Virtual Brush Box

Riding Journal

 
Awareness of the outside world. Election day in the U.S. Update. I voted. I chose to vote on the day to boost the immediate, inarguable results. I predicted that my small, white, rural polling station would not be the scene of crowds or disturbances. I was correct. Short line that moved fast. More crowded than usual, but I voted with hubby on his way to work rather than going later in the day. 10 minutes soup to nuts. And now we wait. Thank you to all poll workers.
~~~

Overall
Milton has a slightly puffy left hind fetlock. It is either a tweak that will be over in 24 hours or a 3-week saga. Time will tell. Rodney and I are pressing on to meet the original deadline. Milton will catch up under the extension, if needed.

Milestones

Lower Quarry, Mile 94. Image source & additional photos, The Tevis Cup: Lower Quarry.

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 27, 2020. No ride. Had weather and time. Decided discretion was better part of valor. Tropical Storm Zeta was pushing up from the coast. Horses do not like pressure changes, at least ours don’t.

Thursday, October 28, 2020. Today 2.09 miles. Total 92.64 miles. Time 53 min. Pace, walking. No more streetviews. Map has us at the finish line.

Stars! So many variables they have objected to in the past. Cow conversation. Tractor in cow pasture. Wind – seriously, we thought about calling it a day wind. Zeta was long gone but had a few tail swishes left, I guess. Muddy footing. Dusk setting in. They sauntered on.

Saturday, October 31, 2020. Milton today 0.06 miles; total 92.07 miles. Rodney today .0.06 tracked + 0.5 estimated, total 93.2.

Gorgeous day. Crispy, sunny. Everyone rested, warm, relaxed. The start of what looked to be a lovely, long-mileage ride … and Milton was lame. Not badly. Just enough for injured reserve. Ring work with Rodney for ~30 minutes. Figured half a mile was fair.

Rodney was not pleased to have landed back in the ring. I be a trail horse now. It only took 92 miles.

Sunday, November 1, 2020. Rodney today 0.5 estimated. Total 93.7 miles. Stepping Stone Farm for liberty work & ring work. 1/2 hour ridden = 1/2 mile. Probably.

Monday, November 2, 2020. Rodney today 1 warm up lap in hand, not counted, three laps tracked at 0.98 miles. The GPS was grumpy today. Total 94.68.

Recent Posts
Mine
[Miles 86-90]

Others
County Island: The Tevis Trail: And Darkness Falls

[Tevis post archives]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

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.
~~~

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.
~~~
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