Signs of Summer

Images

Art from the outside world. Twitter, Amanda, @Pandamoanimum, The final dance in Dirty Dancing, but they’re dancing to The Muppet Show theme tune. May 17, 2022

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Wishing you a happy summer season.

Admin

As with last time, using what I have on hand as a creative starting point, Field Notes: Signs of Spring, SPRING 2022 QUARTERLY EDITION. Not a review. No discounts or affiliation with company other than as a customer. [A Plethora of Purple]

Is there a theory here? Why yes, thank you for asking. I was trying to come up with a plan for graphics on Sundays. I considered another art subscription box, even though the rational part of me knew it wouldn’t work any better than last time. [SketchBox Fail]

Finally dawned on me to use my iPenBox and Field Notes subscriptions. They’re coming in the house anyway, might as well see what I can do with them. [Pens Notebooks]

Took me a while to come up with the idea, that’s why this product is Spring and I went with Summer. Plus the sun is easier to draw than flowers.

I have a surplus of Signs of Spring notebooks. May I send you one? [Free To Good Home]

Links

Guardian: Yellow: The History of a Colour by Michel Pastoureau review, Smith 2019

Draplin Design Co.

[Yellow Associations]

Onwards!
Katherine

Trash Cans, Offered For Your Amusement

Random Images

Awareness of the outside world. Between ankle & work, not feeling the fiction writing vibe at the moment. One from the vaults.

Fiction from the outside world. Current reread, P. Djèlí Clark, A Dead Djinn in Cairo, The Haunting of Tram Car 015, A Master of Djinn.

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Trash Cans. We need them. Might as well make them interesting.

City can. Cahaba Heights Park [Places and Parks]

Country can. Leeds Memorial Park [Places and Parks]

Update. More about trash cans. Life, The Universe, and Everything: Don’t piss off the trash collectors

Onwards!
Katherine

New Equipment, Saddle For Milton

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. If the term ‘institutional racism’ makes you uncomfortable, call it institutional bias. Whatever the label, this is what it looks like. NPR: Inaccurate pulse oximeter measurements delayed COVID treatment for people of color, Rascoe, June 5, 2022. MedPage Today: Did Pulse-Ox Levels Lead to COVID Therapy Delays for People of Color? — Study finds pulse oximetry overestimated oxygen saturation for minority groups. Walker, May 31, 2022.

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New-to-us Stübben saddle for Milton.

Size 31/21, medium/medium wide, at least 50 years old, made in Germany, private sale.

Inexpensive because people don’t appreciate how great these old saddles are.

We are the fourth owners. Can trace ownership, FWIW.

An old-school saddle for an old-school horse. This was made back when Thoroughbred was the default. [Get Off My Lawn, And Take Your Warmblood With You]

Milton approves. (Crosses fingers, because horses.)

Onwards!
Katherine

Stopping By A Horse Show

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Elizabeth Bear: Gamification might be bad, actually?

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Last weekend, we visited a local jumper show on a fact-finding mission. The starting class was .65 meters (2 feet 1 1/2 inches). While I am not a fan of watching people ride in classes that I want to be in, we figured more information is better then less.

Jumps. Tiny, but still too big for us right now. I could feel how Rodney eyes would bug out if I took him into a ring with that much to look at. [Rodney’s Recent Jumps]

Courses. Standard how to have a jumper course without moving your hunter fences.

Note. PVC jumps mean light, light poles. They were coming down with a tap.

We are going to have to work through a lot of overwhelm before a ring full of jumps is a possibility. The height is irrelevant. The only reason the course needs to be .65 meters or .75 meters is so that I can be the adult in the room. [Free Jumping]

Onwards!
Katherine

Easing On Down The Road, Week 9, Virtual Tevis 2022

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Medscape: ‘Great Optimism’ Over Complete Responses in dMMR Rectal Cancer, Harrison, June 05, 2022. Many caveats, but I’m told this level of result *never* happens.

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Total. 57 miles, 31 rides, 25 hours 6 minutes, pace 26:25 min/mile.

This week. 1 mile, 1 ride, 25 minutes, pace – walk.

To go. 43 miles in 41 40 days. We are officially behind the curve. Update, corrected for date of post rather than date of draft.

Notes

How to ride with a swollen foot. [Bored]

Take an jod boot that is out-of-service due to a blowout between the upper and the sole. Cut out zipper. Insert foot. Close with duct tape. It is on days like this that I feel vindicated for never throwing anything away.

[Delay of Game, Week 8, Virtual Tevis 2022]
[VT archives]

Onwards!
Katherine

What I Want From A Hunter Barn At A Show

Riding

Awareness of the horse world. Helmet Watch. Devon livestream on USEF Network. Amateur Road Horse class. Spotted two helmets out of three entries. Doug Shiflet > (Horse Show Proofs) > (2022 Proofs) > 2022 Devon > Wednesday PM > 013 – 431 Roadster Horse Amateur. All the hunter/jumper riders had helmets. I think it’s universal in h/j now? Slowly seeping into saddle seat. [Watching Louisville]

Also spotted, vest in a jumper class, and mask in the audience. [New Equipment]

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What I want from a hunter barn is a local guide in my corner at shows.

I don’t need help jumping 2’6″. I was stuffing George over that height back in the 80s. [The Whatever Horse]

Yes, I would need help to jump the round smoothly and flawlessly.

Yes, I would need help with bigger heights.

However, given a modicum of cooperation from the horse, 2′ 6″ is in my wheelhouse. [The Cast Assembles]

In fact, if when if when I ever get Rodney to a show with jumps, I’m would be better off without help, at least in the beginning. There will be so much baggage. So. Much. Baggage. I would be better off left alone (with my ground crew!) to get over myself and get my horse around.

What I would like is someone to answer questions, to point out local rules, to generally keep on eye out. In other words, what Coach Courtney did when I took Milton to Mid-South. We kept to ourselves for the first two classes. Then, after Milton misbehaved, I didn’t know the correct protocol.

Should we do the third class? I was out of earshot, but I could see the ‘Oh hell yeah’ from where I was … being 10 feet off the rail made me harder to avoid. ‘If your horse is going to be a jackass, stay out of everybody’s way.’ Yes, Ma’am.

[Hanging With The Saddlebros IIb]

So, that’s what I’m looking for, with less jackass.

From a time standpoint, I am talking about less work for the money. No getting ready. No warming up. I would be happy to pay a full day’s training fee for someone to watch my rounds and be on hand for advice. If they need to watch my rounds from the warm-up ring while getting someone else ready, that’s fine – perhaps even preferable.

Conversely, different requires effort. Everyone else is over here, being part of the program. I’m over there, flitting about on my own. Keeping track of an outlier is hard. From what I’ve seen, the hunter/jumper world around here is riders, mostly kids, at training barns. AOTs doing their own thing are rare. Therefore, folks don’t have procedures in place for dealing with us. Even the show entry form assumes a barn affiliation.

No solutions. A conversation I was having in my head and decided to get out into real space.

Onwards!
Katherine