Awareness of the outside world. Strides for Equality Equestrians put up an Instagram post on microaggressions. Sometimes the motivation is active malice. Sometimes the motivation is cluelessness. Raises hand.
~~~
Find Your Header. Of all the lessons involved in driving, Milton has absorbed this one the best. A header is the person who stands in front of the horse, particularly while the driver gets in or out of the cart. Therefore, going to one’s header is frequently a sign that the drive is over.
Now, Milton is not my heart horse; I am not his heart human. This we know.
Milton does not like me in show mode. This we also know. [Saddlebros, Someday]
Milton does not like me fiddling with him. Let’s say we are tacking up. I cannot abide seeing the forelock in a mess under the bridle. Others are less meticulous. If I go over to smooth out this flaw in the order of the universe, Milton will turn to his rider, ‘Booooossss, she’s touching me!”
Milton and me, not mates.
Except.
When Milton is long-lining, when Milton is under saddle, when Milton is pulling a tire, I become the magnetic north of his existence. He knows where I am. He keeps track of my postion relative to his. As he passes by, he will pull toward me. He will stop near me. I have taken to sitting outside the ring amidst the underbrush in order to lessen the temptation. [Check-in]
‘That’s my header. I must go to my header. That is my job as a driving horse, to find my header.’
Nice try, Milton. Not fooling anyone. Get back to work.
The First Horse Inspection, aka the jog, takes place the day before dressage at a big Event. Horses are presented to the veterinary panel and trotted for soundness. Everyone is cleaned up and dressed up and brushed and braided. There will be bad dressage tests, and cross-country refusals, and knockdowns in stadium. Those are for tomorrow. Today the sun is shining – no matter the weather – and everything is full of hope and promise.
You can see where this is going.
The inauguration is the first day for a new administration. The new president and the new vice president are presented and sworn in. Everyone is cleaned up and dressed up and brushed and braided. There will be Senate hearings, and scandals, and political infighting. Those are for tomorrow. Today the sun is shining – no matter the weather – and everything is full of hope and promise.
The inauguration is the jog. The pomp before the process.
The Unshiny
I understand, just a little, how disinformation might spread.
The night before the inauguration, I had the misfortune to be exposed to one of the radical doom scenarios. While it was posted in order to make a counterargument, my eyeballs were still subjected to it. If you were lucky enough to miss these, the prediction was a concoction of mass arrests and televised show trials.
It wasn’t going to happen. It didn’t happen.
And yet.
A small voice in my head spent the night saying, ‘It could happen.’
Small, Annoying Voice: I’m not saying it is going to happen. I’m just saying that, it *could* happen. Logistically, these people would be capable of performing those actions.
Me: Pffffffft.
Small, Annoying Voice: None of of it is physically impossible. Except for that bit were every TV in the country automatically switches to the same channel. I’ll grant you that one.
Me: Pffft.
Small, Annoying Voice: History is full of sudden, violent, reversals of fortune.
Me: Pft.
Small, Annoying Voice: If it did happen, here’s what it would look like. First, …
Me: Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!
This was something I had no interest in. I didn’t want it to happen. I didn’t think it would happen.
What if it was a scenario that I craved?
In Android’s Dream, the narrator explains that deception depends on the believably AND on the desire to believe.
Deception, as practically manifested, succeeds because of two things. First, the object of deception is convincingly deceptive in its design; i.e., it looks/feels/acts like the real thing. Second, and equally important, the subject of deception must be predisposed to believing that the object of deception is indeed the real thing. These two criteria work in an inverse relationship with each other; a sufficiently deceptive object can convince a skeptical subject, while a subject who sincerely wants to believe will be able to overlook even gross flaws in the object onto which he or she confers belief. (Android’s Dream, John Scalzi, Tor 2007, ebook)
While the book is a novel, I see no reason to doubt the psychology.
What if the message – not this one, some other, hypothetical message – detailed an outcome that I really, really wanted to come true?
How easy would it be to believe that small, annoying voice? How easy would it be to follow it?
That being said, trying to understand someone’s behavior does not in any way excuse them from the consequences of their actions.
The Secret Bits
Speaking of actions. I kept my eye on the clock, not the words. I’m a child of the Cold War. Memories from watching The Day After haunt my psyche to this day. The transfer of power does not happen until the biscuit and the football change hands.
The Parting Shot
Props to the camera operators who filmed face shots by walking the parade route backwards while guided by a colleague walking forwards.
Awareness of the outside world. External cognitive dissonance. On my TV, creativity and masks and hope. Around me, folks living a pre-Covid reality.
~~~ Kentucky Performance Products: Ugly Barn Coat Contest 2021. Deadline January 31, 2021.
1) Do you have any idea how hard it is to take a picture of your own hand?
Awareness of the outside world. A race is trying to decide virtual vs IRL. They sent a survey. Filling out the answers crystalized the thoughts I already had. If numbers are still high, there is nothing an individual organization can do to change my mind about attending. No level of masking, wiping, socially-distant package pickups, or time-delay release of runners will outweigh community spread. YMMV.
~~~
Digital postcards from my bike ride in virtual New Zealand last spring. You may need a desktop to read the text. If you can’t see it, not missing much. The point here is, ‘Ooh look, pretty pictures.’ [Biking Virtually, New Zealand]
Awareness of the outside world. US Presidential Inauguration.
~~~
So this happened. Mostly a pony ride. A few steps on our own. Mainly waiting for everyone’s pulse – rider, handler, horse – to stop redlining. What’s SHE doing up there?
Virtual Brush Box 