Virtual Brush Box

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Ancient Alabama, part 10. AL.com: Alabama Black Belt among world’s top sites to find ancient sea monsters, Pillion, 9 Dec 2021. BTW, “Named for its dark, rich soils.” Encyclopedia of Alabama: Black Belt Region in Alabama. This was my understanding. More below.
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Milton attended a group lesson at Stepping Stone Farm. The idea was that being in a ring with other horses trotting would encourage Milton to do the same without excessive heaving and swearing on the part of his rider.

Milton trotted. Everyone stayed on. Yay.

OTOH, Milton had several occasions wherein he felt the need to express himself. As with the driving demo, it was all quite understandable. One can’t help but wishing that he didn’t feel the need to be quite so expressive. [Milton Does Demo Duty]

Being straffed by a bird. One of the peacocks took off and launched straight at horse and rider. Cleared their heads by a few feet. I only saw the end of this with the bird flying off. Actually, Milton gets lots of points here. He stood stock still. Past spooking and clear out to the other side. Many applications of horse cookies were required to get him back in gear. Good boy.

Loud noise. Well, yes, it was a loud noise.

A horse coming up on his six. Either Milton is competitive and does not like being passed. Or he remembers that horses what get passed in races get strongly encourage to stir their stumps. Or he just doesn’t like other horses in this space. Hop. Hop. Hop.

Another horse having a moment. Our two are like this at home. If one of them is in trouble, the other thinks he will be next.

Thank you to Coach Courtney for allowing a TB invasion of an ASB group lesson. She wisely put Milton in with the unflappable horses. The horse who had the hissy was a) unrelated to Milton & b ) a sass factory being remediated by an advanced rider. The schoolies took care of their riders. The horse who passed Milton completely refused to be drawn into Milton’s drama. The riders learned that sometimes you might need to avoid another horse in the show ring.

Once again no media. Too busy chewing my metaphorical nails and maintaining a non-metaphorical death grip on the arm of Assistant Coach James.

Update. Because I was unclear to at least one reader. Husband Greg rode Milton in lesson. I watched.

Onwards!
Katherine

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Awareness of the outside world, continued. “The Alabama Black Belt as a region of insurgent African American aspirations makes a strong claim to take over the meaning of the term from its older and other senses.” Southern Spaces: The Black Belt, Tullos, 2004. The article quotes Booker T. Washington in the same vein and says Richard Wright applied the term to residential areas in Chicago. ~~~

Riding, Or Not, Again

Awareness of the outside world. Ancient Alabama, part nine. AL.com: Vast network of Alabama caves reveals hidden fossils, endangered ecosystem, Pillion, 7 Dec 2021.
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Taking a break from Hunter Barn for a few months. Sit out the cold months and start again in the spring.

Riding my horse. It is too awkward to get Rodney over there for my midweek lesson slot. The plan (ha!) is to continue at Falcon Hill Farm. [Holiday Adventures, Rodney at FHF]

Riding their horses. School Horse & his barnmates are exactly what I was looking for in a lesson horse. If the rider has a moment, if the rider shrieks and grabs mane over a tiny crossrail, they just carry on.

And yet.

After seven lessons on three horses, the very thought of another lesson still makes my stomach hurt. Maybe this is something I should listen to? Maybe I’m simply tired of being stressed out?

For the winter, I’m not doing things that give me anxiety. We’ll see where that leads. I should say, not doing optional things that give me anxiety. The universe is all too capable of providing unavoidable sources of anxiety.

I realize this is exactly opposite to what I said a month ago, “If I didn’t do things I dread, I’d never do anything at all.” That’s why I’m limiting the time frame to winter. [Lack of Lessons Lately]

Perhaps Rodney and I will make so much progress, I will not need school horse lessons in the spring.

A dog can dream.

~~~

Note. I wrote this, including the “ha!” before Rodney announced that he too was taking a break. [Rodney’s Goldilocks Vacation].

Onwards!
Katherine

Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. Covid-19 Hospital Capacity Circuit Breaker Dashboard. Hat tip to YLE: State of Affairs: Jan 10.
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“Life is what happens when you’re trying to get stuff done.” Peppy Bunting (my grandmother)

Drive to three different feed/pet food stores.

Stock up.

All critters now have requisite eats and appropriate materials to poop/pee on.

Home.

Put up indoor cats.

Unload.

Make sure dog doesn’t get out.

Take advantage of door being propped open to move heavy things out of house.

Done.

A necessary day, but not one for the ages.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding, Or Not

Awareness of the outside world. In Canada, “The province is back in a modified lockdown … our gathering limit is five people indoors and ten outside, and restaurants, gyms and other businesses like that are closed again, and all others have capacity limits back in place, again.” Yarn Harlot: Second verse, same as the first, blog post, January 5, 2022. I believe this is Ontario. Meanwhile, in Birmingham, “How can I best ensure my safety and that of others in the Alabama Theatre? … #2. Practice good respiratory etiquette by coughing and sneezing into your elbow.” Alabama Theatre: Plan Your Visit. Current as of January 8, 2022.
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First, Rodney was too fat.

Then, Rodney was too thin.

Now, we are putting him up and feeding as much hay as he will eat.

Still not enough.

We have reluctantly raised his grain.

The calories and the cold weather are putting too much joie in his vivre. You expect much when the calories are bubbling out their ears. [My Horse Is A Mood Ring]

I drum my heels and wait for Rodney to be just right.

Onwards!
Katherine

Images

PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri, Color of the Year 2022

Onwards!
Katherine

Words About Words, Blogging About Blogging

Interesting bits from the outside world. Wordle – A daily word game, created by Josh Wardle. Origins thereof, Boston.com: He made Wordle for his partner. Now it’s an online hit. Daniel Victor, New York Times Service, January 4, 2022.

⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
🟨🟨⬛🟨⬛
⬛⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

~~~

“Perfect is the enemy of good.” Voltaire, among others

I’ve make it clear that I want to write novels and short stories. I’ve also made it clear that this is not happening swiftly. Here’s the latest plan.

