10,000 Hours of Practise

I have just devoured Malcolm Caldwell's 'Outliers: The Story of Success' over a few days this week, a brilliant and insightful read into some of the hidden factors that shape success. I seem to have all but given up on fiction for the moment, but this is the sort of book I pick up and just can't put down .

It seems, based on the research outlined in this book that if you want to be really good at anything - sport, playing the piano, art, riding horses - then over and above some kind of natural ability you need to put in somewhere in the region of 10,000 hours of practise.

That's 20 hours a week for 10 years or so. I started thinking about my equine art, and I think just about squeeze that in - at times I do less, at others maybe I do more, but I am not yet 'consistent'. On that note, this book has given me a good old shunt in the right direction and you should expect a lot more Horse Art to appear on this blog as I work towards more consistent practise, starting with last night and this mornings work.


In Progress Watercolour Painting (copyright A Cairns)
www.equineartportraits.com

If I keep this up, then you can expect to be the first to see some masterpieces (?!) appearing on this blog in around 9 years and 2 months time - good things come to those who wait!

Now what does this mean for our collective quests to be better riders? Well for me, it is not good, some of you who are a little younger or have your own horse may fair better.

Let us assume I have a few hundred hours in the bank, between my childhood riding, young adulthood and  my return to riding a few years ago, say 500 hours all in. So if I keep going at my current rate of 1 lesson a week and a ride on Merlyn, plus maybe a 2 hour hack a month, then it comes to around 150 hours a year. This leads me to conclude that I should be quite good then at riding if I keep it up for another 63 years or so....I'll be a hundred then! Hilarious....start young, that's what I say.

Ah well, time does fly when you are having fun!

Carmargue Horse Painting: Ink and Watercolour



Carmargue Horses (watercolour and ink)
copyright  retained A Cairns 
http://www.equineartportraits.com/

Still no canvasses.....watercolour will be the medium of the week, I think.

Carmargue Horses



Carmargue Horses
copyright retained
http://www.equineartportraits.com/

Warming up for some art this week .....in absence of canvasses we have pen and ink sketch with digital zest.

Brotherly love: Carmargue Horses

Brotherly Love: Horses near Montpelier

Last in a series of horsey photos with a European flavour..... and this is a holiday snap of my own, taken on holiday in France a just a few days ago (hence all the European horse photos that I have been using to fill in while away on holiday!)

The area we stayed in is full of the lovely Carmargue horses, an ancient breed found in South of France and I caught these cow-boys sharing a moment in the field beside our campsite in between their bull running. One came back with a bloodied nose, but after watching them relieve their itches on the barbed wire fences I am not sure he even felt it.


The Carmargue horses: Friendly faces near our campsite

Other than with each other, they had lovely natures and to be honest I think half the argument was over who was getting the most attention or treats from the families passing by on the way in and out of the campsite each day!

Tilework in Spain

Image: R Croal (with permission)
Part of a series of horsey photos with a  European flavour,
courstesy of a very good friend.

Popping out to the shops in Spain

Image: R Croal (with permission)
Part of a series of horsey photos with a  European flavour,
courstesy of a very good friend.

Horses in Northern France

Image: R Croal (with permission)
Part of a series of horsey photos with a  European flavour,
courstesy of a very good friend.

Horses in the Carmargue

Image: R Croal (with permission)
Part of a series of horsey photos with a  European flavour,
courstesy of a very good friend.Horse

Anything for me in that pocket?



Image: R Croal (with permission)
Part of a series of horsey photos with a  European flavour,
courstesy of a very good friend.

Pop-up Horse Art on Elie Beach

Galloping Horse Art on Elie Beach - Grab the mane and go

I am a beach lover, have been from an early age. I spent a couple of years living by one as a child, which co-incided with my introduction to horses, and have always held a very special place for both since. Whenever I catch my pony I would like to think it will live beside the sea, beside the imaginary ones of my childhood.

Lovely Elie - if you have your wetsuits...brrr!

In the last few years I have become an Elie beach regular. Its a 2 hour drive from Glasgow to the east coast and the East Neuk of Fife, near St Andrews. Provided you can handle the fact that the sea is pretty much Baltic all year round and the weather is hit and miss - as anywhere in Scotland - then  you can have some lovely holidays in this area.

Elie - even when the weather is not so good, still looks amazing

The beaches are a treat and it does rain a little less than the West Coast. The whole place is full of colour in summer, rich flaxen fields with wild red poppies and a sky that is somehow bigger than the one I know at home. across the sea and rolling fields and all of a sudden you feel you can see the curve of the earth.  It is like viewing the world through a fish eye lens.

I went out on a a hack yesterday at nearby Kilconquhar, but it had been raining lately and the fields and trails very boggy. We only managed a short and very pedestrian canter, so I took to the sand this morning  to let out a little of what I felt I was missing out on



Little arty helpers gathering seaweed

My kids and nephew who searched the best rock pools for seaweed that looked like squid ink spaghetti and my galloping mare was off.

Galloping Mare on Elie Beach
Our finished (if a little temporary) artwork

There for my enjoyment and that of any passers by before the tide washed her away in the afternoon.

Some people don't like beaches unless they are sunny and warm....I think they have forgotten how to enjoy a beach.