Virtual Brush Box

Training Journal

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

 
Awareness of the outside world. Two days of over an hour in the saddle has tightened my lower back to the point of pain. I’m okay as long as I am careful with certain movements. For example, rotating my head to look down is OUT. Makes me less interested in watching the circus, excuse me, following the news.
~~~

Overall
More time required; less time available.

The walking. So much walking. Both horses doing well with the current emphasis on relaxation, but rides take proportionally longer.

Shorter days, less daylight. Weekends becoming the only time we can fit in long rides.

Shorter days, colder mornings. I realize 48 degrees is nothing to folks north of me. It requires adjustment when an eyeblink ago we were fighting 90+ degrees.

No problem, just more planning.

Milestones

Cal2, mile 78. Image source & additional info, The Tevis Cup: Peachstone/Cal-2

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, September 30. Today 2.59 miles. Total 73 miles. Time 1 hour 2 min. Pace 24 minpermile/2.5 mph. Technically 23:58 pace. Usually lop off. Rounding up feels more accurate in this case. This view may be back over our virtual shoulder, so say my notes. Not sure why.

Thursday, October 1. Today 2.06 miles. Total 76 miles. Time 49 min. Pace 24 minpermile/2.5 mph.

Saturday, October 3. Today 3.96 miles. Total 79 miles. Time 1 hour 37 min. Pace 24 minpermile/2.5 mph. Total is 79.99 miles. The GPS giveth; the GPS taketh away. Screenshot Streetview following a different trail on this section. I was impressed with our progress along the map.

Recent Posts
[Miles 67-71]

[Tevis post archives]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

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
~~~

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

Images

 
Awareness of the outside world.
Tis a gift to be simple, ’tis a gift to be free
‘Tis a gift to come down where I ought to be
And when I am in the place just right
I will be in the valley of love and delight
~~~
 

 
Exercise in drawing straight lines. What did I learn? My lines aren’t awful. Not custom car-painting straight, but not horrid. Horizontal easier than vertical or diagonal. Left-to-right/downwards is easier than right-to-left/upwards.

Inspired by Artistcoveries: As Straight as Humanly Possible.

“or just do the 5K and post once a week.” Inktober: Rules & Prompts.

Pen: Pigma Micron, various sizes
Paper: Canson Mix Media, spiral bound, 98 lb
Digitization: cell phone camera
Post-production: resized, border, & watermark in GIMP
Retouching: none

Intober [Archives]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Words

Awareness of the outside world. Book rx. Deadly Education, Naomi Novik (Del Rey 2020). Ghastly premise. She makes it work. This from someone who does not enjoy ghastly. Only downside, the story pulled me along so thoroughly that I finished it in one day. Back to having nothing to read. Sigh. The curse of a gripping book.
~~~
Last year, I had a perfect month with the New York Times crossword puzzle.

I extolled it from the rooftops. [Totally Off Topic Brag]

Of course I wanted to repeat the feat, prove I was still a special rabbit. Some months were good. Some months were bad. Last month was sooooo close.

Missed by one day.

Missed by one clue.

Missed by one letter.

48 down, clue: Like the latest, in the past.

Answer: Hep

My answer: Hip

The across was no help. 50 Across, clue: Georgia who played Georgette on 1970a TV. Ingel? Engel?

Agggggggggggg.

Puzzle commentary, Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Saturday, September 19, 2020.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Training Journal

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

 
Awareness of the outside world. Pondering the “plantation” situation got me thinking on the subject of mascots. When I showed up at college, we didn’t have one. The Indian symbol had been eliminated almost 10 years earlier. There was still much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth. Decades later, we still don’t have an official mascot. Turns out we have an unofficial one. Keggy the Keg was proposed as a joke. “Creating a mascot that ‘wasn’t racist, biased or sexist, yet [was] entirely unacceptable.'[4]” Wiki. It has been a huge success. “Keggy Named Top College Mascot.” Dartblog. I don’t know whether to be appalled or proud.
~~~
From Falcon Hill Farm. Interesting use of floral decorations. New to me. [Small Hop]

Also note grass-covered poles. Very hunteresque. Another new one for me.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Fit To Ride

 
Awareness of the outside world. “We’re happy to announce that October 1st, the day in which the first ever postcard was sent, will henceforth be known as World Postcard Day!” Postcrossing Blog: World Postcard Day — the day to celebrate postcards.

World Postcard Day

~~~
Note. Third walk; first post. Waiting on bling for 1 & 2. Slow week in other exercise. Decided to try three 5Ks in one week.

WCS Run for the Wild
Official – Saturday, September 26, 2020
Me – Friday, September 25, 2020
Heardmont Park
Time – 59:36
Pace – 19:14
No placing
Tracking App – Runkeeper

I begin.

Concrete paths or easy off-road trails.

Water jump!

There was a walking trail (source lost to time). I never found it.

Regardless, the paths were long & straight whichever way I went. I was able to motor along.

From the Bronz Zoo website. Run for the Wild – Run Day

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott

Training Journal

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

 
Awareness of the outside world. I have deliberately not followed the “plantation” brouhaha in eventing. I lack the bandwidth for horse-world drama at the moment. Respect your fellow humans. Change the name. Lose the mascot. Take down the statue. Move on.
~~~

We went somewhere!

Gasps of shock.

We took Rodney over to school at Falcon Hill Farm. Just like we used to do, back when we were normal people.

FHF was the last place we went before the world shut down. Literally. It was a Sunday in mid-March. Husband’s work was scheduled to close on Wednesday. As we were getting ready to leave FHF, he was notified that work was closing Monday, the next day. Everyone had one day to come in, get their lives arranged, and then go home. [Super Duper]

It was spooky.

It was six months ago.

The high point of this trip was cantering out of a line of tiny, tiny crossrails. (Ear pic recreated from the ground.)

After trotting over the first crossrail, Rodney picked up a calm, gentlemanly canter.

Horse: I think we should canter this.

Rider: Really?

Horse: Yeah. I’m good.

Rider: Okay, your call, dude. (ohcrapohcrapohcrap)

Horse: Dum-de-dum, dum-de-dum, DUM, dum-de-dum.

Cantered quietly in. Cantered quietly over. Cantered quietly away.

Good boy! Go find your header.

I think … possibly … Rodney wants me to be a diligent but high-level manager. He wants me up there doing rider things, while he’s down there doing horse things. If I ask for too much too soon, he feels rushed. He fears the worst and responds accordingly. If I leave him alone to give him space, he sees that as dereliction of my duties. He sees no reason to do his job if I’m not up there doing mine. Maybe?

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott