Ardha Chandrasana

I just love the way that phrase looks and sounds.

Here is what it is, with Tia (and me, and Jenny):



That was horse yoga yesterday at November Camp. We're doing something new--White Horse yoga--that's going to be a monthly thing for the locals. But Camp has been getting to do the beta testing. Yesterday instead of keed literally in our faces, it was Pandora and a supernally soft Camilla


and a suddenly very adult (and rock-solid) Tia.

This felt amazing:



Pandora was supporting me. It was like leaning on a warm wall that went all the way down to the center of the earth.

Tia has been Growing Herself Up. She was an absolute screaming snot on Wednesday when I was riding Capria. Kept trying to spook Capria with wild bolting and mad gallops right behind or in front of her. Finally when I finished and started to ride toward the gate to dismount, Tia whirled and popped a kick.

That was not on.

So I handed Capria to the indispensable tcastleb and got the longe whip and had a Discussion. Which went like this: GALLOPGALLOPGALLOPGALLOP KICK!!! GALLOPGALLOPGALLOP. And I said, Trot! And she immediately, without hesitation, dropped to a trot. So Canter, I said. And she did more GALLOPGALLOPGALLOP. Trot, I said again. And boom, she did.

Brat. That's what she wanted. Her very own training session. So we had a free longe and she was excellent. She got praise. But no cookie. Because people who kick don't get cookies.

By the time birdhousefrog and rstefoff got there for Camp, Tia was very very thinky. And she stayed thinky through lessons on Thursday (which she sat out) and into yoga on Friday, when she decided to be, like Pandora, a pillar of the earth. And she was good at it.

Today is a quiet day. Writing is happening. I have to change Pandora's bandage--she cut her leg on Wednesday, is healing unbelievably fast but needs to have the wound covered for a bit to keep it clean--and poultice Ephiny's foot, which is trying to blow an abscess. Poor baby is not happy. At all. I'll call the Wonder Shoer tomorrow and see if he can fit us in this coming week, and trim the crew and see if he can dig in there and find the pocket of ick.

Yes, we are tired. But Camp is going well. And we have Stuff happening. Like this, which is coming out on Tuesday (oh my) (squee):



I already have copies, which means Amazon must be shipping the preorders.

And also this, which is coming out from Book View Cafe on the 15th:



Also coming from BVC in November: GALVESTON by P.G. Nagle and HIDDEN FIRES by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel, reprints in e-form, and a new novel, THE HANDS OF GOD, by Gerald M. Weinberg. Details here.
Camp finishes first thing Tuesday morning. Then there is a breathing space for the patented mad holiday dash. I'll come up for air again sometime around Twelfth Night.