Virtual Brush Box

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

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. Don’t settle for consent. Hold out for enthusiasm. For more on the subject, RAINN: What Consent Looks Like.
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tldr: Figured out why I am drawn to dance and why I will never be good at it.

[New Shoes, Not for the Horse!]

Dance as a Physical Activity

I enjoy moving through space. I am good at it. These are not unrelated facts.

I can walk for miles. I can stand for five minutes before I start whining.

I’m good at learning movement patterns. Tai chi forms. Karate kata. And yes, dressage tests. Not that I never make a mistake – she adds superstitiously – but the basic concept is in my skill set.

If dance class was a matter of learning a sequence of steps, as with tai chi or karate, and then repeating and perfecting the exact same steps, I’d be golden.

Alas, this is not the case.

Dance as a Musical Activity

Dance is the physical embodiment of music. I am not.

In the beginner ballet classes at The Dance Foundation, we dance to a real-live person playing the piano rather than to canned music. It’s lovely. It’s definitely a perk of the class.

However. There is no connection between the pleasant sounds coming in my ear and what happens with my feet. The wiring just isn’t there. Music is a language I am all but deaf to.

For the record, I hate mirrors. I can go an entire dance class without looking at one entire wall of the room.

I had this dance epiphany watching the instructor outline our next exercise. Four of these this way. Four of those that way. It came to me how much of dance is numbers, in the same way that music is numbers.

Dance is music. Music is dance. Neither is me.

Mechanistic movement? Yes.

Rhythm and rhyme and harmony? Nope.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Graphic from NJ Department of Health, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Assist to Instagram: @dr.berthahidalgo. (In case your viewer is squashing the image, larger vertical format below.)

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Proof of jumping lesson!

!!!

We jumped this. It wasn’t horrible.

Well, actually.

Hank jumped this. I wasn’t horrible.

This is Hank.

Hank is a school horse.

Hank doesn’t worry about people fretting and flailing around him.

Hank gets on with his job.

Be like Hank.

Jumping lesson at fancy hunter/jumper barn. (They have asked for no publicity. )

This is Hank.

Hello, Hank.

Walk.

Trot.

Canter.

Trot poles.

Canter poles!

Canter crossrails!!
(I asked to trot one first.)

Canter a vertical!!!

My jumping wasn’t good, but I had inklings that one day it might get back to being good. I’ll take that.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

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Repeat of above.

The Horse World, and Elsewhere

Awareness of the outside world. Tired from lesson. I got nothing.
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A leather martingale to display this year’s horse brass. Cox The Saddler: Leather martingale to take 1 horse brass. [NHBS 2021]

I was surprised to find out the leather widget was called a martingale. All right-thinking people know a martingale is a piece of horse tack, either standing or running. Also an Irish martingale if one is studying for a USPC rating. The Society Of Master Saddlers: Different Types of Martingale

Little did I know.

A martingale is …

… an adjustable part of a dog collar.

… a similar adjustable widget on the back of a coat or dress.

… a gambling system.

… a probability theory.

… a way to keep track of your your sword. fencing.net: Using the wrist strap or Martingale

… “A stay running from the end of the jib-boom to the dolphin striker, which holds the jib-boom down against the pull of the fore topgallant mast stay.” The Age Of Sail: Martingale

… an obsolete term for a twofer, or occasionally a threefer in the theatrical lighting industry. Wiki: Martingale

… a sewing shop in Bothell WA. ShopMartingale

… a restaurant & bar in Portsmouth NH. Martingale Wharf

… a name with a family crest. House of Names: Martingale History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

… a street in Eugene OR.

… a road in Schaumburg IL and Schwenksville PA.

… an avenue in Mooresville NC.

… a close in Cape Town, South Africa.

… a PDF. Electronic Journn@l for History of Probability and Statistics: The Origins of the Word “Martingale”. Mansuy 2005.

and

… a precis of the preceding, An Ergodic Walk: The history of the martingale, Sarwate, 2012.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine