march madness 2017

March Madness 2017: Round 1, Match 5: Beauty v Pegasus

Amanda2 Comments

Round 1, Match 4 – Sleipnir v Smoky – is still going on and it’s competitive, so make sure you vote!

On to…

Round 1, Match 5

Beauty v Pegasus

Like the previous match, these two don’t have much in common. They both start literary, but they’ve also both had their share of film appearances. Other than that, they’re pretty much black and white. Literally.
Beauty is the eponymous star of possibly the best horse book of all time (I’ll fight you over that), Black Beauty. His story shows the horrible fates waiting for horses in Victorian England, though his is eventually a happy ending.
Pegasus is the equine star of the best mythology of all time. (I’ll fight you over that one, too.) He’s captured by the greek hero Bellerophon, who rides him to defeat the three-headed Chimera. (Also, if you want to laugh really hard, his Wikipedia article has an actual pedigree chart for him and it’s amazing.)
Who’ll it be? These are two of the most well-known archetypes in the equine fiction world, so choose wisely.

The cover of my favorite copy of Black Beauty

Pegasus. There are a LOT of slightly weird images of pegasii on Google Images.

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march madness 2017

March Madness 2017: Round 1, Match 4: Smoky v Sleipnir

AmandaLeave a comment

First, to announce our winners over the weekend.

Round 1, Match 2: Flicka!

Round 1, Match 3: Hidalgo!

And now…

Round 1, Match 4

Smoky v Sleipnir

I am hard-pressed to find any similarities between our two contenders today. Their names start with the same letter? They’re both sort of literary? That’s all I’ve got.
Smoky is a sort of Western Black Beauty, living the hardships of the American West through his life, passing through many hands and many circles before ending up with his beloved first owner again.
Sleipnir is an eight-legged steed sired by the magical stallion Svaoilfari on the god Loki in mare form. He’s the favored steed of Odin and is frankly kind of terrifying.

Smoky

Odin on Sleipnir (concept art from Thor)

The choice is pretty stark, and I’m curious to see how this one goes!

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house post

House Post: Small Updates

Amanda1 Comment

Most of what I’ve been doing around the house doesn’t qualify as blogworthy: slowly but surely going through piles of stuff to sort it into keep, throw away, donate. I returned from a recent visit to my parents’ house with five stuffed full tupperware of random things from my childhood. Those were in addition to the 5-7 last remaining boxes of random crap hanging around the house. Some of it I do want to keep; some of it I’m content to shove back in the box and think about in a few more years; some of it is going right out the door.

But, it’s boring.

So here, have some brief updates on the very slow project of getting the wallpaper down in the dining room. I’m not putting any kind of urgency behind this project; rather, “dining room” is a line on my to do list each day, and all I have to do is make SOME kind of forward progress. Some days that’s 10 minutes just tugging at the top layer of wallpaper. Some days that’s firing up the actual steamer. Baby steps. I still don’t know what to do with the wainscoting, though I have many awesome ideas now, so there’s no rush just yet. If I had a clear mental image of the final product I’d be moving much faster.

Before, during, & continuation of one corner.

blog roundup

Weekly Blog Roundup

Amanda2 Comments

Round 1, Match 3 of March Madness is open until midnight tonight! VOTE!

Also a PSA: we saw Logan last night, and there was a really terrifying bit with a horse trailer and multiple horses right in the middle of it. Everything turned out ok but if you have any anxiety about possibly awful things happening to horses, be aware. I couldn’t watch it.

Can I/Will You Ride My Horse? from Zen and the Art of Baby Horse Management
Are there any other sports where a request like this is so fraught? I can’t imagine so.

How the backyard barn lifestyle has changed my ideas about footing from PONY’TUDE
Interesting how a change of circumstances opens possibilities.

Forward and down from Cob Jockey
This is basically exactly what I needed to read this week.

With a side of science from The $900 Facebook Pony
Coooooooooool.

No room for bigotry in equestrian sport from Horse Nation
A bit over-written but hard-hitting, makes excellent points, and is something we’re all complicit in.

Your non-horsey read: The Downfall Of YouTube’s Biggest Star Is A Symptom Of A Bigger Illness. An exceptionally well-analyzed read about the ways in which the corners of the internet are testing the limits of socially acceptable speech, and becoming radicalized. It ties together the thrill of being provocative with the echo chambers of the internet, and points out that in any other country we’d call this nascent terrorism, but we don’t yet have a name for it in America.

Bonus non-horsey read because this describe exactly my last month in cooking & eating: How to turn a cupboard cleanout into a great meal plan. I’m having a lot of fun being creative with things that need to get used up, with only one bomb so far.

march madness 2017

March Madness 2017: Round 1, Match 3: Hidalgo v Joey

Amanda3 Comments

Onward and upward! Round 1, Match 2 voting is open through midnight tonight, and it’s a tight race between Flicka and Artax, so make sure you cast your vote!

First, to announce the winner of Round 1, Match 1:

The Pie!

And now, on to…

Round 1, Match 3

Hidalgo v Joey

Interesting matchup here – two fictional horses based clearly in historical circumstances! Other than that, these two are pretty different.
Both do come from books – Hidalgo is based on the writings of Frank Hopkins, which may or may not be mostly made up. Joey is the main character of the YA book War Horse. Both horses have extraordinary journeys, and are much the worse for the wear at various points. Both are eventually reunited with their owners.
Hidalgo, though, is a mustang; Joey is (presumably) a decently bred English saddle horse. And though they both got big budget Hollywood films, Hidalgo’s was arguably better. It definitely had a hotter protagonist.
Joey is much more of an everyman horse, and his job is to show us our humanity as we learn about his troubles. His story is arguably more textured, and the acclaimed stage show shows some of that texture: it’s a relatable story set amidst the horror of war, about larger forces out of anyone’s control.
Viggo Mortensen & Hidalgo
yes, please

Albert & Joey
Who will advance?

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2017 horse goals · 2017 life goals

2017 Goals: February Recap

Amanda4 Comments

Previously, I set horse goals and life goals.

January Recap

So, how was February?

Horse Goals – original post here
1. Put hands on my horse 5x a week – better and better! I’m mostly pleased with this, actually.

2. Be less perfunctory – I really should have made this goal easier to quantify. I struggled with this one a bit, though.

3. Aim toward dressage schooling shows – good progress, mostly in the nature of keeping him in good work. I’ll have to look at the schooling schedule to see how that maps out for the summer for any away shows.

4. Take more lessons – February, check! Scheduled March.

5. Horse-specific income stream / funding emergency fund – Tristan’s emergency fund is now at $525/$1500, and my overall emergency fund is at $7,715/$12,000. Still no real progress on the income stream.

6. Do more thoughtful work – Mixed. I am pleased with how much more I’m reading in terms of thoughtful long thinkpieces rather than short articles.

7. Get more media – Sort of still a fail. I’m taking more pictures of Tristan, but none of them have me in it.


Life Goals – original post here
1. Pay off car – still on track for November 2017 with possibilities to move faster that I’m waiting on

2. Read 75 books – 15/75 down:

The Underground Railroad by Coulson Whitehead
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Better with the whole reading-white-men thing! Better, too, with lining up books to read on a schedule, but slower progress due to higher density non-fiction books and less time to read overall.

3. Revive history blogs – Off the wagon in February, but I’m scheduling posts for March now, so…mixed? First post for March published yesterday, a reflection on national identity as shown in the Estonian National History Museum.

4. Do better about food – February was all about focusing on cleaning out the pantry, so I made a lot of meals that used up random things in order to get to the back of the cupboards & the freezer. But, I did do better about food prep, particularly for quality breakfast items like smoothies and mini quiches.

5. Decorate the house – sigh. not really. I did the curtains in the office but…that’s kind of it.

march madness 2017

March Madness 2017: Round 1, Match 2

Amanda4 Comments

Round 1, Match 1 will go until midnight tonight, but in order to get all of these out of the way, we’re going to have to move quickly through round 1.

SO!

