Goodbye Dr. Margaret

Dr. Margaret has left The MindSide. Since my financial arrangement for sport psychology appointments was with the company rather than with her personally, I am following the money. I meet with my new MindSide person tomorrow. Details when I find out what level of exposure the new person is comfortable with.

The advice so far has been great: daily progress is a paper thin layer that accumulates over time, being nervous means I care, treat feelings as information. On the other hand, the advice so far has also been general. I could have gotten it from a book. The point, I assume, of a personal consult is advice tailored in a way that I am most likely to hear it.

This is nothing against Dr. Margaret. I was impressed with her diligence. After our first meeting, she responded to all the emails, tweets, and links I sent her way. She even came out to Stepping Stone Farm to observe a lesson. She watched closely but asked fewer questions than I expected. I had a sense that she was gathering and processing. We never had a chance to go over her synthesis of the data stream that is my life. I leave it as an exercise for you to imagine how much information I am capable of dumping on a person.

She offered to continue working with me. I will keep that in mind. However, at the moment I feel less riddled with nerves. I’m energized from the trip to NYC [Crystal Horses]. It is off-season for the Saddlebreds. The home team is showing flickers of progress [Naptime]. I feel motivated about work [Hello 2016!]. Do I really need this? Was I simply bored and living too much in my head?

If they had offered a refund, or conversely if they had been sticky about the changeover, I might have bailed on the whole idea. Instead, they came up with a compromise of an introductory half session to get the new person up to speed, along with Dr. Margaret’s notes. As I said earlier, I have no illusions of being a special snowflake. Anyone with experience in the field could probably sum me up in a sentence: Katherine is an ABC type, with XYZ tendencies. Inscrutable has never been a good look on me.

So, I shall keep going. Even if I’m not so badly off, I can always improve.

Previous The MindSide Posts
Meet Dr. Margaret
First Appointment
Why Bother With Nerves?
Positives 12/1/15

Update: Appointment postponed to 1/14/16.
Update: Second appointment canceled. Insurance adjuster chose that time to check out the car [Not]. As with blacksmiths, one says thank you & waits.

Rodney’s Headgear

The Minimalist

bridles 1

Rodney’s preference, a simple hackamore. He reacts poorly to leather [Life in the Slow Lane, Here We Stand], hence the homemade nylon crownpiece and nylon race reins [Bridle Colors: photos]. We had no choice about the leather nosepiece [New equipment: photo] as our non-leather version was too bulky.

The Redundancy

bridles 2

My preference. As above with bit and second set of reins. I like having the option of positive control. Unfortunately, if I touch the bit reins, Rodney curls up like a salted slug. Yup, he backs off from a Happy Mouth plain mullen loose ring snaffle [New Equipment: photo], possibly the mildest bit on the planet. Even having it on with slack reins seems to cause tension.

For now, we are doing it his way. Will his increased comfort level compensate for my decreased one? The jury is still out.

The Possible Compromise

bridles 3

In order to go cross-country, one must get through dressage. In order to get through dressage, one must wear a bit. In the future, I may use the hackamore with stand-alone bit as an interim step. Note the lack of rein to the bit. He has to wear it but does not have to respond to it. A friend of mine rode this way to help a horse work through bit issues.

The Safety

bridles 4

Since the reins are not leather, I installed a breakaway at the buckle. A toss-up between them coming apart while I ride versus Rodney getting tangled up if his ground tie fails and he goes galloping across the field. Ask me how I know about this possibility.

In all the tack switching, the browband appears to have gone walkabout.

n

Gift Celebration

Now that we are all back to work, it is time for the ceremonial showing of the gifts. Since I was born in December, some of these are birthday gifts. No public credit. I did not get this written in time to ask the givers if they wanted to be outed. I know at least one who wishes to remain anonymous on general principles. Thank you! You know who you are. Handwritten notes coming. Really. I promise.

Horse Pattern Sharf. Wide enough to work as a shawl. Thin enough to be gathering into a fashionably bulky scarf.

gifts 3

Logo Bag. Can one have too many containers?

gifts 5

Quilt Square. I’ve seen it in photos. Now it is mine!

gifts 4

“This is called ‘It’s not sheep I count to sleep.’ The horses are beaded. The fence is painted. The blue quilting is dotted with blue stars and gold stars. The green beading is made with seed beads and another type of bead.” Q is for Quilt

Cat Lady Mug, with treats for human and feline. I have 5 cats. My personal CCL limit is 6. Therefore, I am well under. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

