Virtual Brush Box

Horses of the outside world. The Tevis Cup last weekend. The lone Thoroughbred made it to 50 miles. No Saddlebred. One NSH. No Standardbred. Of the 105 Preliminary Entrants, 41 mares, 64 geldings. In the top ten, 7 mares, 3 geldings, all Arabians.

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

The routine is the same day to day, but the pattern gradually changes over time. Here’s where we are now. [Rodney’s Position in The Parade & Milton’s Position in The Parade February & March 2025]

Start

Other Barn Minion sends them out of the barn to where I am waiting with cookies. Then, I start Milton off first, so that he doesn’t take a bite out of Rodney on the way by. [Find Your Header]

Heading Out

Milton leads. If I am walking next to him, I will often rest my hand on his crest. Some days he’s cool with it. Some days he will step to the side. Other days, he lags just enough to let me know he wants me to take point. Rodney follows us.

Turnaround I

We reach the corner. I feed cookies. They turn easily. We are working on a hand & arm gesture to send them on their way. This where my pine cones live. [Counting with Pine Cones]

Interestingly on the fifth lap, the last one, Rodney is quick to have his cookie and turn back. Can horses count?

Heading Back

Rodney usually makes the turn ahead of Milton. He hangs back a bit on the approach – see teeth above – and moves more quickly, so that when he turns he is mildly in the lead. For awhile he has been pausing somewhere along the way to let Milton take the lead. Recently, he has been marching on. It varies. Either way, I bring up the rear.

Turnaround II

Arrive. Get cookies from Other Barn Minion. Then, they have to be lead through the turn. They are reluctant to leave the fount of all cookies.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. My new earworm. Might get me back to country music. The Cowgays: Been Done Did That. Content warning. I do not know your politics. Please note the band title before clicking.

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Speaking as the one who bought the feed, this is a ridiculous amount & variety of feed for two horses.

Equine Senior for Milton
Grain for Rodney, two bags bc we go thru it fast
Beet pulp for both, ditto
Outlast & Alfalfa Pellets for Milton

White salt block. The previous pair got the mineral salt block. These two prefer the white and will ignore the mineral. We eventually stopped serving it.

Nothing new. We’ve bought all of this before. On this particular trip to the feed store, everything had run out at the same time, so we got to see the size of the pile. [Feed Split]

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. Art in Context: Famous Acrylic Paintings – Some of the Best Acrylic Artworks, Littleton, 2022/2023.

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#4 in the series Don’t Quit Your Day Job. I call this – Goodbye Monetizing; Hello Hobby.

Class #4
Acrylic Painting with Anthony Best
Shelby County Arts Council
30 July 2026

Is it a sunset or sunrise? Pourqui pas los dos? [Sunrise Sunset Cartoon]

Tables at start.

Tables at finish.

Screenshot of description for the next set of classes. I assume the middle row is how my seascape & sunset were supposed to look. I am divided on the use of exemplars. On one hand, it gives you a clear destination. OTOH, it sets you up for failure. Your painting will never be as good as the instructor’s.

Previous Posts
[Landscape, Acrylic Painting Class #1, Art]
[Seascape, Acrylic Painting Class #2, Art]
[Floral Still Life, Acrylic Painting Class #3, Art]

Onwards!
Katherine

Customer: Is this the magic store?

Clerk: No sir. This is the paper store.

Customer: Yeah, but you sell magic paper that corrects what you write.

Clerk: No, sir. That would be your laptop screen. May I show you our selection of handmade papers? Not magic, but quite nice.

Customer: Oh, I get it. This is a test. To see if I’m worthy.

Clerk: No, sir. No tests required. Only cash, credit card, or a phone app. We take do a check, if you want to go old school. Stationery is at the front of the store. Custom printing at the rear.

Customer (wanders around, returns to counter): Come on. I know it came from here. It was a green notebook with blue bits stuck into the cover. I saw a buddy of mine using it. The words changed after he wrote them.

