It Takes Two, Saddle Seat Lesson

Awareness of the outside world. Ars Technica: Meet the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize winners, Ouellette, Sep 3, 2026. Improbable Research: The 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, video.

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I felt ignoble, and not in the clever-make-you-think way.

Photo of the ears and neck of a bay horse in a covered ring
Photo of the ears and neck of a black horse in a covered ring.

Yes, there are two sets of ears. I bailed halfway thru the first ride and was granted a second, remedial ride on Optimus. [Emotional Support Horse]

Phooey.

Luna is a 5-year-old bay ASB mare. She rides like a much older horse. I’m told she is quickly becoming a favorite lesson horse. Not for me. I achieved walk, trot, and canter in one direction and decided I was done. Usually by then I would have settled down and be riding the horse. I was not settling down.

Of course, I felt really good about myself after. Not!

I think we can take a break from mares for a bit? [Being Sweet]

But then, I’ve never gotten along with mares, with certain notable exceptions. [Mares and Me]

You may notice Optimus’ ears up near the roof gable in the photo. There was a lawnmower on the hill. That is the highest I’ve ever seen him carry his head and ears. Riding was a breeze since the front end was auto-elevated. All I had to do was ride forward. He wasn’t wrong. It was quite the noise. At least I was on the horse I get along with.

Onwards!
Katherine

A Brief Sparkle of Goldy, Hunter/Jumper Lesson

Awareness of the outside world. Braymere Custom Saddlery: The Akhal Teke World Championship

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Photo between the ears from the back of a chestnut horse standing on a path between fencing.

Goldy
Rosewood Stables
5 September 2026

It was hot. [Too Hot]

Then less hot. [Back To The Goldy Mine]

Then hot again.

This time, the mornings not were not awful. We thought we could slip in a lesson before the heat ramped up in the afternoon.

We were wrong.

Also, I keep forgetting that the sand ring is an easy +5 for heat.

The lesson was a brief warm-up, a few jumps, declare victory, head back to barn.

Goldie was fine. Shower. Fan. Shower. Fan. Tucked into his stall, dried off, & eating hay.

Me, not so much. I do not handle the heat well these days. I’m not unmercifully hot at the time. It’s just that my cooling system has gone awol. I get hot, stay hot, & take forever to recover. Bleeh.

I do have good news.

Pre-lesson walking worked like a charm. [Afterthoughts, Physical]

With okay from Coach Deana, I got on early and we ambled around the outside of the ring for a few minutes.

Subsequent lesson went well for horse and rider. Flat work on task. Jumps low – tiny even – but coming up where I expect them to be.

Photo between the ears from the back of a chestnut horse walking on grass, with shadow of horse and rider on the ground.

Wandering around. While I want to ride in (win!) the American Eventing Championships, I want this also. [Breeds, Enter Spooking]

Onwards!
Katherine

Milton & Me, Morning Walk Stories

Awareness of the outside world. Related to yesterday. NPR: Boston Students Get A Glimpse Of A Whole New World, With Different Maps, Dwyer, 2017. New maps since 2017. Article points out that the equator is in the “wrong” place on the Mercator map. I had never noticed, or had noticed but not really thought about. Subconsciously prioritizing the northern hemisphere? [Hoof Treatment, intro]

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{Backstory. Each morning, people & horses go on team walk: one-mile, unmounted, & off-lead. Route is back and forth five times along one side of the pasture. Theoretically.}

Due to foot issues, Rodney is spending the morning hanging out in the ring with Other Barn Minion. Milton and I walk back & forth. [Hoof Treatment]

What is different à deux?

Milton wants me to take point. When all four of us are walking, Milton will walk next to me, or stomp off ahead of everyone. Now, he slows down & says, ‘Nah, you go first.’ [Current Marching Order, Heading Out]

Milton has to walk past the cookie monster, aka Other Barn Minion, twice each lap. He tries to stop occasionally but is good about being steered back to the path. The fact that he will walk past his personal cookie dispenser at all is amazing. If he tries to stop, it is usually in a later lap. Laps one through three, he marches right by.

Milton goes at liberty most of the time. I carry a leadrope in case he gets tired of having to write his history paper while everyone else has finished exams. Generally, he feels smug that he is the one doing it right.

Onwards!
Katherine

Hoof Treatment, Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. Equal Earth. I was most surprised by the apparent size change to Russia (obv the country itself is the same size). That could be an artifact of living with the Cold War when the USSR loomed VERY LARGE in the collective psyche. [Inauguration Thoughts, The Secret Bits]

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Photo of a black horse leg soaking in a blue bucket.

Phooey.

Bruise or abscess? Shrug. Treatment the same. We had been doing so well this year. First official abscess (or bruise). Based on subsequent sole growth, Milton’s earlier kerfuffle might have been an abscess that went away or got reabsorbed or wasn’t that big in the first place. [Milton Opts Out of Lunging]

Photo of four items necessary for hoof poultice: diapers, tape, oatmeal, Epsom salt.

Avengers Assemble.

Photo of the bottom of a horse hoof with a poultice on the sole.

Epsom salt applied. Padding & tape bootie to follow.

Dunno if it heals anything but Rodney loves his foot poultice. Oatmeal mixer this time. We did one soak while waiting for the supplies. Continue to prefer the foot pack method. Longer contact time and less hoof immersed in water. [Abscess Treatment]

Tempting to blame being barefoot … [Going Bare]

.. but abscesses happened with shoes. [Abscess Treatment, photo repost 2019]

In other news, I can add abscess to my list of problem words. Too many similar letters. Got the spelling so wrong at one point that spellcheck had no clue.

Onwards!
Katherine

Large Origami Crane, Paper Art

Large animal art of the outside world. Matthew Mazzotta: Home. A supersize pink flamingo who lives at the Tampa airport.

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Photo of a white origami crane resting on a hale bale with three tan biscuits along the side.

Biggest crane I have yet folded. A 22″ square piece of paper makes a crane with 11″ high wings. One inch square horse treats for scale.

Paper from Alabama Art Supply. No deal with store. Want to be sure that they get props for the nice product and that I get points for supporting an independent art store rather than a big box.

Onwards!
Katherine

Vulture Day & Polysyllabic Prose Poem

State of the Blog. Crossed 3000 posts for the streak on 11 August 2026. This is post #5278 overall and #3025 for the streak. [Counting Posts]

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Dinner Is Served

Hand grips mouse. I wait.
Black wings wide. Coming at me.
Mealtime exercise.

Today is International Vulture Awareness Day. The Audubon Center for Birds of Prey held a haiku contest. The above was my entry.

It did not win.

I did not expect it to win.

This situation only makes sense to someone who has fed vultures. But, this is what comes to mind for me when I think of vultures.

At one of my incarnation in the zoo world, I worked with education animals. Every day at 4 pm, we would down tools and troop over to the aviary to exercise and feed the vultures. They would fly back and forth, noming on the mouse parts we would being holding in our gloved fists.

It is quite a moment to have a raptor flying straight toward your face. It registers strongly with some small squeaky part of your ancestral DNA.

Audubon Florida: Center for Birds of Prey Announces Haiku Contest Winners for In-Person Storywalk. Check out the winners.

Onwards!
Katherine