Adieu Evening Light, We Shall Miss You

Because what this house needs right now is LESS light. Not.

Here’s what our power company had to say, as of Saturday afternoon:

Your Power is: OFF

Estimated Repair Time:11:45PM CST on 11/02/2020

That’s tomorrow night. Five days total. Chart above is three days in. Power company update is actually an improvement. Before, they were saying our power was on and noted a restoration date from power interuption a few weeks ago. At least the problem is on their radar now.

BSF, we’re fine. Jonesing for hot water, but fine. Cooler with ice for cold. Enough open stores for hot coffee and food.

I’m not sure the horses have noticed.

Stay safe. Stay sane.

Katherine Walcott

Rubber Ducky Day 2020

Random Image, Holiday, Photography

 
Awareness of the outside world. Chicago Ducky Derby. I missed this year. Have a note to self for 2021. Benefits Special Olympics Illinois. Environmental note, ducks are collected and reused.
~~~
Happy Rubber Ducky Day!


 
A peacock duck because we could all use some glamour right about now.

~~~
Process notes. Duck was exceptionally hard to get in focus. Out of 112 shots, only 25% were marginally usable. Even this one is not as crisp as I would like. First problem was a “scene optimizer” that occasionally gets clicked on. I wish I could rip it off my phone. Nothing ever comes out when that *%#$ thing is on. I have no idea what it is used for. And, of course, it only happens occasionally so I don’t think about it and never notice it until I’ve struggled with way too many photos. Grrr. Anyway. Second problem was background in focus rather than foreground. Standard photography error. Finally the phone does not do well for close-up. Limitation of the techology. Teach me to use my phone instead dragging out the big camera. Good for snapshots; lousy for art.

Past ducks, duck trivia, & explanatory link, [RDD 2019].

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

The Tack Change II, Virtual Trail Report, Tevis Sippy Cup, Miles 86 to 90, October 2020

Riding Journal

 
Awareness of the outside world. Dover catalog Fall 2020. Plus points for racial diversity. Minus points for lack of gender, size, age, or adaptive diversity.
~~~
Blogging note. I usually post VTevis updates on Tuesday. This one got bumped back a day when the Monday post became the Monday & Tuesday posts. Other than offending my sense of order, mox nix.

Overall
Two weeks until original, non-extension, finish date. Ten miles to go. Piece of cake for IRL endurance horses. We will likely need the entire time.

Milestones
Poverty Bar River Crossing, mile 89.

Daily Log
We are doing our rides in 1/3 or 1/2-mile laps around our pasture. Link to standings, Doctor Whooves, Major Milton, All. Daily screenshots from VTevis results page.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020. Today 2.06 miles. Total 87.28 miles. Time 56 min. Pace, slow. No streetview.

Milton back in his own saddle with new configuration. Seemed to go well. Rodney bareback.

Horses alarmed by kerfuffle at the top of the hill in the woods next door. After two laps, we decided they had a legitimate complaint. Wandered back and forth on the flat section for the rest of the ride. Tried once to go up the hill off to the side. Nope. Too close. Relaxed as soon as we turned away.

Friday, October 23, 2020. Today 0.68 miles. Total 87.96 miles. Time 22 minutes. Pace, slow. Same mileage, no streetview.

Milton same saddle. Did. Not. Approve. Took him a while to decide he didn’t like the set-up? Something loose? Ended ride early. Evening ride, no time to fiddle and try again.

Rodney with new bar. Fit great.

Saturday, October 24, 2020. Rain. 0 miles. Good thing we got miles on Wednesday.

Sunday, October 25, 2020. Today 2.09 tracked +.5 awarded = 2.59 miles. Total 90.55 miles. Time 1 hour, 13 minutes. Pace, slow. No map or streetview. Program has us way farther along than we should be. If Poverty Bar is mile 89, we should be just past No Hands Bridge on the map. I mention this because I was so impressed with how close we were to the finish … until I took a better look. Update. I may have the geography confused, but the map was definitely optimistic.

Number geekery. Rode 2.09 miles with tracker. Milton lunged for 4 minutes and rode for 14 minutes without tracker. Our pace was 28 minutes a mile, so I awarded him 1/2 mile. Rodney had 1.5 miles in the bank from when we were doing a warm-up lap in hand. Five laps in hand equals 1.66 miles. Minus .5 today. Technically, Rodney is up 1 mile. Not counting unless we need to.

Back to horses. Given Milton’s reaction on Wednesday, we hauled horses and a selection of bars and girths to the round pen at Stepping Stone Farm. If you’re going to experiment with tack arrangements, it’s nice to do in a contained space. And he liked the first one we tried. Cool.

Because of the rain the day before, we stayed on gravel, which meant many, many loops around the parking lot. Ventured up the road!

Gold stars for shipping!

Gold stars road work!

Tin stars for not wanting to come back down driveway toward the barn & trailer. This is the second time they’re done it. What’s up with that? You’d think they would want to go that way.

Successful saddle fit for horses & riders. Crosses many fingers.

Have to repeat that Rodney was a star on the road. Straight and careful. First time I’ve ridden him on a road. Thank the fates for a quiet, Sunday afternoon, dead-end road with no cars.

Schooling the water jump.

Recent Posts
Mine
[Miles 82-85]

Others
County Island: The Tevis Trail: How Now?

Moonlit Pastures: 2020 Virtual Tevis COMPLETED!!!!!

[Tevis post archives]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Here’s An Idea, Let’s Change Several Variables At Once, Saddle, Schedule, and Diet, Part 2, Rodney

Riding Journal

 
Awareness of the outside world. The first customer service rep could not help me because the words and numbers on the computer did not match physical reality. The map is not the territory, Korzybski. We forget this at our peril.
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Rodney’s Saddle
If we are trying it for Milton, maybe a wider gullet plate is the answer for Rodney as well?

On our second trip to Stepping Stone Farm, he absolutely refused to trot. He’d try to canter, dink along, or threaten to blow. His feet were fine. It was another of his many issues.

Swamped by frustration. Again. What is the point if it is this hard? If no one is having fun? There may have been sniffles. (Note, sections of this post were drafted before we tried the new bar. Feeling better now. Incorrigible, unfounded hope has returned.)

We walked down to the round pen. Got away from the jump. Maybe anxiety? Took out one of the wither pads. Maybe saddle fit? I’ve always thought two thick pads were too much. He seemed to like them. Until he didn’t.[Padding]

Back home, rode bareback until we got our hands on a wider bar. (The widest of the standard Wintec set is white and labeled extra-wide. The smaller of the “wide” set is a pale purplish white also called extra-wide. This is not confusing at all. Picture me on the phone with tack store when the item I am holding in my hand is an item they do not sell. Supervisor was awesome. Asked the right questions. Figured out problem was with their inventory. They had the item I did not want incorrectly tagged as the item I did want. Or they are shining me on. Either way, told me to keep the first bar and they would send a new (hopefully) correct bar free of charge once they restock. Since I can’t figure out if this counts as a good review or a bad one, store name available on request. But I digress. Friends hooked us up.)

Rodney’s new set-up is same saddle, same girth, one pad, wider bar. It is a hair lower in front than I’d like but good. The first day, I felt tipped forward. The previous configuration could have been tipping me backward and I had gotten used to that. Second ride much better for me. The part under my seatbones is more comfortable. Seat feels wide. Makes sense. Rodney is a wide horse. He approves.

A solution? For the moment?

Maybe there is no single, fixed answer. Maybe I have to keep changing his padding around. Maybe his back is simply not set up for a saddle. Maybe all we can do is plod around the field bareback. Maybe my horse is unrideable. Maybe I need to move on the next topic.

Rodney’s Diet
Feed. Same.

Hay – coastal. Milton eats his hay and then takes Rodney’s. This I knew. Milton continues to eat while there is hay available. Rodney eats his fill and then wanders off. This I knew. Milton eats fast, as in vacuum cleaner fast. This I did not know. Maybe it’s a racetrack thing? Previous Horse was also obsessed with food.

Last month, we started putting Rodney in the stall for his breakfast hay. With them separated, I could see how quickly Milton whistled through a flake of hay. The dinner-shift feeder thought Rodney was being a weenie about defending his hay even when there were two piles. Milton can’t eat from eat two hay piles at once, but he can sure try. [Routine?]

Rodney is now put up for breakfast and dinner. More me time. A chance to finish his hay. Milton is not pleased. He was getting less before. Now, he’s getting even more less.

Hay – alfalfa. I really need to do a post about the whole alfalfa adventure. Short version. Started because we had no choice. Kept with because rxed for horses with weight gain and stomach problems. Brief, unsuccessful foray into bagged alfalfa.

Since Rodney has both weight and stomach issues, we had stayed with alfalfa over the summer. Now that he is getting all of his coastal, I’m hoping I can reduce the amount of alfalfa. Since they like it and don’t seem to be going ballistic, I’m letting them have an amuse-bouche with breakfast. They could probably get a flake each and be fine with it.

Bottom line, I am overly, possibly unduly, suspicious of Thoroughbreds on high-test hay.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Here’s An Idea, Let’s Change Several Variables At Once, Saddle, Schedule, and Diet, Part 1, Milton

Horsekeeping

Lucky enough to have a horse.

 
Awareness of the outside world. I worry about winter and Covid. States & countries that were doing well suddenly aren’t. What if that was the summer lull? I know, don’t borrow trouble. We have a gracious plenty already.
~~~
Milton’s Saddle
Since I am cheap and have resisted diving into the horror that is saddle shopping, both horses are still wearing their inexpensive, adjustable Wintecs. This may have turned out to be a good thing.

We have changed Milton to a wider gullet plate to accommodate the vast amount of padding he prefers. For due diligence, we did a recheck on saddle without felt pad. It was a no go. We also ran test of concept with Rodney’s wider saddle. Saddle okay. Milton’s special fluffy girth was a little too snug with the shorter billets.

The set-up is now Milton’s saddle, wider gullet plate, felt pad, & fluffy girth.

Yes, our horse is a padded prince. Your point?

Milton’s Diet
Feed. What can I say, we are eternally optimistic.

Milton is now on ProElite Starch Wise. Apparently, there is a zebra diagnosis out there that horse can have muscular sensitivity to sugar. So we are trying him on a low-starch feed. Even if he is not a zebra, it’s not a bad thing for him to be on a diet feed.

(Taught in medical school. If you hear hoofbeats, think horse, not zebra. The term has reached the Internet mainstream, Wiki: Zebra (medicine). There is even a medical website by that name, Look For Zebras. But I digress.)

As a plus, it’s a pelleted feed. There is an unconfirmed rumor around here that Milton does well on pellets. I realize that the form of the feed is not the content. I’ll take any good omens I can get with this horse.

He has been on this a week now. Seems to be going well. (Crosses fingers.) He did not go sproing the way he did last time. [Feed Change]

Hay. Milton is getting less, details tomorrow.

Overall.
Milton: I’m hunnnnnngry! This is bullshit!
Us: Sorry, Dude. Beer gut is not a good look on you.

Milton’s Foot
Noted for the record. Milton is slowly healing up an abrasion on a rear fetlock.

Years ago, a somersault on a swing left me with ropeburns behind both knees. Took forever to heal since they cracked open with each step. Milton’s cut looks just like my ropeburn.

Where would he find a rope? Rolling – which he does a lot – and getting his foot wrapped in a vine? The field has low-growing plants that would fit the bill. Fortunately, they break easily. After the initial swelling, he’s been fine on it. Weird.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott