Passage To Elsewhere, Fantasy Photography

Awareness of the outside world. The Guardian: The eyes have it: 100 of the world’s cutest photos – as chosen by readers, 25 Jan 2024.

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Shelby Iron Works
January 2024

In the grand tradition of portal fantasy.

Technical Details

Brick arches. f/7.1, 1/100 sec., 105.0 mm, ISO 100. Manual mode & auto-focus.

Post production. No cropping. Framed through the lens. Resized, border, & watermark. Border colors, gray for project, yellow for Nikon. [Photo Safari The First], [Quarry, Photography, Things I Forgot]

Previous Posts
[Head In New England, Feet In The South, Walk Report, Boston Virtual 5K, Shelby County Iron Works]
[End of The Road]

Onwards!
Katherine

Pondering The Rider’s Shoulders

Horses of the outside world. Shetland Pony zoomies. My Shetland: In Search of the Yellow Bucket. Scroll down for video.

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[A Last Look Back]

Driving lesson with Coach James. I said that in the photo from the show, above, I thought I was leaning a touch forward. This would not be out of character for me to be physically leaning forward, nor mentally out of charterer to be reaching forward instead of sitting chilly and letting the world come to me.

We worked on that.

Sit up. Put the shoulder over the hips. Sit back away from the horse.

Aesthetically, I looked more in control. Presented a better picture. Performance Driving is all about the horse. Still, it doesn’t hurt to have the driver display an air of elegant competence. I have no idea how they judge Academy Driving.

Functionally, sitting up made my arms feel softer.

I have been told to sit up a time or two before. It hits different when you are sitting on the bench seat of a cart rather than in the saddle on the back of the horse. Less ancillary movement to deal with. Less time spent balancing. Less ingrained muscle memory.

Each time I reminded myself to sit up, my arms feel both softer & stronger.

There are two ways to pitch forward. Bend at hips with straight spine. The hips and the shoulders remain the same distance apart. This is not always bad. This is how you two point.

The second way to pitch forward is to curve the spine. The hips and shoulders come closer together. This is not always bad either, provided the shoulders don’t get involved. An imaginary line across the upper back should stay straight. I don’t see the use in riding, but when I try, it feels like a modern dance move.

However.

What most of us do is slump. When the spine curves forward, we pull our shoulders in and hollow our chests. We curve along two axes. I know I do.

Try this. Sit up straight. Upper arms at your sides. Elbows at 90o. Lower arms parallel to the ground and to each other. Hands up as if holding reins. Or carrying a tray, for non-riders. Now swing your arms back & forth. The hands moved freely along parallel tracks.

Now curl your shoulders in. Immediately, I felt less mobility in my shoulder joints. Also, when I swung my arms, my hands smacked into each other. Less freedom of motion. Less area to move in.

I applied this to my next riding lesson. Made a hash out of it. I was concentrating so hard on my shoulders that I let the rest of my body parts go wandering. I was trying to throw shoulders back by brute force without have the rest of my torso organized. It took me three-quarters of the way through the lesson to get back to status quo ante. Not the big revelation I was hoping for in the saddle.

Will keep working on it, particularly as it is so much easier to feel in the cart.

Onwards!
Katherine

Milton Settles Into His Winter Schedule

Awareness of the outside world. AL.com: ‘What if Harry Potter went to an HBCU?’, Short, Feb. 05, 2024. Penguin: Labyrinth Road Acquires YA Fantasy Trilogy from Playwright LaDarrion Williams Following Viral Twitter Pitch, 2023. “3 yrs ago, I made it my mission to write a YA fantasy book with a Black boy lead. No police brutality& no racial trauma. This is Malik Baron, a country boy from Helena, Alabama blessed with Hoodoo magic. BLOOD AT THE ROOT. May 2024.” X: ItsLaDarrion, Oct 26, 2023.

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Milton has joined Rodney in a winter vacation. [What’s Up With The Home Team, Tack Update Rodney]

Wasn’t really planned. Just kinda happened.

Milton worked hard to get ready for the show in December. [Milton at Work]

Ended up not going. [Show Prep Part One, The Horse Who Didn’t Show, AWTA 2013-2024 #1]

We never found out what, if anything, was bothering him.

Added kicking strap. [What’s Up With The Home Team, Tack Update Milton]

Tested kicking strap. [Milton Meets Kicking Strap, Again]

After that, working the horses kinda slipped off the schedule. Time off to heal up whatever, if anything, was bothering him. Weather. Logistics. More weather.

And here we are.

Mid-February is not the time to create motivation.

Meanwhile. Milton eats. Goes for handwalks in the mornings. If not living his best life, living a pretty good one.

Onwards!
Katherine

Rodney Experiences Ongoing Bulletins from Cow Broadcasting, Also Known as the Cow Pasture Next Door

Awareness of the outside world. Results, performances, news. Grammy.com.

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A truck! In the cow field!

The most exciting thing ever!

No truck! Not in the cow field!

Where is the truck?!

Where is the truck that was in the cow field?!

(I tell you, when 17 hands gets big, that’s a lot of big.)

[Rodney’s Diet Secret, Cow TV]

[Now Appearing on Cow TV]

[Lunch In Front of the TV. Spoiled? Us?]

Onwards!
Katherine

What Goes In The Mouth Effects The Feet

Awareness of the outside world. “‘The Dobbs majority relied upon the patriarchal notions of eminent authorities of old English common law, including Lord Matthew Hale,’ whose ‘beliefs were driven by his goal of keeping women from encroaching upon the rights of men.'” Slate: A State Supreme Court Just Issued the Most Devastating Rebuke of Dobbs Yet, Lithwick and Stern, Jan 30, 2024. Local coverage, Trib Live: Pa. Supreme Court returns Medicaid-funded abortion case to lower court, Ward, Jan. 29, 2024.

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Rodney went 8 weeks between shoeings!

He usually goes 5 weeks. Maybe 6 weeks in the winter when they aren’t stomping flies.

This time around, 6 weeks was right in the middle of the arctic blast. No one wants to shoe at 25oF, not the people, not the horses. Put off a week.

Then, 7 weeks was in the middle of rain & storms. Put off another week and cross our fingers.

Et voilà, 8 weeks with shoes still on.

Our best guess? He’s been on timothy/alfalfa hay since March. Almost a year of better hay.

Also, Rodney didn’t have his usual random summer lameness. I have been crediting the walks. Maybe the hay, or the hay also. The body has just that little bit of extra support to stay out of trouble?

Will he go longer between shoeings in future? Or did we luck out this time around?

Shrug.

I think we can safely say that the hay upgrade was not a *bad* thing.

Onwards!
Katherine

Parade Art, Guest Photos

Our intrepid New Orleans parade reporter is back. Welcome, Michelle.

Parade by the Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc to celebrate the birthday of Joan of Arc. The date coincides with the opening of Carnival season, which starts 6 Jan and ends on Mardi Gras.

For safety reason, horses are no longer used in this parade. Instead, they have horse statuary on wheels, Michelle refers to them as, “Rolling pieces of art.”

“Joan was the military hero of our namesake city Orléans, France, and her golden statue in the French Market, a copy of one in Paris, was a gift to the city of New Orleans from the French people.” Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc: Who We Are.

The rest of the parade, below.

Facts & Links

Carnival varies in length. Starts on 6 Jan, a fixed date. Ends on Mardi Gras, a moving date.

This year, Mardi Gras is 13 February 2024.

Mardi Gras New Orleans: Future Mardi Gras. Has dates thru 2060.

“Mardi Gras always falls exactly 47 days before Easter (the 40 days of Lent plus seven Sundays).” Gardiner Public Library: What is Mardi Gras? > When is Mardi Gras? Betit, 2022. Detailed discussion of equinox dates.

Kalmia Art, Michelle’s Jewelery businesses

Previous Parade Posts
[Mardi Gras Parade Horses, Guest Photos] 2023
[Throw Me Something, Ma’am, Guest Photos] 2019
[Mardi Gras Parades, A Guest Post] 2015

Post by Michelle [archive]

10th Anniversary of parade posts! Woot!

Onwards!
Katherine