Virtual Brush Box

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Alabama NewsCenter: Alabama Dam Ride pedals for a cause, White, May 13, 2022. Photos by Meg McKinney.

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Group order from Custom Ink. Each year everyone gets a new shirt in a new color for the summer fun shows.

Wasn’t gonna order one. Have so many Stepping Stone Farm shirts (so! many!). Just gonna be the old gray mare in an old gray shirt.

The shirt is at least 6 years old. The photo will never get old. [NE GA Charity 2016]

However.

Looked at a local jumper show prizelist. Between this fee and that fee and that fee over there, the money adds up before you even start entering classes. That’s for one show.

A new shirt for the summer shows costs slightly less & I hope to do two of the three summer shows. So, 50% per show.

If I’m paying for the hunters, might as well pay for the Saddlebreds. Plus, if I’m gonna do the shows, might as well do them right.

Ordered fitted version and smaller size than usual for closer fit. 😦

Whether or not I get to the shows – she adds superstitiously – at least I got blog post out of it.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. NPR: Michigan medical students walk out on an anti-abortion keynote speaker, Sullivan, July 25, 2022.

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Having finished doing everything, and writing about doing everything, time to recap this year’s Virtual Tevis. [Dance Card]

Started on Thursday, April 7 with a 1-mile ride. Finished on Friday, July 8, with a 1.84-mile ride. All at walk. All in home pasture. Going around the pasture instead of going around the ring area counts as “trail miles” for this crew.

We rode 55 times in 92 days. (Or so, spread sheet lists 54 rides. I am going to be mature and NOT track down the missing ride. Let it go. Let it go.) Longest ride was 3.15 miles. Average ride was 1.8 miles. Sounds about right. We usually rode for either 1 or 2 miles, depending on time available.

This was our third Virtual Tevis. It felt like the hardest one to finish.

100 miles in 100 days is easy – if you keep at it.

I took a week off. [I’m Bored Already]

My horse took a week off. [Playing Catch Up]

Milton and his rider were kind enough to wait and finish with us.

When it was looking dubious, I made the claim that I wanted to finished because I liked this year’s shirt. It was an excuse. I wanted to finish.

Before we started, I said I would be okay with not finishing. [Virtual Tevis Announced For 2022]

First off, when I said it, I meant not finish because we were so busy with shows and lessons and trailering to exotic, exciting showcation destinations.

Second, pfffft, who am I kidding. I want it all. Busy show schedule AND time to do the VT. I didn’t say it was reasonable, just that I wanted it.

This year, props to the horses for being amenable about all the pre-breakfast rides. In truth, I think they prefer it. [Let The Summer Hours Begin]

Next year. More gaits. More places. More milestone photos. I said the same about this year. Something to work towards.

[VT archives]

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. CBC: Bodies of Work, Olivia Apps

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Lovely, narrow 3/8″ curb reins from Fennel’s. To go with my dual steering set-up. [Riding With Two Reins]

Bought from a saddle seat store. Asked Coach Courtney to recommend a tack shop as she is the only person I know who deals with double bridles on the regular.

Requisite photo bomb.

Onwards!
Katherine

Images

Art from the outside world. Birmingham Times: Ramsay High School Student Captures 1st Place in World Games Art Contest, Michaels, May 23, 2022.

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Prize Statuette

Legacy Arena, 14 July 2022.

AL.com: Podium reactions to Vulcan trophy highlight World Games, Goodman, Jul. 16, 2022.

Medal

TWG: The World Games 2022 Medal Reveal, image from website.

Mascot

TWG: Vulcan & Vesta, Official Mascots of The World Games 2022

Signage as part of skyline

UAB Fields, 15 July 2022.

Climbing

Screenshot from Olympics.org, 10 July 2022. Part of introductory chatter for TWG event livestreams and videos.

Cartoon

AL.com: ‘Let the World Games begin!’ The pants-less Vulcan dude abides, Crowe, Jul. 08, 2022.

Links

The World Games 2022 & IWGA

Vulcan Park & Museum

Archive [Views Of Vulcan]

Onwards!
Katherine

Words

Books from the outside world. Head On, Scalzi, 2018. “It has everything: Futuristic sports, murder, sex, love, home invasion, shady business people and midnight flights to central Europe. As one must.” Whatever: Head On Post-Writing Post. Read prologue, Tor.com: Head On.

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The World Games bills itself as “New Generation of Global Sports.”

What sports will we be playing in the 2120 Games? A quick Internet search shows that movies and books predict future sport becoming high tech and/or death matches.

I predict we will move in the opposite direction. As tech expands, we will place a priority on “pure sport”, i.e. what a human can do unassisted.

