And Yet More on Helmets

The new image on my sidebar was designed by Catherine Strachan, Freelance Designer:

“When my mother approached me about her Lake George [New York] Rotary Club’s public service message to raise helmet safety awareness, I was more than happy to help. My father was in a skiing accident a few years ago. If it wasn’t for the helmet he was wearing, he might have not survived. As a graduate from the State University of New York at Purchase College, which is known for its excellence in education of the arts, I wanted to create a striking but simple sticker for Lake George Rotary Club. This sticker is designed not only for ski helmets but to fit on any kind of sports equipment or vehicle. As a person that is involved in multiple sports, I still see too many people without helmets.”

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Previous rant: Helmet Evangelism

Immersed in the Equine Idiom

Work: PM heat therapy.
Discussion: Two microwaved heating pads + sheepskin cover + wool blanket + warmish weather = happy horse. I have no idea why he doesn’t melt.

Ramblings for the Day: I can’t swim and count at the same time. In order to keep track of my laps for the Polar Challenge that I started on Jan 22, I have to translate swim strokes into gaits.

Start with a gentle hack on a loose rein – breaststroke, no goggles, head out of the water, ambling along.
After warming-up, I pick up the reins and walk – breaststroke, goggles on, head down.
Then trot – add in backstroke.
Then collected walk – back to breaststroke but with a concerted effort to be streamlined and swim fast.
End with more hacking.

This I can keep track of.

Have you ever used horse language to explain other parts of your life?

Manic Monday

Work: PM heat therapy & handwalk
Discussion: Much stopping and yawning, a small amount of being fussed by the dog.


Ramblings for the Day: I promised myself that I would limit this blog to events pertaining to horses, but a 2-hour+ fire call at O-dark-hundred this morning has cratered the rest of my day. Although I mostly fetched equipment and helped with salvage, turn-out gear is a lead-lined suit. Just walking back and forth to the service truck is worse than a trip through a weight-training circuit. At least the weight machines can be turned down to wimp level. We won’t even discuss trying to run in bunker boots.

I’ve managed a modest level of activity with the horses but am not finding anything clever to say … I know I have something around here somewhere …give me a minute … um, I’m going to have to get back to you on that.

Superbowl Sunday

Work: PM1 heat therapy/PM2 Greg & Rodney joined us at the end of the mare walk. We circled the entire field. First time in a while.
Discussion: Weather continues warm; horse continues mellow. He was halfway along the continuum from pulling like a train to totally relaxed. So, progress.

Ramblings for the Day: Although I would prefer to share brilliance and originality, I gotta go with Maxine on this one, “No matter who plays the Super Bowl, I root for the Clydesdales.”
For cartoons, Like Maxine on Facebook.
For Budweiser Clydesdale info, if you are legal.
For Budweiser Clydesdale info, if you are not.
(Hint: for better hits, surf Anheuser-Busch, rather than Budweiser, Clydesdales.)

Which is your favorite Clyde commercial?

Brevity is the soul of wit.

Work: same as Sunday, plus dog.
Rating: remembered all lessons. Gold star.

Ramblings for the day: Miniature Memoirs.
Yesterday’s funk required a snack run.
Checkout lane ennui begat O Magazine.
Article inside: “You …. in Six Words“.
Smith originated the idea. O venue.

My blog life in six words:
1) Patience
2) my
3) a**,
4) I
5) wanna
6) ride.

Horses are central to my life.
Therefore, statement covers life in general.
Or, write for The New Yorker.
That would cover my professional life.

Your life in six words. Go.

What Makes You [Horse] Happy?

Work: PM1 heat therapy & middle-distance handwalk/PM2 groom.
Evaluation: warm weather = happy, pleasant horse = happy, pleasant me. Bodes well for summer.

Ramblings for the day: Everything from philosophers to Hallmark cards tell us that happiness is within our own heads. But where? How? Anuscha Rees, on a post in her blog into-mind.com, talks about the three sources of happiness: pleasure, meaning, and challenge. You can have each one, a combination of two, or in the best case, all three at once. See her post for a nifty Venn diagram of the intersections. Since horse folks spend an inordinate percentage of their lives in the company of their horses, ideas that apply to life in general ought to apply to barn life in specific, no?

Pleasure: hedonism. “Anything that feels good at that exact moment.” Since her expanded definition includes walking in sunshine, I’ll put my daily walks with the mare here. We stroll. We dawdle. She makes faces at the dog. (For more on our Old Lady walks & the irony thereof, My Two Horses.)

Challenge: satisfaction. Cleaning really stubborn tack. Although the smell of good leather quickly segues into the above category.

Meaning: What matters to you. Keeping the horses fed and healthy and happy.

Pleasure/Challenge: Hard but fun. “like playing sports.” This one’s easy: brilliant jump-offs, having your horse understand a dressage maneuver. (In the latter case, the horse understood it before I did, but let us not quibble.)

Challenge/Meaning: Effort for a higher purpose. Keeping the horses fed and healthy and happy in the rain, mud, cold, heat, dark of night.

Meaning/Pleasure: Fun for a higher purpose. Given the difference between Rodney’s potential and his career to date, I’m going to go out on limb and say that he has engendered frustration in folks other than myself. I’ll go even farther out on the limb and posit that people have made this disappointment know to him, consciously or unconsciously. Therefore, he is a very particular look when he’s done his exercises correctly and, more importantly, knows that he has done them correctly. For the rest of the day, he’s all proud of himself and seems to be saying, Hey, I’m not the dumbest kid in class!

Pleasure/Challenge/Meaning (Joy): The brass ring. I’m beginning to spot the problem. I can think of rides in the past that where fun, hard, and meaningful, such as when I helped a friend’s pony realize that she liked Cross-Country. I can imagine rides in the future, that would be PCM. As for things in the present, not so much.

So what can one do?

Add pleasure: “Bring along a friend. Have a laugh.” I love having the horses at home. After decades of having everything my way, I would make a terrible boarder. But I miss barn buddies. The dog just doesn’t get my jokes.

Add challenge: “Set yourself goals that are realistic but still a stretch.” I have no trouble coming up with extraordinarily complex To Do lists. It’s the getting through them where I lose traction.

Add meaning: “Consider the positive impact of this activity.” I’ll try. Really. I promise. I’ll say three good things to Rodney each day.

To paraphrase her questions:
What is your main source of [Horse] happiness?
What kind of [Horse] things do you do that tap into all three sources?