Be Careful What You Train

Training Journal

If you’re riding a horse, you’ve already won.

 

 
We have created a monster. Well, a mini-monster.

Back in the normal days, Rodney was being introduced to a new arena [Travels] and to the idea of barrel racing [Not From Around These Parts]. We put cookies on top of each of the three race barrels to encourage walking up to the barrels rather than giving them the hairy eyeball.

On a separate note, we bought half a dozen used plastic barrels to be used as driving obstacles. We have two of them in the field for Milton to longline around.

You can see where this is going, yes?

Rodney now insists on checking out each barrel, each time he goes past. Might be a cookie. Ya never know. Some lessons sink in fast.

In other news, spotted the first tick of the season. Fortunately it was crawling rather than attached. Still, ick. We already have flies [Silver Linings]. Two reminders that the blessings of Spring are mixed.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Blog V. Life, HSL Color Reference

Celebrating Art

 

 
Using the subject from yesterday’s post [Blogging My Life Versus Living It], I experimented with HSL, a third option in color choice for Inkscape. Last time, I messed around with RGB and CMYB, [State Of The Blog Logo & Color Reference]. Most of the following is for my own reference. If color theory isn’t your thing, smile at the pretty graphic and move on. If color theory is your thing, what should I explore next?

Delta h
Hue is the color wheel.
0 degrees to 360 degrees IRL, 0 to 255 in Inkscape
Image color values:
h = 0 -> 255
s = 255, full saturation
l = 128, halfway between 0 black & 255 white

Delta s
Saturation goes from gray to full color.
Adding gray to a color is tone
0% to 100% IRL, 0 to 255 in Inkscape
Image color values:
h = arbitrary color, chosen for pretty
s = 0 -> 255
l = 128, halfway between 0 black & 255 white

Delta l
Lightness goes from black to white.
Adding black to a color is shade, adding white is tint.
0% to 100% IRL, 0 to 255 in Inkscape
Image color values:
h = arbitrary color, chosen for pretty
s= 255, full saturation
l = 0 -> 255

Letter Values
B – 0
L – 85
O – 170
G – 255

L – 85
I – 142
F – 199
E – 255

Process Notes

Letter arrangement. Which way? The way I used makes life an offshoot of the blog. The other way, with the word blog across the top and life running vertical, could be interpreted as life supporting the blog. It looked better graphically since the square letters of “life” stacked up nicely, but didn’t read as well, which reduced life to even more of a secondary position. Neither life as offshoot nor life as support was my intended message. Probably unavoidable with “life” coming off the second letter of “blog.”

Notes from Fri. From a thematic point of view, Friday’s post [Coloring Contest] should have been a Sunday post. That’s usually when I do art stuff. However, a) I already had this, and b) boosting the signal on Friday would give people more time before the deadline on Tuesday.

As I said, I did the coloring by the numbers. Since I had just finished fiddling with HSL for today’s post, I used that again in GIMP. The grays are increments of 10 on the V (value) slider 0 to 100. The rest of the colors are increments of 10 on the H (hue) slider, 0 to 360, with V and S (saturation) at max for the brightest possible color. The post was in GIMP rather than Inkscape, hence the different ranges. Also, GIMP has HSV, while Inkscape has HSL. Not completely clear on the difference.

H
Inkscape 0 to 255, colors
GIMP 0 to 360, colors

S
Inkscape 0 to 255, gray to full color
GIMP 0 to 100, white to full color

L
Inkscape 0 to 255, black to color to white

V
GIMP 0 to 100, black to full color

So, lightness in Inkscape combines value and saturation in GIMP. I think. Getting into deeply-colored waters here.

It gets worse – or at least less artistic. Even using numbers I was being mechanical. With the grays, I noticed that I was filling area with two colors (binary) or with a color gradation (rainbow). When I noticed this, I threw in a triad. Intuitive coloring wasn’t on the table.

BTW, ‘grAy -> America. grEy -> England. It’s that easy.’ This had to be pointed out to me. Unable to attribute the source as I don’t recall it.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

State of the Blog, Blogging My Life Versus Living It

Blogging About Blogging

 

A while back, I called myself a bad blogger, mostly in jest [Changing of the Guard]. I had gotten so caught up in what I had been doing that I forgot to take a picture. Two commenters were kind enough to say that I should have a cookie anyway. In truth, I was a bad blogger. I did not fulfill the requirements of the job. I did not provide visuals to go with the text. That got me thinking about living a life versus blogging about it.

I was having a lesson on Optimus at Stepping Stone Farm. I knew I would be writing a post about it. Before I got on, I gave Coach Courtney my phone so that I could take a between-the-ears shot to go with the post. We both forgot.

OTOH, it wasn’t a bad thing to be a bad blogger right then. I was caught up in the lesson. I was concentrating on what I was doing. I was in the moment rather than removing myself from the moment to comment on it.

I am not alone.

“She started to plan family time around paid posts. “Someone wants to send us a board game while eating a certain cereal? That’s what we’re doing on Friday,” she says. “I was playing the game with them, but I wasn’t really there. I was watching and thinking about how I was going to caption the photo I’d take. It all took away from real time with my kids.” New York Post, “My mommy blog ruined my life”,
Mackenzie Dawson, 2016

On Instagram, Millennial Life Crisis is running a series where there is the Instagram-worthy caption and then the rest of the story.

“INSTAGRAM: Toronto, you sure are beautiful. This was one of my favorite trips of 2019 and I definitely intend on going back because I didn’t get enough time in the city. Maybe one day if I get lucky I’ll get to live there.
–
REALITY: I had to pay $26 to park my rental downtown so that I could run around for hours trying to find this sign because I wanted to be able to say that I’d been there. I got yelled at by four people, pooped on by a bird and, when I got back to my rental car saw that I’d gotten a parking ticket because I didn’t get back to it quick enough…” millennialme88/#MillennialLifeCrisis 2019

They are both making the point that online presentation does not always reflect reality. I am making a slightly different point. I think my blog does reflect reality. But then, I would say that, wouldn’t I?

My point is both accounts demonstrate the lengths one goes to in order to cover a story. That’s fine. If that’s what you are doing. I certain spent enough time covering horse shows. I was not riding in those shows at the time.

Text can be done in hindsight. You do the thing. You go home at write about it. It requires a small amount of mental discipline. I have found my brain wandering off into composing blog posts while at a show. I jerk my mind back to the present and carry on.

It also depends on the level of the event. A little detachment won’t torpedo the entire occasion [State of the Blog: Pondering Twitter]. I suspect at my next lesson, I won’t be quite as stressed. I will do a better job of taking a minute or two out of the day to snap a pic.

Obviously, this is not true if one is covering an event that requires notes in real time. For a blog post, reflection afterward is possible.

With photos, this is not possible at all. Photos happen when the event does. I’ve recreated one or two but they lack immediacy.

Rodney is unimpressed with my efforts at documentation.

[Jump]

So, blogging versus life. Sometimes, they coexist. Sometimes, one shuts the other out.

Update [Blog V. Life, HSL Color Reference]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Coloring Contest

Celebrating Art

 

 
Coloring contest by Horse Hollow Press. For details, FREE pdf Horse Coloring Artwork. Deadline March 31, 2020.

Above is my entry. It’s all ages, so I wasn’t going to enter. Then, I decided why not. It’ll go up with the other entries and give people something pretty to look at.

Artist statement. As a rising senior, I wanted to see what could be done with gray. Quite a bit actually. As for the mane. Well, we all need color in our lives. Since I have the color sense of a mollusk, I used numerical steps within the GIMP program. The grays are 0 to 100, in increments of 10. The mane is the color wheel, 0 to 360, also in increments of 10. More on this in Sunday’s post.

As a side note, what is your position on artist statements? Should the work stand alone? Does context improve the experience? I’m all for the Death of the Artist as a critical theory. OTOH, I do like to yap on about myself. But I digress.

Color for the contest or just for giggles. We can all use giggles right about now.
 

 

Update [Blog V. Life, HSL Color Reference] Notes from Fri

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

From the Department of Silver Linings, Milton’s fly mask

Horsekeeping

Lucky enough to have a horse.

 
Greg is working from home. To give himself a place to concentrate, he has set up a desk in the barn. The horses have been hanging out in the barn with him in hopes of cookies. They have not been disappointed.

