Virtual Brush Box

Awareness of the outside world. Grooms Podium! International Grooms Association: No More ‘Where’s Wally’?

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Let me start by saying that a good horse is any color & the right horse is any breed. Given that, ya gotta start somewhere.

The Standardbred was the closest we’ve come to bringing a horse home. The more time goes by, the more I agree with myself. “Did not dissuade us from thinking that the breed would fit in well around here.” [Taking Tiny Steps on the Horse Hunt Path]

However, Standardbreds are not a Southern phenomenon. The Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization of New Jersey is putting on a big, annual show in September in Allentown, New Jersey. “Three days, 195 classes and 81 divisions celebrating the versatility of the Standardbred — dressage, driving, hunters, western, gymkhana and more.” The National Standardbred Horse Show.

However, again, the show is six states away. Fourteen hours – minimum – is a long way to drive for reconnaissance.

Writing From the Right Side of the Stall: A Soft Spot for Standardbreds, scroll down for judging at a Standardbred show.

Bonus

Since I’m not saying much here, have some recent adventures from elsewhere in the horse blogosphere.

“Looking all grown up in the big barn. In all honesty, the way he settled in with no questions asked after loading into my trailer in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, with police lights flashing everywhere is a testament to how he was raised. This kid really takes everything in stride and I couldn’t be prouder.” A Collection of Madcap Escapades: July 2026. The author does not go into detail & previous posts are unavailable (ACOME: Journey). Whatever the situation, Bravo Chip!

“And I feel like such a jerk saying that because a year or two ago I would have killed to be working on his lateral work again, or the canter work like this.” A Enter Spooking: Do Less. I see myself in this mindset. Right now I would love to be able to simply stroll around the pasture on horseback. How long would that last? I have wondered this before, “Will I grow weary of … “.[Wondering If What I Want Is Really What I Want]

“He looked at me questioning. I looked down, he had moved in front of a log where I could easily remount. I swear I heard the words ‘silly human’ in my head.” Heccateisis’s Blog: Best Ponies.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. I’d like to comment on the trade situation with Canada, but I have nothing to add to the conversation. Other than, I would bet a shiny nickel that someone, somewhere is making bank.

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I talk a lot about our morning walks. Aside from those, what else are Rodney & Milton up to?

Not much.

Blog says I rode Rodney in 2025. If so, it was early in the year & not often. Nothing this year. Going barefoot puts the bow on his retirement. [Going Bare]

Earlier this year, we – using the barn we – decided to see how Milton felt about riding. He was fine. For a while. Over the period of a few weeks, he went from fine to fidgety to hissy fit.

We started groundwork, but then it got hot in the afternoon and the project floundered.

When I say not doing much, I mean not doing much people stuff. For horse activities, their schedules are packed. Grazing, chilling, napping, wandering about their pasture. They get cookies and meals. Hosing when it’s hot; blankets when it’s cold. Milton is more amenable that he used to be. He’s gotten friendlier about his ears. Rodney is setting the house longevity record for Thoroughbreds.

That’s were they are. Morning walks & living the pasture potato life.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Lawyers, Guns & Money: On the USS Doris Miller. Farley, August 21, 2026. Background info including international repercussions.

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Milton: Hello.

Me: Oh. I didn’t see you.

Milton: Why not? I’m standing right here, by your shoulder.

Me: I can’t see behind me.

Milton: What! How do you know what is going on around you?

Me: I have to turn my head.

Milton: That’s weird.

Me: I don’t have normal horse vision. I have limited predator vision.

Milton: Must be a hard way to go through life.

Onwards!
Katherine

Pastries of the outside world. Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie.

Side note. My desktop translates this page automatically. My phone does not offer the option, at least that I can find. Weird. Also, more interesting visuals on the desktop version. Also weird.

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Pastry Chefs Dessert Table
Elizabeth Moore Chocolate
21 August 2026

As part of my monthly box subscription, I get to take a class. Cooking class? Moi? It is to laugh. I chose one where we sat and ate and admired as Chef Jen plated and explained each dessert. They were both visually appealing and tasty.

Each dessert was plated with an absurd number of ingredients. Yet, nothing was there for mere decoration. Every item added to the favor.

