Virtual Brush Box

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Women’s Bureau Birmingham Roundtable, flickr photostream by Meg McKinney. For background, news article (not pics by Meg) WBRC: U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau director visits Birmingham to discuss women in the workforce, Maxie, Jul. 28, 2022.

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The wise horse keeps one ear on the instructor.

First ASB lesson at Stepping Stone Farm since dinging my ankle. [I’m Bored Already]

For several weeks, whenever I stuck my feet out to the side in proper saddle seat styling, my ankle would file a protest. Nope. Not ready yet.

At the start of the lesson, ankle grumbled a bit and then was fine. Although I have minor stirrup rubs on both legs, so perhaps my base of support is not as solid as I thought it was.

Also, wore my new boots. After showing them to Coach Courtney, I mostly didn’t think about them, which means they work. [My New Kicks]

Enough about me, onto the horse.

Rode Bubba again. [Ears]

Position came back pleasingly fast. [Remembering]

Ability to properly ride a Saddlebred, not so much.

Rodney curls up like a cowering millipede if I so much as look at the reins harshly. So I have been working on using body weight and legs and the softest possible rein. After two months of that, anything more than a whisper felt like violence.

Bubba, OTOH, wanted to know why I was trotting around the ring with my hands hanging at the ends of my arms like a pair of empty mittens.

The whole point of riding a school horse is that they already know their stuff. One can practice without having to worry about training the horse at the same time. However, that requires that you use the aids they are trained for. You must speak their language.

The level of contact Bubba requested felt deeply wrong to me. What made sense in his language sounded nasty in mine. (Babbel.com: 30 Foreign-Language Words That Sound Dirty To English Speakers (But Aren’t), Koyfman, 2021,)

Bubba is an excellent school horse. He is happy to trot around pleasantly. If you want brillance you have to ask, and ask correctly. If not, meh, not gonna help you out. He is a kind horse. He wants his riders to succeed, but he wants them to do it right.

Later, I told Bubba that he was a bit of a snob. He told me he preferred to think of it as having high standards.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Introductory note. This was an email sent to yet another hunter barn I am talking to about lessons. All the riding programs around here are full up. I suspect outdoor activities have done well through the pandemic. But I digress.

Devil’s Panties is an autobiographical comic. The artist/author has a rule that if it gets a laugh, it becomes a comic.

This got a laugh.

To be clear, the person who laughed was not the recipient. Or maybe they also laughed, history does not record. The person who laughed was someone who knows Rodney IRL. (Waves hi!)

~~~

Dear X:

Lesson Horse. I am still interested in being on your wait list. You said maybe Sept? Possibly August. While I am waiting, at some point I would like to come watch a lesson and introduce myself.

For the moment, I have another question. What are the rules for showing Academy at your show on the X? Is it limited to school horses?

I am an adult with a fancy horse who has … issues. He’s currently trotting poles and low cross rails. We showed in the fun classes at Falcon Hill. Wanted to check to see if the rules were different for different shows. [Crossrail Contender]

I am an AHJA member, although I have yet to show in an AHJA class. [In Which We Almost Have a Jumping Lesson, In other news]

Jumper tack okay?

I do worry about being in classes with kids and ponies. I would be more worried if they weren’t going to soundly trounce me.

So, okay to bring horse for end of the day classes?

~~~

Closing note. The part that got a laugh was Rodney having … issues. I mean, am I wrong? I included the rest as an update. I do so love being able to reuse text. I added the links for the post. Have not addressed the subject of the blog with new hunter barn.

Also, show management said riding in the Academy classes was just fine. So, off we go to conquer more crossrails.

Onwards!
Katherine

Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. “It wasn’t just a cute, spontaneous wedding at a horse show. It’s about more than that; it’s about being visible. A courthouse wedding would have been silent, and this was public.” The Chronicle of the Horse: Get Me To The Barn On Time: Riders Wed During Dressage At Lexington, Clawson, Jul 19, 2022.

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[Annoying Shortages Not Related To The Virus, But Of Course The Current Situation Makes Everything Worse, 2020]

Hay buying. You wouldn’t think it would be quite so varied. Not the hay, the actual method for purchasing it.

Years ago, we used to stock the barn for the winter from a wonderful hay supplier a few counties away. Good prices. Great hay. Delivery. Full barn. Yay. This is the best method.

As a side note, Previous Horse and Mathilda used to cut way back on their hay consumption come March. We’d feed it but they wouldn’t eat it. The current team, not so much. All hay, all year. End side note.

Sadly, the gentleman in charge of the hay farm passed away and the family left the hay business.

After that, we ran in quality inconsistencies with local suppliers. Some loads were great, some less so. Don’t want to load up on what would turn out to be mediocre hay.

Second side note. Previous Horse and Mathilda were more generous about what they would eat. These two, not so much. We are now even more concerned about loading up on hay that that our picky petunias won’t eat. End second side note.

So we turned to feed stores and bought hay in smaller loads as needed. They were often able to get better hay from farther away. We are rural enough that we have several feed store options. If one didn’t have hay, the other would. Expensive, but it’s easy to pay a bit more with two horses than when you have a herd of 20. We’d run low occasionally, usually in late winter. We’ve been able to find hay somewhere. So far. See above.

Now, between supply chain issues, uncooperative weather, and high prices for tractor fuel, we are concerned about finding hay next winter.

Therefore, we will be trying a new hay acquisition theory. Used to be we brought hay, fed it, bought more. Start at the top, work our way down. Now, we will work side to side. Buy a load, feed this half of the stack, restock, feed that half of the stack, restock, and so on. This gives us time to scout out the next batch.

We’ll see how it goes. Already I can tell you that it is weird opening a bale at waist level when there are still bales at head level.

Anyone out there have hay finding magic?

Onwards!
Katherine

Images

Awareness of the outside world. LEGO.com: Charities we support.

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Magic City LEGO Users Group display at Homewood Library, in keeping with the Oceans of Possibilities summer reading program. None of the MOCs are mine. I’m still a member of MCLUG but more in theory than in actual brick building.

Floor Display

Wall Display

Monsters

The Minifig Life

Chillin’ on the rooftop.

View from the rooftop.

Signs

Onwards!
Katherine

Words

Illustration by AJ/The Errant Moon [The Errant Muse]

As part of my orientation, I have to convince my corporate-assigned therapist that I will not suddenly become homesick once I get to the moon.

So I told them about my last visit home.

~~~

Mom: “Do you have to go all the way to the moon?”

Me: “I don’t have to. Mom. I get to. It’s a huge career boost to work on the lower gravity experiments directly. I’ll be doing my own research not just working with other people’s data. I’ll be first author on any papers that come out. That’s a good thing.

Dad: You’ll be living with Them.

Me: You mean the lunar residents?

Dad: You know exactly what I mean. Those Moon People.

(I love my parents. I really do. But some of their attitudes are stuck in the worst part of the last century.)

Me: You like the Moon Rats comics. You asked for their collected works for Christmas.

Dad: Well yes, but that doesn’t mean I want my daughter living with them.

Mom: They have sex orgies.

(What other kind of orgies can you have? Food? Multi-channel vid bingeing?)

Me: I doubt they will ask me to join in.

Mom: Don’t sass me, young lady.

(Sass? Who says sass? Were my parents ever young?)

Me: Actually, I’m not sassing you. I will be working with residents, but probably not socializing with them. Residents keep to their own tunnels when they are not keeping the rest of us alive.

(I’m told Moon Rats find yo-yo society to be too bright, too loud, and too cold. Yo-yo, as in Go and Come Back.)

Mom: Won’t you be lonely? You’ll be so far away. We’ll miss you.

Me: I’ll be really busy with work. I won’t have time to be lonely. Besides, it’ll be just like when I’m in the city. We can talk every weekend …

(oh joy)

… All of the lunar companies have the latest in video conferencing. When we talk, it will be so clear it will be like I’m in the room. Remember when David was on submarines? You couldn’t so much as message him for weeks at a time.

(My brother was based out of United Korea. I always wondered what my parents would have done if my perfect brother had come home with a Korean bride. From what some of his war buddies have let drop, it was a close play at the plate.)

Dad: You should be more like your brother …

(Oh, where have I hear that before?)

… He came home. Married a nice woman. Had kids. When you get over this career fling, you can finally settle down.

Mom: There’s a wonderful young man who volunteers as a deacon at church. I could introduce you.

~~

Maybe it’s no surprise that I am willing to move 238,900 miles away.

~~~ curtain ~~~

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. “Half a century after Dartmouth College first admitted women, a female scholar and college administrator for the first time has been selected to lead the Ivy League institution, ending the hegemony of men who have filled the role for 253 years and through 18 presidencies.” Valley News: Dartmouth College names next president, Lippman, Jul 2.

~~~

Greg has been experimenting with various hackamore/bit combinations for Milton.

In Sunday, he used a simple side pull hackamore WITHOUT a bit.

(What?! Greg pointed out that Milton will stop or hop when disturbed. In the time we have know Milton, speed has never been his friend. They were both fine with the idea. I hyperventilated a little. But I digress.)

Milton loved it.

He walked with a gorgeous, swingy walk.

Rodney can usually outwalk Milton with little effort.

He could still outwalk Milton, but now he had to work at it.

He was not pleased.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Surprise filling earlier this week. 😦 Wasn’t too bad. Worst part was epinephrine hangover.

~~~

I don’t know how Rodney does it.

Before the show, I was deliberately keeping our work at Falcon Hill Farm to a trot. Now that the show was over it was time to move on. Take the next step. Canter. Grids. Poles. Dare we say jumps? YOLO. Just Do It. Reach for your dreams.

Or not.

The following weekend, Rodney was juuuuust tight enough somewhere in his hind end to preclude activities that loaded the hindquarters, i.e. jumping & cantering. He was fine. He was sound. Maaaaaybe a step or two at beginning of the trot. Noticeably tight in the left lumbar. Deeply disinclined to lift the opposing foot. Warmed out of it with activity. Lingering tightness for a day or two.

“Learn how to maximize inconvenience to your rider with minimum inconvenience to yourself! Sign up for my class now!” Rodney (probably)

That’s okay. He’s still resting on his laurels from the show. [Crossrail Contender]

Onwards!
Katherine