Virtual Brush Box

Words

 
Looking back to this time last year. Post inspired by A Enter Spooking: It’s Almost Been a Year. Appropriate, since a post on the same blog got me started pontificating about the times we find ourselves in. [Whither?]

A lot of recent commentary has called mid-March 2020, ‘Our last normal week.’ I beg to differ. Horrible things were happening. We didn’t know the size of the rock, but we could see it rolling down on us.

Monday, March 10 & Tuesday March 11, 2020
I’m sure I was listening to the news. Don’t recall anything specific to these days.

Some point in here. I had my annual medical check-up scheduled for the following Wednesday. I wondered about going. Called clinic, which is attached to hospital. They said, ‘Oh-sure-fine-come in.’ Really? Later, they called to cancel. Ya think?!

Wednesday, March 11, 2020
“We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.” WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 11 March 2020

I went to Stepping Stone Farm to watch a friend’s lesson.

Thursday, March 12, 2020
Saddle-seat lesson. [Center of Gravity].

After my lesson, I watched the resident horses get adjusted by an equine chiropractor. I expressed interest in having them come to my barn. When they call several weeks later to set up an appointment, I was startled and mildly horrified. No, I don’t want a total stranger driving over from another state. Hello? Pandemic? Lockdown? As it turns out, appointment would have been reasonably safe. Outside. I don’t generally hug my equine service providers, so social distance would have been maintained. We didn’t know this at the time. First indication that people would have different responses.

Thursday evening. Dinner before club meeting. Had reservations about attending, but not enough to take action. Afterwards, decide to bail on Friday’s dance class. Laziness masquerading as concern.

Friday, March 13, 2020
APH: First Alabama resident confirmed as positive for COVID-19

Saturday & Sunday
Took Rodney for schooling. [Super Duper Starter Neon Baby Green Hunter] posted March 17 for Sun March 15

Last time for six months. [We Take A Small Hop Forward, Schooling at Falcon Hill Farm, September 2020] Posted Sept 30 for Sun Sept 27.

Sunday, March 15, 2020
“FHF was the last place we went before the world shut down. Literally. It was a Sunday in mid-March. Husband’s work was scheduled to close on Wednesday. As we were getting ready to leave FHF, he was notified that work was closing Monday, the next day. Everyone had one day to come in, get their lives arranged, and then go home.” [Small Hop]

Thoughts
I wish I had some.

We are living through an historic moment. That feels like an appropriate time for Deep Thoughts.

… um ….

… nope …

Usually words are my strong suit. I certainly had a lot to say à la minute, over 40 posts worth. I have no overarching conclusions. A year of boredom, cacophony, and existential screaming. [Pandemic posts archive]

How about a few lists instead?

Places I went
Grocery stores and their ilk, e.g. CVS
Feed store(s)
Dunkin Donuts, my lollipop after medical appointments
Dentist [Outing Report, In Which I Venture To The Dentist]
Tires [Shod!]
Parks, many, many parks [Medley]
Bookstores, not as often as you’d think [Venturing Out]
I’m sure there is more, but you get the idea. Mainly errands.

Stopped by SSF a few times. Remember back when they were encouraging us to buy gift certificates to support local businesses? I dropped off a check for future lessons and show fees. Someday. I also stopped by to babysit an award. Ribbon has gone were it belongs. Glass trophy awaits reestablishment of F2F meetings. Someday. [Wither Wednesdays]

Farthest from home
Feed store [The Beginning]

Things I would not have done otherwise
Virtual BreyerFest [Happenings at the Horse Park]
Virtual Tevis [Archives]
[Upside, Hard To Be Happy]

Things I would have done otherwise
Non-emergency dental appt. [Same. Same]
Doc appts. Had a mammogram. Everything else is routine vet check. It can slide a few months.
Horse shows. Maybe. [The Year Without Horse Shows]

Yeah, I don’t get out much. Food for thought. If a pandemic doesn’t change your lifestyle, perhaps you need to be more engaged. I already knew that.

Over the past year, I’ve not been as worried about my own safety. My health is such that I figured if I got it, it would massively suck for a few days, and I would get better. Perhaps I should be/have been more worried. Nothing is guaranteed. However, I have been deeply concerned about social safety. I decline to be a vector.