Writing advice says to write every day. Bzzzzt. I’d make a note to write fiction every day. It would sit there decorating my To Do list and making me feel inadequate. Not working. Which leads to …

Step one. Weekly fiction.

Fiction posts on Saturday. I’ve been doing this for a while. Now I’m telling myself that getting something done once a week is enough. It’s not even every week. The first Saturday, as today, is State of the Blog. So we’re talking three posts a month. That’s enough.

(Gaaaa. It’s even hard to say. It’s NOT enough. Do it all. Do it now. Anything less is failure. But I digress.)

If I can get three fiction posts done, mission success.

On to content.

Art & saddle seat. I enjoy both art and saddle seat. I hope to continue both. OTOH, if I never did either one again, that’s cool. It was fun while it lasted.

Art & saddle seat. I have a few opinions. I like this. I don’t like that. Nuance? Pffft. A deep understanding of the techniques involved? It is to laugh.

Fiction & hunter/jumper/eventing. I want to do these. It tears me up that I am not doing these.

Fiction & hunter/jumper/eventing. I have opinions. Oh boy, do I have opinions. You take a horse over jump in front of me, I’m going to have thoughts. Probably not flattering ones. There is a ghastly tradition growing in American riding of crouching on the horse’s neck and reeling in the horse’s snoot on landing. BEND the knee. STRAIGHT line from hand to bit. Why is your horse’s nose BEHIND THE VERTICAL over a fence!?!?

Pulls self back from rant.

Ditto fiction.

However, art & saddle seat/fiction & jumping is a misleading dichotomy. It is true. It is not complete. Fiction is also like saddle seat.

Just because I can ride horses doesn’t mean I can ride saddle seat. There are differences between the disciplines. I accept this.

Just because I can do words doesn’t mean I can do fiction. There are differences between the disciplines. I have a harder time accepting this.

Which leads to …

Step two. Treat fiction as I treat art.

Stop trying to write the Great America short story every Saturday. Or any short story. A fully-realized gem of fiction will not suddenly appear on my screen any more than than great art is going to suddenly drip from my pen.

I have been trying to tell myself that any fiction – no matter how little – is acceptable. I have no trouble doing this for Sunday art posts. Trying to expand that tolerance to Saturday fiction posts.

Recent fiction posts have been glorified plot outlines. However, I did at least put them into fictional frames.

A conversation [Notes For A Holiday Movie]

An metaphysical conversation [Creating A New Classic]

A meeting speech [A Marketing Proposal for New Holiday Movies]

So that’s what I’m going with. Weekly posts that are in some small way fiction. And then being happy about that.

Plus.

Step three. Echoing what I said yesterday about exercise. In the future, no more talking about how I’m not getting anywhere. [Generating Stories By The Luck Of The Throw]

Do or not do. There is no yapping.

Step three, part two. Will limit the talking about instead of the writing of, unless something brilliant occurs to me. [Forms of Fiction]

Outro

Aim low. I hate it. But you have to jump crossrails before you can jump Grand Prix.

Archives [State of the Blog]
Archives [Fiction]

Onwards!
Katherine

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. Took a news blackout yesterday. My outrage meter is already pegged in the red zone. A day of hand-wringing and justification and other people’s outrage would increase neither peace nor progress. Blackout didn’t help. Turns out that sheltering yourself leaves you very conscious that there is something you are sheltering FROM.
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Milton: I helping.

After all the perseverating last month on where to walk and what distance to walk, the problem was solved for me. I have been taking Rodney with me on walks, the way I used to do with Mathilda. That means the pasture, mud or not.[My Two Horses]

The idea is to a) increase his fitness & b) getting him used to walking around his own pasture as a relaxing activity. Why that is so hard for him, I have no idea.

We go for three laps, or one mile. When I take Milton out also that’s two miles. I tried both together. It did not go well. Milton has separation issues.

I’m walking carefully on muddy days. Knees holding up so far.

Previous Post [The Next Step, State of the Fitness, November]

Places

Pasture, mostly walked here

Local park, twice, after a truly astounding amount of rain

Stepping Stone Farm, once [October Walks, same path]

Home Depot parking lot, new, once (Sunday morning, I was careful about traffic). Update [If You Build It, They Will Shop, Walk Report, Home Depot]

Homewood Shades Creek Greenway, new [Impromptu 5K, Walk Report, Charlie Brown Christmas]

Data Dump

Walking. 22 days out of 31. Daily miles to virtual Fuji, which I finally finished! Extra half mile to virtual Mississippi walk. 5K to Charlie Brown Christmas, above. [Walking Virtually Mount Fuji, Virtual Mississippi River Part One]

Dance. 3 classes in three week. Didn’t miss one. Small victory. The Dance Foundation

None. 7 days. Three of them when I had a riding lesson, which knocks me out for the day. Four days of nada, mainly weather related, i.e. dark, rain, deep mud. Been pretty good about at least staggering out to the pasture for a walk.

Biking, stretching, cardio, weights, etc. In future, I will no longer list what I’m not doing. Believe me, if I manage to do any of these things, I will definitely count them.

Total. 32 “days” because I took Rodney for a pasture walk on a dance day.

As I said about No Stirrup November, I’d like to be doing more. At least I did this. [Lessons from No Stirrup November]

Onwards!
Katherine