Other Horses, Whither Saddle Seat Wednesdays, Or How Wednesday Became Thursday

Awareness of the outside world. Ancient DNA shows domestic horses were introduced in the southern Caucasus and Anatolia during the Bronze Age.

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Best seat in the house. Captain Fabulous, aka Sam. [Foto Friday: Ears]

A reader was kind enough to ask what happened to Saddle Seat Wednesdays. (Waves hi!) I figured I’d answer at large. [State of the Subtitles, comment]

Back in 2015, I was learning a new discipline and mad showing. I had much to say. Many posts. I started Saddle Seat Wednesdays as a rate-limiting step to keep the American Saddlebreds from taking over the blog & crowding out Rodney & Milton. [Whither Now?]

ASBs IRL

I’m doing less saddle seat these days.

I’m done with Academy. It is an excellent division. I wish other disciplines had such a robust entry-level program. But, it is meant as a pass-thru program, never a permanent residence.

I still don’t want to buy a horse in order to move up to suit.

Those are the two options at saddle seat shows, Academy or Performance. If I politely declined both, that puts a crimp in the show schedule.

But you can still do lessons! Every time you ride, you learn!

Absolutely.

However.

Lately, whenever I make plans to spend more time at Stepping Stone, shit goes down in my life.

Have two lessons. Resolve to make this a regular practice. [Two At A Time]

Nope. Go to New York for a family funeral. [Touring The Towpath]

Arrange to take horses over for BEMER sessions & have lessons while they bake.

Nope. Boston for funeral from the other side of the family. [Meet The New Dogs]

Just before New Years, Greg and I each had a lesson. I asked about coming to the barn to work on long-lining. [Other Horses, SSF]

Nope. Less than 24 hours later, we were are at the vet clinic waiting for Milton to come out of surgery. [The Poop Emoji]

Intellectually, I know this is a fluke of timing. Correlation is not causation. The last part of 2022 was a series of shocks. That much bad news will disrupt any plans.

Emotionally? I’m a whole lot twitchier. It feels like universe hitting me on the snout, saying, ‘No. Bad plans. While this is a valid path, it is not your life path. Go away and be awesome elsewhere. Whack.’

If I make plans to go back regularly will something bad happen?

No.

I know this.

And yet. Twitch. Twitch.

Although, Milton has just started his long glide-path to recovery so it could be that I am not processing at optimum right now. [Welcome Home]

Additionally, I’m still getting revoltingly nervous before lessons, and I’m getting tired of living that way, but that is a topic for another day.

ASBs & The Blog

Fewer lessons equals less to say equals fewer posts.

Even when I take a lesson, I struggle with post content. At this point, there is not a lot to add aside from a cute between-the-ears pic.

To be clear, I have not learned all there is to learn about saddle seat, not by leagues. It’s just that there is not a lot to add from my location floating in Academy limbo. [Saddle Seat Genius]

So, I have shifted the post schedule around.

The last Saddle Seat Wednesday was the 2022 wrap-up. [A Year Of Ears]

Moving forward, any saddle seat lessons will be stirred in with any hunter/jumper/eventing lessons, dogs, etc., for an Other category on Thursdays.

That’s the plan anyway.

Outro

Must give props to Coach Courtney for allowing me to futz along. There are barns where you may take lessons for one year and then you must to lease or buy a horse. So, thank you for letting me swan about as a perpetual Academy student.

Onwards!
Katherine

Meanwhile Back At The Ranch, What Rodney Has Been Up To

Awareness of the outside world. Paper Airplane World Championships. I caught it on a weekend rerun. Amazing. CNN: Gravity-defying feats on display at the Red Bull Paper Wings World Final, Ronald, video by Li, 2022. Surfing says 30 video available on ESPN streaming.

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Rodney was stellar about being left on his own in the pasture. This would not be the case if the situation were reversed and Rodney had been gone for two weeks. Milton would have run screaming around the field.

First week. Missed his buddy, particularly during a big storm. Delighted to be the center of attention. Willing to play the situation for extra cookies. Preemptive dose of UlcerGard.

Second week. Putting on weight from free choice hay and the chance to eat in peace. Doesn’t groove on group meetings the way Milton does. Likes to know that his people are around and on the job.

Third week. Milton home. Rodney adapting well to his role as babysitter to Milton being on stall rest. When I go check, they are sleeping on either side of the stall wall, i.e. next to each other but separated.

This may be the ideal situation for Rodney. The section of the stall that faces the run-in area is a wooden half wall with wire mesh above. Rodney can see his buddy. Rodney can wuffle at his buddy. His buddy can’t reach him no matter how much said buddy pins his ears and attacks the mesh.

Yeah, Milton is in a mood. It’s going to be a long two months. [Welcome Home]

Onwards!
Katherine

Welcome Home, Patient Report #2

Awareness of the outside world. “The next two-day FREE access, with its new 2023 lineup of videos, is January 30 and 31, 2023.” The Backyard Horse Blog: Exciting Announcement About The 2023 Art of The Horseman Online Fair! I signed up. I know nothing beyond what is said in the post. I figure the price is right. Yes, I am trading my information for the pass. Given how much of my data is spread all over horse businesses, that ship has sailed.

~~~

Milton came home yesterday!

Much rejoicing!

Doctors Orders:

First Month. Stall rest with limited handwalking/hand-grazing.

Second month. Small paddock, unlimited handwalking/hand-grazing.

Third month. Pasture. No work.

Once clear, with no problems in recovery, can go back to light work.

Photo note. The bucket is low to recreate what he had at the vet clinic. He appears to like to dunk his hay while eating. Any water any way he wants is fine with us!

Annotated Updates

Text from the Day by Day Milton Updates page copied over to here. Page removed. [Begin]

Week 2 was about getting better.

[When The Poop Emoji Is Your Favorite, Patient Report #1] Day one thru Tues 10 Jan

Wednesday 11 Jan

AM & PM. Attitude & prognosis continue to be aces. Opened feed door. Wanted to give him a chance to look around. Mainly tried to reach his bucket. That I had moved.

[When The Poop Emoji Is Your Favorite, Patient Report #1]

Thursday 12 Jan

AM. Milton in a mood. More of a Milton mood than a patient mood. I thought it was an incoming storm. Turns out Doc had just examined the incision. Given the need to get under Milton and poke at his belly, Doc gave him a little something-something. When I got there, Milton was still shaking it off. Milton has a distinctive type of cranky irritableness when he’s had enough and wants to be left alone. I patted his nose and left him to it. K

PM. Fed a handful from his dinner ration. First time this year that we have been able to give anything to our horse. Weird. G&K

Friday 13 Jan

AM. Check. K

PM. Staples out. G.

[Photos from the Vet Clinic, Nothing Gory I Promise, Patient Report #1.1]

Saturday 14 Jan

AM. Shavings in his tail! And elsewhere! First time Milton has rolled post surgery. G&K

PM. Was cleared for treats this morning. I happened to have one in my pocket. Brought two – just two – tonight. A hello treat and a goodbye treat. G&K

Sunday 15 Jan

AM. Check. G&K

PM. Brought two pieces of carrot as treats. Milton is sure there is more to a carrot. G&K

Monday 16 Jan

Home. Excited & exhausted. Horses. People. Everyone.

Onwards!
Katherine

Barn Remodel for Rehab, Stall

Awareness of the outside world. Peeks out from under rock. Wonders what has been happening in the wide world. Looks around. Same shit, different day. Dives back under rock.

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We use the stall often but only for short periods. Allowing Rodney to eat in peace. Keeping one horse in while the other works. Rodney staying up when we initially thought Milton’s trip to the vet was an overnighter. (Ha!) [Patient Report #1]

With a horse scheduled for a month of stall rest, we are looking at a 24/7 resident.

Time to renovate the stall.

BTW, stall bigger than it appears in photo above. (Bigger in the inside?) Photo has some parallax and the stall is a double-wide. There is more stall behind where I am standing.

On to the punch list.

Bought new wheelbarrow, bigger, rated for mud.

Stripped stall down to the ground and beyond. Got rid of anything even slightly dubious, i.e. an ancient hay stalk that might tempt a bored horse.

Banished Rodney so the stall could dry.

Regraveled edges.

Put gravel under feeding area mat & entrance mat. We have chosen to go with dirt floor and shavings for the main horse living area. We had mats but they a) migrated and b) would get slippery – particular when Rodney would come in from the field to relieve himself using the indoor potty. Really, horse? You couldn’t do this before or after breakfast? You had to do this now? But I digress. Flooring and bedding is an endless topic for discussion.

