Old Lady Horseshowing – August 24

Sadly, the “Old Ladies” triumvirate is temporarily reduced to only this old lady (and I ain’t much of a lady!). Despite reservations, and missing my pals on horseback, Jane and Susan, I returned to the show ring with Bart yesterday. Jane was on hand to assist, provide encouragement, and take pictures. I did only one very low class (called Intermediate Jumper), but it was a blast. Even Bart enjoyed it, I think, given his apparent enthusiasm.

I have been riding with an eye to possibly showing at the September rated shows, constantly looking for signs – should I finish on last year’s good note, or continue into my senescence? Well, on Thursday I had a call from Kris (renowned trainer), and he was unexpectedly going to be in town for the Happenstance Horse Show. That was a sign!

Kris stopped by here on Friday and gave me a little bit of a school – Bart and I jumped our first jumps of the year. He has not forgotten anything. I felt rusty, but any day riding with Kris is fun, and he thought it would be a good idea to jump around one small course on Saturday (or more, if needed).

My ONLY goal was to jump the correct number of strides between the jumps. That meant going with pace, not our easiest task. Kris did his best to arrest my lifetime bad habit of pulling on the reins, and we galloped around double clear. Bart was fantastic, and jumped from some extravagant distances, but the mission was a success! On to the “real” shows. Now I must complete my Safe Sport training.

Harry and Weedy came to watch and cheer us on. Everyone at the horse shows is always pleased to see them. Jane was a huge help, and she enabled me to bring Eddy, who loves horse shows. While we were tacking up, I left Eddy in the truck, so I turned the key to open the windows for him. Alas, I neglected to turn the key back off, so when we finished and loaded up, the truck battery was dead. That was a bit of bad luck, but I had jumper cables with me. Irene, in the office, notified Jaime, who arrived quickly to the rescue, with a thing called a “jump starter”. No cables needed! The bad luck turned to a good lesson, and a future Jump Starter in our kit.

This morning, it was positively chilly – quite delightful. Jane and I had a fun ride, and Bart told Derry all about how good he was yesterday. She was unimpressed. Jane and I were delighted to get two Monarch butterfly views on our ride. No pictures, unfortunately.

Poor Harry did not go riding this morning, because he was attacked by oak mites (aka oak itch mites) and had a terrible ordeal last night with removal and treatment of the evil, almost invisible creatures. They are the bane of late summer in Missouri. Since they do drop from the trees, Harry doesn’t fancy riding through the woods, at least not until the itching from this unfortunate episode subsides. No oak mite pictures were taken. They are too tiny!

In the studio, thankfully, there are no oak mites (or ticks, or tomato hornworms). The Jackie Joyner Kersee maquette departed Friday morning for Kansas City, where the enlargement will be created. It is nice to have another big project underway. Meanwhile, preparations are being made for a comprehensive art show in October of Harry’s work at a St. Louis gallery. Details will be provided later. The organizers were here on Thursday. We are very gratified by their enthusiasm, and they are entertaining and fun people.

Art is all very well and good, but amphibians are a sign of a healthy ecosystem, as I often mention. We have seen fewer toads than last year, which makes me sad, but we have some lovely frogs now that the stream is up and running. They serenade loudly at night.

Avians we do have in good numbers, though they are molting, and the migratory birds will soon be traveling south. I never tire of taking pictures of feathered creatures.

Before the weather cooled on Thursday, I brought Bart in from a ride with lots of lather under his saddle pad. I decided to look into the properties of lather. It turns out that horses have a protein called latherin in their sweat (humans do not). Latherin allows the sweat to evaporate more efficiently, making hot horses more comfortable. I am not a huge fan of technology, but it does enable me to learn new things, even in my old age. The good news is that lather is actually a good sign in hot weather.

The dogs had their nails trimmed this past week, and Eddy posed for a picture with Halloween (in AUGUST??) decorations. Why do I not trim their nails, you might ask? Because I quicked Weedy a few years ago, and so have lost permission to perform dangerous procedures.

The hot, humid weather has magically transformed to pleasant, autumnal breezes and clear, bright blue skies. The best time of year is at hand!

Stay safe, stay well, be kind and grateful. Stay curious, and enjoy every day. Slava Ukraini! Peace…