The three Rs

Reading, riding and 'riting that is.

I was just about to write a thoroughly original blog about the similarities between riding and 'riting - apart from the fact that they are easily confused if you mutter. Then I thought I'd Google the phrase just to see what would come up and I found, to my chagrin, that there's a very good writer called Meg Rosoff who THOUGHT OF IT FIRST.

Her blog is WONDERFUL. Something to aspire to. I'm almost tempted to change her name in this blog and conceal the link so you won't swap allegiances. I AM going to contact her because we seem awfully alike - apart from the fact that she's very successful and I'm not (yet)

Here is the link anyway, just to prove I'm not a cowardy custard.

http://www.megrosoff.co.uk/blog/ 

Now, perhaps THAT'S the bit where my horoscope is going to come true?

This is what I was going to say - Alfie, boy horse, and Poppy, girl horse, (but Alfie in particular) are incredibly good at sensing when I'm feeling a little bit tired or not quite so gung-ho as usual. They take advantage quite shamelessly, refusing to move forward, resisting at every turn, devising endless strategies to make riding more tiring and more frustrating.

Plan A: stop dead everytime I say 'Good boy, Alfie' as though that means 'You may stop dead now, Alfie. I think you've worked hard enough.'

If, THAT doesn't work, there's always...

Plan B: 'Okay, so you want me to go faster, Caroline? I'll show you going faster then." and set off at a million miles an hour gallop with a few fly-bucks thrown in for good measure.

Closely followed by, when I pull him up to save breaking my neck,

Plan C: "Huh! Well, if I can't go REALLY fast, tell you what, I'm not going to go AT ALL!"

That's Connemaras for you. Well, MY Connemaras. And, by the way, I'm not a completely rubbish rider.

What's that all got to do with writing? It's just the same. It can sense when I'm struggling, even the tiniest bit, and does it help me out? Does it HECK! It stops dead, resists, evades, runs out of control, bucks and bolts until I'm either in despair or scared witless.

Until...my mood changes, then, just like riding Alfie or Poppy, it can positively FLOW, it's effortless, obedient, moves along at EXACTLY the right speed, turning when I ask it to...

That is SUBLIME when it happens.

I just wish it would happen more often!