State Of The Blog, Introduction

Blogging

An administrative post. A new (as of yesterday, 9/28/18) abbreviated About page points here [About]. This page contains previous & expanded introductory information.
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People & Horses

The Writer
Hello. My Name Is

I was a freelance writer who wrote, photographed, or edited for anyone I could talk into paying me. While my mainstay for 20+ years was equestrian journalism, I covered everything from Atrial Fibrillation to Zoos. I still do a bit of work, but my professional life quieted downed in 2008.

Because it is easy to overlook mentioning the obvious, I am a white female, in my middle 50s, living in the Southeastern US. [A Look Inside My Head] [Split Personality]

The Horses
I have two Thoroughbreds, Rodney and Milton, who live in the backyard. They are pasture ornaments at the moment. Mainly. The goal is for both to become competition horses. Meanwhile, I have been showing American Saddlebreds in the Academy division with Stepping Stone Farm. [Cast of Critters]

Rodney’s origin story [The Horse Next Door] Horse Illustrated
Rodney 2010 to 2014 [Our Story So Far]
Milton arrives August 2014 [Mail Order Horse]
Milton 2014 to 2016 [Where The Time Went]
[Looking Back, Rodney 2016]
[Looking Back, Milton 2016]
[Looking Back 2017, Home Team]

The Support Staff

Greg. Husband. Farmhand. Mechanic. Medical Advisor. Vet tech. Groundperson. Jump crew. Fence repairman. Driver. All-around awesome individual.

Coach Courtney. Courtney Huguley, Stepping Stone Farm, Chelsea, AL. Saddle seat, Pleasure Driving. [Lessons From Nationals: The Value of a Coach]

Coach Kate. Kate Bushman, Whip Hand Farm, Franklin, TN. Combined Driving. [First CD Lesson]

Text, Why & When

The Blog
What’s with the two names?
For 6 years, the blog was titled Rodney’s Saga. Then I got frustrated, again, and left, again [Getting Off the Struggle Bus]. When I came back, I wanted a new title to take the focus off Rodney and his vast, glorious uselessness. Changing the title was the work of seconds. Changing the url, i.e. rodneyssaga.com, is more complicated. Particularly as I want to maintain continuity. I need to figure it out, or hire someone to figure it out for me. It’s on my ToDo list. [Bright-Eyed, Bushy-Tailed, & Back to Blogging]

Why Virtual Brush Box?
Attributes of a Brush Box
A container for horse paraphernalia.
Non-horse-related objects can be found in them as well.
Odds & ends accumulate in the corners.
The contents are unique to the person using it.
[The Winding Path to My New Blog Title]

The Blog History
Rodney’s Saga is a daily blog is about my two horses, along with other horse-related activities in my life. The first post was December 22, 2011 [We begin. Again.].

The blog began as a column, Back to Eventing, written for the USEA website. I wrote it for nine months before they changed their emphasis. Then, I continued it on my own as Back to Riding [Reposts]. As an experiment, I consolidated the monthly Back To Riding and weekly Facebook into the daily Rodney’s Saga for a year. Once the year was up, I kept going [Where Do We Go From Here?]. After that, the blog proceeded to the present, broken up by the with the occasional snit. [A Sea of Statistics].

Props to Can I Have A Pony?: My Horsey Past for the idea of posting a link to the start.

The Comments
Comments are closed after 30 days as a spam control measure. Please feel free to comment on a unrelated later post or email me, virtualbrushbox@gmail.com. [Comment Policy]

The Schedule
Unless I change my mind. Some schedule days are carved deeper into stone than others.

Monday. Milton or Rodney

Tuesday. Ditto

Wednesday. Adventures in Saddle Seat. Started as a specific day November 2015 [First post Whither Now? Saddle Seat Version: Blogging]

Thursday. Driving. We do both Combined Driving and ASB Pleasure Driving, occasionally combination of the two [Show Report: Fun Show 2016 #1]. Started Summer 2016. [First post National Horse Brass Society 2016]

Friday. Photography. The rest of the week is photos for content. This is photos for art. [First post Texture]

Saturday. Writing projects. State of the Blog post on the last Saturday.

Sunday. Book lettering project [Letter Art: AlphaBooks 2017]. First complete book alphabet was 2017 [Letter Art, AlphaBooks: Recap 2017]. Also stamps [My First Stamp Show] or other bits of unrelated design [You Know You Have Fallen Down The Lettering Rabbit Hole When …].

Sunday started as straight up lettering.
First post for lettering [Brush Pen]
Rationale for lettering [This & That]
First post for alphabet [A Is For Appaloosa]
Rationale for alphabet [A to Z 2015]
Title switch [Definitions of Terms].

Update November 2018
The entire subtitle edifice is getting cumbersome. From now on, I will only subtitle posts that pertain to a specific sub-plot. At the moment that means: Adventures in Saddle Seat, Driving/Jumping Thursday, Photography, & Graphic Design. Unless the content is obvious from the title, e.g. Foto Friday for photography. Generalized horse posts & Milton/Rodney posts will stand on their own.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

(Page updated 9/28/18)