Sunday, October 15
Oct. 16th, 2023 02:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Another gorgeous day.
My husband getting more fiddly little bits done on the siding. It's to point now where it is starting to feel like Zeno's Paradox (if someone is traveling from point A to point B, first they travel half of that distance, then half of the remainder, then half of that distance, and in theory never can reach their destination because they are always traveling half of an ever increasingly small distance).
For this last week or so, he is always "almost finished". He now has basically one strip of siding to put up, on each side of the house, that connects the higher pieces with the lower pieces, and he does need to buy a few specialized strips to mount the last bits.
So close.
I did some putter-y things, like sweeping crud off of the brick walking path, raking out the mulch we laid last night, putting away some things for winter, folding some tarps and putting them away, one more load of laundry, etc.
I cleaned all the dried mud and grass roots from our little tiller that we were using to level the ground we mulched.
Then I went to see River.
Nice to feel no real pressure today. We worked again on a pattern we might do, but it's not a big deal.
We did some general Liberty stuff.
I rode for a while with the Sunday rider. We talked mostly about how we felt about our freestyle performances that we just finished last week.
When I came home, I watched the performances of the other people at the barn, many of them kids, and they were all really good. They were posted on the private Facebook page for the members of the stable.
It actually bothers me that we have to get scored on these, because it makes no sense how you can compare them. Some people worked together so they had a pattern with two people and horses. One girl did trick riding. They are so very different that I don't know how you could even put them in one category and call one better than another.
Also, we have no idea what the others are doing, so you don't know if what you are doing is different enough to be interesting, or if your costume is elaborate enough, or if your technical difficulty was good enough.
Some of these people are beginners, still using a lead line, and it's not really appropriate to have them competing against people who are working at Liberty.
I know it's supposed to be fun, but why bother having a "winner"? In a very real way, each person was working at the edge of their skill level, and pushing themselves. I would say all of them were probably amazing for that person and horse at this point.
Anyhow, here's a link to River and I, doing our pattern. This is the one we worked on all summer. I feel that it is, whether we win anything or not, an accomplishment for us. It represents our growth together this summer, working through lots of challenges and learning one or two completely new things that we included (the backing up with me cueing from behind was new to us this spring).
https://youtu.be/gl6f71pSjTw?si=VAARWkA3ieqH-1vt
We watched more "Breaking Bad" together.
I learned about the Old River Control Structure; a huge engineering feat that consists of several flood gates in Louisiana, with the purpose of preventing the Mississippi River from changing it's course.
https://youtu.be/gl6f71pSjTw?si=VAARWkA3ieqH-1vt
Another gorgeous day.
My husband getting more fiddly little bits done on the siding. It's to point now where it is starting to feel like Zeno's Paradox (if someone is traveling from point A to point B, first they travel half of that distance, then half of the remainder, then half of that distance, and in theory never can reach their destination because they are always traveling half of an ever increasingly small distance).
For this last week or so, he is always "almost finished". He now has basically one strip of siding to put up, on each side of the house, that connects the higher pieces with the lower pieces, and he does need to buy a few specialized strips to mount the last bits.
So close.
I did some putter-y things, like sweeping crud off of the brick walking path, raking out the mulch we laid last night, putting away some things for winter, folding some tarps and putting them away, one more load of laundry, etc.
I cleaned all the dried mud and grass roots from our little tiller that we were using to level the ground we mulched.
Then I went to see River.
Nice to feel no real pressure today. We worked again on a pattern we might do, but it's not a big deal.
We did some general Liberty stuff.
I rode for a while with the Sunday rider. We talked mostly about how we felt about our freestyle performances that we just finished last week.
When I came home, I watched the performances of the other people at the barn, many of them kids, and they were all really good. They were posted on the private Facebook page for the members of the stable.
It actually bothers me that we have to get scored on these, because it makes no sense how you can compare them. Some people worked together so they had a pattern with two people and horses. One girl did trick riding. They are so very different that I don't know how you could even put them in one category and call one better than another.
Also, we have no idea what the others are doing, so you don't know if what you are doing is different enough to be interesting, or if your costume is elaborate enough, or if your technical difficulty was good enough.
Some of these people are beginners, still using a lead line, and it's not really appropriate to have them competing against people who are working at Liberty.
I know it's supposed to be fun, but why bother having a "winner"? In a very real way, each person was working at the edge of their skill level, and pushing themselves. I would say all of them were probably amazing for that person and horse at this point.
Anyhow, here's a link to River and I, doing our pattern. This is the one we worked on all summer. I feel that it is, whether we win anything or not, an accomplishment for us. It represents our growth together this summer, working through lots of challenges and learning one or two completely new things that we included (the backing up with me cueing from behind was new to us this spring).
https://youtu.be/gl6f71pSjTw?si=VAARWkA3ieqH-1vt
We watched more "Breaking Bad" together.
I learned about the Old River Control Structure; a huge engineering feat that consists of several flood gates in Louisiana, with the purpose of preventing the Mississippi River from changing it's course.
https://youtu.be/gl6f71pSjTw?si=VAARWkA3ieqH-1vt
no subject
Date: 2023-10-17 05:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-17 09:35 am (UTC)Yes, he IS a horse, and has his moments for sure, and you follow our posts enough to know that he is "human" like the rest of us.
Overall though, he tries for me, and is a solid citizen.
I think he's very handsome, but I am terribly biased!
It's been a lot of work to get to where we are, and this video really is kind of a big deal for me. It's nice to have something like this to be able to show people what it is we're doing.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-18 05:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-18 06:21 am (UTC)I had washed his mane and tail about a week or so before this thinking we were filming the next day, other than that I hadn't washed him.
As long as he's dry, he usually looks okay with a good brushing.
If I had washed him, he would have been blindingly white!
He gets VERY clean and white in the winter, because of all the clean snow.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-18 06:49 am (UTC)The others were rank in a different way - their occasional smells could peel the paint off the walls. This one is different.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-18 06:55 am (UTC)I have noticed that some breeds like black labs often smell awful because they naturally produce a lot of oil because they are "water dogs".
I wonder if Roxy's frequent rolling in dry dirt actually help to keep her smelling fairly neutral? In the winter she rolls a lot in clean snow and smells great.
We almost never bathe her, for all that she is a "farm dog". Only if she's rolled in something special do we bother.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-19 03:43 am (UTC)He's lucky he smells so good. He has a real puppy perfume that's at its best when he's been playing. Maybe it's his diet??