Virtual Brush Box

Riding Journal

Awareness of the outside world. Two weeks out from my second shot. I’m as vaccinated as I’m going to get. Bring on the outside world … slowly.

“We have normality. I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can’t cope with is therefore your own problem.” Adams
~~~
Photo guru Meg McKinney brought her critters class to the show as a photo field trip. Photo student Averil Loague was kind enough to send me the photos of Rodney. Welcome Averil! [Show Report]

Dressage

Warm up.

Next to go.

Hunter hunch. Pretty horsie.

Preparing to circle at B.

Canter circle.

Canter circle.

We are supposed to be trotting. Why do we both look like we are taking the inside turn in a jump-off?

Second canter circle.

Medium walk. Me sitting up and pretending to be a dressage rider. Seriously, that’s what I was telling myself.

Turn down centerline …

… and finish.

Shopping
No saddle for Rodney. Found a felt pad and back boots for Milton.

Modeling Session

Pause for applesauce.

We offer to be portrait practice.

My hooman is odd, but she’s my hooman.

Finally, ears!

Peppermints?

What dis?

Jumping
[Conversations With My Horse], on-course narration.

Jump 1

Jump 2. Check out those hindquarters. That’s a lot of effort for a crossrail that one might consider simply trotting over. Just sayin’.

From 2 to 3

Jump 3. I failed to follow with my hands on many occasions. Hard to go from ‘Trotting. Trotting. Trotting.’ to ‘Here ya go.’ Plus, when I fling the reins at him, he doesn’t always take it the right way.

Jump 6. Paw-holding was the order of the day.

Links
Previous photo class project.
[A Wordless Story, Show Photos, Winter Tournament 2018-19 #3]
[A Wordless Short, More Show Photos, Winter Tournament 2018-19 #3]

Meg McKinney posts [Archives]

Thank you Averil! Added later, along with logo. Should have said 10q in the first place.

Update
[Doctor Whooves Is Ready For His Close Up, FCHP Schooling Show, April 2021, Guest Photos]
[The Return of Doctor Whooves, FCHP Schooling Show, April 2021, Guest Photos II]
[Doctor Whooves and The Master, FCHP Schooling Show, April 2021, Guest Photos III]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. Bright notes. Dancing in the streets, Balloon Juice: Wednesday Morning Respite Open Thread , by Laurie, April 21, 2021. BBC: Malaria vaccine hailed as potential breakthrough, by Roxby, April 23, 2021.
~~~

Ultimate HoofPicks. Yellow is standard, I prefer the smaller blue/pink ones. This is our second set, in case the others are still packed in the trailer. [Hoof Care]

Yeah, I like them that much.

There’s no revolution in form here. They have the standard hoof pick shape. They shouldn’t be that special.

And yet, I find myself searching for one of these while bypassing the hordes of non-Ultimate hoof picks that have accumulated over the years.

It’s a cumulative effect. The angle is a bit better. The digging surface is a bit sturdier. It takes fewer passes to clean the foot.

They just work.

I want to buy armfuls and hand one to everyone I know who has a horse.

No special deals here. No relationship to the manufacturer, other than giving them my money. I just really like these hoof picks.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Images

Awareness of the outside world. From Roaming Reader, Spring in the Northeast. Taken April 21, 2021. [Archives]
~~~

In the spirit of end-of-the-month blog self-reflection, I turned a counting graphic into a logo exercise. While I’m not sure that I’d want to see it every day as a logo, it didn’t turn out badly as lettering.

[Counting Posts]

Previous Logo Exercises
[State Of The Blog Logo & Color Reference] SOTB
[Blogiversary, Quilty Logo] VBB
[Logo Study, Descending Capitals] VBB
[Letter Art: Logo] RS

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Words
Blogging About Blogging

Awareness of the outside world. Land Rover Kentucky Three Day Event XC today. Watch live on USEF Network with free fan membership. KTDE: Live Streaming
~~~
The blog has a new theme. That is the WordPress term for the overall appearance of a blog.

This unlooked for change came about because WordPress changed to a new editor. Since I am using the free .COM version, all I can say is ‘Thank you, Sir. May I have another.’

It got me thinking about about types of change.

Some are better. Linking to a previous post is now drag-and-drop rather than a multi-stage process. Useful if I’m including a long list of past posts, as I did on Thursday. [Pre-show]

Some changes are lateral. The fancy new Block Editor all but forces me to use WYSIWYG. This has been an option for a while, but one I have been avoiding. Now the HTML version is so annoying that I use their preferred version. Seeing the formatting on the fly is admittedly easier, as long as one is in line with the programming assumptions, see drag-and-drop above. OTOH, there are times when it just won’t do what I want. Then, I have to open the code editor to properly explain myself. A mix of good and bad.

Some changes are worse. If I hurry the save/preview process, the new program gets stuck. Something in my work flow causes it to get stuck often. I have to type a letter, erase it, and save again. So I am learning to wait for it to digest. Minimal, but annoying.

Some changes seem bad because it’s not the way I am used to. The new editor no longer put photos on the landing page of the blog. All I had was a boring list of titles. Hence the new theme. All of the options were a long scroll of posts. No theme that provided a list of summaries. Not good or bad, but not what I had.

And now I shall bitch. Because venting is fun. My nitpicking list of other changes, a mix of bad and lateral. Time will tell if I get used to these, if they continue to bother me, or if I find that they work in my favor.

It jumps to the end of the file. Annoying in a really long file. Yes, I have discovered that I can use the home key to get back to the top. Still annoying. [LEJOG]

The *&*@ block menu gets in the way of reading the text above what I am working on.

Can’t always see where the cursor is.

It wants to insert blank lines all over the place. I have to remember to shift-enter if I don’t want to move into a whole new zip code.

Occasionally the link text shows up in the url box, meaning I have to erase text before I paste the address. Why? What purpose does this serve? It’s not consistent, so I can’t tell which keystroke pattern to avoid to prevent this from happening. I can’t rely on auto-pilot. Some times it’s there; sometimes not. Small but annoying. I use a lot of links.

WYSIWYG links are hard to punctuate around. The period or the bracket gets sucked into the link. I have to type the required glyph and then backspace it to where I want.

WYSIWYG links don’t show the url. Can’t sort a list of links by date.

Speaking of dates, drafts no longer show their dates on the main editing page. The date only shows up when the post is scheduled. For drafts, I have to look at each one individually. Not useful when one is planning a week’s worth of posts.

It no longer accepts 00:01 as a time. I have moved the posting time to 01:01. That’s why it’s been coming out an hour later recently. Probably not a problem in the US, since most of us are asleep. In other places, I may now miss someone’s coffee hour.

The Table of Contents widget is gone. This maybe a function of the theme. Gaa. It took so much clicking to pick this one. Nevermind, found it. Had to customize. New skill.

There is no Quick Edit function. Tweaking a title means opening the post in a new window.

The media library no longer lists where the photos have been used. I find this hugely annoying. When I reuse a photo I include a link to the previous post. Now I have to click over to get the name of the image, use the search box, and hope the name shows up in the search.

Alternatively …

All these things may still exist. I may need to figure out how to do it under the new format. Word count is still there, but has moved from constant display under the text box to a request button up top.

Bottom Line
I am not an early adopter. Of anything. I prefer to think of myself as Old School. I am comfortable with the term Curmudgeon.

State of the Blog [archives]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world . WBUR: I’m Not Celebrating The Chauvin Verdict, by Pelton, April 22, 2021. Counterpoint. The Root: Black People Don’t Need Reminders That Chauvin’s Guilty Verdict Doesn’t Mean the Fight Is Over. It’s OK to Celebrate Small Victories, by Linly, April 21, 2021.
~~~
Pause for regrouping.
~~~
The Equine Amateur Dramatic Society is now in session.

Setting
For the FCHP show, Rodney went by himself. Milton stayed behind. Neither one has shown the ability to stand quietly at the trailer while the other one works, particularly if that other one goes out of sight. We will wrestle that greased pig in the future. Too many other issues to concentrate on at the moment. For now, solo showing. [Show Report]

Rodney
When we left for the show, Rodney was convinced, utterly convinced, that he was leaving, never to return.

Rodney has lived with three owners and four residential trainers. I don’t know if that is a little or a lot for the average horse. For Rodney, the lifestyle had left him with the conviction that every time he got on a trailer he was moving somewhere new. It took us trips over many months to convince him that we would always bring him home.

Shipping in company undoubtedly helped.

Now he was getting on the trailer all by his lonesomeness.

… this is it … I was right all along … all those other trips were an aberration … this time is for real … I’m outta here … new stall here I come … I wonder if I will like the new place … I doubt it … where am I? … where is this that I now call home? … oh, here … I’ve been here … I go home from here … oh … okay.

Milton
When we left for the show, Milton was convinced, utterly convinced, that the three of us were leaving him, never to return.

Milton’s resume includes the track and two owners. He doesn’t seem to have the departure demons that Rodney has. Milton wants everyone to be together. His favorite time is team meetings, when the four of us stand around grooming, and puttering, and chatting. His least favorite time is when Rodney goes out to the ring or around the field without him. When we leave, he stays in the stall to contain his anguish. In contrast, being the stay-at-home horse bothers Rodney not at all. [Gold Star]

… where are you going? … why are you leaving MEEEEEEEEEEEEE?!?!?! … you’re back … it was so long … I had such a tough day … I’m so tired.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding Journal

Awareness of the outside world. Earth Day.
~~~
First horse show since 2019. [Dressage, Jump]

I had thoughts.

Negative
I had my second vaccine the Tuesday before the show. This is relevant because I chose not to take any aspirin/ibuprofen/whatnot in the subsequent days. I was told it was okay, but why risk compromising the vaccine response? Unfortunately, I have collected sufficient aches & pains that no meds for four days left me cranky and irritable. Easy prey for negativity.

Negative 1. This shouldn’t be this hard. A small class at a small show should not require months of preparation.

Negative 2. There is no up side. If it goes badly, that’s bad. If it goes well, it’s still only a tiny class at a tiny show that took me 11 years to accomplish.

Come the day, my happy emotions overrode my grumpy rational objections. As they do.

Miscellaneous
As I loaded the trailer, I kept thinking, ‘I am FINALLY getting back to a horse show.’

The implication was first show since Previous Horse a decade ago. In the meanwhile, I have done half-a-dozen shows with Milton and dozens of ASB shows. Those are different. I’m not sure why.

I shall have to unpack this thought at some point.

Practice
All the travel to practice paid off handsomely. Rodney was relaxed in the ring. I got over the lack of halt. I figured out a warm up that would work, i.e handwalking to start, lots of walking, some standing, a tad of trotting.

Speaking of standing, I tried something new for the entrance. Instead of trotting around the ring, I trotted the long side – mostly because I felt I had to trot somewhere – walked to A, then stopped and waited for the bell. This wasn’t a halt. This was standing at ease until the judge was ready for us. Rodney’s brain is so busy that standing gives him time to slow down and process. Odd, but it worked for us.

Prep Links
[Ears In The Arena, Let The Acclimatization Begin]
[A to X to Where?!? Weirding Out Over New Dressage Maneuvers]
[Playing Marco Polo In A Dressage Ring]
[Protocol Will Be Respected]
[Finish Your Pass, um, Corner]
[Checking In On Three Phases]

Jump Class Considerations
Much in-house discussion preceded our entering the crossrail class.

Con

Really? Crossrails? CROSSRAILS?!?!

Pfft. Call me when we are jumping something interesting.

Long wait between classes.

We have not schooled two sessions in one day.

One crisis at a time. Our first WTC dressage test was enough to worry about.

Rushing Rodney never works. He gets overwhelmed by life.

Pro

Gotta start somewhere.

Waiting until the time is right risks becoming never the right time.

He was fine with double sessions at the barrel race. [Not From Around These Parts]

He’s 22. The calendar is not on our side.

Decision

See how it goes and enter on the day.

He coped so well in dressage that I considered going home right after. Since we where there, we gave him a chance to stand around and snack.

Why not, we’re here.

Result

As it turned out, crossrails was an excellent choice. Since the height was negligible, we could work the mental angle. We could walk over them if needed, and did on one occasion. It was a hair bigger and longer than we had been practicing, but our prep paid off. He kept the sproings under control.

Overall
In retrospect, I would not change anything about our lead-up to the show, or the plan we had for the day itself.

Well, I’d change a lot of things, if I had my druthers, starting with the fence height.

That is not a peace-inducing train of thought.

Give the horse we have and his history and our history, I would not change anything in our lead-up to this show.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding Journal

Awareness of the outside world. Dentist update. Onlay, as suspected. I’m usually a cheap drunk, but needed three shots to get the tooth numb. Does anyone else get their ass kicked by the epinephrine?
~~~

Day Two. It took 11 years, but I finally got my fancy, mid-life crisis horse into a jumping class. [Show Report, Day One]

Doctor Whooves, Class 23: Cross Rails

Warm Up

Rodney: Big walk! Gotta Move! Gotta be on my game!

Me: You can slow down. No need to be big.

Rodney: Oh. Okay.

…

Me: These are actual crossrails. They are bigger than the piles of poles you have been doing. You got this.

Rodney: (hop)

Me: Eyes up. Heels down. Stay trotting. Stay trotting.

Rodney: (hop)

…

Rodney: That’s a mare. Over there. That horse. That’s a mare.

Me (hauling on horse head): We are going to walk to the other side of the ring now.

…

Rodney: Oooh, look.

Me: That’s a gelding.

Rodney: So?

Me: Well, At least I know you’re not worried about the jumps anymore.

Class

Me: Here we go. Eyes up. Heels down. Stay trotting.

Rodney: !

Me: (Rodney gets an eyeful of white poles. ) We’re trotting and we’re trotting and we’re trotting.

Rodney: !

Me: Look at the jumps, not your fan club on the rail.

Rodney: .

Me: Okay, we calmed down to a walk. That’s fine. You can step over this.

Rodney: .

Me: (Course is colorful. This fence is brighter than the rest. Puts leg on.)

Rodney: !!

Me: Didn’t like Auburn colors? Maybe you’re an Alabama horse. (Heads toward green and white fence) Don’t mess up the Dartmouth fence.

Rodney: !

Me: (Reminds self to praise horse) You are doing great. You are handling all of this really, really well.

Rodney: !

Me: Now where did they put fence 8? Over there. Eyes up. Heels down. Trotting.

Rodney: !

Me: Whoops, 9 came up quickly.

Rodney: !

Me: (To self, maybe we should try cantering over the last jump? No. No. Remember what happened the last time we cantered a crossrail. Plan is working. Stick to the plan.) Trotting. Trotting. Trotting. [Recent Jumps]

Rodney: !

Me: Yay! Brave horse. Lots of stuff in there to look at. You were a star. Applause for Rodney!

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine