Training Journal
If you’re riding a horse, you’ve already won.
Awareness of the outside world. Scale is weird. 200,000 sounds like a lot. That many vaccines a day for the US population is a period of nearly 5 years Vox. Math check, 330,000,000 USpop(USCB)/200,000 = 1,650 = 4.5.
Or this.
1 second is 1 second
1 million seconds is 12 days (a vacation) Math check, 11.6.
1 billion seconds is 30 years (a career). Math check, 31.7
1 trillion seconds is 30,000 years (longer than human civilization), Math check 31,709
Better Explained: How to Develop a Sense of Scale
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The more fastidious among us may wish to turn away. Once again, we visit substitutes for the smallest room in the house. I now have enough posts on the subject to start an storage page. Portable toilet archives.
Last summer, Sprieser Sporthorse held a small, schooling dressage show. As part of their safety protocol, they requested that folks share a restroom with their horses.
“No bathroom on site. Obviously we have one, and it was available for the judge (and any, ahem, emergencies). But it was expected that our participants pee in their trailers. I know it’s lacking in class to discuss these things, but a bathroom—a high traffic, small space—wasn’t a risk I could justify taking.” CoH: Hosting A Show In COVID Times.
Elsewhere, she requested the same of people shipping in for lessons. I can’t find the wording, but she said basically, ‘We’ve all peed in stalls and trailers. Get over it.’
I decided to give it a test run on our schooling trip. Took old cat litter bucket, filled with shavings, added tp and plastic baggies for post-tp. Installed in trailer once horse was decanted. Voila, portable potty.
I loved it. The hinged lid of the cat litter bucket gave me a place to park my fanny. The high shavings-to-liquid ratio meant no smell. Certainly better than the average Little Blue Hut. No need to walk over to the barn to use the plumbing. Step into trailer. Sit. Done. In a show situation, no lines.
I don’t know about you, but I pee when I get nervous. Standing around waiting for a class at a horse show? Gotta pee. 10 minutes later? Gotta pee. This will be *so* much easier.
Disposal was a piece of cake. Bought bucket home, in trailer bed in case of upset. Emptied it along with horse manure bucket. By the time I dumped the potty, it was a pile of slightly damp shavings.
Am I deeply worried about catching a disease from a communal toilet? No. OTOH highly unlikely, but not zero. So, if the fix is this easy, why not?
I haven’t decided what to do about, um, solids. Wasn’t an issue on this day. Might try our bucket porta-let, might use the show facilities. Will depend on what the barn/show grounds has available. Is it temp? Tiny cubby in barn? A well-ventilated building? How far to I have to walk? How long are the lines? How squeamish do I feel? How squicky was the disposal the last time? Is there even a bathroom on the grounds? We’ll see.
As for the third reason to use a restroom, not a problem anymore. Age has advantages. I guess there is a fourth if you count nausea. Shavings are good for that. Annnd, I’ll stop now.
As I said, I am all over this idea as a convenient way to dispose of waste water. I can see keeping the habit in a fictitious, post-Covid future.
So, are you intrigued or appalled?
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 