Virtual Brush Box

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Ancient Alabama, part eight, “Designated as the Stephen C. Minkin Paleozoic Footprint Site … The old mine is one of the best sites in the world to discover the tracks of animals from the Coal Age.” AL.com: Alabama’s ancient coal swamps were a hot, sticky mess of giant trees and massive insects, Pillion, 3 Dec 2021. Footprint site?! Who knew.
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An ASB Christmas gift that I put up for good luck. I have no intention of hiding my saddle seat side when ( … if! … when! … ) I compete in other disciplines.

The doorway in my trailer. Milton numbers to the left. Rodney numbers to the right. Out of frame to the left is a number from Sam.

Are you trailer decor or strictly functional?

Onwards!
Katherine

Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. “Boston wastewater makes all the past waves seem almost flat. It is hard to comprehend.” Paul Bleicher @pbleic Dec 30, 2021. Hat tip, YLR: State of Affairs: Jan 3. Source, MWRA: Wastewater COVID-19 Tracking.

Boston wastewater makes all the past waves seem almost flat. It is hard to comprehend. pic.twitter.com/lZidZRKeTC

— Paul Bleicher (@pbleic) December 31, 2021

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You are marveling at the reflection of sky and clouds in the shiny clean fender of my truck.

One of our holiday projects was to wash the truck & trailer. The trailer was a dirty, embarrassing mess. Seriously. I worried what Hunter Barn would think of us when we drove up. Granted, we also went to SSF, but they know us well enough to know that I clean up when it counts, i.e. in the show ring.

Since most of the schmutz was tree spit, every inch of metal had to be scrubbed. Not scrubbed hard, but not sprayed off with a hose either.

All cleaned up & ready to go. Isn’t it lovely?

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. “Strive for OK. This is not likely to be the best weeks of life. Lower the bar a bit and be OK with OK for a little bit.” Dear Pandemic: Case numbers are jumping QUICK! What should I be doing? Ritter/Those Nerdy Girls, December 30, 2021.
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Equi-Soft Girth by Stübben.

As I understand it, the elaborate construction takes pressure off the sides to free up the shoulders. Seems to me this places more pressure on the sternum, which is where I would have said Milton had objections, but that area is well-padded and spread out to distribute pressure.

He seems to like it. Less cranky and moving more freely.

If this feels like another in an endless stream of similar posts, you are not wrong. We have thrown many darts at the dartboard. Equipment. Feed & feed additives. Behavioral changes.

Some darts stick. [Miracle Boots]

Some darts fall off. [Naptime]

Each one works for a while but fails to provide a permanent fix.

IMO, Milton wants to be a happy horse. Previous Horse was a card-carrying, certified grouch. Milton is not in that league. There is an answer. We just need to figure it out.

Our current set of Keys To Milton:

Boots [Miracle Boots, More Of The Story]

Magnesium [Milton’s Meals], “Different rider & magnesium seemed to have cut down on the hoppy-hops (crosses fingers).” [Rodney & Milton’s Excellent Instruction]

Supplement for hind gut ulcers

Girth

You would think there would be one, underlying, unifying explanation. If there is, we have yet to find it.

Onwards!
Katherine

Images

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Editorial note. When I drew this (do you draw on a computer? The eyes. Not the letters. From scratch, even the eyelashes. Go me. But I digress.) it was December and I couldn’t believe it was almost 2022. Now it’s January and 2021 seems like it was a long damn year.

Time is weird.

Onwards!
Katherine

Words

First, I want to thank both development and marketing for agreeing to this meeting. You won’t be disappointed. My department has worked out an idea for a whole new sector of holiday movies. New content. New direction for advertisers. The works.

I’ll just spring it on you.

(Pause for dramatic effect.)

New Years Day Movies

Not New Year’s Eve. That’s been done. Ball drops. Crowds. The kiss at midnight. We’ve all seen the movies. Hashed and rehashed.

We’re talking about New Years DAY.

The next day. The first day of the next year. Resolutions. Hangovers. The possibilities are endless.

Here are some storylines.

For romance, Main Character resolves to get fit. Meet cute at the gym.