Word was ‘Stay home if you can.’

I could, so I did.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Fit To Ride

Walking

 
Awareness of the outside world. H.R.1319 – American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
~~~

 
Year of The Ox Virtual Challenge, Walk #5 [Intro]
Limestone Park
Official site, Birding Trail, Friends Of on FB
February 12, 2021
Distance – 6.22 km (3.87 miles)
Time – 1:35:15 min
Current Mileage – 20.61 km (12.81 miles)
To Go – 11.91 km (7.4 miles)
Total Distance – 32.53 km (20.21 miles)
Challenge in miles. Tracker set to kilometers for weekly 5Ks & virtual UK walk. [Digital Fun, LEJOG]

Lots of wandering back and forth to avoid soggy footing.

This park is amazing to me, if no one else. I have driven past the entrance for years. I had no idea there was a park wedged between light-industrial neighbors. The entire walk was accompanied by heavy clanging, beeping noises.

There are quarries in the area. If I processed the sign at all, I figured it was an office park for the limestone industry.

Observation deck.

View from the deck.

Panorama of park. From left, Manna Farm Alabaster Charity Gardens, red barn is on separate property of unidentified purpose, Alabaster Public Works, Alabaster RC Club

Walk 6.5

 
Year of The Ox Virtual Challenge, Walk #6 [Intro]
Railroad Park
February 13, 2021
Distance – 1.94 km (1.21 miles)
Time – 29.53 min
Current Mileage – 22.55 km (14.02 miles)
To Go – 9.97 km (6.19 miles)
Total Distance – 32.53 km (20.21 miles)

Into town in advance of ice storm. Took a turn around Railroad Park. Above, putting the railroad in Railroad Park. Previous walk [Strolling In Another Park Another Day, Walk Report, Savannah Bridge Run, Virtual 5K, December 2020]

Walk 6.5

 
Year of The Ox Virtual Challenge, Walk #6.5 [Intro]
February 17, 2021
Distance – 0 km (0 miles)
Time – 0 min
Current Mileage – 22.55 km (14.02 miles)
To Go – 9.97 km (6.19 miles)
Total Distance – 32.53 km (20.21 miles)

My first failure.

Liberty Park is a local neighborhood, development, planned community. One of those.

Attempt one. No path around eponymous statue, even if open. Did you know there are multiple Statues of Liberty? Atlas Obscura: New York’s Statue of Liberty is Just One of Many Worldwide, by Reeve, 2016, Wiki: Replicas of the Statue of Liberty.

Attempt two. Possible walking track around one of several sports fields. Boring but doable. In checking out the different options, I got lost in generic suburbia, aka Stepfordville. Would be there to this day if not for GPS.

Attempt Three. On way out, saw cute loop. Marked residents only. Gave up. Got out of HOA hell.

Previous Posts
[Virtual 2021]
[Ox 1, 2, 3, 4]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding Journal

 
Awareness of the outside world. History.com: 11 Things You May Not Know About Marco Polo, by Andrews, 2013 updated 2018.
~~~
Proof, once again, that everything in my life becomes a blog post. [Life with a Blogger]

 
Some members of my family are more visually-driven than text-oriented. Therefore, I have been dragged kicking and screaming in the 21st century. I am part of a Marco Polo chat group. Think short videos in place of text messages.

Since I detest how I look in selfies, I tend to send a short clips from a recent activity, perhaps from one of my park walks. ‘Hi. I’m here. This is what I have been doing.’ The sort of mildly pointless message you send to family to let them know you continue to respirate.

As I was sitting on Rodney taking photos for yesterday’s post, my phone pinged. I realized I had not sent a Polo for the week. Well, I can fix that right now.

Eventhough I don’t like selfies, I still start each Polo with a shot of my face. Turns out my mother and I sound very similar on the recordings. Even I can hear it. So, I start with my face. Then the rest of the people know which one of us is talking. Although the horse would have given it away this time.

A person on in the chat group asked me, “How long do you have to stand in that ring with him before he’s comfortable?” Horse training in a nutshell.

Do you Marco Polo?

