Virtual Brush Box

Driving posts of the outside world. Pinto Party: 2026 Spring National Drive & A Collection of Madcap Escapades: NJ 100+ 2026 & Anxiety at A: Gladstone CT 2026. Pleasant people and happy horses having driving adventures. I’m glad for them. Really.

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Diego
Stepping Stone Farm
27 May 2026

Catching up on lessons, day 2.

Friday 15 May. Boogie was mellow. Much like my previous lesson when Rocky was chill. Since I am the common denominator, maybe I am a calming influence? Ha! Ha! Ha! Would be the first time in history. [Caretakers On The Hoof]

Wednesday 27 May. Diego. Abbreviated on account of rain. Managed to get a few laps in at the beginning despite light precipitation, although ASBs get soooo indignant when asked to go in the wet.

Onwards!
Katherine

Horses of the outside world. UNESCO: Equestrian art in Portugal

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Goldy
Rosewood Stables
30 May 2026

Catching up on lessons, day 1.

Saturday 16 May. Positive. Got a big canter on the flat. Less positive. Wasn’t ready to jump at that pace. Had to convince Goldy to dial it back when we moved on to jumping.

Another smol vertical & another flying change.

Note to self after lesson. Goldy is sensitive to my head position. If I flop or lean or tip my head, he decides I’m out of position & slows down. I know this. I must remember this.

Note from future self. Been good about doing this in subsequent lessons. Easier because he makes it so obvious when I do it wrong and equally obvious when I do it right.

Wednesday 20 May [The Goldy Ticket, H/J Lesson]

Saturday 23 May. Good footing but sloppy. One crossrail had a tiny puddle under it. I called on my eventing heritage. I didn’t jump into the back seat, but I did stir in a trace of defensive riding. Nice jump with a “Good trot” comment beforehand. Hmm, is that what they mean by the horse being ‘In front of the leg’?

Note from future self. Been trying this for jumps. Seems to work?

Saturday 30 May. Indoors because hot. Lots of flatwork to get Goldy on board. He knows how to do it. He has to believe the rider. Gotta convince that it is time to shift out of Grandma mode. Good jumps.

Have you ever gotten an inadvertent flying change? We were on a circle, I had lined myself up badly. I asked Goldy to go wide so we had more room. Apparently, those particular aids are the same as the aids for a flying change. Fling.

Goldy: You ask for flying change. I give you flying change. Why you so surprised?

What a ⭐.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. The Committee to Protect Journalists: CPJ urges heightened awareness for journalists traveling to US for FIFA World Cup, May 21, 2026.

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{Backstory. Each morning, people & horses go on a unmounted team walk in the pasture.}

Walking going well.

One lunging session in the middle of the month. Too wet to do again.

Recently been having slight issue with them taking short snack breaks, which would be more understandable if they didn’t have 23 1/2 other hours in the day to graze.

More likely to happen at the beginning of the walk. By the end, everyone is with the program. On the last lap, I even took off their halters and offered to let them stay at the far end of the pasture to graze. ‘Nope, we’ll finish.’

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Vicarious travel post. Mostly Harmless: Galapagos Adventure. Amazing photos. Text that made it clear this is not the trip for me, or for other fair weather sailors.

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Photo repost [Spring Is Springing] 2021

Originally, this was going to be a comment over on Heccateisis’s Blog: Static Electricity or Vent Part Deux detailing my experience with static & horses. Then I thought, ‘Hey, blog post.’ A basic tenet for cranking out a daily blog is never to let text go to waste.

Also, I realized I don’t have anything helpful to add. My experience would make for a poor comment. Instead, I am recapping the story here.

Short version. Rodney used to be susceptible to static. Now he isn’t. I don’t know why. Weird.

Long version, as told in posts.

“The afternoon would have gone even better if I hadn’t kept zapping him with static electricity shocks.” [Baby Steps] 2012, January

“We dropped all oil. Unfortunately, this lead to dry fur and static shocks.” [Guest Post by Karen Briggs: The Oily Truth] 2012, February

“My biggest problem with Rodney is the weather. Cold, dry air increases the odds of static electricity. Rodney does not appreciate being zapped while being groomed.” [Safety]. 2013, January

“Long story short, the poor horse was getting zapped by his blanket.” [ZAP!] 2013, December

Milton arrived in 2014. Static was not and is not an issue with him.

“Rodney has been awesome. We’ve been able to put him back on oil [The Oily Truth] for the static.” [Meanwhile Back at the Ranch] 2015

(We no longer add oil to their feed. 2026)

“We ordered new brushes. While Rodney is less fearful in the barn, he is still prone to sudden spooks. We think he might be unusually affected by static. Either he generates more shocks, or he is more sensitive to them, or both. His winter grooming kit now consists of a hoof pick and a cotton towel. I wear leather gloves. I thought a rubber curry comb was safe. Turns out electric insulator and generating static electricity are two different properties. We have ordered static-free brushes. More on these once they have been judged by the staticee. Super-duper-special snowflake.” [All Better. For Now.] 2018

Years pass.

