Virtual Brush Box

The Horse World

Awareness of the outside world. AL.com: Alabama doctor says he won’t treat unvaccinated people: ‘COVID is miserable way to die’. Gore. Aug 17. Hard to argue with “I can’t watch them die like that.”
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“Say what you want about content and fan-engagement, Breyer is a business. Their prime directive is to sell plastic ponies. BreyerFest makes it disturbingly easy to buy plastic ponies.” [On Being An Energetic Couch Jockey BreyerFest 2021]

What I ordered & why.

Twelve seems like a lot, and it is, but it could have been way worse. I like the models with odd colors, what Breyer calls decorators. I should have been all over the BreyerFest theme, Horse of a Different Color. Unfortunately, almost every decorator model was a variation of color on a white base. Straight up white plastic doesn’t do it for me. Personal taste. The only all-color model was Favile, which is why I got a freedom scale model, usually not my favorite. If more of the models had been less white, these photos would look very different. As was, it was easy for me to walk away.

The Bigs

Dani – Appaloosa, Celebration model, came with my ticket. Breyer: Guest Horses – BreyerFest 2021, Breyer: Let’s Celebrate!!

Pollock – Rearing rainbow, one of the main reasons to get the more expensive ticket is the chance to order Special Run models, so I had to get something, right? Otherwise, what was the point of buying the more expensive ticket? I believe this is called the Sunk Cost Fallacy. [Breyer: Amazing in Technicolor!]

Special Run certificate from Breyer: Exclusive Models – BreyerFest 2021.

Apollo – gold, with mane, now Fire has a brother, seemed like reason enough. Breyer: Guest Horses, [First Model]

Favrile – smaller, multi-color. Breyer: Horse of MANY Colors!

The Littles

Avant Garde – purple
Dada – blue & white
Nouveau – yellow and other colors
Rococo – brown & white

Another perk of the All-Access ticket was the ability to order the set of four stablemates, the only way to acquire the complete set, otherwise you got one at random. Breyer does an excellent job of increasing sales through forced scarcity. At least, it works on me. Breyer: Art as Movement.

Kaleidoscope – multi-color, pretty. Breyer: Reveal time!

Kaleidoscope II – got a second one so that I could … I’m not sure what. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Backordered

To decrease the feeding frenzy, the mid-level models – Limited Edition vs. Special Run – were available as backorder once the stock ran out. They won’t ship until December.

Mark of Charm – An ASB. I blame Lexington, which I was watching at the time. Breyer: Guest Horses 2021, [Virtual Railbirding]

Glossy Apollo – same as above except shiny. A comparison to see which team I’m on. “While I bought both the Team Matte and Team Glossy magnet, I am a little bummed they did not have a Team Chalky one.” Breyer History Diva: First Impressions

Outro

Unless Breyer really blows my socks off, I feel like my plastic pony purchases are winding down. At least until I get caught up in next year’s BreyerFest ClickFest. [Horse Brasses]

Props to Breyer History Diva: Second Impressions. The post suggested a Joseph Cornell art box. I am not that ambitious, but it gave me the idea to do something other than a series of standard side conformation shots.

Model Horse [Archives]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. Afghan-American Coalition Releases Call to Action for U.S. Government Assistance to Afghanistan. Appears to have a humanitarian focus. Assist to link shared in Instagram Stories by Muslim-American Cartoonist Huda Fahmy, Yes I’m Hot In This.
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Stay! Stay! You hear me, shoes? Stay!

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. “Lambda has been on our minds (see my last post here). Thankfully, and importantly, Lambda is fizzling out. Delta is far more dominant and pushing Lambda away as an imminent threat.” Your Local Epidemiologist: State of Affairs: August 16, 2021.
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As my grandmother used to say, I am having an H of a time telling the difference between the feeding buckets. (Photo misleading. IRL, Crayola colors.)

We used to have a green bucket for Rodney and a white bucket for Milton. Rodney’s barn color is green. Milton is a large lump of white. Easy peasey. Feed for Milton goes in Milton’s bucket. Feed for Rodney goes in Rodney’s bucket. Go to barn. Feed Milton from his bucket. Feed Rodney from his. No hesitation. (BTW, due to fire ants, we keep feed in the house.)

Then the white bucket broke.

Store did not have white.

Bought a red bucket. Milton’s barn color.

Then the trouble began.

I am not red/green colorblind. I look at the red bucket and know that it is a red bucket. I know we have red as Milton’s color. Ditto green bucket and Rodney.

When I serve up the chow? I have to a stand there and think. This is Rodney’s food. Rodney is the … green … bucket. So his feed goes in that one. When I get to the barn, I have the same problem. I am feeding Milton. He is the … red … bucket. So I feed him from this one.

A bit of color theory, as I understand it. Micheal Pastoureau wrote a series of books recounting the histories of colors. In one of the books, I can’t remember which color, he says that, in the past, bright colors were seen as closer together that light and dark versions of the same color. In other words, bright red and bright blue were considered closer in color than light blue and dark blue.

Weird.

Okay, context was different back then. Pre-synthetic colors were paler and softer. Maybe brilliant color was hard to come by, so it was seen as a important attribute. Also these days, we’ve had images of the color spectrum shoved in front of our faces since we were tots. Our brains are trained to organize colors according to the spectrum.

So, it was an historical oddity.

Or maybe not.

Maybe there is something to the ancients thinking bright colors were similar. In hue – what we think of as “color” – the two feed buckets are different. However, their colors are the same by every other measure: saturation, shade (amount of black), tone (amount of gray), tint (amount of white), shininess, and so on. Pick an attribute, aside from hue, they are the same.

Fascinating.

OTOH, way more color theory that I want to reckon with when feeding breakfast.

Note to self. Buy a white bucket.

Update. New bucket. Problem solved. [On A Day About Food Another Post About Feed]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Interesting sidenote, given the prevailing feelings about the month around here. “The president almost certainly made August the basis for his choice.” Raw Story: The truth about the withdrawal from Afghanistan is hard for partisans to admit. Stoehr. August 16, 2021. [On A Related Note, see comment]
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The things you see when you get up before dawn to get an early ride in.

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Me to Rodney: Yes, I know it’s muddy and squishy. If you slow down and step carefully, you won’t slip as much. If you step slowly … and deliberately … and use your hind end … yes, like that. See? less slipping. Isn’t that better? Keep doing it … step … step … step … think about where you are putting your feet … all four of them … go slowly … See, it’s easier when you aren’t slipping …

Comment: I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired after 50 minutes of walking.

Me to Rodney, on another day: Power walk home! Let’s do this … 3.1 … we can break the previous record of 3.5? Here we go … 3.2 … keep going … 3.3 … plenty of space to gain speed … 3.4 … no slowing down now, gotta keep it up … 3.5 … almost, almost … 3.6! Yay!

Comment: I don’t think Rodney expected quite so much support for heading back to the barn. [Extra Mile]

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You’d think walking most of the our miles would be slow enough. Now I’m asking Rodney to slow down. It started on a day with muddy footing. We tried to help both horses be more careful so that they would slip less in the mud. More care, less slipping, more relaxation, happier horses.

Rodney did so well with it, I expanded it to regular days. We start out with Milton leading while Rodney drinks his coffee and checks his email. Now, I’m telling him it’s okay to slow down. It’s okay to let Milton go on ahead. He doesn’t have to be right up on the fluffy gray butt. He can go as slow as he wants.

Rodney is not stupid, but he gets anxious if things come at him too fast. I’m trying to show him that it’s okay to take on the world at a speed that he finds comfortable.

Turtle Power!

Where are we virtually?

Milestones.

Map. 39 miles in. Graphic from Tevis Cup: About the Trail, shading mine.

Tevis Cup: Trail Sections & Historic Notes

Data dump

Tuesday, August 10 – 1.73 miles, 50 minutes
Wednesday, August 11 – 2.56 miles, 1 hr 17 min
Thursday, August 12 – 1.95 miles, 50 minutes
Friday, August 13 – 2 miles, 56 minutes
Saturday, August 14 – 3.1 miles, 1 hr 19 min
Sunday, August 15 – 3 miles, 1 hr 20 min
Monday, August 16 – 0

Distance this week – 14 miles
Time this week – 9 1/2 hours
Rides this week – 6

Total distance – 39 miles
Total time – 17 hours
Total rides – 18
Total days – 24

Pace, time to go one mile – 25.57 minutes, per VT results page
Average miles per day – 1.73
Average miles per ride – 2.21
Extra miles, Milton – ~1.5

Numbers rounded off for ease of reporting. May not add up as given.

My Links
Last week [Fit The First, Virtual Tevis, 25 Miles, 17 Days]
[VT Archives]

Official Links
Tevis Cup: Virtual Tevis 2021
RunSignUp: 2021 Tevis Cup – Virtual Western States Trail – 100 Miles in 100 Days
RunSignUp: VT results

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. “I will never understand why wearing masks was a big deal. I will never understand why vaccines became the enemy.” @Dan Rather on Twitter
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Hank the Wonder Horse. Photo courtesy of instructor.

I’ve been thinking about my lesson. [Hank Got Hops]

That could be good. Digesting what I learned. Thinking of how to apply the lesson to my own horses. Pondering what I will work on in the future.

Except, that’s not what I’m doing. I’ve been wondering what kind of student I was. When I get in touch for my next lesson, will they look forward to it? Not care one way or the other? Reel back in dread? Will I be the student that causes them to question their career choices?

You see, I think I may have talked a bit too much.

I applied myself when Hank and I were working. Mostly. But it was hot. There were many walk breaks, for me as much as for Hank. I happily lept into the silence.

Because …

A) I talk.

Let’s be serious. I have a daily blog. This is not the action of a reticent person. To meet me is to be enveloped in voluble, perky enthusiasm. Rather in the line of a large, friendly dog who appears to be well-trained but you can’t be sure isn’t about to jump up on the counter. If you meet me at horse show, brace yourself. Even the hooting & hollering Saddlebred folks consider me to be loud. Whether I talk a lot or too much depends on how amusing you find me.

I think anyone who has met me IRL will agree that silent and placid are not on the menu.

B) I don’t get out a much.

This was true in the pre-times. Now, squared. I find myself chatting with cashiers and other poor souls I happen to wash up against. At least I am still self-aware enough to realize when I have to reel it back in.

C) A New! Audience! For all of My Horse Stories(tm)!

The horses I have now. The horses I had then. Jumping with Previous Horse. I even managed to reach all the way back into the misty darkness of my stint as a working student. They were all new! All unheard! This one! And this one! And that one!

It’s like fish stories, only with four legs.

Hank didn’t seem to mind, but Hank’s job is to be unflappable.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Images

Awareness of the outside world. Art Cloth Network. Assist to Balloon Juice: Faithful Lurker – Making Art Cloth and Art Quilts! by WaterGirl.
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Attalla AL, May 2021.

Not to be confused with Maverik-with-a-K gas stations. Similar color scheme, no horsehead logo, 350 locations in 11 western states. Maverik: About.

Maverix-with-an-X appears to have a few stations around Alabama and a small Internet presence. In other words, I couldn’t find much.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Thoughts

August needs to pull its socks up.

Contacted fancy hunter/jumper barn about next jumping lesson. [Hank Got Hops]

Out of town. Please get back in touch after Labor Day.

I hate August.

Get all excited about new possibilities, and … wait three weeks.

This would be annoying at any time, more so now when little else is happening.

Fancy hunter/jumper barn is off doing fancy hunter/jumper things. Stepping Stone is off to do fancy Saddlebred things, i.e. Louisville. Dance class is over; next set starts in September. Tropical Storm Fred is likely to wash out walks for a while.

There go all my usual reasons for leaving the house.

Then, there the reasons for NOT leaving the house.

Covid numbers in the state are horrid. Vaccinations are up. Yay! We still have to cycle through infections that have already taken place. The news is not going to to be good for a while. AL.com: Alabama COVID hospitalizations soon to hit alarming new peak with no end in sight, state health officer warns. Cason. August 12, 2021.

Yes, I am vaccinated. Yes, wear a mask. I could still catch it. I could still spread it. Unlikely, but not worth the risk to myself and others just because I’m bored and cranky. Seems wise to stay home and stay out of the way.

Speaking of the news, this fourth wave may be a disaster in the making (I hope not) but it is a slow-moving d-in-the-m. A twenty-minute, daily update would cover all we need to know. But the 24/7 news machine must be fed. So folks will get all revved up about this or that. Unless something worse comes along.

And then there are all the regularly-occurring reasons I hate August. The anniversary of my father passing away suddenly. The AEC happening without me, yet again. Gotcha Days for Milton and Rodney leading to all the frustrating self-reflection that entails. The reminder that Rodney’s arrival derailed my writing career as well as my riding career. [Hello September & Gotcha Day, 10 Years and a Serious Lack of Shiny Rainbow Glitter Sparkles]

You may see a few more posts from the reserve pile, starting tomorrow. That’s what rainy-day savings are for, right?

It may be a month where I have space & time to accomplish great things. I would love to get started on that Hugo-winning short story.

Or

It may be a month where simply getting to the other side is a victory.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine