Virtual Brush Box

Fit To Ride

 
Awareness of the outside world. When I’m deep in news overconsumption, I leave the TV muted on the News Mix channel, which shows quarter-frame views of CNN, MSNBC, Fox, & BBC America. It’s a fascinating exercise in story selection. The four stations cover a majority of the same issues. When they diverge, CNN & MSNBC track together. Fox goes right. BBCAm goes global. You know we are in a crisis when all four channels are showing the same image.
~~~

Bling from the Virtual Savannah Bridge Run 5k last month. [Strolling In Another Park Another Day, Walk Report, Savannah Bridge Run, Virtual 5K, December 2020]

Requisite race shirt, bib, and medal, plus …

… drumroll …

An award! 5k Age Group Winner! My first running walking award! My only award from 2020!

Reality Check. Given my time of almost 1:20, I suspect the contestant pool was small to non-existent. I may have been alone. No 2020 results posted, so I can’t tell, SBR: Results.

That’s okay. I’ve done single classes, particularly in driving. I have no qualms about them. I came. I met the requirements. I accept the results. Gimme my loot.

Also, I made sure this was not one of the walks where the GPS went wonky and gave me a false, fast time. The result was real. I also checked that my age was correct. Otherwise, I would have said something.

It is, Sir, as I have said, a small award. And yet there are those who love it!

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Riding Journal

 
Awareness of the outside world. Blue dot in a red state. I have not inquired into what my deeply red neighbors think of current events. I’m pretty sure I already know the answer. Do you live among like-minded souls or are you a vox clamantis?
~~~

Back in March, I said that Rodney has to reinvent the wheel at every property.

We go through the same process at each new place. [Peeling The Emotional Onion]

Remember that?

I forgot it.

Good work at Stepping Stone Farm. [Update]

Nice outings at Falcon Hill Farm. [Check-in]

Headed back to Full Circle Horse Park.

I made the mistake of thinking that Rodney would act in a similar fashion at FCHP as he had been at FHF. I was thinking that he was doing well at new places.

Nope.

Not new places, plural. Each new place, singular.

He was fine at FCHP. Just three steps further back along the adjustment process that I had been expecting. He was still at the walk and look and stare stage. No trotting. No tiny cross rails.

He does not generalize. He has to wind down at each new place. I have no idea why.

On a side note, he kept staring at the cross-country course.

‘What’s that? Over there? Cross-country? I’d be great at that. Dunno what it is, but I’d be great at it.’

He walked around the tiny little logs like a kid in a candy store. One has to pay extra for XC schooling, so we didn’t walk over any jumps. Trotting was out. Way too much pressure in the tea kettle. Still, he seemed to be having a grand time.

Maybe he knows something. That would be nice.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Horsekeeping

Lucky enough to have horses

Awareness of the outside world. It’s hard not to be aware of the outside world right now.
~~~
Well, that was a weekend. Political turmoil. Way too much news. Rising Covid numbers.

… and then …

Both horses chose to have issues. Small, well-managed issues, but issues none the less.

Rodney

He’s been doing the on-again-off-again-does-your-foot-hurt-or-are-you-in-a-mood-? dance for a while. Blacksmith couldn’t find anything. Finally displayed a diagnostically useful wobble. Soaked foot for suspected abscess. No noticeable change. Clearly, it was in the foot. Maybe a bruise? New theory.

Daytime, turnout with booties over shoes to cushion his flat feet. Night, put up in heavily-bedded stall with salt poultice. Second night, both feet. [Treatment]

Rodney thought this was the bee’s knees.

Milton
So there’s Rodney. Happily tucked into a fluffy stall.

Milton decides, ‘Dinner? No thanks. I’ll pass.’

Shit.

‘Cookie? I’ll nibble at it ineffectually.’

Double shit. Break out the Banamine.

Turned out to be a mild case. Good gut sounds. Regular temp. Responded well to the shot in the neck. Removed food. Walk. Check. Wait for poop. Lather, rinse, repeat. You know the drill. Mild or not, one always gets alarmed when the c-word is involved.

In fact, he had pooped as we were standing there watching him not eat. Either the poop was already on the launchpad or he was almost over it anyway. Half an hour later, we might never have noticed. Who knows what they get up to the other 20+ hours in the day.

Speaking of hours, why do they always do this at night? On the weekend? Why can’t they chose to raise our blood pressure at 10 in the morning, on a weekday, while the vet is down the street doing an unexciting wellness check on a broodmare? In truth, a horse crisis never comes at a good time. At least at 10 am, we wouldn’t be dragging a horse around the field by flashlight.

No vet visits, this time. Pain behavior was mild in both cases. One upside to having fragile cupcakes is that they do not lie to you about their pain levels. Treatment was obvious. We did call the vet for Milton. Put this on the radar instead of coming as a complete surprise at 2 am. Fortunately, not needed.

Milton is fine. Rodney is still on foot rest protocol. I’m exhausted. The world is still a mess.

How was your weekend?

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Writing About Writing

 
Awareness of the outside world. For your amusement. Desktop Stables: A Tiny Barn. A toy barn for dolls. That’s right, 1:144 scale. Not only does the blogger construct this wee thing, she makes doll-sized dioramas of the process. Amazing.

The world is still serious. Sometimes you have to take a break.
~~~

My greatest dressage challenge and how I overcame it

 
This is my new writing assignment for USDF Connection.

More money. Yay!

More words. Double yay! I was always agonizing over all the good bits I had to leave on the cutting room floor.

More space, writing-wise. Triple yay!

The previous assignment, Behind The Scenes, was a series of first-person statements. What I do. How I got started. That meant direct quotes. [Clips]

Here’s the inside pool. Vanishingly few of us talk in complete narrative. In 32 years as a journalist, I have had it happen to me twice. It was weird. The rest of us, myself most definitely included, converse in sentence fragments. Our verb tenses migrate. We start a thought, wander off, circle back.

Because of this, I would beat my brains to jelly assembling the best possible narrative with only the words in front of me. I did this every two months for seven years. I stressed myself out each time.

The new gig is third person. Here is Jack. Here is what happened to Jack. Here’s how Jack feels about what happened. Snappy pull quotes? Awesome! Bring ’em on. If not, I can explain what happened. I can take this part of the story from over here, attach it to that part from over there, and bridge the transition with a few words of my own. I can cite an outside source if appropriate.

This should be more work but less stress. At least, that’s the plan. We’ll see how it goes.

Onwards!

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Horsekeeping

Lucky enough to have horses

 
Awareness of the outside world. Georgia? Who would have thought?
~~~
It’s the little things.

The happiness of walking into the local feed store & seeing a tall pile of your hard-to-find feed. [Beginning Nov 4]

Getting to the poop pile before it is kicked all over the stall.

Finding the glove you dropped.

Finding the glove you dropped *not* in the mud.

And one not so little.

Finding out it’s an abscess instead of tendon damage. Picture from late December when blacksmith was finally able to carve out the remnants. Abscess was back in November. Pardon the blur. Trying not to clog up the shoeing process in my quest for blog media. [The Replay]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott