Horses & Other Interests
Awareness of the outside world. Hello, World!
~~~
Orr Park
Montevallo, Alabama USA
13 March 2023
Technical details. f/11.0, 1/100 sec, 140.0 mm, ISO 100.
Onwards!
Katherine
Explanation. We HAD a horse on stall rest following colic surgery.
Fourth month post surgery
Two weeks at clinic DONE
Four weeks of at-home stall rest DONE
Four weeks/one month of paddock rest DONE
One month of pasture rest DONE
DONE!
As of today, Milton is no longer under veterinary orders.
DONE! DONE! DONE!
Patient is feeling fine. Patient is feeling feisty. Small, unsightly dangly bits have dropped off and the incision is closing rapidly. [Milton’s Stubborn Zipper]
Onwards!
Katherine
Explanation. We have a horse on stall rest following colic surgery. This has taken over the blog. Mostly. [Begin, Phase IV]
So how did Rodney end up with three months off? It wasn’t an explicit decision so much as one thing leading to another. [The Metaphoric Tack Room Door Creaks Open]
Reason. Cold. Back in January it was still winter. Rodney is such a heat-loving lizard that below a certain temperature it’s just not worth asking him to work. He’s jumpy. He’s anxious. He does not believe in a mind/body separation. If his muscles are stiff, his brain will be stiff.
Reason. Mud. This year, the late winter, early spring was particularly muddy. As above, it’s not worth taking him out in sloppy footing. He dinks along, complaining about every step. He’s not wrong. The dirt has a high clay content that becomes slippery at the slightest bit of wet.
in his defense, Rodney never complains about hot weather or hard footing, even in the depth of summer.
Reason. Milton’s separation anxiety. For a while, we had good weather but where still trying to keep Milton quiet. “We have a 50/50 chance of either horse acting up. That means a 75% of someone acting up and a 25% chance of mass hysteria. You know what? We’ve made it this far, let’s stay with what works.” [Finishing Phase III]
Reason. Rain. Kraken have been released! Milton can run about! This weekend, we will do something with Rodney! It was as good as a rain dance. Whenever we would resolve to start work, it would rain, which meant circling back to mud, which takes forever to dry out, another one of the joys of clay. There is a reason this area is known for growing steel rather than crops. The mud is particularly a problem when one is planning to do ground work. e.g. making circles on long lines. [Home Team Update, Ground Driving]
If I could have thrown a saddle on and gone for a casual stroll, we could have started much earlier. If leisurely walks were a reliable part of Rodney’s vocabulary, he would be a different horse and we would all be in different place. But I digress.
Reason. Rehab. And of course, the entire barn was distracted by Milton’s recovery. Rodney gets huge, blinking gold stars for staying close by and for making the rehab so much easier than it could have been.
Put it all together and three months pass by.
Onwards!
Katherine
Explanation. We have a horse on stall rest following colic surgery. This has taken over the blog. Mostly. [Begin, Phase IV]
Tack!
Was worn!
By one of our horses!
After a short handwalk, Rodney did a few circles on longlines.
Being Rodney, he trotted off thinking this was Hard Work.
No, no. Just walk quietly for a few minutes.
Oh, walk quietly.
Like this?
Okay, enough of that. Time to go to my header.
Unfortunately, his header was holding Milton. We had to arrange them so that Rodney could come get his cookie without encountering the chipper blades … on either end.
First tack of the year.
Onwards!
Katherine
Explanation. We have a horse on stall rest following colic surgery. This has taken over the blog. Mostly. [Begin, Phase IV]
Fourth month post surgery
Two weeks at clinic DONE
One month of at-home stall rest DONE
One month of paddock rest DONE
Starting week 5 of one month of pasture rest
You may notice a change in the wording of the headers.
Veterinary directions call for one month of each. I apparently made up the concept of ‘four weeks’ used in previous posts. Liberty Day hasn’t changed, I just had the units wrong.
In my defense, a) due to Milton’s release date, the first month was trimmed a few days, making it four weeks in practice, b) In February, four weeks equaled one month & c) not sharpest knife in the drawer at the moment.
