Virtual Brush Box

Sunday afternoon, we have power! Yay!! Kermit Dance!!! OTOH, while the house has power, I don’t. Long weekend. Lacking the oomph to finish the planned post. Here’s one from the vault.
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Adventures in Saddle Seat

Enjoy the Drive

 

[Foto Friday: SSF Fun Show Photos]

For a while I drove a horse named Big. He was an excellent horse for a beginner driver. Knew everything. Done everything. Had opinions.

Big: We have walked long enough, time to trot.

Me: Guess we aren’t waiting for the announcer today. Second place it is.

Big: I’m not ready to come back to a regular trot. I’m going to rock this extended trot a while longer.

Me: Okay then, you let me know.

[Show Photos, Georgia Fall Classic 2015]

A while back, Big and I were in a class with another Stepping Stone Farm entry. I had been told to line up in front of the assistant trainer as my header.

Class ends. We turn in. I aim for assistant trainer.

Big: I line up on Courtney.

Me: No, today you line up over there.

Big: I don’t know how you horse show, but *I* line up on Courtney.

I’ve told this story often. Ha. Ha. Silly horse.

[Show Photos by Shiflet]

Flash forward.

Driving class. Two SSF entries. I am driving a horse who does not have Big’s auto-pilot. I am focused, yeah, let’s go with that, focused.

Time to line up. I turn in.

Driver Me: I line up on Courtney.

Voice of Reason: There is someone in your way.

Driver Me: I line up on Courtney.

Voice of Reason: How about that person over there.

Driver Me: I line up on Courtney.

Voice of Reason: You know, the *owner* of the horse you are driving?

Driver Me: I line up on Courtney.

The headers swapped places. It was easier than redirecting me.

Sam & Big
[Show Report, Georgia Fall Classic 2015]

Another example of Big having an opinion, Been There, Done That: Hello?.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

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

Still in the dark and desktopless. Still blogging by phone. Bumping plans for the fancy costume post ahead to next year.

Card by Papyrus. Art by Hanna Melin.

~~~

Process notes. First photo editing by phone. Second phone post. First photo & link to post by phone. Progress, but only b/c I was forced into it.

Stay safe. Stay sane.

Katherine Walcott

Blogging by phone. Gaaa. I don’t know how people do it. Power outage courtesy of TS Zeta. Wednesday was a long night of watching the cone head straight for us. People, pets, and property all fine. Now, we sit in dark rooms, operating by the phone and flashlight, waiting for the grid to recuperate.

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.
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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

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

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