Competitions than use little or no technology will become the status sports. Running. High Jump. Wrestling. Straight up human effort.

Of course there will be no such thing as an unassisted competitor.

Before the competition there will be nutrition, immersive training, questionable medications, misuse of nanotechnology. During the competition, there will be the playing surface, the clothing, the shoes.

When we speak of tech, we tend to think of things that beep and blink. However, anything built is technology. The rope in tug of war. The shot in shot put. When seconds or inches count, huge amounts of money are spent on materials and design.

Yet, despite the dictates of logic, the ideal will remain the naked dude running in ancient Greece.

I haven’t touched on team sports or sports from the past, such as fencing or riding. Thoughts?

Update. Check out food for thought in first comment.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Just heard about Walgreens. Depressing. Feels like intolerance is winning.

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Double sessions were a factor in our recent everything-all-at-once experience. [A Full Dance Card]

Not twice the work. More like splitting the day’s work into two pieces. Virtual Tevis in the morning to beat the heat. Trailer Rodney over to Falcon Hill Farm in the late afternoon to approximate the timing of the upcoming evening show.

Really liking how it turned out.

Morning sessions were low-key because Rodney had an appointment that evening. When we got to FHF, we could get right to work because he’d gotten the oil moving earlier in the day.

Of course it’s more effort because you have to dress horse and self twice. Sometimes it seemed silly to ship over for a short ride. OTOH, Rodney did well on the regimen.

We’re going to see if we can incorporate this moving forward. Maybe riding in the morning and ground work in the evening. Or more trail ride/travel days.

Onwards!
Katherine

Horse Life and Non-Horse Life

Awareness of the outside world.

Screenshot. “Stop referring to the pandemic in the past tense and climate change in the future tense Dr. Elizabeth Sawin” Original post, Igram: alexhuttinger July 18. Source, Elizabeth Sawin. HT, Igram: dr.berthahidalgo.

I took this seriously while volunteering. Wore a sturdy mask whenever I was indoors. Very much in the minority, but not alone. The rest of the activities were outdoors or did not involve other people. In related news, Braymere Custom Saddlery: PlagueFest.

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I don’t get out much. I’d like find more entertainment, but few activities are worth the drive into town. Whether the fault lies with me or with Alabama or somewhere in between is a debate for another day. Bottom line, my schedule is frightfully free of frolic.

Suddenly, zap. My calendar becomes an overstuffed pinata.

To Do

[Show Report]

Show. Preparing for a show in the 16th meant many, many trips to Falcon Hill Farm to acclimatize Rodney to a ring full of jump standards. [Getting The Point Across(rails)]

Ankle. Preventing reinjury. [I’m Bored Already]

To Watch

Screenshot. Stepping Stone Farm rider enters the ring at Kentucky Horse Park.

Lexington Junior League Horse Show, BreyerFest, & Tour de France – The yearly couch potato festival [On Being An Energetic Couch Jockey]

Note to self. Let the first screenshot clear before you take the next one.

To Both

Photo. Signs for the Parade of Countries at the Opening Ceremonies. Taken by a fellow volunteer.

Tevis. Ride the Virtual Tevis. Follow the IRL Tevis online. Archive [Virtual Tevis]

TWG. Volunteer. Watch live & replays online. [Volunteering at The World Games]

Some Were Compatible

Show & Virtual Tevis. All the long, slow riding for the Virtual Tevis was a great way to get ready for the show. Otherwise, I would have gotten my tail in a knot and overworked my horse.

Ankle & Show & Virtual Tevis. I started riding a week or so after my ignoble dismount from the stool. All I could do was ride at a walk. That was all we were doing for Virtual Tevis anyway. Forcing me to slow down the FHF schooling to a walk meant giving Rodney more time to think and adjust.

Some Were Not

Clashing Schedules. Show & Virtual Tevis vs. The World Games. If we hadn’t had two riding deadlines, I might have moved things around to do more to volunteering at TWG. For example, perhaps a chance to carry one of the signs in the actual Opening Ceremonies and schooling at FHF on another day.

Doing/Watching. Show & Virtual Tevis & The World Games vs. IRL Tevis & The World Games & Lexington Junior League Horse Show & BreyerFest & Tour de France. Being busy (yay!) left me little time to follow all the online content. Saturday, there were five things to watch, two of which I paid for. It was show day, so you can imagine how much I saw.

Outro

Then, come Monday, poof, everything except the Tour de France was over. Show horses were back in their own barns. Athletes were heading toward the airport. BreyerFest attendees were posting pictures of the new members of their plastic pony herds. Back to status quo sleepy.

It was all great. Did it have to be great all at once?

Onwards!
Katherine