You could say the process of learning is the process of getting smacked over the head with humility until some of it sinks in. The way (SPOILER!) the obsidian chunks embedded in the wooden club sank into (DID I SAY SPOILER? SPOILER!) the side of Middle Eye's head when Jaguar Paw finally whapped him with it in the violence-porn gorefest "Apocalypto." Thank you, Gibbsy, but I could have lived my entire life quite cheerfully without ever seeing the pink mist cloud you get with a sudden and forceful blunt-trauma head injury. Let alone the cranial artery splorting in time with the pulse in Gerardo Taracena's neck. It's been like a month and I'm still having bad dreams.
Whoops. Sorry. Still a little haunted.
WTF has this to do with dressage, you understandably ask? Well:
So you could say the learning process is like getting whapped in the head, only not with a club like in a Mel Gibson movie, but with humility.
In much the way that my teacher is a much, much better rider than I ... he's also a much, much better writer than I.
Dr. Ritter and his Tony, one of the most gentlemanly and kingly stallions I've ever met, are on the cover of the February 2009 issue of Dressage Today. They're working in hand and Tony is in a levade. Here:
Beautiful, no? And this is something of a big deal. Dr. Ritter has been writing some for them too, and I know how hard he and his wife have been working, and for how long - they have earned it.
Dr. Ritter has also added a dressage blog to their Web site, ArtisticDressage.com.
That is what a dressage blog should be: thoughtful, informative, well-written and frequently updated. Not like the one you're reading right now. But it's cool - for several years, I've been looking up to the Ritters as riders and trainers. Now I can look up to them as bloggers too.
You see what I mean about getting whapped with the humility club? And about "behold the master?" LOL LOL LOL ::wheeze:: You should read his blog; the man can write. You should explore their site; it's one of the few places that shows how dressage should look.
ObDressage* for today: It's been far too cold to do anything with my guys, and I have a new job that's sucking most of my time. My creaky oldsters are using every calorie to stay warm in all night in the single digit temps, and between frozen spigots that make it hard to wet down the indoor, and the frozen solid footing outside, I don't see where to work 'em anyway. Saturday morning it was 9 degrees when I went out, not counting wind chill. Saturday night I realized the purple swollen hotspots on my face were frostbite. So screw this noise, man.
* That's "obligatory dressage reference."
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