I've heard for many years that if you go to the barn at midnight on Christmas Eve the horses can talk to you.
Guess what? Horses talk to us every single day if we are willing to stop and look and listen.
We all come into this world with our five senses and no language. Horses come in with a highly developed instinct and the wisdom to use it. Humans come in with that too but we shift to learning language - words - and in many cases learn to ignore what we feel and focus on what we can say instead.
If we choose to go beyond words and training and what we think we know, we come to a place where we can simply be. We come to the place where we can listen to what the horses have to say to us.
My Christmas wish for everyone is that you come to that place with your horse. It's the most wonderful, amazing, productive place I've ever been in the company of a horse, and that is my goal every single day - to go there again.
Happiest holidays from all of us on November Hill.
billie hinton’s camera-obscura:
life and lessons on November Hill Farm
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
christmas eve surprise - free copy of book one in the Magical Pony School series
My middle grade novel, Jane's Transformation, book one in the Magical Pony School series, is free on Amazon until December 26th - if you have a Kindle, or download the Kindle software onto your Mac, PC, or any smartphone, you can get your copy.
Although this is aimed at middle grade readers, it's a story I think any horse person will enjoy. You'll recognize a few of the minor characters... hint: two little donkeys and a one-eyed mare make a cameo but very important appearance. :)
Book two, Fiona and the Waterhorse, will be coming out early in 2012.
Happy holidays to all - and thanks for reading and commenting here on camera-obscura!
Although this is aimed at middle grade readers, it's a story I think any horse person will enjoy. You'll recognize a few of the minor characters... hint: two little donkeys and a one-eyed mare make a cameo but very important appearance. :)
Book two, Fiona and the Waterhorse, will be coming out early in 2012.
Happy holidays to all - and thanks for reading and commenting here on camera-obscura!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
solstice gifts 2011
The winter solstice is my favorite holiday of the year. The thought of the longest night appeals to me, a life-long night owl with many memories of late-night revelry, creative peaks, and the quiet that falls even in the busiest of households when everyone but me is asleep.
I love the metaphors of light and dark, and have woven them into all my books. Jane's Transformation (book one in my Magical Pony School middle grade series) literally begins on the afternoon of the winter solstice. If novels have seasons other than that in which they take place, I think it's true that all mine are winter solstice novels, looking at darkness and light and how one contributes to the other.
Every year I wait for what gifts the solstice day will bring. A couple of years ago it was a baby raccoon in the big oak tree by our barn. Tiny little thing, a living metaphor of light and dark. He or she came down and you can see the painted pony (a metaphor himself of light and dark!) looking on with curiosity.
Another year there were black vultures in the tree by the mailbox, inky black against the white-gray sky.
Today I walked out to the barn to feed breakfast tubs to the equines and the first thing I noticed were the bare trees, dark with soaked-in rain, and the white overcast sky.
As I stood in the dim feed room mixing tubs, with my strand of white twinkle lights burning and NPR on the radio, Keil Bay started his Hanoverian breakfast chorus. He whinnies and sings for his breakfast almost every morning, but today it got quiet and I continued mixing. Although I didn't hear any horse sounds, I suddenly felt the presence of something close by, and I turned to find that Keil Bay had somehow opened his stall door, tiptoed across the barn aisle, and was standing with his head and neck inside the door of the feed room, in arm's reach.
Later I was dumping the muck barrow along my compost snake in the back field. I had my back to the forest and was looking up toward the barn when I heard something in the woods behind me.
A small herd of the November Hill deer were walking up the hill across from me, walking further into the woodline, almost invisible except for the white flashing of tails. Over and over again they flagged their tails, stopping and then slowly walking further into the woods.
The black tree trunks, heavy with rain, the shadows of the deeper woods, and those white flashing tails. Another wonderful solstice gift.
If you've read the story of November Hill Press you know that the deer played a huge part in its creation. Today, looking toward a new year, seeing them flashing their call across the clearing was its own bit of magic.
Happy winter solstice to all!
I love the metaphors of light and dark, and have woven them into all my books. Jane's Transformation (book one in my Magical Pony School middle grade series) literally begins on the afternoon of the winter solstice. If novels have seasons other than that in which they take place, I think it's true that all mine are winter solstice novels, looking at darkness and light and how one contributes to the other.
Every year I wait for what gifts the solstice day will bring. A couple of years ago it was a baby raccoon in the big oak tree by our barn. Tiny little thing, a living metaphor of light and dark. He or she came down and you can see the painted pony (a metaphor himself of light and dark!) looking on with curiosity.