Patched the endless tiny leaks in a 30+ year-old roof.

Shavings & more shavings.

Bring on the horse!

Onwards!
Katherine

You Say Escapism Like It’s A Bad Thing, Repost

Reposted from a secondary blog I had for a while. Minor typos addressed. ‘Madman in a box’ is from the TV show. At the time, it was all men. Also, the Internet tells me the quote is correctly “I am definitely a mad man with a box.” Tardis DataCore: The Eleventh Hour. Original post [Off Topic: Escapism]

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Science fiction and fantasy get it in the neck for being shallow. Critics have it the wrong way round. The lack of depth is not a bug, it’s a feature. What is the point of escaping to somewhere if it looks just like the place you left?

In SF/F-land, the teams are obvious. The guy in the black armor who sounds like an asthmatic vacuum? He’s bad news. Avoid him. You are completely justified in taking him down. You are morally obliged to interfere with his plans as much as possible. Oh, sure he gets Redeemed, but he does so by turning his hat from black to white. The Dark Side doesn’t suddenly become sympathetic.

In the real world, your team depends on where you are standing. Fighting the government is illegal. Unless you win and establish your own country. They you are called a Patriot and have a day named after you.

In SF/F-land, choices are clear. Not necessarily fun. Not necessarily easy. But clear. There is a nod toward providing texture. Elves are self-involved. Hobbits are excessively bucolic. They may ignore the politics of the world at large to focus on the latest gossip from the Green Dragon. Frodo feels he is not strong enough to carry the One Ring. But Sauron is always evil. No one wants to go marching into Mordor. But everyone knows which way Mordor lies.

In the real world, choices are complicated. Skating quickly past the philosophically dense subject of good versus evil, we don’t even know the import of a choice. Your college major or who you marry might not matter in five years. Choosing to turn down one street versus the other might rearrange your universe. I once ended up as a working student at a horse farm after a chance encounter on an airplane.

In SF/F-land, archetypes are dependable. A literary friend of mine doesn’t like Doctor Who. She finds the show unsympathetic because the main character has no chance for growth. That’s the point. The Doctor remains constant. Companions change. Decades change. Even faces change. Yet, when you hear that whooshy sound, you know you will be getting the mad man in a box.

In the real world, archetypes don’t exist. People are not characters created for our entertainment. Even one’s nearest and dearest callously insist on having interests and areas of their lives that have nothing to do with one. No matter how hard I try to be perceptive, people are not equivalent to the image of them I carry in my head. When I am close, harmony ensues. When I am not, the world gets weird.

This is why we introduce the SF/F world into our real world. For a few minutes, we allow our minds to rest in a place where we can be sure of the rules. If I want moral ambiguity and gray areas, I’ll watch the news.

Onwards!
Katherine

Photos from the Vet Clinic, Nothing Gory I Promise, Patient Report #1.1

Companion photos to patient updates. Original plan was to have weekly patient reports. I can already see that this event will get spread all over the blog in the upcoming weeks. Why not, it’s taken over my life. I shall try to entertain rather than perseverate, or at least do both. [Patient Report #1]

Milton eating. “Getting small amounts of hay.” [Patient Report 4 Jan]

Milton done eating. They can do things with their snoots that I could not do with my fingers.

“Made G*dawful mess trying to get to handful of grain in bottom of water bucket. Was there to get him to drink. He figured he spill it out instead. Get this &@^#^ water out of my way. Owners not in least surprised.” [Patient Report 1 Jan]

Continued playing with his water bucket off and on during the week. Friend of a friend had a horse at the clinic at the same time. 😦 Friend was telling them about Milton, friend-of-a-friend says, “Oh, was he the horse who was spilling his water bucket and making a mess?” Yes, that was our horse.

10 days later. Never change, Milton. Never change.

Onwards!
Katherine