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding Journal

 
Awareness of the outside world. Three family members fully or partially vaccinated. Starting to hear about friends getting their shots.
~~~

 
Every few years, the dressage pooh-bahs redo the tests. A while back, they split the eventing dressage tests apart from the straight-up dressage tests. Which is weird. Back in the day, one simply did the equivalent level dressage to whatever level of eventing one was going.

When they split off eventing dressage, they also dumbed down the tests. Which I appreciate. The Beginner Novice Test B test that Rodney and I have been practicing is full of commands along the lines of ‘Pick up your canter somewhere over there.’ or ‘Walk in that corner.’ This is one reason we are working on intro eventing tests rather than the Training Level Test 1, which expects a higher level of accuracy.

However, the test is a little strange.

A-X-H. Enter Working Trot.

What?

No halt. I had heard the starting halt had been cut. Riders were having trouble with dumping all their momentum at the beginning. These days, eventers don’t Enter-Halt-Salute until they get all the way up to Intermediate. Odd, but okay. Dressage riders are expected start from a standstill early on. Dressage Intro A has no initial halt. Intro B and everything after halts at X. USEA tests, USDF tests

BTW, one of the eventing Intermediate tests has an initial halt, one does not. That’s not confusing at all. What about people who take their eventing horses to dressage shows for schooling? But I digress.

No halt. Got it. I have ready done this with both Milton and Rodney in Intro A. Will admit to trotting into the arena chanting under my breath, Don’t stop. Don’t stop. Don’t stop.

At least a centerline is involved.

For both eventing Baby Beginner Novice tests, we are expected to trot in, get to X, turn off the centerline and trot over to the corner. M and H respectively for Intro A and B. I don’t think I have ever deviated from a centerline in my life. I was so confused by the test sheet that I had to track down a video online.

Turn off centerline? Really?

Can any old-school eventers tell me if this ever stops feeling weird?

Nota bene. Baby Novice used to be the ankle-biter, intro level. Must learn to say Beginner Novice instead. Apparently, the term “baby” upsets people. Yeah, well. a) Hunters have no trouble with their Baby Green division. & b) If you are that bothered by it, learn to ride and move up to Novice. I say this as someone who aspires to, would be thrilled to, achieve the level of Baby Beginner Novice.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Horsekeeping

 
Awareness of the outside world. It’s not changing history to tell the complete story. OPB: New, mysterious Portland monument honors York, an early explorer of Oregon, by Foden-Vencil, Feb. 22, 2021.
~~~

 
Milton now wears the new shipping boots. [These Boots Were Made For Shipping]

Milton loads well. Milton ships well. He is a star about all of it. They both are.

In an ideal world, Milton would like to leave the trailer head first. When he was shipping alone, this was possible. There was enough room for him to turn around and walk off.

With two horses, this is not possible.

As the lighter horse, he gets the rearward slot. Less room to turn around.

Because of the way the slantload is constructed, the storage area has to be set up in order to use the butt bar on the second slot. Narrower exit.

As a result of all this, Milton has to walk off backwards around a turn. He clearly would rather not. He takes smaller and smaller steps as he gets closer and closer to the edge.

Perhaps the big nylon-armored boots would make him feel more protected.

He’s backing up a trifle more smoothly and he has not been pooping in the trailer as much. Pooping can be a sign of nerves. Or a full colon. It’s hard to tell.

I think it helps. I think he feels a little safer about plunging his legs into the void. A little.

Or maybe it was coincidental. Maybe he was getting better right as he started wearing more padding.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding Journal

 
Awareness of the outside world. As a kid in the ’70s during first wave feminism, I always thought it was unfair that I could choose to wear pants but a boy could not choose to wear a dress.
~~~

Horze Moulin Crystal Handle Dressage Whip from Riding Warehouse.

The gentleman who ordered this whip did not read the description carefully enough. He was looking for a long whip that would reach Milton’s tush without the rider letting go of the reins. Check. He also wanted a gentle popper that emphasized noise over force. Check. He did not look to the other end sufficiently.

I have nothing against men bearing crystals. Billy Porter could totally pull this off. My husband is so not a sparkle person. Even less than I am.

Am I wrong to be this amused?

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine