[A Horse Walks Into A Bar Books Pdf File
Hanne Rylaarsdam
I learned all about the walk when I had the good fortune of spending a week with some of the top competitive trail riders in our area (many years ago now), when I was a newbie distance rider. You'd think that the horses and riders that do 50-100 miles in a day would spend their practice rides galloping across the fields for hours on end, working harder at home so they were better prepared for competition day.
As I was about to learn from the riders that took me under their wings, nothing could be further from the truth. It was quite the opposite. While there were times during each ride that they'd go for extended trot and canter sessions, they would spend hours on end simply walking their horses to ultimate condition.
You can imagine my disappointment to discover that my first extended conditioning ride was going to be spent mostly at the walk. You'd probably think (as I did): walking can't possibly make that sort of athletic impact for a horse (or rider).
I think it took only that first ride for me to have a much deeper appreciation for WALKING (not just walking). As it turned out, we weren't going to go on a dilly-dallying, sauntering, swinging to the left and right kind of meandering thing. It was quite the opposite.
Lucky for me, my mare, Kayla, already had a supremely active natural walk. All I had to do was let her go, and learn to ride the gait she offered. We worked at keeping up with the others ahead of us, truly "warming" up as time passed. You know, you can break into a substantial sweat this way.
The riders taught me that the walk is physically low impact, but can play a large part in conditioning the horse - something that was key to success in long distance trail. They called it "LSD" - long, slow distance.
I learned the WALK kind of walk on the trails, but never really transferred the concept to ring riding until I began my dressage lessons years later. As I was literally re-learning all about each gait (and specifically, impulsion), I began to connect the dots when it came to walk.
In dressage, we want the walk to be active and engaged. We want the hind legs striding underneath the body. We want a "swinging" back that feels more like a trampoline and less like a rigid board. We want the horse's shoulders flowing freely and reaching straight ahead.
This working walk is the foundation for the other gaits, and serves once again as a low-impact way to reach the horse's hind legs, the back, the poll - in fact, the whole top line that should release tension.
The clincher is that we are not on the trail when we're in the ring. The horse might not be as inspired to reach and engage while walking from one end of the arena to the other. This is when it becomes our job as the rider to teach the horse to move with better freedom and regularity, to march like there's somewhere to go.
At first, all you want is the enthusiastic forward-moving response of the horse. You might leave the reins long while you encourage a stronger, deeper stride from the hind end using your leg and seat aids. Any forward response is good and should get a quick "yes" response from you.
Your job, after you've initiated (allowed) the increased energy and movement, is to ride it. But be sure that you move with the horse, and resist swinging heavily on his back. Swing through your lower back but hold yourself through the core to keep your upper body as quiet as possible.
The trick at this point is to try to keep the walk as active and engaged as above. It takes a fair amount of skill and strength from the horse to maintain a free-flowing walk with a rounder body outline. But it feels amazing when the horse is "on the aids" and still moving freely through the body. Your horse will like it too.
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"I feel like I'm developing a new muscle. I feel like I'm taking what I do as a bookseller--which is basically turning people onto a story and then reinterpreting it so they can have a different experience."
According to Working Knowledge, Raffaelli's field research included hundreds of interviews and focus groups with booksellers, publishers and authors, visits to dozens of bookstores across 13 states, 91 hours spent observing bookstores and bookseller conferences, and even a training course on how to open an independent bookstore.
Waterstones plans to open five new bookshops before Christmas, "with three named after the area they are based, in the spirit of an independent bookshop," the Bookseller reported. The locations are in St. Neots, Epsom, Deal in Kent, Weybridge and London's Blackheath, with the latter three smaller in size and named the Deal Bookshop, the Weybridge Bookshop and the Blackheath Bookshop, respectively. The company also announced that more bookshops are in the works for 2018.
"We have been quietly sticking to our bookselling knitting, making our existing bookshops nicer and now opening new ones at an increasing clip," said managing director James Daunt. "This brings us up to 20 opened in the last few years, all of them successful and fine testament to the enduring appeal of bookshops."
Daunt added that the timing of the openings was unrelated to the fact that the company is up for sale. Waterstones had been working on signing the leases for several months and, "just like London buses" they had all come at once this month, he said, adding: "Of course it is a good thing to open up before Christmas. And it will make my mail bag lighter--I regularly get letters from customers of places like St. Neots and Epsom where we once were asking when we are going to return there, and now we are."
There has been "good interest" in the potential sale of the chain thus far, Daunt told the Guardian. "It's certainly the right moment for [owner Alexander Mamut] to sell us, [if you follow] the logic of turning a business round and making it profitable, demonstrating that that's sustainable, then selling it. So I'm hopeful that will be successful.... We are a nice business. We make good money. We're relatively insulated from the wider retail economy because book buyers tend to continue to buy books even if they stop buying washing machines."
The Inner Traditions/Bear & Co. purchase of Findhorn Press, which we wrote about here yesterday, does not include all of the three Findhorn imprints. The Camino Guides will be published by Kaminn Media, which is headed by Thierry Bogliolo, longtime publisher of Findhorn Press.
Kaminn Media will continue to publish annual editions of the popular pocket-size guidebooks and map books by John Brierley, beginning with 2018 versions of A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago, A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Portugus, A Camino Pilgrim's Guide to Sarria-Santiago-Finisterre: Including Mxia Circuit & Camino Ingls--3 Short Routes to Santiago de Compostela as well as Camino de Santiago Maps and Camino Portugus Maps.
The Camino Guides will continue to be distributed by Deep Books in the U.K. and by Legato Publishers Group of Ingram in the U.S. and Canada.
Children's book author Shirlee P. Newman has died at age 93. Many of her titles were biographies and histories of indigenous people, slavery and other subjects. Her books included Marian Anderson: Lady From Philadelphia, Child Slavery in Modern Times, The African Slave Trade, The Pequots, The Incas, Liliokalani: Young Queen of Hawaii and The Story of Lyndon B. Johnson.
Zenith Bookstore, Duluth, Minn., which opened in July, is bringing the Icelandic tradition of Jlabkafl (Christmas book flood), to the store from Sunday, December 10, to Sunday, December 24.
Zenith is adapting the Icelandic practice of giving books and chocolate for the holidays by adding complimentary Terroir Chocolate bars to gift-wrapped book purchases. During the two weeks, the store will also offer free hot cider, author events, readings and other community activities.
"Duluthians embrace winter with a love of the outdoors, but we're also an active literary community," Zenith Bookstore co-owner Bob Dobrow said. "Another way we can enjoy the winter months is through this wonderful Nordic tradition of giving books and chocolate. Settling in with a book, chocolate and warm beverage is an incredibly comforting way to spend a winter's night."
In another echo of Jlabkafl, which involves the sending of a catalogue of new books to every Icelandic home, Zenith Bookstore is distributing the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association's "Give the Gift of Books" catalogue.
Sean Concannon has been named sales director of No Starch Press. He has sold trade, scholarly and professional books for more than 20 years, and most recently handled national accounts, special markets and institutional library sales at Taylor & Francis. Before that, he was a rep in the Northeast for Parson Weems.
Harry Potter films producer David Heyman is adapting Andrea Levy's novel The Long Song into "a high-end drama" for BBC One, Deadline reported. The series is being produced by Heyman's Heyday Television, a joint venture with NBC Universal, and will be written by Sarah Williams, who co-wrote Small Island with Paula Milne and ITV's Case Sensitive.
Heyman said The Long Song, which was shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize, "cries out for dramatization.... It's a novel full of surprise and unpredictable twists, upending any easy stereotypes of slave and master. We're delighted that writer Sarah Williams has been able to capture the wit and verve of Andrea's fiercely original heroine, July."
BBC drama controller Piers Wenger added: "July's story is heart-breaking, inspiring and utterly unforgettable. Sarah's script perfectly captures the unique tone of Andrea's novel and skillfully brings this story of slavery in a British colony to life."
BBC One has ordered a series of adaptations of Charles Dickens's classic novels to be produced by Ridley Scott's Scott Free London in association with Tom Hardy's Hardy Son & Baker, Deadline reported. The series will kick off with a three-part version of A Christmas Carol, which will air in 2019.
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