Feed Scheduling, Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. TN.gov: Gov. Lee Announces Partnership to Name Nashville International Airport in Honor of Dolly Parton. Known for her talent and her kindness. Gets my vote. For more on the subject, PassRider.com: U.S. Airports Named After People: Presidents, Heroes & Icons. PassRider is a service site for airline employee travel.

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Rodney needs more calories. He’s elderly and has always been a hard keeper. He’s getting as much hay as he’s willing to eat, the fancy stuff no less, and calorie-filled additives, both beet pulp and rice bran.

That leaves grain. We have to be careful. Too much and it leaks out his ears. So we go up gradually.

Option One. More at breakfast and dinner. He’s getting two scoops. Add one each meal for three scoops per serving. He’s not Milton. We could give him his entire hay and grain ration and he would eat it over time.

We try this.

Problem. Three scoops feels like a lot when I lift the bucket.

Option Two. Serve lunch. Two at lunch means two scoops at each meal.

We try this. Rodney is shiny, behaves normally, and – maybe – putting on some weight.

Problem. Being home to serve lunch is a complete PIA. I don’t get out much but even I leave the house occasionally. [Rethinking Lunch 2024]

Option Three. Wait! We have elaborate breakfast & dinner schedule specifically to spread out Milton’s hay consumption. Why not dole out Rodney’s extra grain within that plan? One scoop as an amuse-bouche, two scoops at mealtime. Since we are doing this anyway.

We try this.

Problem. Now that they are coming in for grain rather than hay, I start to wonder if shenanigans will ensue.

Option Four. Hay first. Then, serve the extra portion between hay and meal. Sounds elaborate, but it’s really just an extra walk up to the barn. No biggie.

We try this.

Problem. Does serving one scoop half-an-hour before breakfast really make any difference? If the feeding times are this close together, why not stay with option one?

Currently, have dropped back to option three. A small portion to start mealtime. We’ll see how frolicsome they get.

Milton gets a taste because there is no way food is being served at that barn without Milton getting his share. We tried grain but the technicolor kickies started to creep back in. [Feeding The Same Breed]

Now Milton gets a taste of his Senior pellet feed for extras and his regular tidbit of grain with his dinner.

It is complicated? Welcome to our world.

Is it overly complicated? Shrug. The joy of being amateurs with our horses in the backyard.

Onwards!
Katherine

Kintsugi Inspired Dish Repair, Art

Art of the outside world. “Our vision is to become a curated global platform where creations made with LEGO® bricks are recognized as art, connecting creators, inspiring audiences, and elevating brick-built design into modern decor.” blockdeco: About us. Interview, Brothers Brick: Talking MOCs and LEGO curation with the founders of Blockdeco.

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Photo of a blue plate with a mended copper-colored crack.

Photo of a white bowl with a mended purple crack.

Glued and Painted Pottery
September 2026

We have too many paws around the house for plates that shatter. I prefer ones that break into hunks. They are also ones that glue back together easily. In fact, these fit together so well than the paint in the cracks was not visible. I had to paint over the repair lines. While I would not use them for food &/or liquid, they will make perfectly decent non-kitchen storage and display.

Plate repair is within the broader category of visible mending. I love the idea of fixing clothes in a creative manner. However, I tend to wear clothes into the ground, and then reassign them to barn clothes. By the time I’m done, there is nothing left to mend. [Barn Jeans]

To be clear, this is not virtue signalling. I am perfectly capable of flinging money about. Clothes – or dishes – just don’t happen to be in that category. [New Shirt]

Links

“Japanese technique known as kintsugi (golden joinery) or kintsuguroi (golden repairs).” SI: The Beauty of Broken Objects, 2020.

“a kintsugi project can take up to three months to complete.” SI: Japanese Kintsugi and the Art of Repair with Yuko Gunji, Ferraro 2024.

NOMA: Object Lesson: Kintsugi reflects beauty in flaws, strength in healing, 2020

Oxford: Kintsugi at the Pitt Rivers Museum, video rx by NOMA article above.

A random sampling. Subject is huge.

Onwards!
Katherine

Afterthoughts II, Saddle Seat

Horses of the outside world. More epitome. The American Saddlebred: 4/8/17 5 Gaited World’s Grand Champions 1948 through 1995 & The American Saddlebred: 4/16/17 5 Gaited World’s Grand Champions 1996 through 2016 (updated to 2022). Marc of Charm, 2015, is a Breyer model. Also, interesting to see how the photos change over time.

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Still no lesson last week. Still pondering. [Breeds II]

I’m in a weird place with Saddlebreds right now.

I don’t get along with many of the lesson horses at Stepping Stone Farm. The ones I do get along with, I have no interest in showing. It’s a show barn, so lessons and shows are the main activities on offer. [Over The Years, ASB Show Seasons]

It is me? Is it this particular group of horses? It is a momentary intersection of all of the two? Dunno.

I don’t think it is the hunt seat lessons. I’ve been riding my own horses – to some extent, but I digress – all along. Last year, I took hunt seat lessons & also showed enough saddle seat to be high point. [Back in the Bling]

I’ve had great opportunities. Ridden a lot of horses. Been to a lot of shows. Yet, I am still paddling about in shallow end of the pool. If I were handed a fancy horse, I wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to get the best out of our ride.

“Jumper Analogy. I have been jumping crossrails on school horses. I have been to Crossrails Nationals. I haven’t a clue how to ride a 1.2 meter class.” [Why I Am Not A Saddle Seat Genius, And Probably Won’t Be 2018]

“Maybe I don’t understand, on a deep level, what is going on?” [Back in the Saddle Seat 2026, same song, eight years later]

Obviously, the next step would be to get a fancy horse of my own. I have chosen not to. [Why Not Rack Off Into The Sunset? 2019]

So, that’s part of it.

I wonder if my recent experiments in self-direction with Goldy explain both the momentary weird place & my underlying confusion with Saddlebreds.

“I will defer to perceived authority at the raise of an eyebrow … my brain gets stuck in passive mode.” [Afterthoughts]

For saddle seat, every ride is a lesson. I believe this would still be true if I owned or leased a horse? At the moment, this is true of my hunter/jumper rides but I know enough there to work on my own if I get the chance. I have opinions. With saddle seat, I have no opinions, at least not saddle seat specific ones. Opinions in general, I have plenty.

At saddle seat shows, I don’t get my own horse ready. We already know this is a bad idea. I groom my ride at home, but not at shows. [Afterthoughts, Mental]

Shows are reactive. When you show a dressage test or over a course, you go in with a plan. Definitely, you have to adapt and react, but it’s you and your horse. In a flat class, such as at ASB shows, you respond to the commands of the judge and have to negotiate the space with the other competitors, plus deal with yourself and your horse.

In the saddle seat world, I find myself doing what people tell me to do. I’ve never been left to my own devices in this milieu. I don’t feel that I am sitting like a lump but perhaps I am more than I realize. Mind you, many people thrive in this environment. They are able to take riding instruction and still think for themselves.

As an aside, memory pulls up one ride where I was turned loose in the ring with a horse. It would have been years ago and it would have been Sam. No idea what we did. Even at the time, I recognized it as unusual.

Also, these are not my horses, so I am more likely to defer to the wishes of the owners or their agents. Again, this is true at the moment in my hunt seat lessons, but I have had my own horses in the hunter/jumper world. Never had my own Saddlebred. Would ownership of the horse cause me to take ownership of the ride, despite the lesson/show framework? No idea.

It’s been great fun, an absolute hoot on more than one occasion. But one can only mess about for so long. If I rode for myself, even within the confines of a lesson, would I find myself making better decisions? Or at least, making any decisions at all?

I was able to investigate instituting changes within a h/j lesson. [A Brief Sparkle of Goldy]

I have not had a chance with saddle seat.

First week, the lesson – and the rider – too scattered. [It Takes Two]

Second week, driving. [We Go For A Drive]

Not as relevant. “If I never do anything more than trot school horses (and honorary school horses) around the ring in lessons and pleasure classes, I’m good with that.” [Nerves]

Third week, last week, no lesson.

Please note. Everyone has been and continues to be wonderful. This is me getting inside my own head, for better or worse. I may learn something. I may snap out of it. I may muddle along in a funk for the foreseeable future. Time will tell.

Onwards!
Katherine

Breeds for the Horse Search II, Saddlebreds

Horses of the outside world. If one is going to do the thing, this is the epitome of the thing. The American Saddlebred: 4/1/17 5 Gaited World’s Grand Champions 1903 through 1947. Check out the sidesaddle in 1911.

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No saddle seat lesson last week. Barn at show. Using the space to ponder the horse search. As I said last time, “A good horse is any color & the right horse is any breed.” [Breeds for the Horse Search, Standardbred]

Do I really want a Saddlebred or have I gotten caught up in the possibilities? [Yet Another Requirement For My Theoretical New Horse]

If New Horse were registered with a breed, there would be double the opportunities. First, do the sport horse thing. Then, go over and do the breed thing. Quarter Horse Congress. Grand National & World Championship Morgan Horse Show. The Arabians have an entire Sport Horse Nationals for Arabs & Half Arabs. If New Horse is not that fancy, then at least the local and regional versions of these. Point is, there would be a new area to explore.

As previously, “This description is heavy on showing language. It is also shorthand for a horse willing to turn his hoof to whatever comes along: trail rides, obstacle clinics, tackless riding.” [Finding A Horse To Match The Hat]

Do I like Saddlebreds?

I like horses. They are horses. Therefore, I like them.

Does the breed hold a special place in my heart? Certain individuals definitely. The breed as a whole? Maybe not.

I’ve been wondering if Sam was one of the reasons I found a barn home at Stepping Stone for so many years.

“When I’m in a dark place, one of the things written on the wall of my soul is, ‘There are only two horses I can ride, and one of them is dead.’ Previous Horse was the latter. Sam is the other. Embrace this. Enjoy that I feel comfortable on a horse.” [Lessons, Theory Vs. Reality, Further Considerations]

He was the one I started on. [Sam I Am]

Even if I was riding other horses, he was always there in background. [Theory Vs. Reality].

Now, he’s gone and I have moved on. Or not.

Was my saddle seat binge due to one horse? Was it all the horses? Was it an artifact of where I ended up? Would I be hip deep in Quarter Horses if I had ended up at the western barn? [New Barn Checklist]

Getting the right horse will always depend on the individual. The likelihood of that individual being a Saddlebred is going down. Or perhaps, the chance was always low and I am simply recognizing this.

I’ll tell you one thing. I’d get a Saddlebred before a Warmblood. [Get Off My Lawn, And Take Your Warmblood With You].

If I end up with a gray, Warmblood mare, we can all take it as a sign that we have shifted to an alternate universe. [Horse Search, Of Mares & Warmbloods]

Onwards!
Katherine

Back in Booties, Morning Walk Stories

Awareness of the outside world. NPR: CNN, MS NOW and Politico sue Trump after being barred from White House, Folkenflik, September 21, 2026. Among the myriad dumpster fires, media issues catch my attention, as one would expect. Sidenote, “Under NPR’s protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.” ibid.

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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.}

As soon as Rodney had his booties on … [Back in Booties, Horsekeeping]

… he got right in line & marched along. Status quo ante.

Confirmation that he requires footwear.

Onwards!
Katherine