Rodney was once again wearing a blanket. “What changed? Different food? Change in body chemistry? More eventempered? Better tolerance of small inconveniences? No idea. Before he couldn’t; now he can.” [Blankets Are Back] 2021

Note, this was the same year as the photo above, so static was still happening. Reblanket post was Jan, photo was March.

“Rodney’s old man cardigan, WeatherBeeta Anti-Static Fleece Cooler Standard Neck.” I don’t recall if we specifically bought this one as anti-static. Probably didn’t hurt. [New Equipment, Horse Sweatshirt] 2022, emphasis added.

“Blanket static hasn’t bothered Rodney for years (crosses fingers) but we’ll take the anti-static feature as a bonus.” [New Equipment, Horse Sweatshirts] 2025

I can’t say when Rodney stopped being shocked by grooming. It’s hard to recall a negative. Also can’t say whether or not the brushes were anti-static. We still have them. They work as grooming tools.

When I read the Heccateisis post, I realized it had been a long while since we’d had to deal with static. Hadn’t thought about it in years. Grooming, tails, blankets, nada. I wish I knew why. Wanna to make sure we continue to do whatever it was that fixed it.

While We Are Here

Another post from this blogger. Heccateisis’s Blog: Empathy. Be kind, because you never know. [You Never Know].

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Global Mural Arts & Cultural Tourism Association. Dates on the website lead me to think this group may no longer be active. Still, interesting info on murals, including articles and past conferences.

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Oak Mountain State Park
Joan Babcock
2023

Close-up from the mural.

Other work by the artist with artist’s statement, Friends of the Locust Fork River:  Let Nature be Your Teacher Mural.

The mural graces the back of a restroom. Why not? The facilities are necessary. Why not make them pretty?

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Yesterday. “At 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first known explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest.” History.com, This Day in History: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reach Everest summit. When I was growing up, the only name we heard was Hillary. This is progress. Did you know Norgay had gotten close before? “Two climbers, Raymond Lambert and Tenzing Norgay, reached 28,210 feet, just below the South Summit, but had to turn back for want of supplies.” ibid.

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The struggle was real.

I remember a joke going around, perhaps early 70s?

Father and son are in a car accident. Both hurt. Taken to hospital.

Surgeon announces, “I can’t operate. This is my son.”

What?!?!

The surprise implication being that the surgeon was a woman! the mother!

We were evolved enough to know that women could be doctors, surgeons even. The shock of the joke was, ‘Oh, of course, women can be doctors.’ and then be a bit embarrassed that this hadn’t occurred to you. The joke confounded assumptions that you didn’t realize you still had.

Nowadays, no one would get the joke.

Even more so because the surgeon could be a man and also be the kid’s parent.

Previous Post

I seem to be doing a Women in Medicine series. [Witness To History, Years Ago In The Emergency Room, With Apologies]

I really & truly didn’t think she was a doctor. On the plus side, my mother was probably horrified. Times were changing.

Onwards!
Katherine

Visuals of the outside world. General, timeanddate: Eclipse LIVE Streams 2026–2027. Specific, timeanddate: LIVE Stream: Total Solar Eclipse August 12, 2026.

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First column, 21 December 2014. [Winter Solstice in the Pasture]

Second column, 20 March 2015. [Vernal Equinox in the Pasture]

Third Column, 21 June 2015. [Summer Solstice in the Pasture]

Fourth column, 23 & 24 September 2015. [Autumnal Equinox in the Pasture]

Project Notes

Photos taken over the course of a year at 6 am, 9 am, noon, 3 pm, 6 pm, & 9 pm.

Most of the photos were taken in our pasture. March had one photo taken in a second location, September had three. Since the idea was to record the amount of daylight, the exact location was not critical. I went by clock time, did not correct for Daylight Saving.

Info previously presented as four galleries. Screenshot [A Trip Around The Sun]

I was surprised at the lack of symmetry.

Process Notes

Downloaded the photos from the blog. The originals were several computer changes ago.

The composite was made with layers in GNU Image. Fortunately, I had labeled each photo with season and time, so it was easy to keep track. The originals were not all the same size. To match the smallest dimension, I slid layers under other layers, sacrificing sky pixels. In the columns image, winter 9 pm is a duplicate of winter 6 pm

Oddly, resizing caused problems. I usually reduce photos to save storage space in WordPress. When I did so, lines showed up between the images. So I went back to full size.

The idea was to mess with post production techniques. In this case, the tools were layers, select all, copy, paste. Then zoom in to line up the corners pixel by pixel.

It was not a swift process.

Onwards!
Katherine