Virtual Brush Box

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

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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.

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

Onwards!
Katherine

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

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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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]

Avengers Assemble.

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

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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

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

Awareness of the outside world. Salon: It’s not just hopium: People really are leaving MAGA, Logis, June 8, 2026.

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When I walked on my own, I used an auditory cue. [Counting With Sound]

Now that I walk with the horses, I use nature’s abundance. [Counting with Pine Cones]

For swimming, I use my footwear.

To stay out of the germs, I wear a pair of rubber clogs out to the pool deck & leave them on the edge of the pool.

To keep track of laps, I figured out how to use what was available. I rotate one clog 90o per lap. Turn as indicated in the image. Lap #8 would be back to the starting position. Will deal with lap #9 and beyond when I can swim that far.

One choice is when to turn the indicator for the next lap. 1) At the end, similar to tally mark. I have now performed X number of laps. 2) I prefer to turn the shoe as I start. I am starting lap number X. That way, I can look down the length of the pool and know which lap I am on.

Yes, I did just type show instead of shoe up there. Tell me you are an equestrian journalist without telling me you are an equestrian journalist.

Exercise Recap

Bike: 10
Swim: 2
Row: 1
5K: 0

Biking. Halfway through the month, we had difficulties with husband’s bike, so evening bike rides stopped. As a result, everything other than morning walks also ground to a halt. 4.5 miles.

Swim. Once a week, for the first half of the month. 5 laps.

Rowing Machine. We have one in the basement. I hope to make it my rain, cold, dark exercise option. This was proof of concept. 5 minutes.

5K. Under the weather for the last week of the month & then ran out of month.

From The Comment Section

Last month, debandtoby said, “I’m exhausted just reading about how much you do!” [Two Types of Tired]

Please let me emphasize the leisureliness of my exercise program. I walk at a stroll. I bike short. I swim so poorly that a bystander felt the need to console me. A hardcore athlete I am not.

Mox nix. I am happy with my level of effort in each area. If I need to improve anything, it would be to exercise more often. The idea is get out and move.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. FEI: Heidemarie DRESING, Major Results, “World Championship CH-M-PED Aachen (GER) – Para Grand Prix A II, POESIE 143, 1″. Translation from FEI speak: First place at Aachen at the age of 71.

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In which I ponder my response to lessons and how my brain works. This may not be of interest to anyone else on the planet. Much navel gazing follows. You have been warned.

I had a good lesson. [Back To The Goldy Mine]

Why?

Physical

I have always liked walking to start off a ride. Previous Horse and I used to do a lap of the field before adjourning to the ring. It’s a good way to ease the body into the activity, both for rider and horse.

Since the kid in my lesson was relatively new, her mount didn’t always do as the rider wanted. So I wandered over to walk with them and chat.

After a few laps of this, I decided to trot. Then canter. A bit this way. A bit that way.

Generally, we started off slowly.

Mental

The slow start also accomplished something else. I was making my own decisions.

In a hunter/jumper lesson, you wait for the group to gather and then get started. We might walk a little, but never as long as I would on my own. Then, trot and canter as a group. In an ASB lesson, you trot from the gate. In each case, I am doing what the instructor says when they say to do it. My hypothesis is when I do this some part of my brain fails to engage.

In hindsight, we already know this is a bad way for me to operate. When we first started showing together, my wonderful husband would step up as a wonderful groom. He would do all manner of work. Then I would get on. And sit like a lump. I wasn’t making decisions before I got on. I wasn’t making decisions after I got on. When we show now – or used to, but I digress – I do all my own work. Husband sits, which is actually hard for him. I ride so much better.

If this is true of grooming, why wouldn’t it be true for lessons?

The need to make my own decisions does not arise from a fierce desire for independence. I am perfectly happy to sit about like a princess and have my groom get my horse ready. Similarly, I will defer to perceived authority at the raise of an eyebrow. Nine years of nuns will do that to a person. It’s just that if I do either of these things, my brain gets stuck in passive mode. And, apparently, I am willing to let that happen.

If I have to think for myself, I start thinking for myself.

Social

Husband is of the opinion that I show off for the kids. I don’t think it’s conscious, but he probably has a point. He usually does. [Group or Solo]

In this instance, reaching out to someone else gave my brain something else to focus on. It also gave me a chance to pontificate, which I will never turn down. That’s one of my standard lines when I am introducing people to the horse world. Horsepeople love to talk.

I don’t think it’s age as much as skill level. A hot-shot kid on a fancy pony would be a different ring companion than a beginner adult.

Yes, I made sure the other rider had a chance to speak.

Other

Simple luck of the draw. Had a good ride.

So Now What?

Take ownership and make my own decisions.

Obviously, its more complicated than that. I already do to some extent. Nothing is clear cut one way or the other. But I think not getting my brain engaged is a factor.

I’m not going to change the lesson format. Nor am I likely to change me at this age. As long as I am working with others, I will have to institute any changes with their framework. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Onwards!
Katherine