In between the cookiefests, there has been fly stomping. Spring is here. So are the flies. C’est normal. I might have fly sprayed their legs for some relief. However, he had just read $900 Facebook Pony‘s adventures with fly boots: Worst. Gift giver. EVER., When in doubt – duct tape.

Why not give it a try? He used our shipping boots. Milton went to sleep. We added a fly bonnet with ears. Milton was zonked.

Well, duh.

If you don’t like to be touched, flies would drive you mad. We will be using the fly mask on the regular, looking into fly boots, and possibly springing for a fly sheet.

If Greg hadn’t been sitting in the barn for hours on end, listening to them stomp, I don’t know that we would have been driven to try this.

Sorry, Dude.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Stay Home, Show Your Horse

Training Journal

If you’re riding a horse, you’ve already won.

 
Virtual Shows
Ceremonial cabooose covering. This list is strictly the result of an Internet hunter-gatherer adventure. I know nothing of these groups other than what is stated on their sites. As with any Internet transaction, do your research, decide for yourself, be wary of scams and of folks who overextend with the best of intentions, etc, etc. Listed in the order I came upon them.

Virtual Obstacle Shows. “Anyone can compete. Almost any facility is suitable and obstacles can be made with items around your barn or picked up from local lumber stores.” About. Video.

Virtual Horse Show on Facebook. By Misfit Toys Rescue Division, Inc.. For ASB and related disciplines. Video. My nomination for Best Logo.

The Carolinas Equestrian Virtual Horse Show. Hunters. Video.

Online dressage. Video your test. Submit. Collect comments & ribbons.
Dressage Show Online
Better Dressage Scores
E-Riders Online Dressage
Dressage Anywhere
North American Western Dressage

Have you ever competed in a virtual horse show? Tell us about it. Better yet, would you consider writing a write a guest post? (Smiles winningly.)

Half and Half
Horseless if you have suitable photo(s) on hand; otherwise, back to needing access to your horse.

Online Horse Showing Breeding & riding classes. Pet classes. UK. Pretty ribbons.

British Driving Society. “Starting tomorrow and every Friday thereafter, we will be running photo competitions with some beautiful rosettes on offer.” Facebook post. UK.

Farnam and State Line Tack have both mentioned virtual shows on their Facebook feeds.

Horseless Horse Shows
I tried to find horseless options, with less success. People must be doing things. More a failure of my GoogleFu. Do you know of any I have missed?

My local hunter/jumper association is running trivia contests for swag: ID that horse/rider, do you know your rules, and spot the difference in two photos. Looks like the latter contest was done by editing elements out of a photo. Reasonably simple for someone who understands Photoshop, I would assume.

There is the model customizing contest I mentioned on Saturday, Circle C Artist Challenge Contest! [Let It Go], I suspect they will have more contest as/if time warrants. They seem to be a creative crowd.

Then there is the photo-showing subcategory of the model horse hobby. The Model Equine Photo Showers Association. Interested but never had time for it? Guess what. Lots of different avenues. Lots of advice online.

I’ll make you a deal. If you want to get into photo showing, but don’t have a subject, I’ll send you one of my extra Breyer models. Offer good while supplies last & as long as going to the Post Office is feasible. Oh, and US addresses, unless you want to pay shipping, at which point you might as well buy your own. If you want a model, you have to promise to read this first, Desktop Stables: How I Photograph My Models – Revisited. So you know what you are getting into, if you want to be competitive.

Don’t see one you like online? Start your own.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Horse Tooth At The Mississippi Museum Of Natural Science, Jackson MS

Random Images

 
I had a more relevant post planned, but my brain is mush. Here’s one from the reserve pile. Catch you tomorrow. Vicarious travel for the win.

For my mother and other concerned individuals. I’m fine. Brain fade due to a rainy day today and an 8.4 mile bike ride yesterday, on top of, well, everything.

Stay safe. Stay sane.

Update. We live way out in the country. Biking is one guy on a tractor away from social isolation.
~~~
 

Camera shadow for scale.

Mississippi Museum Of Natural Science, Jackson MS

The museum has a nature trail that winds past swamps in LeFleur’s Bluff State Park …

…. and heads out to the Pearl River.

“The City of Jackson was originally known as “LeFleur’s Bluff.” MDWFP. All photos taken March 2019.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott