Horses & Other Interests
Trip to SSF took longer than planned. Had to wait for construction to stop. Milton does. not. like. construction noise. So, one from the reserve pile.
~~~
Bought from: Knotted Bird Gifts, the museum store
During: Moundville Native American Festival
Moundville Archaeological Park
Moundville, AL USA
October 9-12, 2019
Previous Moundville
[War Pony]
Alabama Alumni Magazine: Ancient Lessons , article on Moundville by me, 2004
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott
Awareness of the outside world time. A boyfriend of my youth turned 65 last week. That is legit old. That is retirement age … that is not possible … no way that sweet, young thing is so old … no way this sweet young thing dated anyone who is 65 … I said awareness of time, not acceptance.
~~~
The downside of lunch at the barn.
~~~
Note to self. Do not wear a red shirt when hosing Milton. The reflections on a wet, gray horse are too disturbing.
~~~
When I type, SHOE comes out SHOW, RISING comes out RIDING. Freudian typing.
~~~
Milton will not eat his frozen treat if I am holding the cup. He’ll will eat out of the exact same cup if I hand it over to his rider. I’m not taking this personally. Not at all. Not in the slightest. [Horsicles]
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott
Awareness of the outside world. A wise man once told me to vote the environment. It’s the only thing that will be around in 100 years.
~~~
Visit to Stepping Stone Farm[Thoroughbred Invasion].
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott
Awareness of the outside world. Avoided the news yesterday. So much agita; nothing changes.
~~~
I knew my back was tight. I said so back in 2012.
All that dropping and rolling would be good fall protection. However, all that d&r is based on the ability to do a backwards somersault. I don’t roll. I am too stiff and tight through the back. Instead of curving into a ball and rolling over my shoulder onto my feet, I slam flat on my back and lie there like a distressed turtle. [Crosstraining]
Do I do anything about it?
Of course not.
Sure, I exercised. Walking. Biking. Swimming. Dance Class.
Did I address a known weakness?
Pffft.
Well, unless you count writing “Stretch” on my to-do list.
If my body were a horse, I would never have treated it this way.
I have now spent the last week and a half with an annoyingly painful lower back.
How did I get here? First day, I rode for over an hour & a half when we did our regular Saturday Virtual Tevis ride. Next day, I rode at Falcon Hill for an undocumented length of time but probably over an hour. Walking both days, light trotting the second day. By the evening of the second day I was having trouble moving. No radical overwork, just a long time in the saddle. [Logistics, Attitude]
At least, I think that’s what it was from.
It was not a tweak. I’ve done that. Years ago, I was bending over to lift a heavy cat while trying to keep my white pants off the muddy ground. Even as I reached, I could tell the position was ergonomically awkward. My back went sproing.
This time, my back muscles simply tightened up like a rope that had been pulled so taut the knots will no longer come undone.
The generalized anxiety that is 2020 certainly did not ease any underlying tension.
I did not see a doctor. I mean, other than the one I see every day. Medically, there weren’t enough symptoms to diagnose. They would have told me to rest and given me drugs. I’m a cheap drunk. I react strongly to medications. The universe does not need to see me on muscle relaxers.
So I waited. Heat. Ibuprophen. Linament patches. Started very slight movements as recommended by debandtoby. [Logistics comment]
What I could do: drive, lift heavy objects, anything as long as my spine was straight.
What I could not do: duck my head, get out of bed gracefully, anything that required the slightest curve in my spine either sideways or forward. You be surprise how often one ducks one’s head in the course of a day.
Checked out a new Tai Chi class last week (open air, socially distant, masks on 5 of 6). Was very careful about the moves I made. Felt fine, even good at the time. By the weekend, everything was worse. Could have been from the drive to class, or something unrelated. Either way, am trying not to do anything stupid this week.
Went for a ride on Sunday. That seemed to go well. Hair of the dog?
Once this is over, I will stretch, and stretch, and stretch more. Whether it’s on my to-do list or not.
BTW, Rodney is fine after all that riding. His back gets regular attention.
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott
Awareness of the outside world. Tired.
~~~
Squad Goals!
First Group Trip!
First Group Off-Property Ride!
When we arrived at Stepping Stone Farm, a rain squall had blown in. So we popped them into the round pen. Cue attack of the zoomies. They ran. They bucked and reared. They exchanged play bites. They even ignored the haynet in order to frolic. Because, what, they don’t have a chance to do this 24/7?
They were fun to watch.
We finally decided that winding down was not an option. In the trailer photo, Milton’s sweat is from antics, not riding.
We tacked up and got on. Major Milestone! Two of us on our horses somewhere else. I can’t think of the last time this happened. It would have been with Previous Horse, so at least 11 years ago. Tempus fugit.
We walked hither and yon. Around the outside of the round pen. Next to the ring. Up the driveway. All walk. No jigging. No fussing. Milton took a long look at a lot of scary things. Afterwards, we took a few passes of trot in the round pen. At least, Milton did. Rodney claimed his feet had still not adjusted to his new shoes and the best he could do was a slow shuffle. This was the same horse running in circles an hour earlier. This is why I am sometimes somewhat less than sympathetic to his shoe drama.
Props to the field horses. The remained uninterested in us and failed to run around causing havoc. Yay!
Rodney continues to be bizarrely brave. Walk past scary, blue plastic, garbage cans? Check. Walk past stumps? Check. Over logs? Check. Charge down hill? Check. The only thing he didn’t like was walking around the side field following the manure spreader track. He acted as if we so far from home we risked falling off the edge of the world. Beneath his dignity to walk on used shavings?
Not that Rodney was completely covering himself with glory. Several times he yanked the reins out of my hands to eat grass. This is new. I felt like a beginner kid on a school pony. Underneath all of that anxiety lies a deep well of rudeness. Good to know.
Rodney was wonderfully calm but scored poorly on general steering and listening to rider. In fact, he was being such a mullethead that I got so annoyed that I forgot to be excited that we were there at all. Way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, Rodney!
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott
Awareness of the outside world. Lost track of days & forgot that yesterday was Columbus Day. I don’t have kids, so I never had this issue, but seems to me that it would be hard to teach kids to be good when history class is a litany of people being shitty to each other. If country X can invade/conquer/colonize country Y because they want to, why can’t I just take Freddy’s toy?
~~~
Overall
Beginning of the week, my back hurt. I rested. Middle of the week, Rodney got shod. He rested. End of the week, rain from Hurricane Delta. We all rested.
Conservation of misery. Getting all the delays over at once.
4 weeks. 20 miles. We got this.
Milestones
None this week. Previous badges included for encouragement.
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.
Monday, October 5 – Saturday, October 10, 2020. 0 miles.
Sunday, October 11, 2020. 1.38 miles. Total 81 miles. Time & pace – ridiculously slow. SSF. Streetview still not available. Tracking the trail on the other side of the river.
Went over to Stepping Stone Farm to school, more on this tomorrow. Originally, wasn’t going to count this mileage, since we have not been counting Rodney’s schooling trips to Falcon Hill Farm. Only had phone on me to for between-the-ears shots. Started tracker out of habit. Argued myself into counting it because, both horses did the miles, and we had some very definite trail-type obstacles to walk past.
“Your pace for this activity was 1.5mph. Please confirm your time and resubmit if this is correct.” This is what the VTevis result’s page had to say about our time. Yeah, thanks, we were that slow.
Recent Posts
[Miles 67-79]
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott
Awareness of the outside world. It goes over the nose.
~~~
Most of the 2020 shoeing routine remains as it was. Money left on a stool. Horse left in crossties. Assistant holds horse. [Shoeing at a Social Distance]
I have added a mask to wear when I am in that half of the barn. To switch horses. To scoop poop.
Do I think there is a high probability of contagion from a few minutes of arm’s length proximity in a well-ventilated, semi-outside space? Nope.
Do I want to risk the faintest chance of transmitting the disease to my blackmith’s elderly & ailing parent? Nope.
Mask on.
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 