So we went for a ride, early. I’d recently gotten into the very good habit of doing yoga mid-morning, then riding, but because of the change in plans, I instead blew off doing yoga. This was a huge

mistake. As I say, live and learn. It’s been said that we learn in making mistakes. What I learned was this was an instance in which I had a qualitative basis for comparison. I now know for sure that the ride will go better if I first stretch out.

Beautiful day for an outing. Warm and sunny. Nevertheless, I must not have been fully relaxed for Raudi repeatedly rushed down, and then up hills. But I must have been partially relaxed, for I had some degree of control. I also maintained a far better seat than previously, this as opposed to what I call doing the C-slouch, the central characteristics being slumped shoulders, legs forward, and head down.

Raudi also repeatedly veered off-trail, maybe because I was laterally off-balance. One leg did feel longer than the other. Dunno. Just know that I don’t have these things to write about when all goes well. Perhaps someday I will have a dispatch that’s a blank page. This will indicate that it’s been a really good day.

Came home, worked with the goats – am clicker training the goats to give me their feet. I used a feather and stroked their legs. This went well. I bet Pete that in a week we’ll be able to handle the feet without them pulling away. If I pull this off, this will be a major accomplishment.

Came inside, got to work. I have been working on the body awareness chapter in Lessons Twice Learned. For some odd reason it was very slow going today – the words just weren’t forthcoming. It’s ironic – I had a hard time riding because I didn’t do yoga – and I had a hard time writing about yoga, perhaps because I didn’t do yoga. (I just thought of that.)

When one revises, they dig deep, plumb the depths in hopes of bringing significant ideas to the surface. Today, the problem was that while I knew these ideas were there, I just could not access them. Even writing the first draft of this dispatch was difficult. There is visible evidence -- there are more cross-outs than usual.

After I finished (for the day) the yoga chapter, I took a look at the next chapter of Lessons Twice Learned, which is entitled “Moving Forward.” I could, in reading it, envision what I might do, which is begin by providing a riding-related definition of moving forward, then note that central to this definition is the internalization of all that I’ve relearned in relation to mind/body awareness. There will then be a twist; this is going to be that I come to realization that in order to be a confident rider, I now need to let go of all I’ve learned, and --- just ride. This is going to be the perfect stylistic set up for the final two chapters in that I won’t have to write any more about the mind/body relationship.

Yep, today was what I’d call a conceptually difficult day. I guess I couldn’t quite figure out what end was up.

Next: 335. 12/16/14: Book Review: (Part 1) Animals Make us Human, Temple Grandin