Social Media Footprint

End of the Month post on blogging [other such].

I am expanding my social media empire.

Established
Blog: http://www.rodneyssaga.wordpress.com
Rodney’s Saga has spawned two subsidiary blogs: Rodney’s Storage for administrative clutter and Rodney’s Sock Drawer for testing posts. If you add the monthly previous incarnations, Back to Eventing & Back to Riding, that’s five blogs for one horse. Not bad for a pasture ornament.

Update: Make that 6 blogs. I forgot about the Blogger version. A while back Blogger wouldn’t let me comment with a WordPress blog, so I created this as a redirect.

Gmail: rodneyssaga@gmail.com.
To provide a contact without hanging up my real email as a spam target.

Facebook: Rodney’s Saga
Daily links for those who prefer to follow on their newsfeed. The second monthly blog, Back to Riding, had its own Facebook page with additional weekly updates. A new page was the easiest way to shed the show name on the Facebook page. Last year, I just posted links. This year, I’ve added on-topic Facebook shares.

Blog posts can be crossposted automatically, but it always seems to chose the wrong picture. Plus, Haynet does not allow autoposting. Since I have to manually post the link at Haynet each day, I do Facebook & Twitter at the same time. The phrase you are reaching for is “time sink.”

New
Flickr: Rodney’s Saga Blog
A place to store Gratuitous Kitten and Foto Friday Photos.

It took me two tries to sign up. The first time, I got cute and put December 22, 2011 as a the birthdate, since that was the date of the first post. Of course, that made “Rodney’s Saga” a minor. I was required to supply parental permission and 50 cents. I was tempted agree so I could keep the name but decided it might introduce future limitations. When I changed the year, and tried again, it just laughed at me. I waited a few days and registered as RSB with my own well-over-minor year.

Twitter: @RodneysSaga
For daily links and pithy aphorisms as they occur. Of course as soon as I started, the aphorism well dried up. I don’t think I’m the intended Twitter audience. Perhaps because I lack the phone as constant companion. Deep down, I can’t imagine anyone wants to hear from me that often. Is my 20thC showing?

Blogging Community
Blogging friends, friends who blog, the list grows. A Rodney’s Saga guest poster has started her own blog Life, the Universe, and Everything with a commentary on how we look at others In the shadows of my mind. I expect horse stories will follow.

How do you work across platforms?

Playing with Poop

Does anyone else score themselves when picking up manure piles? A strike for getting it all in one go. A spare for needing two passes. Then there is the tactical question of scooping conservatively or trying for a strike but being left with the 7-10 split.

I have a 10-tine, metal manure fork, which is slightly narrower than the average pile. The plastic forks are wider and have that lovely basket shape, but I’ve always found the tines to have the penetrating power of cooked spaghetti.

I’m willing to bet that non-horse folks out there are wondering why all this time and attention on pitchforks & shoveling; whereas the horse folks are nodding along, thinking, ‘Yeah, could see doing that.’

Horsefolks see things differently.
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GKP Arthur 2

Lunching With Lola

Despite being a diva, Lola is unsure about having her picture taken.
Despite being a diva, Lola is unsure about having her picture made.
On Monday, I went out to brush on and have a chat with Lola. I want to get to know her better in preparation for blowing everyone’s doors off in SC.

Logic dictates that knowing a horse on the ground would help riding the horse, no? However, there are certainly elite grooms who do not ride at the level of their uber-talented charges. Also, a rider can compete successfully out of a valet-service barn, without having the slightest clue of what happens under the hood. I read about a Big Name Horse whose rider described him one way, yet his groom described a completely different horse.

In my own life, I successfully groomed Crazy Jumper Mare for years before I was able to pilot her. With Previous Horse, I was sufficiently assertive on the ground but melted into a push-over in the saddle.

Still, it can’t hurt.

The biggest problem? Having “Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets … ” from Damn Yankees and “Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl …” from Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana” cavorting in my head as dueling earworms.
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Stepping Stone barn cat
Stepping Stone barn cat

Translator Needed

At the South Carolina show, I will be riding Lola, a ~16 h, chestnut, ASB mare. She is dainty, well-trained, and clear about what she wants. However, between her saddleseat accent and her mare accent, I don’t always understand what she is saying. Occasionally, I find myself inexplicably at the wrong gait or headed off in the wrong direction, i.e. toward the middle of the ring.

In contrast, Sam speaks saddleseat but with such a broad school-horse accent that I have no trouble understanding him. That doesn’t mean I can always ride him correctly. For example, he may be saying, ‘You messed up so I’m not cantering any longer, thank you very much.’

I have ridden amazing mares. When I showed Tory [BTDT: Hot Buttons] in the jumper ring, it was easy. We did it her way. In the event at which I rode Priney [photo], we did it my way until she realized that what we were doing was fun, then she took over. Negotiation was not necessary in either case.

Google has two versions of the popular saying:

You tell a gelding, you ask a mare, but you discuss it with a stallion.

or

Tell a gelding, ask a stallion, discuss it with a mare.

Either way – asking or discussing – requires a mental adjustment for a rider who has mainly spoken gelding. Any tips on reaching an understanding with a mare?
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GPK Josephine 1
Josephine fell asleep with her tongue out. Click photo for larger version.

A Few Steps Forward

This week I took Rodney for a hand walk to the end of the pasture and back. On the way out, he registered concern about gremlins in the woods. A few verses of Soft Kitty solved the problem. On the way back, he decided to be obstreperous. The conversation ran thusly:

R: I wanna charge back to the barn.
Me: No.
R: Why?
Me: Because I said so.
R: Okay. [Pause for a stride or two.] I wanna charge back to the barn.

Repeat for the length of the pasture. For the last two years he has essentially been sitting on the couch watching reruns. He sees no reason to go back to work.

This, Ladies & Gentlemen, is enormous progress. Not scoring a walk halfway around our own field. That’s just embarrassing. Victory is that I was able to turn his actions into a coherent story. Whether the story is real or anthropomorphic fantasy does not matter. I was able to use it to form an effective response. This is not something I have been able to do with him in the past.

Walking next to 17.1 hands of jaw-crossing, neck-curving, on-the-muscle fussiness worries me not. You wish to be rude? Bring it on. Previous Horse was five inches shorter but fiendishly quick. He was never evil but could be mean. As a bonus, he had arrogance to make a test pilot look meek. I dealt with him for 20 years. In comparison, my kindly giraffe, your attempt at attitude is a snowman’s fart in a blizzard.
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Foto Friday: Sun Over the Roofline

The Sunday Stills for this week was “Sunrises/Sunsets…. With a Building.” A tricky shot since my barn is too ugly for public consumption. It is a cheap tin building that has become old & decrepit without becoming scenically so. The horse areas have been remodeled and are safe. The rest is better out of sight. So, a profile/shadow shot was in order.

FoFri sun roof