I know I’ve already said this. [Stall Rest Chronicles 4 April, House Restful]
It keeps astounding me the stitches I have been dropping lately.
For example.
I managed to miss half of email message for a work project. It was a short, simple message. Wasn’t like I had to scroll down several screens to get the bit I missed. I read the first half and went hairing off. I completely missed the second, relevant half until I responded the next week. I came close to starting a new message instead of using Reply, in which case I would have missed it completely.
It all worked out. Recipient was not discommoded. It wasn’t a practical problem as much as a reflection on my mental state.
I don’t DO things like this. I have many flaws, but lack of obsessiveness is not one of them, particularly when it comes to work. My writing may be pedestrian (direct quote from an English professor) but I am reliable.
I don’t feel tired, but I keep doing tired things.
In return for your patience in listening to my whingeing, here’s a free read. Nature: Tourist season, by Marissa Lingen, 05 April 2023.
Onwards!
Katherine
May you find what you seek.
Onwards!
Katherine
I’ve written hundreds of articles, 403 at last count, with a handful more since then. Almost all for print media. Therefore, my online professional links are a small fraction of my CV. Below are the results of an ego search to see what I could find of my commercial writing on the Internet.
Horses, General Articles
the Horse: Katherine Walcott, 15 articles listed, 2000 to 2011. You have to sign up for an account to read them. “Katherine Walcott is a freelance writer living in the countryside near Birmingham, Al. She writes for anyone she can talk into paying her and rides whatever disciplines she can talk her horses into doing.”
The Bloodhorse: Girth Tightness and Performance, Deirdre B. Biles, March 20, 2001. “A girth that is too tight can have a negative effect on a racehorse’s performance. That conclusion is based on recent research conducted in Australia, writes Katherine Walcott in the April edition of The Horse.” Summary of article.
Your Dressage: The Unreliable Partner, by Jessica Ransehousen with Katherine Walcott, May 20, 2022, Reprinted from the March/April 2022 issue of USDF Connection magazine.
USDF Connnection: Sweet On Dressage, 2016.
USDF Connection: Meet the Clinician, 2011
USDF Connection: Fit For Life, 2010.
Horse Illustrated: State Ambassadors, November 2011. PDF not embedding. Available by search. Put my name or “horse” in search box, otherwise you get the U.S. Embassy.
Ones that I have stored. Series [Behind The Scenes] USDF 2012 to 2018. Personal essays [Mathilda in USDF Connection] 2008, [Rodney in Horse Illustrated] 2012.
Horses, Book Column
Written for USCTA/USEA from 1995 to 2009.
USEA: Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction, 2008
USEA: On The Bookshelf, 2008. Equestrian Style by Vicki Moon
On the Bookshelf – Life Among the Winners, 2008
Blurb from book column, “Younger girls will be inspired…adult girls will remember back to when just being near a horse was all you needed to make your day. – Katherine Walcott, Eventing USA.” Willow Bend: Blackjack: Dreaming of a Morgan Horse
More blurb. Quoting a rider’s favorite book. Paul Belasik
Horses, Personal Column
Back To Eventing was one of my few online projects. It seems to have been taken down. I reposted them. [BTR 7 of 7, Coda scroll down for list of posts]
Science
PACE: Mechanisms of Defibrillation for Monophasic and Biphasic Waveforms, Walcott et al. 1994
Travel
“A Moment In Paris,” to Travelers’ Tales France, O’Reilly et al. eds., [In Which I Remember France and Find Myself in Google Books]
General Interest
UAB: Products of the System, Faces of Education in China, 2022
Alabama Alumni Magazine: Ancient Lessons , Moundville Archaeological Park, 2004.
I Am a Telephone Man: Wallace R. Bunn’s Life in the Bell System, by Leah Rawls Atkins and Katherine Tuttle Walcott, Pine Ridge House 2009.
On Amazon & from two sellers on AbeBooks
The Alabama Business Hall of Fame: Wallace R. Bunn
No review or commentary of book online. [Writing Life: My Book]
Onwards!
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 