and a thorough grooming every day.
The special thing about the Icelandic gaits is that there are five of them, not four, though not all horses are capable of or trained to all five. Besides the usual three there’s the tolt (with double dots on the o, but I can’t make those on this keyboard), and then there’s a gait where they lift both feet on the right at the same time, and then both feet on the left. Google translates the Dutch name for that into ‘ amble’ , I’m not sure that’s right.
The Wikipedia article on Icelandic horses has information about their ancestors; my sister told me that the Norwegian Fjord pony was one of them, and so were Celtic and Hebridean ponies. Fjords are always blond, with the black racing stripe down the middle of their manes (which are mostly kept short to show that off), and generally a bit more broadly built, barrel-chested, sturdy-looking, and more of a rectangular pony shape (with legs a bit shorter than their back), instead of the square horse-shape (back and legs equally long) that is the reason why Icelanders are called horses even though they’re generally below the cutoff height for the horse-or-pony divide. Icelanders come in a lot of different colours, and only a few have the racing stripe.
@Hanneke, “ambling” translates perfectly. That’s what it’s called in English. Wikipedia
I thought ambling (in humans) meant walking along at a leisurely pace in a relaxed manner, a synonym of strolling. I’d never associated it with the side-to-side swaying inherent in the four-footed kind of ambling, which can be quite fast. Thanks for the new info!
Taking a closer look at that Wikipedia article, and the link to pacing, it’s clear from the pictures and descriptions that what my sister calls the Tolt is what is called an Amble in English: a 4-beat like a trot, but lateral instead of diagonal. What she calls Telgang (skeid in Icelandic, with another symbol I can’t make instead of the -d) is what in English is called Pace – a very fast two-beat, like a running camel, only used in short bursts, which makes the rider sway from side to side instead of up-and-down like a trot, or in the rockinghorse-type swoops of a gallop.
Wikipedia article with explanation and short movies of all the gaits in motion.
Icelandic has thorn and eth (edh) (barred d), which the Anglo-Saxons had but which was subsumed by “th” under Anglo-Norman spelling. Thorn and Eth are difficult to get on a US Mac keyboard too, and not too easy on a US Windows keyboard.
To amble or to stroll — I’d say these are more or less synonyms, both for a slow, leisurely walk. A pram (perambulator) and a stroller are slightly different, one more old-fashioned and the other the modern, new-fangled design, for taking babies in a baby carriage for, well, an amble or stroll. Hence the names. Heheh.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the technical term for a particular horse gait has a slightly different shade of meaning than the same word used for humans.
So I think you’ve understood the English shades of meaning there.
There’s also, “to mosey,” but that would be more of a Western thing. 😉
P.S. — It’s still legal to keep and ride horses here within the city, to honor the state’s past heritage and the city’s. During rodeo season (here, late February and early March) the trail riders still ride into town and settle in Hermann Park. Plenty of people, especially school kids in 4-H and FFA, as well as farm and ranch kids, bring in their prize stock to be judged and sold / traded. The kids (any school age kids) compete for scholarships from the livestock show and rodeo. Of course, adults also bring stock and trade. This brings in everybody from small farm and ranchers to the biggest, and from very rural to the suburban or small town folks. — Ah, and yes, this is often the first look (and smell) that city kids get of real farm animals. Heheh.
Sorry, my mistake, the trot is a two-beat, the tolt is a four-beat, but the speed of both is about the same.
Waiting to see how much rain, if any, we get from the remnants of Guillermo. DH threw out back, and went to living room to see if any of our couches and chairs were nicer to sleep on than the bed. Cats decided to host Fight Club around midnight. Stuffed one into now-vacant bedroom, where he proceeded to howl all. night. long. Cats may be turned into manapua shortly.
There’s a new post on my blog about Dye Stuff:
http://shinyfiction.com/blog/?p=98
There will be pictures upcoming. — I’ve dyed two shirts for Robby. There’s still a pink shirt.
Attention Attention Attention:
Due to a conflict for CJ on the first day of Sasquan, Wednesday 19 August, our schedule will need to be amended:
We have most attendees arriving mid-day on Sunday the 16th, so dinner that day (Sunday) at Swinging Door. Easy, inexpensive, and varied.
Monday 17th Breakfast at hotels, Anthony’s for a lunch or huckleberry slumps: cheaper than dinner. We could then swing out by Arbor Crest for the view or go out to Manito Park which is about a 15 to 20 minute drive. Other suggested activities include Aunties’ bookstore and drinks at the Grand Davenport (newly remodeled). Dinner will be more spur of the moment. An evening swimming pool party at the Hampton is a possibility.
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<<<For Wednesday 19th-Breakfast at hotels; mid/morning: Looff Carousel and downtown area; Lunch at Clinkerdaggers’ which has a view right above the falls, and again, priced accordingly, eating outside. Volunteers are solicited to assist with cleanup at CJ’s house. Shopping at the Flour Mill, which has Wonders of the World, a sort of Curiosity Shop, where you can part with a few dollars for a trinket, or big bucks if you want other things. You can also cross the footbridge over part of the falls. CJ and Jane are scheduled for a panel between 6:00 and 6:45pm so a late dinner at Knockaderry, around 7:30pm is now under consideration-subject to change.
Most attendees will either be departing early on Thursday 20th or attending WorldCon activities so a good bye breakfast at a local pancake place such as Waffles Plus will conclude ShejiCon V.
If you have the time and ability to attend please come to Spokane for this meeting of your associates. We currently have about 22 people total including CJ and Jane. There will be plenty of time to visit with your favorite authors and meet those associates you know you want to meet.
Alas, Anthony’s is now serving peach slumps. They are, however, good.
Knockaderry’s has fallen on hard times—it may have been sold: menu has changed and food has gone sharply downhill.
Please tell me that Waffles Plus is still doing a bang-up business!!!!
Yes.
We may need to reexamine the schedule of ShejiCon events based on CJ’s comments today. I’ll try to get with everyone who lets me know how to get in touch. Every associate planning to attend, please send an email to bajio [dot] kabisu [at] gmail [dot]com with: name and screen name, arrival date, hotel, departure date, email address, cell phone number, and whether you can send/receive text messages. My computer just died so I am having to recreate the file that I had created with the data as it arrived. Sorry.
It’s going to be crazy.
I sent you an email this morning ready. I also posted more updated info about our plans so far on Shejidan.
CJ and Ready: It’s already crazy here, but we are arriving a couple of days early (the 14th). I’m hoping to be of assistance from there. My phone hasn’t changed, and I’ll be catching up with Ready at Bajio.
CJ, Did you know that they [Worldcon] are having a panel discussion on your work on Sat at 11:00 am without you being scheduled to be there?
It’s a long story. I haven’t got time to attend. That’s one thing. And b) first I’ve heard about it unless it’s the one i’ve been asked to sit in on.
Last I heard, I may actually have a membership, but I don’t have time to be there except as an occasional drop-in. I literally am writing as much as I humanly can per day, and have to, to meet this deadline, which is a serious thing—if books don’t appear when they should, they lose sales, and we can’t afford that. It’s no one’s fault: there’s just been an operational change in the production schedule, not of DAW’s choice, and I have to make it work.
You and Jane have three scheduled appearances: Wednesday evening 18:00 to 18:45 for “SpoCon Presents: SpoCon All-Stars”; Friday at 11:00 to 11:45 for “SpoCon Presents: Build an Empire on the Fly”; and Friday 14:00 to 14:45 for “SpoCon Presents: The SpoCon Unquisition” for which I am also listed as a Moderator along with Jane, and you will undergo the Unquisition [lol].
On Saturday from 11:00 to 11:45 the topic is listed as “The Alien Among Us: The Fiction of C.J. Cherryh” with the following participants: Chip Hitchcock (Moderator), Jack Campbell, Ann Leckie, Jo Walton.
I can understand if you only want to participate in the SpoCon events, but I think I will sit in on this panel. The panelists are all known to me through my reading, so I can picture in my head how this will go. [Well for the most part]
Maybe not a welcome suggestion, but I thought I’d mention it as it’s clear you can’t afford to come down with the Con-crud this year. Being up on a stage instead of in the audience might help, but the most-common way for colds to spread is through contact. If you can avoid shaking hands it could help a lot to minimize the risk of contracting it.
Maybe you could make sure you keep your hands occupied at all times, if you don’t want to keep explaining – I find that if I’ve got a cup or glass in one hand, and a handkerchief/programme book/Wiishu/walking stick/whatever in the other hand, people quite naturally accept that I can’t shake hands or kiss them on the cheek, but just smile and greet them verbally. Even real, long-time-no-see friends who have been shaking hands or kissing cheeks with lots of people can transfer those germs to you, when you greet them in such crowded circumstances.
As cold-germs stay viable for 24 hours on things like doorknobs, opening those with an elbow or a hip instead of your hands helps too – you won’t easily transfer germs from your elbow to your face, and elbows aren’t used to stop sneezes and so are less contaminated, so you won’t give your germs to others that way either.
And of course the same goes for Jane; if she gets the Con-crud and you avoided it there, you’ll pick it up from her – living in the same house it’s almost unavoidable.
Always washing your hands before you touch your face, as well as before eating or drinking helps too, but there isn’t always a good opportunity for that, and I know I tend to forget to do so before touching my face.
Hanneke- Horse’s gaits short course:
Almost all horses have three natural gaits: walk (a four-beat gait -slowest); trot (a two-beat gait where diagonal pairs of legs move at the same time with a period of suspension); and canter ( a three-beat gait in which the balanced horse steps under him/herself with on hind leg, then the diagonal pair consisting of the remaining hind leg and it’s opposite foreleg move, and the third beat is the remaining foreleg moving. The period of suspension when all four legs leave the ground is relatively short.
There are some variations to the natural gaits: the trot can become the pace in which the legs on each side work in pairs. Camels typically pace rather than trot. The action of the parallel legs causes the animals body to lean from side to side mimicking the rolling of a ship on wave. That is why a camel is known as “the ship of the desert.” Pacing is slightly faster than trotting. Most horses do not naturally pace, but can be trained to pace by using appliances such as pacing hobbles which ensure that the horses legs on each side move in unison. Usually pacers are only found used in harness rather than under saddle, because it is difficult for a horse to carry a load on their backs while pacing (momentum of the load or rider disturbs the horse’s balance.
Variations of the canter include the lope, and the gallop. The lope is a very slow and comfortable three-beat gait with the same pattern of footfall as the canter but a very short period of suspension, thus the rider doesn’t bounce in the saddle. The lope is the preferred gait for most horses ridden with a western stock saddle. The gallop is the fastest gait. It starts out as a canter, but as the speed increases the diagonal pair if legs can no longer land at the same time so the gallop becomes a four beat gait with a very long time of suspension where all four legs are off the ground simultaneously. The racing gallop is considered to be the extreme outcome of the gallop.
Next come the specialized four-beat gaits. In order to perform these gaits, there has to be a genetic predisposition. They can’t be taught but occur naturally in some breeds. They can be improved in horses with a natural inclination. Generally, these gaits are in addition to the basic three. Horses that exhibit these specialized gaits have one to three speeds for performing them. The slowest of these are the running walk, singlefoot, slow tolt, and amble, while the faster gaits include the hreina (a form of tolt), rack, and (I think) largo of the Paso Fino breed). All of these gaits are based on the four-beat walk, but have varying speeds of foot turnover, length of suspension on the weight carrying legs, height of leg movement, and impulsion (or the length which the hind legs overstep the forelegs during the same stride). Different breeds of horses are trained to execute these gaits differently, and even when otherwise they would be identical, they are called by a different name. I am not an expert in Peruvian Paso or Paso Fino horses, but they generally have three speeds all based on the four-beat walk carried to its extremes.
As an extension of the info about ‘pacing’, this is what is used when horses are trained to pull a sulky cart for racing. Imagine the chariot race from Ben Hur (or Wiishu in his Apollo chariot), except you are not standing behind the horse, you are sitting in a light 2-wheeled cart and your butt is about 6″ off the ground.
I should add that the four-beat walk and the specialized gaits based on it are the smoothest to ride and can generally be performed all day long. The walk is also most suited for plowing and working the fields in harness, as the horse is able to produce power against resistance from a load or against a plow until momentum can be built up.
The two-beat trot or pace is generally uncomfortable to ride when speed is required. The period of suspension gives two slight jolts every stride if the horse is being urged to move out. It is energy efficient for the horse, but not good for the rider. Because of its energy efficiency, the trot or pace is ideal for horses working in harness where momentum has overcome the inertia of the load. When ridden at the trot, the rider generally will “post” or stay off the saddle for one beat out of every two to minimize the jolts.
The three-beat canter or lope, and its higher speed spin-offs, the gallop and racing gallop can be very comfortable to ride or very difficult due to the length of suspension and the subsequent jolt at it’s end. The reason race jockeys ride with short stirrups positioned almost over the top of the horse’s shoulders (withers) is so that the jockeys knees, legs and ankles can act as shock absorbers. The faster the canter the shorter the length of time that a horse can maintain that speed, and the longer the recovery time between efforts.
Thank you for the explanations. When I was seventeen, and had good medicines for my asthma, I was alowed to take riding lessons for the first time. I always loved horses, but though I rode for about 7 years I never got very good at it, due to lack of balance and condition. I did learn to post a trot, but never tried any of the special gaits – it was years after I stopped riding (years after I got a concussion falling off for the umpteenth time) before my sister started with her Icelanders.
I was confused about the difference between a canter a a gallop in English for a long time, as in Dutch the three natural gaits are called stap (cf. step, walk), draf (trot), and galop (canter and gallop both). Unless it’s an absolute paniced running, which might be called a ‘running gallop’ (rengalop), Dutch uses the same word for cantering and galloping.
Hanneke, A gallop is essentially a fast canter. Chondrite is correct about pacing although trotters are raced as well, but in separate races as the pacer will almost always be faster than the trotter. You couldn’t pay me to sit in a sulky with either. I knew a lot of drivers when I was young and it is a dangerous vocation.
Ready4More and everyone, thanks for such fascinating info on gait! I knew the basics of walk, trot, canter, gallop (having ridden and been horse-mad as a kid) but not all these nuances!
And the gaits of the mechieti?