gifts 2 with insert

What did you get?
~~~
More on naming practices for the blog: At Least I Got A Blog Post Out Of It

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Letter Art: Invitation

you

Have any interest in drawing, photographing, or otherwise creating letters? Join me. I am looking for Guest Artists for Letter Art Sundays.

Inspiration

Mapping Manh cov

For Mapping Manhattan, Becky Cooper gave out blank maps. People filled the silhouettes with images, landmarks, and significant moments from their own lives. The maps of Manhattan are the same but different.

Too cool.

What can I do that is collaborative? Start a new project on a new site? Meh. What can I do with what I already have? A photo gallery of readers and their horses? In theory, lovely. In reality, getting bogged down curating copyright issues. Guest posts? Yes, always open to those, but that’s not really collaborative.

Aha!

Invitation
You are hereby invited to send in YOUR horse’s name as letter art. No horse? Horse is CH Midnight Soliloquy Dankeshein Zip-Bar Special Cupcake, with a stable name too embarrassing to make public? Have fun with “Rodney”, “Milton”, or “Rodney’s Saga”. Or contribute to the 2016 Alphabet.

Not an artist? First of all, yes you are. I am willing to bet you make art on a regular basis, you simply don’t call it that. Second, I didn’t say it had to be world-class art. I’m no Jessica Hische. No one is hiring me to draw letters for a living. I do it because the colors are pretty. Third, still don’t believe me? Build your horse’s name out of grooming equipement and take a picture [Hoofpick Letters].

Pretty much anything goes within the intersection of horses and letter art.

Motivation
I spend a lot of time inside my own head. I would be interested to see how other people create different approaches to the same concept.

If this doesn’t flip your skirt, I’m always in need of ideas, either for Rodney’s Saga lettering or for letters of the alphabet with a horse angle.

Fine Print
No money involved. Of interest to those who wish to work for giggles. Your own work, see copyright concerns above. You retain all rights to the artwork. Usage would be as a blog post, on the Facebook page associated with the blog, and in subsequent year-end compilations.

No deadline. Offer exists as long as the blog exists. Or if I have to cancel the concept because it becomes a hairball for some odd reason.

Previous Lettering
2015
2014
2013
Horse Alphabet 2015

Karma Is A B*tch

Horse people are friendly, out-going, and love to talk. Most of the time.

WEG 98 badge

Back in 1998, I attended and fence-judged at the World Equestrian Games (WEG) in Rome. (Yes, it was awesome.) A few days before, I was up in Florence having dinner on the patio of a small restaurant. The tables were packed closely enough that I could overhear the party at the next table. They were in Italy for WEG.

I invited myself into their conversation. ‘Really, you are here for WEG? I’m here for WEG. Small world!’ I sat, wagging my tail, waiting for them to be equally thrilled. Not so much. They had a distant family member competing. This made them Terribly Important People. They had no use for a mere spectator/volunteer. Abashed, I returned to my meal.

Several days later, I approached Will Call outside the arena in Rome. Unsure if my pass from the cross-country venue would work here, I’d had an Italian friend arranged a ticket for me. The Terribly Important folks from Florence were at the next window. Their tickets were not waiting for them. Didn’t the ticket window operator understand how Terribly Important they were? Yet another connection of theirs was due to ride any minute. It was Terribly Important that they get into the arena immediately.

I’m a sucker soft touch. I had two possible forms of admission. If they had been nice to me – or even polite – I probably would have given one of them my ticket and set about looking for a replacement, or seeing if I could talk my way in. As was, I picked up my ticket and walked by without comment or eye-contact. I tried not to be smug that my people were more capable than their people.

Be kind. If only out of self-interest.

Hello 2016!

Yesterday, I looked behind [Looking Back at 2015]. Today, I look ahead. Tomorrow, we return to horses.

The Blog
On a bulletin board over my right shoulder, is sheet of paper titled “Katie List”. On it is written “Foto Friday”, “OT Saturday” & “Read for professional development.” It is my personal motivation poster.

Katie was the recipient of a burst of online enthusiasm from me. My advice boiled down to ‘Do things. Do more things. If those don’t work, do other things.’ Well, if I possess the effrontery to tell other people how to live their lives, I can damn well apply that advice to myself. Write. Take photos. Close Candy Crush and fire up my New Yorker subscription.

Therefore, in 2016, my blog will …

1) Continue to serve its primary purpose, i.e. “to keep me from going batshit crazy” [I’m Baaaaaack … With Camera: Bottom Line].

B) Appear daily.

3 or C) Serve as a space for improvement and experimentation. Take artistic photos for Foto Friday rather than simply scrambling to fill the space. Write a few longer, in-depth essays that require reflection and revision. Draw the comic that’s been lurking in my head. And so on.

In other words, blog the same, but better.

For details of our exchange, see her post [Here We Go], & mine [This Is For Katie].

The Boys – Rodney
Rodney and I have progressed to a small amount of work in the ring. I see three paths from here.

1) He will never get to place wherein I feel comfortable taking him off the property for lessons or shows.

B) He will make progress but each step will involve reinventing the wheel.

3 or C) He will have a lightbulb moment and think, “Okay, I got this.” At this point, the world would be our oyster. He has enough talent to compete on good looks & charm – at least at the levels I am aiming for.

Which path we take is up to him. Guess which one I’m rooting for.

The Boys – Milton
Cross fingers. Cross fingers. The new stall routine [Naptime] holds promise. I no longer threaten to send Milton back to Canada on a daily basis. I have stopped quoting the Dread Pirate Roberts, “Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.” There are even moments when I actively enjoy working around him.

Of course, I want to be ready to show First Level/Novice/Adult Jumpers by spring. Realistically, if we can spend the winter months getting to a mutual happy place on the ground that would be a victory. When the weather cooperates, I hope we will be equipped to trailer him to places and people that will help me with riding him. After that, we shall see.

Have you priced pickup trucks lately?

The Everything Else
My goals don’t change much [8th]. Ride, jump, show. Improve my writing. Improve my photography. Exercise. Stay healthy. Love my family & my friends. Be grateful for what I have. Do something useful with what I have been given. Life 101.

Finally, if I insist on quoting Doctor Who, I really need to get the DVDs out of the box to finish the Matt Smith years and to catch up on Peter Capaldi. (Hangs head in shame.)

Happy 2016 to you & yours!