For comedy, Main Character resolves to learn to cook. Cue kitchen antics.

For drama, Main Character resolves to mend fences with person X, only to find out … drumroll … the rest of the story.

It’s not all resolutions. There is the aftermath of holidays.

What happens after you spend a week with your family? That could go comedy or drama.

Will that city lawyer really give up their high-powered job to marry their high school sweetheart? We could get super meta on that one.

And the marketing. We can sell advertising packages for gym memberships, for diet apps, for language classes. Think of any resolutions you’ve every had. Anything people want to do, someone wants to sell them something to do it. And we want to sell those people advertising space.

As we see, we have a captive audience. Every one is tired from holiday stress. They don’t want to go places or do things. They want to stay home and watch tv. So we give them stories to watch.

We give them stories to watch that don’t have a trace of Christmas. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, it is inescapable for the entire month of December. We are all tired of it by now. So, we give them stories that look forward. Yes, technically it is still the Christmas season. January 1 is the eighth day of Christmas. No one cares about that excerpt curmudgeons and conservative Catholics.

Plus, everyone is shopped out. Buying gifts. Getting gifts. Returning gifts. No one wants to think about more stuff. So, we don’t sell things. We sell services.

New Year’s Day, the self-improvement holiday.

~~~ fin ~~~

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. “A portion of race proceeds will benefit the Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion at St. Joseph’s/Candler.” SBR: Official Charity.
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Enmarket Savannah Bridge Run, Virtual 5K
McCallum Park (Bham Wiki)
Sunday, November 28, 2021
Time – approx. 1 hour 18 min
Results – none for virtual, AFAIK
Map My Walk

Not a course for a fast time.

Fortunately more trails than indicated on map, above. So I didn’t spend the entire hour walking back and forth across the bridge.

Loot included shirt & bib. Race shirt theory. Long sleeves, as here, in XL for husband. I don’t do long sleeves. When the weather gets cold, I go straight from t-shirt to sweatshirt. Cute/special shirts, such as Flying Pig in XXL for lounge/sleepwear. Garden variety &/or horse-related, i.e. Breyer, in L for barn. With so many walks, I have resupplied my barn t-shirt stock for years.

IRL Walk

Third of three local parks I wanted to check out. Chosen for this walk since it has a bridge. [Little Walking, Little Walks]

Listed with monthly walks. [The Next Step, State of the Fitness, November]

Last year [Strolling In Another Park Another Day, Walk Report, Savannah Bridge Run, Virtual 5K, December 2020 & Bridge Bling]

A Plan That Didn’t Happen

Found the perfect place to do this walk. Bridgehunter: Bridgeport Railroad Walking Bridge. A mile-long pedestrian bridge over the Tennessee river. Long, straight walk. Lots to look at. Historic.

But.

As with Baltimore, it was several hours away. [Wandering Around The Water]

Plus, the Internet was hazy on whether or not it was still open to the public.

So, I stayed around here.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. The policy wonk in my household thinks the supply chain issues are partly due to people buying more stuff instead of spending the money on going out. It doesn’t take much of a shift to throw the system out of whack.
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The next day, we trailered Milton over to Stepping Stone Farm. Husband Greg took a lesson. Got to be at the barn to take care of horses. Might as well teach a few lessons. [Holiday Adventures, Rodney at FHF]

It’s not my story. I never know what to say. Since I am capable (so very, very capable) of saying too much, I overcorrect by saying too little.

I’ll repeat my comment from last year. Still true.

“Since the Virtual Tevis, my husband has been riding Milton. They seem to get along. At least he (the husband) doesn’t look at him (the horse) and tear his hair (either husband or horse) out in frustration and despair. Unlike some people.”

[Miracle Boots, More Of The Story, Milton History]

Lesson Report

Milton (taking one look at Coach Courtney in the middle of the ring): Yes, Ma’am. Right away, Ma’am. No one here but us exceedingly well-behaved horses.

No media because I got all wrapped up in watching and forgot.

“The next day”, as in Friday, as in December 24. Dunno which is weirder. Spending Christmas Eve at the barn, or spending Christmas Eve at the barn and not thinking it’s weird.

Onwards!
Katherine