Waiting our turn. Second photo this week of a horse sticking his tongue out. Our horses are either rude or relaxed.
I am committed to telling my story, warts & all. That means admitting to the tiny, tiny steps that count as progress around here.
Rodney’s groundwork has been half-field walks. There is a small hill involved. Otherwise, the loop is short and never out of sight of the barn. It is a ridiculously easy exercise. He grazes farther away than we walk. OTOH, there was a day when this simple effort was too much for him [Aftermath of an Explosion]. The goal is to create a series of small successes.
Our ridden work is equally low-key. After an adjustment to his noseband [View], we did our best set of weavepoles to date. Rodney was slow, quiet, and relaxed. One full circuit looping around three poles. Declare victory. Go home. If I was on for 10 minutes, I would be surprised. This also isn’t much, except that Rodney has had difficulties comprehending ridden weavepoles in the past [Headset].
Do you want a little bit of crazy all of the time, or the occasional superabundance?
Lesson this week. Still watching Louisville videos on demand. I am fascinated by the ribbon ceremonies. Granted I’ve always been a sucker for a victory gallop/pass. I am also intrigued by the behavior of the horses.
In 1989, I had the opportunity to watch Big Ben win the World Cup for the second time. During the extensive ribbon presentation, the huge chestnut stood as still as a statue, soaking up the adulation.
The Saddlebreds I’ve been watching? Not so much. If you are winning at Louisville, this is not your first rodeo. Yet the horses hop and fuss. They stand still long enough for a photo. Then off they trot for the victory pass. Neither riders nor handlers appear perturbed at the attitude on display. I get that the horses are excited. OTOH, standing is not impossible for the majority of horses. (I’ve met a few who just. will. not. stand. Salinero took Olympic gold while finessing the final halt, “It just didn’t happen.” HorseTalkNZ. But I digress.) This sort of behavior is related to the precision I talked about last week [Riding Loose]. These horses don’t stand because no one finds it important to insist.
Saddlebreds go on the boil quickly but are capable of remaining at that level. They don’t – as a rule – continue to amplify to the point where the lid blows off the kettle. Thoroughbreds are lazier most of the time, but only need a microsecond to go from zero to insanity. I offer as exhibit A & B my two horses [Square One, Universe]. While Rodney & Milton may be special, they aren’t that special. Thoroughbreds, as a breed, are capable of Technicolor come-aparts. Therefore, I make the mistake of interpreting Saddlebred enthusiasm as a sign of the apocalypse. In a Thoroughbred, it would be.
My $0.02.
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Today is Ash Wednesday. Remember that you are stardust, and to stardust you shall return.
How are Milton & I faring with our do over? Very well, thank you. We are doing very little, but I’m very excited about it.
His ground-tie is a work in progress. He stays in place but is not immobile. We are at the stage where he moves a hoof, I move it back. He moves a hoof. I move it back. Ad infinitum.
He is undecided about grooming. He is the only horse I’ve met who will pin his ears and lick at same time. Weird dude.
He responds well to body work: sighing, yawning, head lowering, chewing, licking, and – when working on the rear half – farting. He responds quickly, which either means he is a surface horse &/or he does not have deep-seated problems.
We are talking the field walks that Mathilda and I used to do [My Two Horses]. He is mostly blase about the wandering about, but I use a halter with a nose chain. I want to be prepared in case we have a spontaneous discussion on the subject of respect.
Mainly, I look forward to working with him. That’s huge.
Greg works with Milton on the weekends. In aiming for the shadow, I caught Milton with his tongue out. I guess that means he was relaxed.
Milton is only in the stall for a few hours a day. Therefore, we do not often have to clean down to the bedsprings. Thank the Lord for husbands and tractors.
We love Facebook. We hate Facebook. It’s informative. It’s overwhelming. All true. I have discovered wonderful news and terrible news in my feed. Amid the selfies, the over-shared memes, and the political rants, Facebook shows us interesting articles and important events. And cat photos. One can’t have too many cat photos.
Blue wants to know what you are staring at.
So how does one deal with the data flood? The magic word is
UNFOLLOW
If you are the sort of person who can let it all stream past, rock on. I envy you. If you obsess over the need to read every post, unfollow is your best weapon.
Unfollowing Is Easy How do I unfollow someone?
A few clicks on a person’s page and posts no longer show up in your feed. You are still friends. You can still visit your friend’s page. You can message. Most importantly, the folks you unfollow will not know. You can always go back to refollow if you change your mind.
Unfollowing Is Hard
People that annoy you are obvious. Out they go. The trick is to unfollow people you like. Perhaps you met a charming couple at a few club meetings, but they stopped attending before you could bond. Or that bright, funny woman who took a great job elsewhere. These are people you admire. You have fond memories. In a different setting, you might have become besties. But you didn’t. Wish them well and out they go.
It’s tough. You look at their pages. You think, Oh look, they have a new dog/haircut/funny cat meme. Maybe I should leave them in. Nope. Too many people of passing interest equals an out-of-control Facebook feed. This applies to groups & associations as well. Be ruthless.
My Criteria How close are we? If we live in the same area, do we make an effort to get together? Or are we friends in a theoretical sense? If you live far away, would I fly to your town to donate a pint of blood?
How amusing are you? A side benefit of being a writer is that many of my friends are writers. This elevates the discourse on social media, or at least makes the banal more readable. Ditto photographers lending visual interest. Conversely, are you passionate about stopping animal abuse? About achieving political justice? Great. I should probably be more like you. You should probably take me to task for my sloth. But not over my breakfast oatmeal, please.
How often do you post? If I find you boring but you don’t bother me often, I’ll probably let you stay. I suspect I fall into this category for many of my acquaintances. I seldom post on Facebook. A daily blog is enough of me on the information superhighway. (Have you noticed we don’t hear that term anymore? But I digress.)
In Sum
I was surprised to find that Facebook agrees with me.
“We’re trying to encourage people to use the [unfollow] option more,” says Adam Mosseri, a product management director at Facebook. “We think it will make their experiences better and their feeds more relevant.”
The hope, of course, is that unfollowing friends you don’t want to hear from will give you a better News Feed, and a better News Feed means you’ll visit Facebook more often.
Photo project from my Instagram feed, @rodneyssaga.
Specfic: Nine of the 13 photos last month were horse or pasture related, although some are not as obvious, e.g. the glasses were from the ASHAA banquet [Annual Awards 2015]. Two LEGO bricks. Two food. Horses, LEGO, food; yup, that’s me.
General: started Instagram as a blog tie-in [Rodney’s Instagram]. Did this instead. A single object each day. Nothing to do with the blog. Occasionally to do with horses. Published here for archival purposes.
Virtual Brush Box 