Horses & Other Interests
Awareness of the outside world. None. Caught in the tentacles of dual work assignments that keep on giving.
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Clouds
Paradise Point Marina
Lay Lake
Coosa River
September 2024
Commercial Considerations
No arrangements. Went. Ate lunch. Took pictures. They don’t know I was there, other than as a customer.
Lunch with a view
Technical Details
Phone camera.
Cloud photo taken from seating area at end of dock
Onwards!
Katherine
Awareness of the outside world. NPR: Keeping Bees Safe: It’s A Ruff Job, But This Doggy Detective Gets It Done, Helmer, April 28, 2016. Older article. Seems to still be a thing.
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Dogs fine.
Jasmine has dragon-level dog breath. Unfortunately, she is not up to being knocked out to have her teeth & gums worked on. So we deal. She seems fine with it.
It comes up because she gets various eye medications three times a day, for maintenance & moistening. Which means we are up close and personal with the dragon cave. I say we because it takes two of us. Yes, two people to medicate one geriatric Basset.
She fusses. Waves her snoot and paws about. We are happy to see the fussing. Just as we are happy to have her barking during supervising dinner preparations & complaining about the conduct of her minions.
When she gets lethargic, it usually means that she’s not feeling well somewhere. Most recently, a bout of constipation. Apparently slowing of the septic system is common with a wonky hind end. Treated by adding fiber to her diet.
She is back to barking.
Some day the minions will run out of miracles. Today is not that day.
Rose is Rose. A weird little dog. [Having Their Say]
Dog posts [archive]
Onwards!
Katherine
Awareness of the outside world. The Guardian: ‘How do you reduce a national dish to a powder?’: the weird, secretive world of crisp flavours, Tait 2023. Hat tip T.
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Part one. [Guess My Mystery Project]
Part two:
The Mystery Project Is … drumroll …
Western Dressage.
First off, I want to say how impressed I was by the comments on the guessing post. Polo. Teaching children. That is some serious out-of-the-box thinking.
And the winner is MM, for coming the closest with western. If it is who I think it is (?), I’ll DM you.
Back to the new project.
Say what?
We want to see how Rodney goes in a western saddle. If he likes it, maybe do a few WDAA tests.
Why western?
Rodney was introduced to saddles by a western trainer, so he’s worn one before. The saddle has a broader area that might sit better along his back.
Why now?
My barn mate had suggested this before, see above reasons. I think I was still invested in the idea of jumping, maybe, someday. After his blow-up a while back, I decided that jumping is probably out. [Rodney Is Sent to the Horse House]
Some days it works. And then it doesn’t. [The Many Faces of Rodney Over Fences]
I don’t know if the saddle actually impacts his back anymore or if he worries that it might poke him and therefore the anxiety never totally goes away.
So jumping was out.
Over time, I started to wonder maybe his back had been compromised to such an extent that riding was out altogether. [Daddy Dearest]
I had reached point when I really had no idea when the next time I would ride, and certainly no idea when the next time I would show. It was in August, so I was perhaps being a trifle gloomy, but that didn’t make me wrong. [Pink Horse, Guest Photo, With Added Whining]
That still may be true. A western saddle might be a miracle cure. Or it might have the same issues as an english saddle. Or have totally different set of issues. Saddles made for 15-hand round-barreled QHs may not work for a 17-hand, high-withered TB.
Am I doing it for something to write about?
Not directly. It is something to do.
Did it occur to me that this could be a new source of blog posts?
Absolutely. Something to do means something to write about. Activity? Yay! Blog posts? Bonus!
First step?
Find a saddle to try. If I still lived in MD or NC, I’d probably know someone who could loan me a saddle to try. Alas my days of having wide contacts in horse world are over the horison.
We may have a nibble.
Also, first step?
Take a few lessons. I probably should figure out how to ride western. Perhaps person will let us try a saddle &/or advise on later purchases. Saddle. Bridle. Breastcollar with all the bling. Rodney is definitely a bling kinda horse. Rider clothes. Western hat cover for my helmet. Yeah. I will still be wearing a helmet.
Why show?
Why not?
Any more thoughts?
What this house needs is another discipline. Eye roll.
Onwards!
Katherine
Awareness of the outside world. Two records and a nod to the horses. Out Sports: At least 42 out LGBTQ athletes at Paris Paralympics, a record, Buzinski, August 27, 2024. “Outsports co-founder Cyd Zeigler said equestrian, an Olympic sport with eight LGBTQ men participating, has ‘long been a leader in this space of out men.’ ” NBC News: A record 193 LGBTQ athletes to compete in Paris Olympics. Yip, July 30, 2014. sched 2 Sept
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Horse feet are better. No question.
I have been crediting better hay. [Setting a Summer Shoeing Record]
Definitely a factor. A big one.
Does the morning walk contribute?
Horses are designed to walk and graze. Not to stand around while feasting on a pile of hay. I was taught that the frogs of the feet are circulation pumps. Therefore, I would think that walking would help the pump and better circulation would lead to growing a better foot.
Coincidence? Causation?
Yes, they are on their feet almost of the time, and by definition walking. Still, we noticed a difference, lo these many years ago, in Mathilda with 20 min of continuous walking each day. But then I was talking about joints, not foot quality. It was hard to tell with her b/c she had great feet to start. [My Two Horses, first half, stop at “we end early and try again the next day.”]
Causation? Coincidence?
Onwards!
Katherine
Awareness of the outside world. History.com: Labor Day 2024. More below.
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To everyone else, a muck bucket. To Milton, eats!
Milton’s current food plan requires multiple muck buckets.
To keep Milton on his diet, his daily ration is weighed out in the morning and portioned into clean muck buckets, which he then eats out of. Having the hay doled out in advance keeps me from randomly tossing additional hay throughout the day. I’m used to hard keepers. I over feed. [Weighing Meals]
To keep him from rushing through the meal, we split his breakfast and dinner and serve them in a staggered fashion. Slow feeder hay nets just piss him off.
We had been using buckets and food pans. Even with the repurposed one from SSF, we still didn’t have enough. [Reduce-Reuse-Recycle, Repurposing a Muck Bucket]
It’s one of those minor life hacks. You can get by without, but it really is more helpful to have the right equipment.
It is a different brand than the other buckets, so stacking doesn’t quite flow as well. I thought having a fun color was worth a slight size discrepancy.
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Previous Labor Day links
Because I think we forget that it’s more than a three-day holiday.
US News: Have We Forgotten the True Meaning of Labor Day? The first Labor Day was hardly a national holiday. Workers had to strike to celebrate it. By The Conversation, Sept. 1, 2023. [Rodney’s Spot]
U.S. Department of Labor: History of Labor Day. [Distracted Day] 2021
Labor Day parades: When American horseshoers marched down city streets. [How Did He Do That, Shoeing Edition] 2020
“We must learn to honor excellence in every socially accepted human activity, however humble the activity, and to scorn shoddiness, however exalted the activity. An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society that scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.” John Gardner, Excellence, PBS: John Gardner, Writings [Low Key Photo Challenge: Labor] 2018
Onwards!
Katherine
Words of the outside world. PADI: Scuba Diving Hand Signals.
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Color: X-ray
The alternates are more traditionally fractal, but to me they look weirdly violent.
Onwards!
Katherine
The Reread
Touch the wardrobe door.
Pick up the ring. Don’t Panic.
Plunge into the page.
Afterword
Inspiration. To be clear, I not aiming this high. I thought it would make an interesting project. Seattlein2025: Announcing Special Hugo Award for Best Poem.
Process notes. I firmly believe that if you have to explain art, the work has failed. However, I did want to show that I was paying attention. A while back, a commenter (waves hi!) kindly added pointers on proper haiku form. I think I improved on the immediacy and sensory aspects. Still weak on descriptive imagery. Outdoor & seasonal didn’t really apply. [Horse Haiku]
Also, I acknowledge that I am relying on books by dead white men, and British DWM no less, There is more to the fantasy and science fiction genres than this.
Onwards!
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 