Barn Cat With Fern, Guest Photo

Images

Ricky surveys his domain.

Photo by Courtney Huguley.

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Note. Writing to you from Friday evening. Since this post is for a Saturday, I had a fiction post planned and partly written. Lesson today. Tired, as much mentally as physically. I think both from lesson itself and from the excitement of being around people.

Note to self. Have lesson-day posts done ahead of time. I will not have the energy. No matter how perky I promise myself I will be.

Onwards!
Katherine

A Walk in the Zoo, A Sprint for Sloths, A Semi-Virtual 5k

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. The Sloth Conservation Foundation.

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16th Annual AAZK Zoo Run : Sprint for Sloths
Race day – Saturday, May 21, 2022
My walk – Thursday, May 19, 2022
Distance – 3.1 miles
Time – 1:03:49 hrs moving time, 1:07:32 hrs elapsed time – dunno if this includes pausing the clock for the sea lions or not
Pace – 20.35 min/mile moving, 21:47 min/mile elapsed

IRL that I did DIY, in order to support a local event but not take a Saturday away from horse activities. Also, the web site not clear on the medal situation. Awards to fastest/slowest but no word on finisher medals. Looked like the shirt might be the limit to my loot. So, after I got my shirt on one of the the pick-up days, I wandered about the zoo for an hour. Not a bad time for slaloming through camp crowds.

Shirt pic if it ever stops raining.

Break for Sea Lions

Caught the end of the sea lion feeding during my walk. The last behavior was clever. The keeper gives the We’re Done signal. One sea lion dives into the water; the other scoots over to a pen next to the gate, see photo. Keeper tosses fish into the water. Exits gate. Gives fish to other sea lion through fence. Everyone gets fish. No one tries to follow the keeper through the gate horking about more fish. Anyone who’s every had to turn a horse out in a pasture knows how problematic gate traffic can get. BZ: California Sea Lion

Finish With Feathered Friends

Planned my route so that I would end at the Lorikeet aviary. BZ: Rainbow Lorikeet

Hello.

Noms!

Bird selfie.

Selfie with birds.

Onwards!
Katherine

In Which Rodney Gets Back Into The Ring And Jumps A Small Crossrail

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Regardless of your position, I think we can agree that money changes a conversation. Open Secrets: NRA, Recipients.

In related news, Heather Cox Richardson has an explainer in the history of the NRA. “90% of Americans—including nearly 74% of NRA members—support background checks.” Letters From An American: May 24, 2022.

~~~

Falcon Hill Farm, last Sunday. Two months since we’d been in a ring with jumps. Rodney had to get over seeing all that lumber. Lots of trot poles. Trotted over tiny crossrail. [Rodney Returns To The Ring]

Me: Plan is to trot the crossrail and canter away from the jump.
Rodney: How about I jump the jump and canter away?
Me: Okay then.

Notes to Self

Calm and and quiet as one could ask for. Given the hairy eyeball he was giving the jumps at the start, I need to remember that he can go from Sky is Falling to No Big Deal in the course of a schooling session. I need to not buy into his overload at the beginning. Got plenty of that on my own.

I worked on theories from the clinic. Being crystal clear and super certain about what path we were taking and what pace we would use to take said path. Not riding physically any different, just being clear in my own mind. I think it settles him? We’ll see. [Thoroughbred Theatrics]

I’m much more Go Thataway, as was Previous Horse. [Control Issues]

Proving that he can have his ears up in a photo. The residents were larking about.

Onwards!
Katherine

Considering My Gear, Show Photo, Mid-South Spring Premiere 2022

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Towel Day. A talk by DA about Last Chance To See, UCTV: Douglas Adams: Parrots, the Universe and Everything or YouTube.

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Event Mix Photos
Transformer (Optimus)
Academy WTC Championship
Mid-South Spring Premiere

End of our third class. We are turning into the line up. I have just finished telling Optimus what a wonderful job he did. [Show Report]

A interesting angle on a good class. It is also only photo were I don’t look like a fat sausage. Or at least, look less like a f.s. I did try on the clothes beforehand. Note to self, just because it buttons doesn’t mean it fits.

This should not have come as such a surprise. I’m wearing my old shirt and vest because the new vest was a little too Dolly Parton.

While the old vest went with the new shirt, why not pull out the old shirt also? This shirt has always been my fav. I got it one year at Nationals to stand out when I was mired in the back of the pack. “For two years, they have been telling me to be ladylike. That occurred with intermittent success. Now they are telling me to be loud. This I can do.” [Show Report: Important Questions from NACHS 2014, Part 1]

The next year, I was told that the outfit did not have sufficient dignitude for an Adult class, leading to yet another costume change.

Is this too loud for you? Have you met me? “Even Saddlebred people think I am loud.” [What Makes You, You?]

More photos

Event Mix Photos > 2022 Mid-South Spring Premiere 2022 > Saturday Academy > 091, 092, 095, black horse, blue sleeves, not the only helmet (3 of 7).

Onwards!
Katherine

The Good Way To Have Ups And Downs With Horses, Week 7, Virtual Tevis 2022

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. The National Museum of American History Behring Center: “What Hath God Wrought” Telegraph Message.

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Total. 55 miles, 29 rides, 24 hours 16 minutes, pace 26:28 min/mile.

This week. 9.6 miles, 5 rides, 4 hours 6 minutes, pace – walk

Finished up seven days in a row, including one 3-mile ride. Now taking a break for rain.

Notes

Have added stadiums to our walks. Going around the edge if the field is the same altitude but easier climbing. Going straight up the middle is a workout. Up. Turn around. Back down. Learning to use their horse butts.

Of course, they will canter downhill in the mud at mealtime.

[Getting The Miles In, Week 6, Virtual Tevis 2022]
[VT archives]

Onwards!
Katherine