Okapi42 Member

Health to ride, and enjoy every minute!

My main goal is to get Jack relaxed and balanced enough not to fall in through the shoulder on the left rein. Anything else - like our first "proper" jousting attempt - will be an added bonus!

Another peanut butter fan here. Also, there is nothing that can't be improved by the addition of either melted chocolate or melted cheese. But not both at once.

It's 1.30 in the morning and I've been DMing for 8 hours solid.

I always use a mounting block with my treeless saddle because it stops the saddle slipping. I'd use it if I went back to treed, too, as it stops the tree twisting out of shape. I try to vary which side I mount from as well, since it means the saddle and stirrup leathers wear more evenly. And mounting bareback from the…

I second this. Here's a good resource for calculating your hiking calorie needs: http://hikingdude.com/hiking-food-supply.php Always carry a few spare sugary snacks. If you don't need them, you've done it right, but don't set foot on a trail without them.

Aww, thanks. I always wanted to do it as a child, and merely being an adult doesn't *have* to mean you become sensible, right?

I once actually did a study of potential alien furniture for a friend's sci-fi novel. Go figure. Except they had legs like a dog.

Fortunately, haylage is included in the livery price at my current yard, but who knows how much longer. It's been the wettest January on record (since 1790) so nothing is growing...

...because Sunday afternoon, I had the first proper jousting practice on my horse!

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Yet another reenactor here - both SCA and HEMA swordfighting, archery, and I'm training my horse up for jousting, since I spend so much time with both I thought I might as well combine the two. Also training him for orienteering and Le Trec - you won't find me in a showjumping arena or anything like that! I also hike and…

Half Dutch, half German, living in (Northern) Ireland - I think that counts as European! I'd love a chance to practice my Dutch again, but it's terrible. I haven't spoken it regularly since my father died two and a half years ago.

I've been wondering how accurate they'd be for riding myself - it's one reason I decided not to buy one.

I'm afraid I've tried the driving from behind thing and he just ignores it. And he'll move sideways, just not foreward - it's like there's an invisible wall! Silly thing. As you say, they do keep us on our toes!

Knitting in the car? Yikes! Especially when pregnant! If the driver brakes suddenly, those needles could poke you in the abdomen...

I really should work on the quilt for my nephew's birth, he's 16 months now... But my current project is more reenactment gear, specifically, fencing armour and horse barding - full caparison!

I stopped biking to work because I have to ride every day at the moment. But the horse is a bigger priority than the bike!

I have a similar problem with a friend at the moment. The worst part is, he's also my housemate, so he's always right there!

Hmmm - I've been considering it, but if it's just a pedometer, might skip - my main exercise is riding horses and bikes and fencing, I take it it wouldn't track that? For steps, I already have a good pedometer.

Today I'm a nerd because I tricked my horse into going past a scary thing (made my handle animal check, yay!) He wouldn't walk past some plastic flapping in the wind, but was all too willing to hurry back the other way toward his stable and his dinner. So I let him accelerate toward home, then spun him around and used the…

Thanks, nice to hear from a pro! At the moment, he's on a bit of calm & condition mix with a few handfuls of high-oil chaff thrown in, but mostly, he eats haylage. The salt lick obsession has eased, but the vet says it won't do him any harm, just means I have to muck out more... He's turned out half the day in a herd,…

I've recently bought my first very own horse (yay!) and plan to start doing orienteering/le trec, but at the moment, I'm having to train in the indoor arena, too. Doesn't mean you can't have fun, just keep it varied!

Thanks, will add Zelda to the list. They don't really play FPS, but the Wii is the wrong console for that anyway. They're pretty intense gamers, though, my mother had Skyrim before I did!

Started riding lessons today, since I don't know enough to teach him everything myself. The teacher said something I never thought I'd hear from *any* riding instructor: "There's nothing wrong with your riding. Stop being so hard on yourself. It's the horse that's unbalanced, we'll work on him". Every teacher I've ever had…

I ended up using about 400g chocolate to coat them. At 100 wafers per recipe, it works out at 53 calories each, 6g carbs, 3g fat, 1g protein, if that helps anyone. Mmmm, cookies. Now I just need some brown butter shortbread.

Tesco does a nice chocolate tea as well that's just black tea with cocoa nibs and vanilla.

Thanks, I'll look into those! Heard good things about "A Boy and his Blob", too.

And a word of warning: this makes about 100, so maybe halve the recipe!

Milk, 1 tsp sugar, 2 tsp cocoa powder, freshly ground pepper to finish. Or the Green & Black's powdered chocolate...