Round 1, Match 2

Flicka v Artax

Another day, another set of contenders who originated in literature and had beloved movies. For both of them, their onscreen incarnations might actually be more famous than their literary versions.
Both are light-colored, both are beloved by young boys. For both, my enduring mental image is of them sick, injured, dying – and down, with their boys urging them to live. (Some of us have never gotten over the Swamp of Sadness, OKAY?)
(no seriously fuck that movie. not that i’m trying to influence voting, but fuck that movie forever.)
(also speaking of terrible movies, for the purposes of this contest, we’re going with OG Flicka, Ken’s Flicka, chestnut mare Flicka, not the weird black stallion version from the new movie that only shares a name with the book)

Ken & Flicka
Atreyu & Artax
Who will it be?
Once you’ve voted, make sure to enter the Rafflecopter for this match.

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march madness 2017

March Madness 2017: Round 1, Match 1

Amanda8 Comments

HERE WE GO!

First, an announcement: not a single brave soul took me up on option b, so we’re scrapping that.

I still want to give prizes, though! Let me give you cool stuff!

SO. Each round will have its own prize. A Rafflecopter will run through the duration of each round, and you’ll get entries for voting & for sharing the contest. At the end of each round, I’ll draw, and then we’ll start a new contest.

Round 1 prize is: a $10 Riding Warehouse gift card + Riding Warehouse saddle pad!

Round 1, Match 1

The Pie v The Colt from Old Regret

This is getting serious right off the bat! Who will win? 
There are some interesting similarities between these two: they both started as beloved literary creations, one from a book and one from a poem. Both are nominally part of the British Empire. Both got spectacular, classic, beloved films.
There are also some pretty clear differences. The Pie didn’t need to be tamed; he needed to be trained, and the culmination of his story was to take the ultimate amateur to the ultimate professional’s test in the Grand National.
The colt needed to be tamed, by a quiet professional, and his story arc ends with him trying to escape the humans, not cooperate with them.
Elizabeth Taylor playing Velvet Brown with The Pie
Random actor in a touring show playing Jim Craig and the Colt from Old Regret

Who will move on to the next round?

Once you’ve voted, enter for Round 1, Match 1!

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physical fitness (horse) · senior horse

Balance

Amanda6 Comments

I’ve said many times that managing Tristan’s brain is harder than managing his body. His body is not exactly easy to manage either, but his brain? Well, he had a decade of looking out for himself, four years of wild roaming and then six of nothing but unreliable or neglectful humans. Only this year have we been a team for as long as he was solo.

He’ll never be a ride-every-day horse. That mostly works out for me: I don’t have a ride-every-day life. There’s a lot of gray in between that high-maintenance horse and a pasture puff, though, and I’ve struggled with finding the right balance in the moment. It keeps changing, and a lot of the changes now are directly tied to his 22 years of hard living.

pretty darn good right now

Right now, though? Knock wood, I’ve found a sweet spot. I’m balancing the hard 60 minute fitness rides with the 20 minute dressage intensives with the 30 minute longeing sessions with the 45 minute hacks – and the days off in between. He is really and truly a horse that’s happier and goes better when he’s had time to process and rest.

February was a great month for building on success in all areas, but at the end of last week I longed him and he was just not happy. So we backed off. He got two days in a row off for the first time since early January, and then he got a road hack on Sunday and his brain was already a bit better. I was on a roll with house work on Monday, so he got that off, too.

Tonight, we’ll ease back in with a light longeing session, and then tomorrow back in the saddle for some trot sets & fitness work. I’m working hard to make days off and light days conscious decisions that I make based on the horse in front of me, and it’s paying off in a big way.

house post

House Post: Man Cave Progress!

Amanda1 Comment

So close. SOOOOO CLOOOOOSE.

Previously, we were plastering and sanding forever, and I skimcoated one wall.

My in-laws came to visit again last weekend, and huge progress was made!

So here’s the before:

It looked like that for a couple of weeks, as we added & sanded layers of plaster in an agonizingly slow process.

Then: primer!

Aaaaaaaand…paint!

Not only paint, but TRIM!

Then we cleaned up all the random extra things in the space. It was glorious. The room is now mostly empty, mostly clean, and alllllmost done!

Remaining:
– paint the trim
– flooring (carpet + some tile around the door)
– one last light by the door (you can see it above M’s head in the last picture)
– covers for the recessed lights
– furniture!
– longer-term: build a (dry) bar in the corner where the green wall meets the blue wall (summer)
– longer-term: work in crawlspace underneath, to include insulating the floor joists (summer)