Virtual Brush Box

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Whatever: Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is & Whatever: “Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting,” Ten Years On.

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At showgrounds. [Show Report]

Wandering around stable area.

Waiting for classes.

Suddenly hit with a wave of ‘I don’t want to be here.’

Not nerves.

Rather, it was ‘I want to be doing other things than this.’

I have made no secret that I would drop saddle seat like last year’s paint color if I had a chance to jump. [Conflicts 2017]

This is the first time the thought has occurred at a horse show.

Grateful for the opportunities. Yes.

Learned much. Yes.

“Saddleseat has been a slender bridge over the abyss of despair that is my riding career.” That was back in 2014. Does math. Shudders. In June. Two months before buying Milton. Sighs. [A Grateful Whine]

It would be so tempting to snuggle into, “a warm, comfy blanket that is almost what I want.” [Overthinking]

I need to keep my eye on my own path …

.. no matter how frustrating.

I need to not get distracted by other paths …

… no matter how cute the snoots.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. My first extended, crowded outing since the before times. I relied on being outside, staying away from people, and being on a horse. I masked up for getting my hair done. Closest I’ve been to a non-husband/non-dental person in years. Was it easy to put on a mask when no one else on the grounds was? No. Did anyone care one way or the other? Also no.

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Mid-South Spring Premiere
Morgan County Celebration Arena
Priceville, AL, USA
Saturday 14 May 2022

Transformer (Optimus)
91 Academy Showmanship WTC-Adult Amateur, 6th of 7
92 Academy Equitation WTC-Adult Amateur, 3rd of 7
95 Academy WTC Championship-Adult Amateur/Junior Exhibitor, 4th of 7

Thank you to Sharon Gray and Whitney Cook for Optimus.

Thoughts

Trotting into the ring for our third class:

Optimus: Would you like me to lift my shoulders and be a fancy horse?
Me: Why, yes, thank you.

It was delightful. We balanced around the turns. We motored down the long sides. The ringside spotters were suspiciously silent.

He was warmed up? I finally asked correctly? Who knows.

The other classes were me trying to remember to ride saddle seat. The position comes back relatively quickly. Sit in the back of the saddle. Pinkies inside the reins. Hands up. Actual riding takes longer. In the first class, I was still using my lower leg and following with my hands. It didn’t work, so I did it harder.

This is all in retrospect. At the time, I thought I was doing it.

You try to do the thing.
You think you are doing the thing, but you are not.
You finally do the thing, and you say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s how it is supposed to feel.’

The third class was possibly the most fun I’ve had in a saddle seat class.

Other Thoughts

I miss Sam. My last ASB show was at these grounds with Sam in October 2019. [Putting The Show In Showmanship]

Next time, I want to be here with my ASB event horse having a Back To His/Her Roots day.

Helmet spotted on a suit kid.

I have forgotten how to people.

~~~

Admin. I will yammer about this for a while.

a) Probably (?) my only big show this year.

b) That’s all I’ve got. Six Virtual Tevis rides & the show were the horse agenda last week. [Getting The Miles In]

update, et voilà
[Switching Gears]
[Grinding My Gears]
[Gearing Up, Nerves Report]
[Considering My Gear, Show Photo]

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Roberta A. Drury, Margus D. Morrison, Andre Mackneil, Aaron Salter, Geraldine Talley. Celestine Chaney. Heyward Patterson, Katherine Massey, Pearl Young, Ruth Whitfield. NPR
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Total. 45.4 miles, 24 rides, 20 hours 10 minutes, pace 26:30 min/mile.

This week. 11.6 miles, 6 rides, 5 hours 13 minutes, pace – walk

Six rides in 7 days. Go us!

Notes

Previous GPS cratered. Switch to Strava. which records moving time and total time, which leads to an interesting theoretical question of what to use.

Take yesterday as an example,
Moving time – 51:54
Elapsed time – 1:02:10
That’s a 10+ minute difference (10 min, 16 seconds).

Which also influences the question of pace,
Pace while moving, 23:33. Normal for us.
Pace when standing around is included – 28:13. Slow even for us. Between the warm-up lap and mounting, I had to do an emergency Swat application to keep Rodney from backing over small trees to scratch an itch in his nether armpit. [Different Ways of Walking, warm-up lap]

I call it a theoretical question because the time does not matter. The ride is about getting to the finish, not who got there fastest. The tracking site records our time as we go along. I suspect the program requires a number in that space. However, once the ride is over, the time is not listed in the final results from the Tevis people.

It’s really not about time.

I choose to record the elapsed time. I figure stopping and starting and applying Swat is part of the trail ride.

[We Ride At Dawn, Again, Week 5, Virtual Tevis 2022]
[VT archives]

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Space.com: Behold! This is the first photo of the Milky Way’s monster black hole Sagittarius A*, Cooper, 1 day ago (12 May).

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Recently, someone asked how long I’d been messing with horses. Depends when you start counting.

First pony ride, Bucky, 1968?, age five-ish, 54? years ago. [Aunt Faity]

First summer camp, with riding as one of the activities, 1970, age seven, 52 years ago. [Counter Factual]

First horse-specific summer camp, horse care as one of the activities, 1973, age ten, 49 years ago. [Flashback]

First leased horse, began hanging out at barns on the regular. 1978, age fifteen, 44 years ago.

First horse, 1982, age nineteen, 40 years ago. [The Unexpected, photo]

I generally count from when I started leasing, which is when horses went from a summer activity to year-round.

How about you? How long? How do you count?

Onwards!
Katherine

Images

Art from the outside world. OrigamiUSA: The Art of Origami. Gallery of images.

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Legend

M – “They bring the flowers that bloom in the Maaaaayyyy.” Jolson via Bugs Bunny. loonytunes.fandom.com: Wet Hare. [April]

A – “Strolling Through the Park One Day.” YouTube: Heather Locklear and Kermit (Wait, what? Muppet Wiki: Strolling Through the Park One Day.)

Y – “School’s out for summer,” …. Simpson’s ….. MLlive: Alice Cooper’s ‘School’s Out’ classic turns 45 years old, Serba, 2017

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[The Illustrated Month, January]
[The Illustrated Month, February]
[The Illustrated Month, March]
[The Illustrated Month, April]

Onwards!
Katherine

Words

Fiction from the outside world. Recent (re)read. The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Soup to nuts, six in the series and two shorts. Do you reread? Free fiction. Two online, stand-alone short stories from the series. Wired: The Future of Work: Compulsory & Tor.com: Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory. [Virtual Attitude, Woe Is Us]

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What Have We Here?

Over on Errant Moon, the blogger/knitter announced the sale of two keychains. (Image from post.)

“I sold two fossil Ammonite keyrings that may, or may not, show up in the next Matt Smith film. I am being very cool about it….”

Well THAT took longer than expected…

Intriguing. I poked about on the Internet. Made a comment to that effect.

Internet says the next movie for MS is supernatural horror. Cue ominous music. Just when you thought it was safe to sit on the couch.

ibid

Couldn’t let it go.

Since then I have been trying to figure out how adorable knitted pillows keychains could figure in a horror movie, supernatural or otherwise. Ignore the fact that I confused keychains for pillows. Two at the end left over from that.

For keychains, pillows, and other knitted goodies, Etsy: The Errant Moon.

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Possible Plots

Symbol of a Stalker

You get out of a difficult relationship, either business or romantic. You move across country. You change your name. Years pass. One night you come home. You unlock the three bolts on your front door. You disable the alarm. You notice an adorable knitted keychain hanging on your key hook. An adorable knitted keychain that wasn’t there this morning.

Unseen Symbol of a Stalker

… as above except Main Character does not notice the keychain. Audience does. Set up for jump scare.

Angry, Angry Aliens

They were outraged to find humans using alien eggs for decor. When they discovered the objects were crafted artifacts rather than eggs, it was too late.

Aliens On Alert

Aliens plant listening devices in harmless household objects.

2084

The government plants listening devices in … no, wait. We pay with our own money to bring listening devices into our homes. Orwell never saw that coming.

Movie Posters & Book Taglines

The Keychain

Some doors were never meant to be opened!

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The Keychain

What would you do with the power to open ANY door?

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The Keychain

It holds the key to your dreams.

Are you ready to face your dreams?

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Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Sit On The Couch

Pillow Talk

Psychic pillow absorbs & re-emits feelings generated around it. However, happy feelings are generally broadcast into the air, several feet from pillow. Sad feelings are sobbed into pillow. Therefore pillow absorbs mostly unhappy feelings. Pillow becomes despondent. An angry psychic emitter is not a good thing to have in one’s home.

Pillows Talk

… as above, except a pair. One pillow designed to absorb/emit “good” feelings. The other one, “bad” feelings. Is okay because they balance each other. Then the pair is split up. Cue ominous music. The “good” pillow in the house leads to manic behavior and misplaced optimism. The “bad” pillow leads to apathy. While grayness and despair are not fun, nothing much happens. More “bad” results come from “good” pillow. Make point that no behavior is inherently good or bad unless excess makes it so.

=== curtain ===

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. Racing for Children’s.
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INDY 5K – Barber Motorsports
Friday, 29 April 2022
On the track!

Official results.

My data.

Bringing up the rear, as planned. I generally let everyone else go out ahead of me. Having trouble walking and aiming. Selfie angles are not simple.

For the shortest line, follow the tire tracks.

Parked so close together, they had to fold in the mirrors. Amazing.

Infield art, a figure holding up or pushing down a bridge support.

Post-walk dinner. I will not confess how quickly I tore through this festival of carbs.

Onwards!
Katherine