Clerk: Sounds like pretty good slight of hand, sir. Our notebooks and journals are down this aisle. Pens down that aisle. We have a nice selection of green notebooks and pens with green ink.

Customer (picks out items, winks at clerk): I get it. This will look like a perfectly normal notebook, but will help me out just when I need it.

Clerk: Yes sir. As long as what you need is a way to take notes.

Customer brings items to counter.

Clerk: (rings up purchase, bags & hands over): Have a nice day, sir.

Customer leaves.

Clerk watches customer through the window until he is out of sight.

Clerk (yells toward rear of store): Who bought a Worrall codex with green cover and blue inlay?

Inaudible voice from back of store.

Clerk: Well, they are cut off for a year. They’ve been careless.

Afterword

The Hitchhiker’s Wiki: Perfectly Normal Beasts

I would have preferred to make the customer gender neutral. I could not come up with a substitute that had the same combination of distance & formality, particularly in a retail setting.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. John Downer Productions: Spy creatures go undercover into the animal world! Wildlife spy cams, with videos. Hat tip to M.

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The effect of border color on image. Colors sampled from photo.

Green from the eye. [Eyes on the Cat Pause]

Black from around the eye.

Brown from fur above the eye.

Side-by-side comparison.

Update. Surprised at the effect of screen size on this post. The difference between the photos is more noticeable on my desktop. They kinda blend together on my phone. Note on how the sausage is made. Draft on desktop. Proof on desktop. Don’t see the post on a phone screen until after it goes up. There is a way to proof a phone screen. My posts are not usually so visually dependent that I need to incorporate this extra step. But I digress. Check the post out on a large screen, if you have not.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. AL.com: Winnie the (mini) Therapy Horse brings comfort, joy to Alabama care facilities, Sutton, Jan. 21, 2026.

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From left: Husband, Diego, Coach Courtney
Stepping Stone Farm
July 2026

The World’s Greatest Ground Crew takes a turn on center stage.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. When I talk about other people or other people’s horses, I like to keep the intro positive. I was searching for perky Alabama news and found this. The search results page of the Good News Network says, “If you’re not happy with the results, please do another search.” What an inviting sentiment. That’s how to walk the walk.

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Last week, I was offered two lesson slots. One was solo. One was part of a group. It was a situation where there was no right answer – or both answers were equally correct- but I still fussed over trying to decide which was optimal.

Close enough in time that weather was about the same.

Solo Lesson, 7 am

More fun.

More expensive.

Undivided attention. Individually tailored instruction.

Feed plan. Get up. Serve first hay. Leave. Lesson. Scamper home. Resume with breakfast & second hay. Not that much later than when we get a late start on the morning walk.

The meal spread is so that Milton does not inhale everything at once. For Rodney, we would simply served everything and go.

Group Lesson, 8 am

Less expensive.

Divided attention. Not a problem. Coach Deana is an accomplished instructor who can juggle differing agendas in the same class.

Divided attention. Ditto. At this level, I am self-starting enough that I do fine with the instructor checking as I waft by. At least, on the flat. Jumps are done individually in either case.

Rest breaks while others jump.

Other riders. My ground crew thinks a group lesson takes some of the pressure off.

Other riders. In this case, four littles. I rode with two littles in an earlier lesson. That was fine. Here, I was concerned about staying out of the way of four riders. Clearly, I was gonna be the one with steering capability.

Ground crew thinks I show off for the kids. Not consciously, but it’s possible. I’ve always done better with admiration than confrontation. [Milton’s Missing Lesson, tough love]

I think Goldy (slightly) prefers other horses in the ring.

Feed plan. Get up. Serve first hay. Wait. Breakfast & second hay. Leave. Turnout when we get back.

Questions

Which would you choose?

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Which did I choose?

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I went with the later lesson. Figured it was better for the home team.

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And then …

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I ended up with a solo at 9 am. Hey! If we are feeding before the lesson, why not see if Coach Deana is free after the munchkin patrol?

Verdict. Even 9 am was starting to get hot. From now on, as earlier as possible, at least for the rest of the summer.

Onwards!
Katherine