Virtual Brush Box

Feed Change

Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. At the end of last week, my state was bouncing back and forth over the red/orange transmission line. First, state was orange; local counties red. Then, state back to red; one local county orange. Heading in the right direction. CDC Covid Tracker
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Rodney is sensitive to being overfed.

Life choices deteriorated.

Lowered feed.

Life choices improved.

Rodney is a hard keeper.

Feed gradually raised.

75% of previous. All good.

87% of previous. Still good.

Back to previous rations.

Bzzzzzt.

We are now looking into switching feeds.

Gotta give props to the old man for athleticism. Middle of last week, it became obvious that Rodney’s mind was not on riding. I got off and asked the in-house ground-work expert to lunge.

While lungeing, Rodney repeatedly managed to get all four feet well off the ground. When upset, Milton has one move, crow-hopping about like a wind-up toy. Rodney has range. Leaping. Tossing his head. Sunfishing. My favorite was rearing while levitating off the back feet. Very expressive.

It was during the shenanigans that we started discussing a different feed.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Blog Logo, Lines

Images

Awareness of the outside world. Catholics and Cultures: Camaiore, Italy, townsfolk lay tappeti for Corpus Domini procession, Landy. Includes a gallery of images. Assist to Sapori e Saperia Tours for mentioning these colored sawdust carpets in a presentation during HGA Spinning & Weaving Week. SeS: How do you find…? Making of.
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Process notes. Lines were drawn .5 mm thick, placed 2mm apart. Scale changed; ratio remained. Drawing & border in Inkscape. GIMP to change format for upload. Doing it digitally did *not* take less time to draw. It did enable me to make the lines closer, be more precise & correct mistakes.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Magic Spells, Fiction Sketch

Words

Awareness of the outside world. “honestly frodo’s journey is so wild. like, imagine your uncle goes missing after his birthday party, and his old stoner friend from out of town tells you the souvenir he brought back from a vegas trip 80 years ago is actually satan’s mood ring and now zombie assassins are coming to burn down your town unless you and your lawn guy meet up with medieval hozier in a dark gastropub…” Paper Rose Doodles, Doodlin Stuff, a Tumbler blog, May 30, 2021.
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Z stood in front of the chain link fence, considering the opening they had made with the Hole-In-Fence spell. It was a fiddly little spell. One had to specify exactly what sort of hole and where. After all, a chain link fence is more hole than metal. Most fences had some sort of opening for wind and water to pass thru. If you get down to the atomic level, everything is a cloud of holes.

They hadn’t gotten to the atomic level. It just felt like it.

Turns out magic has always been among us. It’s just not worth the time.

If you wanted to make a hole in your own fence, it was easier to grab a set of bolt cutters. Or saw. Or drill. If you wanted to make a hole in someone else’s fence, perhaps for illegal purposes, the owners of the fence and their security cameras were not going to take kindly to you standing in front of the fence for 45 minutes while you composed yourself.

Turns out you could design your own spells. Z’s D&D friends used to joke that Locate Parking Space would be a useful spell. So they tried to make it.

Turns out, once again, you had to be specific. Very, very specific. There was always space in the middle of intersections and on sidewalks. Even at the curb, you had to account for fire hydrants, No Parking zones, handicapped spaces, and so on, and so on. Given all that, it was easier to drive around & look for a space.

Every 25 or 50 years, someone discovers a dusty tome at the back of a shelf in a quaint, dimly-lit bookstore, or in the stacks of small, out of the way library.

What a treasure!

What possibilities!

What a lot of work!

What a waste of effort!

The dusty tome would go back on the shelf for another generation to find, and the wannabe magician would go off to become an engineer or quantum physicist or itinerant street chalk artist.

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Run for the Koalas, Walk Report, Kansas City Zoo Run Virtual 1K

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. Flu shot yesterday.

In other news, photo story by photo guru Meg. Alabama Newscenter: Alabama quilters escape to Lay Lake for ‘Building Better Quilts 2021’, by Meg McKinney October 12, 2021.
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The Virtual Walk
Run For The Koalas, 2021 Kansas City Zoo Run
Date, IRL – Saturday, September 18, 2021
Date, Me – Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Birmingham Zoo
Distance – 1 mile
Time – 19 minutes

Nineteen minutes translates to a hair over 3 mph. Not a bad pace for me. Results are not up for the 2021 Virtual 1 mile. Going by last year’s results, I probably finished middle of the pack. RunSignUp: KCZR Results

Now that in-person races are resuming, many places are also offering virtual options. Dunno if it is to accommodate people who are unwilling to do IRL races yet, or as a way to make more money. I hope it is the latter and vote that the trend continue.

The IRL Walk

Each year, I renew my membership to the zoo, plan to come more often, then don’t get back until next walk.

An alt-zebra, since it’s hard to get photos of real zebras with a phone camera. Also, I’ve decided zebra’s are weird because I am so very (very!) familiar with the shape but not at all used to seeing said shape with the art deco covering.

After the official mile, I wandered about a bit.

Previous Zoo Walks and a Zebra

[Slower Than A Somnambulent Sloth, Nashville Zoo Virtual 5K, Walk Report, Birmingham Zoo] February 2021

[Zoo Stroll, Walk Report, Oasis Zoo Run Virtual 5K, Toronto Zoo, September 2020]

[Foto Friday: Equine Art Deco] 2012, photo, with my big camera. At least, I assume it’s mine. I would not have used someone else’s image, certainly not without photo credit. And this, campers, is why you should always use watermarks.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Why The Wait, Where Have Hunter/Jumper Lessons Been All My Life, Or At Least Recently

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. “Seventy-one per cent of boys surveyed feared they would be made fun of if they played with what they described as ‘girls’ toys’ – a fear shared by their parents.” The Guardian: Lego to remove gender bias from its toys after findings of child survey, Russell, 10 Oct 2021.
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What took me so long? Why haven’t I been taking hunter/jumper lessons all long? [First Lesson]

Yes, there was an element of rage and despair.

But also.

Because I have zero interest in jumping crossrails for their own sake.

Perhaps if I were a more enlightened individual, I would realize that any time on horseback is a gift, that every horse is a chance to learn, that …

Pfffft.

I have done way too much bad jumping over low fences. I have no desire to do more.

The only reason for these lessons is to get my head in the game for jumping big with my own horse(s). When that wasn’t possible, I didn’t see the point.

I don’t know that it is possible now, but I’m closer than I have been.

So, here we are.

As an aside, there exists the theoretical possibility of jumping big with other people’s horses. In order to do that, I would have had to …

A) Luck into a good situation.

B) Lease a horse, same as with showing suit in saddle seat. This would have meant keeping a horse with a trainer, paying all the bills, and in some situations, paying an additional lease fee.

You can’t predict A and I had no interest in B. So there I sat.

Onwards!

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

First Lesson, Once Again

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. “It turns out late fees for books don’t work. They don’t bring the books back.” NPR, Morning Edition, Transcript: New York City’s public libraries abolish fines on overdue materials, October 7, 2021. “New York isn’t the only public library system that has implemented such policies.” NPR: The nation’s largest public library system is ending late fees forever, Young, October 5, 2021.
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The new barn has not filed a privacy preference plan, so I will be vague.

The lesson was exactly what I was looking for. Walk, trot, canter, and trotting crossrails on a school horse whose attitude can be summed up by, “Canter? Well, if you insist.”

At one point I released a deep breath. This was taken as a sign to drop from trot to walk.

I had a moment or two. Ducking one’s cute little head to bite at a fly on one’s chest can look a lot like ducking one’s head to commence hopping around like a wind-up toy. OTOH, I was bitten on the arm by one of the wicked flying things. School Horse was not wrong.

It was not the magical ride that I had on Sam all those years ago. [Sam I Am]

First, my first ride on Sam has grown to mythic proportions. The real ride is lit with the murky haze of memory, and colored by the subsequent eight years of riding and showing together. It can’t have been as magical as I remember.

Second, I am not climbing out of as much of a riding deficit. I’m still not where I wanted to be, but at least I’m on a horse on a regular basis.

My hope is that quiet, methodical rides will help me to remember that I know how to do this. Then, I will be able to come back to my own horses and be the adult in the room.

So far, so good. I am scheduled to go back today.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Around The Pasture in 80 Days, Rodney Finishes The Virtual Tevis, 100 Miles, 80 Days

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Patti & Ricki: Normalize Inclusion with Fashion is for Every Body & Ex Urbe: Medical Leave Reflections plus Empathy Sphere Essay.
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Two horses in the clubhouse.

Numbers this week; thoughts next week. Yes, I am squeezing out every possible ounce of blogging juice from this. The Virtual Tevis was our main summer/autumn activity.

Rodney missed the same 11 vet and weather days as Milton.
… missed 5 more days due to shoeing.
… did 3 solo days once Milton finished.
… did 4 extra days as to make up for “non-trail” miles.

5 rides under one mile.
27 rides 1 to 2 miles.
22 rides 2 to 3 miles.
3 rides over 3 miles.

Longest ride – 3.1 miles. Doing trot sets to the corner.
Shortest ride – 0.63. Rodney by himself, complaining about the footing every step of the way.

Longest stretch of daily riding – 14 days, Milton.

Tortoise Power!

Data Dump – Rodney

Friday, October 1 – .91 miles, 23 minutes
Saturday, October 2 – 1.01 miles, 40 minutes. Two minor fusses over bushwhacking in the wilds of his own pasture. [Fit The First]
Sunday, October 10 – 2.54 miles, 1 hour 8 minutes. Aiming for three miles to end on a long note. No dice. Had to stop due to Milton having tack issues.

Distance this week – 4.46 miles
Time this week – 2 hours 11 minutes
Rides this week – 3 days

Rodney’s Final Stats, Official

Total distance – 100 miles
Total time – 45 hours 26 minutes
Total rides – 52 days
Total calendar – 78 days

Pace, time to go one mile – 27:16 m/m, per VT results page

Rodney’s Final Stats, Unofficial [Moving the Goal Posts]

Total distance – 105.68 miles
Total time – 48 hours 11 minutes
Total rides – 57 days
Total calendar – 78 days. Finished last Sunday. Today is 80. Took liberties with the title.