I neither took notes nor remembered what was said. Oooh, food. Pretty! Yummy!

Plated by me from the petit four table.

Onwards!
Katherine

Ice cream magic is, as you would imagine, a subset of food magic. Therefore, it shares in the strengths and weakness of that branch of magic.

Food magic works best with spells of healing, protection, and gentle persuasion. It is difficult to do harm with this branch of magic. Intentions count. Food spells prepared with ill intent do not taste good, often to the point of being inedible. Hard to get people to eat bad tasting food. A few practitioners are undoubtedly working on this, but no one is going to admit to trying to make evil palatable.

Of course, there’s poison, but that’s just chemistry.

Food magic works if the recipient voluntarily accepts and is invested in what the practitioner offers. Deception and force feeding negate the effects. Studies have been done on how much of the positive the effect is due to the spell and how much is due to the pattern bias on the part of the participant. Experiments with placebos are intriguing but have been statistically inconclusive.

Ice cream has been used as projectiles. Turns out enchanted snowballs work just as well. No reason to waste the ingredients.

Enough about the dark side.

As indicated above, ice cream is general used for positive outcomes: healing, strength, calming, community. Sitting down and eating with folks has an inherent magic. Spells reinforce these effects.

You will probably start with prepared ice cream, most do. Eventually will want to churn your own. This is the best way to discover what works for you in terms of flavors, amount and type of dairy, inclusions, and so on. How the spells relate to the ingredients is unique to each practitioner, but there are general rules. Fruit flavors effect the body. Flowers and leaves effect the mind. For example, mint is know to increase mental acuity. Chocolate acts as a general enhancer, which is why you find it in so many flavors. It also explains the popularity of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. Global Citizen: Everybody Poops, But These Artists Made It Into Masterpieces, 2015.

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In an effort to keep Milton from gorging, his hay is portioned out and served in clean muck buckets. He also eats out of a bucket hanging on the wall.

Therefore, there are often empty buckets lying about waiting to be picked up.

At one point, he pooped in his feed bucket. Other Barn Minion had a brief panic attack thinking the mass was uneaten breakfast.

Nope. Just poop. Dump & rinse.

A few days later, same thing. This time I found a decorated hay bucket.

Water was turned off at the barn. I needed a way to tell Other Barn Minion that the bucket required rinsing before use, in case I forget to mention it in time.

So, I plonked the bucket on top of the previously discarded poop and & draped the hose over it.

Other Barn Minion arrived at the barn. Asked that eternal question.

Is this a housekeeping message or a contemporary art installation?

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. “She is one of two girls pitching in the 2026 LLWS and the 25th to ever do so.” Montgomery Advertiser: How many strikeouts does Kinley Rasmus have in Little League World Series? Smarr, Tuscaloosa News, Aug. 19, 2026.

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First, Mathilda & I graced the scene. I don’t think she appreciated me in show mode. [Mathilda in Montgomery]

Then, I rode my horse, Seize The Day, aka Caesar. [In Defense of Caesar]

I probably rode in other classes, but the one that sticks in my mind is the Prix Caprilli. That’s when they put jumps in the dressage ring.

I’m riding a jumper. I’m at a dressage show. I shall jump in my dressage test and amaze them all.

Ha!

I stayed in the ring. I did the jumps. Beyond that, not so much.

It wasn’t the jumps.

It wasn’t even the dressage.

It was the arena. Not the dressage ring, but the arena the ring was set up in.

The grounds at Montgomery also hosted western shows, which require cows, which require pens, which were at one end of the arena.

Caesar would have nothing to do with the cow pens. Clearly, dire things happened to horses who ventured near them.

We managed to enter at A. After that, he would not, could not go down to that end of the dressage ring.

He would not get within, say, 10 meters of A. Since a small dressage ring is 40 meters, we were barely able to get past the middle of the long side.

We would trot/canter past E/B, depending on gait and direction. I would ask him to go straight. He would give it a hard pass and swerve back toward the other end of the ring.

When Caesar said no, he meant, No, that is not physically possible. No horse in history has ever done it.

We never got near A again until it was time to leave.

Did the jumps fairly well, as I recall.

Since I was the only one willing to jump my dressage horse, we were the only entry. So, we won the class. Warts and all.

Onwards!
Katherine