Blog :: Random Rambles
June 2008
Horse Bloggers 3.0 Available
I know you thought it would never really happen, but Horse Bloggers 3.0 is now up and running.
This is a major, major upgrade for the site that will hopefully make it easier to use. The design is the same as this site, although Horse Bloggers has some IE6 bugs fixed that probably still exist here.
Enjoy!
Redesign
Pardon any bugs in the system that you might encounter. I just couldn’t stand the old design any longer, and 95% of things should be working here. That’s close enough for me on a personal site.
You’ll note the new text and gallery databases—these are actually from Horses in the Arts. I never update that site because it’s on a different control panel, so I’m hoping I will develop this more actively now.
If you’re interested, this is the same design that I am working on for Horse Bloggers. It’s not fully implemented over there yet, but I’m hoping to be able to release the new version sometime in the next month. I can tell you some of the new features I have for it: screenshots will be handled automatically by Snap.com, users can now create profiles with personal photos and signatures, and there is a community news feature that anyone can post to. Plus, the front page has a list of recently-updated blogs, so you can see at a glance who is actively posting entries to their blogs.
Believe me, Horse Bloggers 3.0 is a huge, huge step forward for the site. Plus, there are less ads on it. They don’t make any money anyway, so they might as well not make money unobtrusively.
And don’t forget about the blog carnival! It’s coming up quickly! Submit your entries here! There’s no official theme, so submit any entries you like—up to two per blog. I’ve already received some great entries—where are yours?!
This was inevitable
I got a second cat.
I know, not nearly as exciting as a horse.
My excuse is that Pookie needed a companion, because she’s become super clingy when I’m at home. This is justification speak for “I wanted a kitten and I got one,” because Pookie is as unimpressed with the new arrival as only a 12-year old cat can be.
Because I’m not totally heartless, the new cat is about nine months old—young enough to let me enjoy some of the kitten-ish moments, old enough to understand that Pookie is the boss and Pookie Does. Not. Play.
They seem to have sorted each other out, and the new girl does indeed leave Pookie alone. She plays with my hair ties instead. Typical cat.
This also blows all credibility out of my “Pookie needs a friend” excuse, but that’s fine. Pookie HAS stopped clinging to me. She now glares at me from across the room. This is probably an improvement.
The little one doesn’t have a name yet; the one she had from the shelter is just awful. After three days, it’s also clear that she is not impressed with Rilla as an alternative. I’m trying Onyx now.
We’ll see. It probably doesn’t matter, anyway. I don’t think she’s the type to come when she’s called, regardless.
Speaking of Balance
As I was driving home from work earlier this week, I realized I was sitting with all my weight shifted right. I think we can only blame the accelerator so much; even when shifting gears, I was still camped out to the right.
Similarly, I have a lot of tension in my arms from the elbow to the wrist when driving. Again, I can only blame so much of it on traffic—I notice dthe same sort of tension when there weren’t a lot of drivers around.
I do know that tension in my arm is sometimes an issue for me, although I can’t remember that having too much weight to the right is. Hmm. Maybe. If I lose a stirrup, I think it’s the left, which would make sense if my weight is to the right. It’s hard to remember because with one thing and another, I’m sort of sidelined from riding again.
But the real question is: if I worked on these two issues in the car, would it translate to riding?
Probably. I know one trainer who is insistent on having all the horses stand square whenever they are being worked with. In that barn, if the horse shifted their weight or camped a leg out behind in the cross ties, it was second nature to ask them to step up underneath themselves. And when we went into the arena to mount, if the horse halted by the mounting block with a leg camped out behind, yup, that was fixed before mounting. I think the logic came from several directions:
One, that the horse has 22 hours of the day to loaf around, so they can work for an hour lesson and stand square while they are being groomed and tacked. It sets the tone for the lesson from the beginning: the rider is in charge. (If you don’t think this is possible, have me tell you about the chestnut mare some day. She knew the game, and she tested her rider every. step. of. the. way. Greatest sense of humor, ever, in a horse. I cannot tell you how many times she would park a leg out behind just as I was getting ready to mount, and then look at me as if to ask whether I cared enough to ask her to fix it, or if I didn’t want to just give up the game and mount? The lesson took its tone from my choice.)
Second, that if we are going to ask the horse to halt square in a dressage test, we need to ensure the horse has the right muscles to really do this. Obviously a lot of this muscle habit will develop from riding itself, but there’s no reason not to take advantage of every moment you have. The horse gets to loaf around 22 hours of the day; for one hour while riding and an hour before and after for grooming, they can stand square. I don’t know how much of a difference it made in muscle development, but I would be it made some.
Third, and possibly the most important, is that both horses and riders develop habits. So by asking the horse to always stand square, the idea is that the horse learns that when working, every halt should be square. Always. It’s not negotiable, or something worked on every couple of lessons. It should happen every time.
Did it? Oh no. Go read some of my old posts to see how much trouble I had getting Ye Grande Schoolmeister to halt square when riding. But it worked with the chestnut mare, who sometimes finished up a halt on her own when I dropped a leg too soon, before it had stepped up underneath her.
All of which goes back to my original thought: if I can train myself to keep my forearm relaxed when driving, and can sit evenly in the seat, theoretically that should transfer to being able to keep my forearm relaxed when riding and to sit more evenly in the saddle, right? Different contexts, different situations feeding the unbalance and the tension, but muscle memory is muscle memory.
Theoretically.
If nothing else, it’ll give me something to think about while driving besides the number of truly awful songs I have on my iPod.
Please explain to me
I’m curious:
Why are all today’s commercials so bad?
I saw a commercial explaining what lasagna is. I thought maybe they would list some secrete ingredient, but no, it was lasagna like anyone could make (not like my lasagna, though, which is awesome and will give you a heart attack due to cheese overload). Have we reached a point where we need to be told what lasagna is? Next: what are meatballs?
Speaking of needing to be told things, have you seen Best Buy’s “we’ll set up your GPS” thing? Honestly, if you can’t set up your own GPS, you need to stick to maps. Or buy a cheaper GPS. Or become a Big Brother/Big Sister to a ten-year-old who can program your GPS and probably hot-wire it into your car so it’ll brew a cup of coffee for you while you drive. (What? I wouldn’t put anything technological past a ten-year-old. If NASA would hire them, we’d be back on the moon already.)
Current most annoying commercial, after the Sonic commercials: Taco Bell’s “rapper” commercial. Are you telling me they could not find a single white boy who could rap? Please don’t tell me there are people out there who find it amusing, because I don’t need any confirmation that the general sense of humor in this country has sunk to that level.
And to everyone who’s about to point out that at least the commercials have cemented the brand names in my brain: yes, yes they have. They are filed under “places I don’t want to shop, because I don’t want my money to subsidize their advertising departments.” You would think, with the economy the way it is, companies would be churning out the best commercials ever since 1) the advertising departments must be concerned about their jobs and 2) you have to convince people to buy, right? It’s harder now.
Not to be a total drain, I do like the Volkswagon commercials. See? I can be positive.
In a related note, don’t you think it’s time for a “Choose Your Own Adventure” sitcom? Audiences could vote on the topic f the sitcom for the next episode. It couldn’t be any worse than American Idol, anyway. (Yes, I am aware of the fact that my complete and total lack of interest in American Idol probably makes me un-American. I can live with that.)
Unrelated, but could someone please explain those gazing ball things you’re supposed to put in your yard? I don’t understand the appeal. Is this a blinged-up version of garden gnomes? Is there a reason you’d want to put a shiny metal thing in your lawn so you can be blinded by the sun flashing off it? Will we see diamond flamingos next?
Sorry, my back is killing me tonight and I’m too impatient to be watching TV, but I can’t concentrate on reading. This is awful. Not my back so much—the junk I’m supposed to be watching.
Remember the Nissan Shift commercials? There was a good campaign. Oh, for the good old days of… last year, wasn’t it?
Oh, how quickly we sink.