Tragedy in NZ

New Zealand is an island nation on the volcanic "Ring of Fire". We are prone to earthquakes, shakes and the occassional eruption. But it is always fairly harmless, a lot of drama and not much happens in the end.

But on Tuesday we were struck by a Big One.

The city of Christchurch, where I studied and lived for three years, was hit by a 6.3 earthquake. This was a shallowly-seated earthquake with the epicentre only 10 km from the central city. The devastation is hard to believe. Whole buildings collapsed. Facades of buildings fell into the street, killing the shoppers and tourists immediately. Hundreds of people are still missing, homes are destroyed, there is no water, power or sewerage to much of the city. My heart goes out to everyone who this has affected.

Sunday

A quiet Sunday afternoon at the paddock.

Blocked

I am trying to write up our dressage fail. But have got writer's block and too much other stuff to do.

So, apropos of text:

http://www.horsemanpro.com/articles/gained_gaits.htm

Not that Max will ever look like this in a million kajillion years. But he did do sort of a levade the other day when I was trying to ride him down to the vineyard for a hack. Sigh...