Another year there were black vultures in the tree by the mailbox, inky black against the white-gray sky.
Today I walked out to the barn to feed breakfast tubs to the equines and the first thing I noticed were the bare trees, dark with soaked-in rain, and the white overcast sky.
As I stood in the dim feed room mixing tubs, with my strand of white twinkle lights burning and NPR on the radio, Keil Bay started his Hanoverian breakfast chorus. He whinnies and sings for his breakfast almost every morning, but today it got quiet and I continued mixing. Although I didn't hear any horse sounds, I suddenly felt the presence of something close by, and I turned to find that Keil Bay had somehow opened his stall door, tiptoed across the barn aisle, and was standing with his head and neck inside the door of the feed room, in arm's reach.
Later I was dumping the muck barrow along my compost snake in the back field. I had my back to the forest and was looking up toward the barn when I heard something in the woods behind me.
A small herd of the November Hill deer were walking up the hill across from me, walking further into the woodline, almost invisible except for the white flashing of tails. Over and over again they flagged their tails, stopping and then slowly walking further into the woods.
The black tree trunks, heavy with rain, the shadows of the deeper woods, and those white flashing tails. Another wonderful solstice gift.
If you've read the story of November Hill Press you know that the deer played a huge part in its creation. Today, looking toward a new year, seeing them flashing their call across the clearing was its own bit of magic.
Happy winter solstice to all!
come celebrate the solstice with November Hill Press!
Head OVER HERE to participate. A blog hop, giveaways, Magical Pony School promo, etc.!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
another Keil Bay ride
Happy to report another good ride on Keil Bay this evening. He came in and met me at his back door and licked and chewed his way through the entire grooming and tacking up process. In the arena we did a long walking warm-up and then eased into some trotting. We did some shoulder in at the trot and it felt good - lots of suspension tonight in the SI and regular trot work.
I've broken another 'rule' of riding and am holding the whip in my outside hand. I have trouble managing the inside rein and the whip together and finally decided that I would do what works best for me and not what everyone says is the proper thing to do. It worked.
Another good leap forward for me is that I think I finally have some ability to isolate my hips when riding. Maybe I had it all along but just didn't know how to use it? Not sure. But over the past few weeks I have been doing something new with my seat that is working really well. It's subtle and I'm not sure how to explain what exactly I'm doing but Keil Bay is responding instantly to it and since his training is more impeccable than mine I think I must have hit on something fairly advanced. :)
Part of what is making it work is that I am stepping evenly into both stirrups and also focusing on NOT hollowing my back. At some point when I started getting better at these two things, i.e. not having to constantly remind myself, the seat thing clicked in and Keil Bay clicked in too.
He's probably thinking - FINALLY! - she gets it. At least a little piece of it!
And I'm back to riding without half chaps. I go through phases where I really like them, and then I go through phases when I want to feel my leg right up against Keil's barrel. Right now I'm wanting the feel of the leg to be pure. Another telltale sign that I'm doing something different (and in this case I do think it's better) is that I can feel the pull in the muscles in my hips when I ride. I'm sitting (I think) more correctly and using my core more effectively and I can feel it.
So happy to be winding down 2011 with some great rides. And looking forward to 2012.
I've broken another 'rule' of riding and am holding the whip in my outside hand. I have trouble managing the inside rein and the whip together and finally decided that I would do what works best for me and not what everyone says is the proper thing to do. It worked.
Another good leap forward for me is that I think I finally have some ability to isolate my hips when riding. Maybe I had it all along but just didn't know how to use it? Not sure. But over the past few weeks I have been doing something new with my seat that is working really well. It's subtle and I'm not sure how to explain what exactly I'm doing but Keil Bay is responding instantly to it and since his training is more impeccable than mine I think I must have hit on something fairly advanced. :)
Part of what is making it work is that I am stepping evenly into both stirrups and also focusing on NOT hollowing my back. At some point when I started getting better at these two things, i.e. not having to constantly remind myself, the seat thing clicked in and Keil Bay clicked in too.
He's probably thinking - FINALLY! - she gets it. At least a little piece of it!
And I'm back to riding without half chaps. I go through phases where I really like them, and then I go through phases when I want to feel my leg right up against Keil's barrel. Right now I'm wanting the feel of the leg to be pure. Another telltale sign that I'm doing something different (and in this case I do think it's better) is that I can feel the pull in the muscles in my hips when I ride. I'm sitting (I think) more correctly and using my core more effectively and I can feel it.
So happy to be winding down 2011 with some great rides. And looking forward to 2012.
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