Milton Meets My Little Pony, Guest Post

LB color page purple

 

From the same hand that brought us Art Nouveau Horse.

scenic nouveau

 

Out of Creative Haven Nature Mandalas Coloring Book by Marty Noble (Facebook page).

yhst-137970348157658_2392_2313366155

How is this My Little Pony? The image echoes the show’s color scheme, which hovers at the pink/purple end of the spectrum, albeit less pastel. MLP:FIM Wiki

BTW, in Googling the above, I came across a post on the creator’s motivation behind MLP: Friendship is Magic. My Little NON-Homophobic, NON-Racist, NON-Smart-Shaming Pony: A Rebuttal by Lauren Faust (Deviant Art page). Of note, the subtitle is extremely important. Earlier versions of MLP are too insipid to be borne. MLP:FIM counts as generation four. MLP Wikidedia

Foto Friday: The Daily Object, December 2015

Instagram header August 2015

Photo project from my Instagram feed, @rodneyssaga.

TDO Dec 2015

 

Began and ended with Starbucks.
Food-related photos (food item or taken at a restaurant): 9, four of them from Starbucks. Used the “free” downloading for new tablet. Given the price of their hot chocolate, this may be false economy.
Horse-related photos: 4. The pearlesque thing is a hairband for this weekend’s show. [*]
Travel (NYC) photos: 3. The Auntie Anne’s pretzel bite was both food & travel
Total 15 photos.

Routine explanation: started Instagram as a blog tie-in. Did this instead. A single object each day. Nothing to do with the blog. Occasionally to do with horses. Published here for archival purposes.

Last month – Foto Friday: The Daily Object, November 2015

*Update: No show. Report, Not.

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.

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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