Remembering Etta

A year ago today, the world lost a wonderful person and I lost a dear friend.

Etta was fierce in her defense of her students, be they riding or academic. There were times that she got her students through dressage tests and around courses on willpower alone. She never let anyone, particularly the students themselves, say they couldn’t achieve whatever they desired. She loathed the Twilight saga because of the message it sent to her female high school students. Trick question: where did Bella go to college?

Etta believed in people, perhaps more than she believed in herself. As was ever thus for good-hearted folks who put others before themselves.

Etta was just about the only woman Mathilda ever liked.

Having said that, Etta could also be as cutting and snarky as one might desire in a friend. We met as spectators on a cross-country course and bonded over unkind comments concerning a mutually disliked competitor. Her favorite Buffy character was the sublimely evil & witty Spike. Her favorite line in the Highlander series was when Methos admits that he was one of the original horsemen of the apocalypse and then snarls “… and I was good at it.”

Although we will never forget, let us celebrate instead of mourn. To honor friends we have lost, please take a moment to consider the wonderful gift that is each person you know.
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Gratuitous Cat Pic
No, I don’t need another cat. Really Etta, do not bring her over. I know I said I like calicoes. Yes, a calico kitten is beyond adorable. But …. Sigh. She was named Amanda, because There Can Be Only One choice for her name.

Literary Midwives

(The November end-of-the-month* post on writing & blogging.)

I would like to end National Gratitude Month with a shout out to the members of my writing group. They have been with the blog from the beginning. Obviously, they were better able to help editing the monthly posts [Back to Eventing, BtRiding]. Although I had to send the daily posts into the wide world without supervision, they still gave help with formatting suggestions, post ideas, and a K in the P when I got all mopey about the work. In addition to reading my blog posts, I asked these long-suffering souls to read my commercial essays.

From this experience I learned two things:

Criticism can feel great. The thing about writing for pay is that, at a minimum, the submitted copy needs to be good enough to please the editor. Ideally, the text is so breathtaking that these editors line up at the door to shower MORE assignments at you. So, I had an extremely vested interested in making 500 words sparkle to the best of their ability. When one of the group said ‘This title sucks’ (I think she expressed it more nicely but that was the gist), I thought, ‘She’s right & I know how to fix it. Terrific.’

Compromise is not evil. The members of my writing group are intelligent but horse ignorant. I thought I would have to balance explaining horse terms with boring the intended horse magazine audience. Not so. First, I was usually able to eliminate the jargon by adding or changing only a few words. Second & even more surprising, the changes made the text better for the horse audience as well. Wasn’t expecting that.

Thank you, Ladies. You know who you are.

Who do you need to thank?

Blogging Posts
*This month ends early. The real eom is a Foto Friday & I have plans for the 29th.
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Gratuitous Kitten Pic

Bookmark attack!

Cyber Monday: Brushes, Britches, & Books

Television will be the death of movies! The Internet will be the death of bookstores! Yet bookstores and movie theaters are still full on Saturday nights. I have a nasty Amazon habit, yet I still go brick & mortar to pat the books.

Similarly, online ordering will never replace a knowledgeable tack store or feed store. Before I buy, I want to feel the bristles on the brushes and try on the britches. Also, some things don’t ship well: bottles of liquids, bulky buckets, feed. The Internet works when you know exactly what you want &/or the item is too specialized/exotic for local stores to carry.

For example, my recent online, equine purchases:

Specialized – A stack of horse agility books to inspire our groundwork exercises [Retail].

Specific – Supplements. Yeah, I know the arguments that supplements just make expensive manure. I even partially agree with them. However with her fairy dust, a) Mathilda has sounded a little less like a bag of castanets falling down the stairs & b) she’s made it this far. We aren’t changing anything now.

Scarce – Saddleseat britches [Day 1, pictured]. No saddleseat vendors near me.

OTOH, I have had no luck at all with online classifieds, which is ironic as Previous Horse & Mathilda both came from newspaper classifieds back in the day.

How has the Internet changed your horse (dog, cat) shopping?
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Gratuitous Kitten Pic

Of course I’m helping.

Carrot Snob

Carrots taste different from bag to bag. Apparently.

A few days ago, I went out to the barn for the morning check. Mathilda refused her carrot. Usually a horse refusing food is sign to panic, as with Rodney’s recent colic episode [Rest]. However, this carrot was approaching the size of a zucchini. I’d even cut it lengthwise for ease of consumption. Perhaps she didn’t like the taste. I’ve accused her of being a fusspot before [Line]. Yup, a smaller, sweeter carrot disappeared just fine.

When you buy a 2 lb. bag of carrots, you get almost the same number of carrots as in a 1 lb. bag, just bigger. For improved taste & maximum number of treats, it is better to purchase two 1 lb. bags. The fact that we know this is a sign that we have bought far too many carrots.
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Gratuitous Kitten Pic

Hunting Season

This was how Rodney spent Thanksgiving. Hunting season began with – dare I say – a bang. Rodney was up on the hill monitoring the noise and occasionally trotting back & forth. Mathilda was in her pen monitoring Rodney and anxious to be out trotting as well. Hence the confinement to her pen. Hubby sat with her for part of the morning. When it looked like she wouldn’t settle without Rodney, we put him up in the stall for a few hours. He was still on alert. She calmed down because her boy toy was close. Different priorities.

It was a long day for those of us fretting about the horses, but we couldn’t hardly blame ’em.

Although nothing is guaranteed when humans & firearms interact, I am ever so slightly less concerned about the Bambi stalkers in my area. Yes, the horses’s pasture is surrounded by woods on three sides. However, these guys – and it does seem to be mostly guys – have been hunting & shooting all their lives. I remember telling a young kid that my husband didn’t hunt. He looked at me as if he couldn’t process an adult male who didn’t hunt. You know that life-altering moment you realize that other people see the world differently? Yeah, like that.

Plus, this is not a destination area. The hunters are my neighbors. They – I fervently hope – know who lives where.

When I kept horses in New England, we just left them in the barn for hunting season weekends. The area was pretty enough & close enough to population centers that city dudes would come up and fire away in drunken ignorance. As a city brat, I’m usually all for sophisticated urbanites, but not ones who don’t know a buck from a buckskin.

How went your holiday?
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Gratuitous Kitten Pic

Selfie with kittens.