Virtual Brush Box

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. Tri-State Running Company was the presenting sponsor of the virtual 5K. From their website, they appear to be the sort of fixture of the local running community that is interesting in actually getting people running, as well as selling shoes. Shop local. Shop local that cares.
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Spring Virtual Flying Pig 5K
Irondale Furnace Trail
June 14, 2021
Distance – 5K
Time – 1:15:16
Placing, overall – 611/630
Placing, gender – 423/436
App – Runkeeper

The Walk

Was able to knock out the distance without having done much walking recently. I’ve suspected that I have a 5K walk in my back pocket. Good to know.

Last year [The Strolling Pigventure]

The Park

Since it was summer, I chose a trail with shade.

Bham Wiki: Cahaba Iron Works

Trail in ritzy section of Bham. Houses to the right have scenic view from the hillside. Houses to the left have large back lawns running down to the creek. None of them cheap, I suspect.

The Pigs

[Flying Pigs]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding Journal

Awareness of the outside world. Got pulled out of my comfort zone with a vengeance. Calendar exploded. Have had activities that require in-personal socialization every day this week. Two today. Some good; some less good. That’s a lot for me even in the before times. Now, exhausting. How is everyone else doing?
~~~

For visual interest, unrelated scenery from yesterday’s walk. Odenville City Park.

… and now back to our regularly scheduled programming …

Things we don’t do at home and then expect our horses to cope with at shows.

+ Waiting around forever

+ Warming up and then standing by the ingate before performing

+ Riding multiple times in a day

Which is by way of saying we did two-a-days last week. Not for any sound theoretical reason. We backed into it.

Ride in the am to avoid the worst of the bugs. Mostly laps & trot sets. [Summer Hours]

Quick session of ring work in the evening to take advantage of dry grass, i.e. non-dewy, non-skid footing.

We’ll see if it continues.

While we are on the subject, other things we do at shows but don’t practice at home.

+ Braids for horse

+ Fancy show clothes for rider

+ Eating for **** out of a cooler

No wonder we are all exhausted after a show.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. ‘Tis the season. Maybe I’ll finally remember the difference. Metaphor appears to have originated with a man named Gary Lezak. TVSpy: Kansas City Meteorologist Uses Tacos to Explain Tornado Alerts, Eck, Apr. 28, 2021. Assist to Premium Internet Curation and the friend who reposted from there.

~~~

A baker’s dozen of used curry combs, in various stages of worn. These are all the old curry combs that turned up during the le grande clean out. [Out With The Old]

They are heading off to become school horse brushes. They will get left out, stomped on, lost, and turned into mulch.

Some are still stained. They were soaked twice in soap, once in bleach. The last step may have killed the rubber on a few.

Some are worn. Better than nothing?

Some aren’t even all that worn. They are being rehomed because I am selective about my grooming supplies.

A) I like a small, palm-sized, rubber curry with the traditional concentric circles of teeth. You can see three old ones in the top right of the photo. I go thru them because …

B) I like new. With pointy teeth. That can actually dig up hair and dirt and scruff when you apply sufficient elbow grease.

What’s in your grooming box?

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding Journal

Awareness of the outside world. Miami. For those who were in the building. For those who are looking. For those who are waiting. ❤️.
~~~

Space for mental recalibration.

~~~

Rodney & I jumped!

A cross-country fence!

On purpose!

Nicely!

Last weekend, we went over to Full Circle Horse Park specifically to school cross-country. However low it would prove to be, it was time to lay down a baseline. Milton & husband came along as escort. No jumping, but Milton walked and trotted out in the XC field.

Rodney & I walked over a handful of low fences. [Looking Forward]

We trotted over the lowest of the low.

At the end, I aimed him at a tiny wooden box that was juuuuust big enough that I knew he would actually jump rather than trotting-pole over it. [Probably the last one, sans flags or hedgehog.]

Which he did.

As neatly as you please.

And stopped quietly on the far side.

Well, then.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding Journal

Awareness of the outside world. Tau Day.
~~~

[Tertium Quid]

Folks at the clinic were surprised to find out that Rodney is 22 years old. Yeah, he looks good for his age. Plus, he’s had it pretty easy the last 10 years. I know. I was there. [Clinic Report]

Anyway.

It got me thinking about a third horse. Again.

I tried the go-with-the-flow version.

So, I’m not so much horse shopping as letting the universe know that I am open to a unicorn trotting up my driveway. We’ll see how that goes.

[Tertium Quid]

That was 2017, four years ago. Really? Four years? Time flies.

Then there was the whiney version.

Not as obvious as it sounds. I had to look out of the state for Rodney. I had to look out of the freaking country for Milton.

[Gotcha Day]

That was 2020, mid-pandemic.

I need to get on this.

My horse shopping situation has not changed.

The area I live in doesn’t have the density of horses that Lexington has … I have trouble getting people to take me seriously … My past decisions didn’t always work out.

[Crowdsourcing, 2012

That was 2012. ignore the optimistic tone. It took 2 more years to find Milton.

On the upside, I found out that I’m not alone.

How does a person who likes to take things slowly and steadily with unfamiliar horses, buy her next eventing partner?!

TheMareWhoNooneWanted: The Gelding Everyone Wanted

Alternatively, Milton and I could learn to work together.

In theory.

In reality, I’m not sure there are enough supplements in the tack store to make that happen. [When Milton Adores Me, Milton’s Meals]

No answers. A where-my-head-is-at post.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Images

Awareness of the outside world. BBC: In pictures: Strawberry Moon rises, June 25, 2021
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~~~
Process notes. Last week, linear and radial gradient from Inkscape. [Summer Words]

This week, I clinked on another button and found mesh gradient. I still don’t have a good “handle” on what it is or how to use it. (That was a vector joke.)

These letters are single, random colors with automatic mesh gradient fill and no stroke, i.e. edge. I went with simple when I ran out of time/patience/ability to understand the tutorials. Image finished with GIMP.

I also discovered that gradients can be designed from scratch with icons on the tool bar. One is not limited to the choices made by the fill menu. In retrospect, duh. The point of using complicated graphics software is to have control over your design.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Words

Intro
My comment game has been lax. [Comment Policy]

My apologies for …

1) The major gap in 2020.

2) The delay in catching up for several weeks in 2021.

3) Any future delays & gaps.

Personal
It would convenient to blame the pandemic. In truth, inertia is a demon I wrestle with, particularly when I am not busy.

This seems counter-intuitive.

When I have an empty horizon, I find it can take all day to Do The Laundry. When I’m busy – with a happy, perky, fulfilled kind of busy – I find it easy to toss in a load or two when I have a moment.

So it’s like that. I get myself all worked up about Responding To The Comments. So I don’t. And then the days pile up.

The pandemic certainly doesn’t help.

Grits teeth. Vows to do better.

Technical
My WordPress program has developed a weird hiccup. When I look at an unpublished post, I am logged in. When I look at a published post, I am not.

A) This messes up my stats by counting internal surfing as outside hits. Digital own-goals.

B) This means I have to comment as a visitor, rather than as the author of the blog. [example, Summer Stomping]

This only happens on my desktop. On my phone, I am logged in no matter what I am looking at.

Since I can still edit and preview, I haven’t put in the time to track down the problem. So my stats are wonky. Oh well. I’m not using them for marketing.

Therefore, if I want to comment as myself, I have to comment on my phone. Thumb-typing is less convenient than having an entire keyboard at my disposal. Cue interia.

As of now, I am caught up on 2021 comments. The 2020 comments I missed are getting a link to this post. I, for one, have no desire to go back to last October.

Outro
I read the comments.

I love the comments.

I always respond to the comments. In my head.

I don’t always respond to the comments. On the post.

~~~
STOB [Archives]

Update. The technical wrinkle occurred after the program redo in April of this year. The big hole in last year’s response was all me. [Change]

Update the second. All fixed. [State of The Blog, State of the Comments]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine