Different Ways of Walking, State of the Fitness for April 2022

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. UTNews: Plastic-eating Enzyme Could Eliminate Billions of Tons of Landfill Waste, Apr 27, 2022.
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The majority of my pasture walking this month was part of our Virtual Tevis rides, rather than my usual virtual strolls. [VT archives, Walking Virtually Kyiv]

Physically the same; mentally different.

Format for warm-up walking. Tack up horse. Put halter over bridle. Tack up self. Drop stirrups. Tighten girth. Horse all ready to go except for rider. Walk lap(s). Get on. Finish ride.

This allows Rodney to loosen up without having to deal with a rider. This allows me to not have to deal with a tight horse.

Both are laps around the pasture. Walking is walking, right?

Ehhhhh, not really.

When we are warming-up, I am definitely in a riding headspace. When I am strolling on my own, I’m not in any particular headspace. Sometime I think about work or blog posts. Sometimes I wander along and look at the pretty trees.

I finally did a solo stroll at the end of the month. Realized how much I missed it. In the future, the plan is keep up with solo walks even if I have done/will do warm-up walking the same day.

Of note. Listening to a lecture for the entire walk falls in the first, pre-ride category. Walking with horse on leadline is in the second, strolling category. From this I conclude that the difference has to do with the level of concentration required.

It’s not just me. Rodney approaches walks differently if he is tacked up versus loafing along on a lead rope. Which is why I tack up and tighten the girth for warm-up walks. From this I conclude that he is also affected by the level of concentration required.

I will still need to listen to an audio book or easy lecture for the middle lap as a marker. [Keeping Track]

Places

Pasture.

Local Park. Muddy day.

The Shops at Grand River. Daily mile. In area to pick up bib for …

Indy 5K at Barber Motorsports Park. [post pending] Plus 1 mile toward Virtual Kyiv walking to start & from finish. [Indy 5K Walk]

Lakeshore. [Another Impromptu 5k, Shades Creek Greenway]

Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Credit Union Cherry Blossom 5K Run-Walk. [waiting on medal]

Update [In The Pink, Walk Report, Cherry Blossom Virtual 5K]

Data Dump

Walk. 22 out of 30 days. Non-walking days were the usual mix of riding lessons, rain/mud, and days when I couldn’t even.

TC. 10 out of 21 weekdays. Over-moused my shoulder playing games on my computer. Waving my arms around held little interest for several days.

Bike. 1 day.

Onwards!
Katherine

Poof, There Went April

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. I have nothing to add.
~~~

I present this in the spirit of …

Man plans, God Laughs. Again. [God Laughs]

or …

Where does the time go?

Back at the end of March, I was bold enough to post that the horses go places for schooling.

Milton goes to Stepping Stone Farm to practice with other horses in a group lesson. [Hooves, Lesson]

Rodney goes to Falcon Hill Farm to practice over tiny jumps. [Ears, Ring]

[There Is Nothing Routine About Routine]

HA!

End of March, Milton goes to Stepping Stone Farm. Rodney kinks his neck. [Routine]

First weekend in April, Clinic. [Thoroughbred Theatrics, Rodney at the Ellen Beard Clinic]

Second weekend in April. Clinic a big adventure for everyone. Easy weekend and start on Virtual Tevis mileage. [Heading Down the Trail, Week 1, Virtual Tevis 2022]

Third weekend in April. Storms. [Chugging Along, Week 2, Virtual Tevis 2022]

Fourth weekend in April. SSF at show. Rodney on bench out due to l’affaire bug bite. [In Which We Learn Things But Not The Things We Were Setting Out to Learn]

Fifth weekend in April. Milton does his group lesson. Rodney drums up storms for Sunday.

There goes April, and a bit of March.

I know I keep saying this. [Routine, In Which We Learn Things]

Partly. Available topics of discussion lately are pretty much Virtual Tevis, the weather, and ‘What has Rodney done to himself lately’.

&

Partly. Definitely frustrating. I keep asking Coach Molly if we can come over and then having to cancel. Also an element of fascination. What will come up next.

Spent last weekend watching Rolex LRK3DE and feeling that Michael Jung and I exist at different ends of the universe.

Onwards!
Katherine

First Quarter Complete, Week 4, Virtual Tevis 2022

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. While we wait to find out what BA.4 & BA.5 are up to. WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard & CDC: Variant Proportions

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Total. 27.5 miles, 14 rides, 12 hours 22 minutes, 2.21 mph, 26:59 pace.

This Week. 1.34 miles, 2 rides, 1 hour 34 minutes. MPH & pace, as above.

Notes. Despite low mileage this week, we are still slightly ahead of the curve. Took weekend off from VT for schooling other things, as was the plan. [Virtual Tevis Announced For 2022]

Posts
[Help From Above, Week 3]
[VT archives]

~~~

In other news. The Trouble with Titles. Did you know the “quarter pole” is 1/4 mile from the end, not 1/4 of the way into a race? TIL.

Onwards!
Katherine

30-Year Barniversary

Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. The Chronicle of the Horse: Jung Leads Dressage In His Return To Land Rover Kentucky CCI5*-L, Berreth, Apr 29, 2022. Click over for video of Chipmunk. (Can’t find direct link.) That’s how you do Eventing Dressage. Yeah, it’s horse world rather than outside world. Anything done that well bears amplifying. They also larked through the cross-country and won on a world record score. His horses always look so happy with their jobs.
~~~

In the Spring of 1992, we moved into a rental house with a barn on the property. We’ve had the horses in the backyard ever since.

Losses

Travel. Maybe we would not have gallivanted around the globe. At least we would have had the option.

Facilities.

People. Barn friends. Riding companions. Folks to cheer for; folks to cheer for thee.

Wins

People, lack thereof. Barn drama. Railbirds. Barn rules.

Choice. Want more hay? Here ya go. Change feed, try supplements? No problem. Want to live out your days as a pasture ornament? Have at it.

Inevitability. I can’t imagine having done it any other way.

Horse At Home Posts

[This Is Why I Don’t Board My Horse]
[Advice Sought, Kid Wants Horse]
[10 Little Things About Having Horses At Home]

Onwards!
Katherine

Word Of The Week, Anniversary

Images

Married 34 years ago today.

~~~

Process note. I had originally envisioned the word as a swirly, lacy design. Eleven letters in a festival of interlocking swooshes, dynamic swoops, and clever hidden shapes. Curves are hard to render digitally. Curves are even harder to render digitally when you can’t draw what you have in mind on a piece of paper. Apparently, I am not a swirly, lacy person.

Posts
[Anniversary Hearts] 2021
[Letter Art: I is for I Love You] 2016
[26 Years] 2014
[Good Things] 2013
[Husband Training] 2012
[Aftermath] 2000

Photo
Been There, Done That: Congratulations and Best Wishes

Onwards!
Katherine

Picking Up The Other Fork, Train Take Two, Fiction Pieces In Search Of A Plot

Words

Me: I almost got on the train with him.

Julia: A complete stranger?!

Dani: Was he cute?

We sat at a cafe in Southern France, exchanging what we had done while our Term Abroad program been been on spring break. I had chosen to spend four of the seven days traveling on trains. On the way home, I had almost be diverted by a pair of roguish eyes.

Dani would have gotten on the train. He would have fallen in love with her. All of his traveling companions would have fallen in love with her. Dani was like that. Everyone warmed to her.

Julia would not have gotten on the train. He would have gotten on her train. He’d be here right now. Waiting in cafes while she was in class. Julia made you believe in reincarnation. In another life, she had been royalty. Or commanding general of a large and victorious army.

Then there was me. Trailing along behind these two women like a chunk of dirty ice caught in the slipstream of a comet. When I say I almost got diverted, I exaggerate. I chatted with a young man at the train station while waiting for our respective trains. When his train arrived, he asked me to go with him. I said no.

It never seriously occurred to me to do anything other than come back to class. Was I really that boring a person? I’m not saying I should have, but maybe I could have at least considered it.

Shook self. I was in France. I was sitting on a cafe terrace in the sun. I wasn’t in **** in winter. That wasn’t nothing.

Didn’t like who I was? Then do something about it. The next time opportunity blinked its blue eyes at me, I would act.

Fortunately for me, the next pair of blue eyes belonged to Claude.

~~~

…

…

Unfortunately for me, right as I was making my resolve to be more adventuresome, the Société de la Perle Bleue was making their plans. Edouard, their leader, was adept at sniffing out just that mix of naivete and recklessness that they could exploit.

~~~

I sat staring at my reflection of train window.

I was two days late for classes.

I was going to get yelled at. By the professors. By my host parents. By my parents.

What had I done? What was I thinking?

I don’t know.

It had seemed like such a good idea at the time.

~~~

We sat at a cafe in Southern France, exchanging what we had done while our Term Abroad program been been on spring break.

We drank beers.

We reveled at not being in **** in winter.

In the cafe table was a newspaper. Water rings blurred the headline,

Accident Ferroviaire!

~~~

Wait I thought you graduated from YYY. What were you doing at ****?

I did graduate from YYY, but I started at ****. During a term abroad, I met this guy at a train station …

~~~ curtain ~~~

Note one. Another hat tip to Liz Goldsmith for the comment a few weeks ago. [Pondering A Fork In The Road, Non-Fiction]

Note two. Unlike last time, no underlying explanation necessary. The multiple storylines are clearly a narrative device. Would be cool if I could get the the strands to intertwine over time. [If I Had Gotten On That Train, Fiction Sketch]

Onwards!
Katherine