We Made the Cut

Sonoma Valley Stables were a gracious host of their annual hunter derby this last weekend. Where else can you wear black tie and tails and muck out your best friend's stall in the same day? UP and I went 9th of 25. Plenty of rounds after us to get knocked out of the top 12 slots for the handy round. But we made the cut. I reminded her of her job, that of jumping over man made obstacles which were intended to imitate natural obstacles in any open field. You see open fields all the time with meticulously matching painted rails, round walnut veneered logs and color coordinated dahlias as plentiful as in a royal wedding.

Time to learn the handy round well. This time, the second round was not just some arbitrary construct that other people would be jumping and not us. Enter, pick up canter from the walk and proceed directly to the first fence. Make an inside roll back to an oxer. Then some middle stuff I'll just gloss over. Finally an inside turn down the outside line in an easy 6 and out of the ring. They generously awarded 12 prizes, we were 12th and got to participate in the victory gallop with speakers blaring. She preferred carrots to ribbons, showing a distinct trend away from the ridiculous trait of thinking bling is more important that healthy root vegetables.

Reporting from the field, JP and UP

Very fuzzy video, looks like it was filmed under water. Will work on better upload (read, technical help needed, Sean)

Natural obstacles in a typical field always include canoes cut in half.

Putting the Pieces Together

This activity took a nudge. At a dinner party, the subject came up that I formed a CraftClub. Along the lines of a Book Club, we meet periodically and do a craft project. After the first 2 meetings, I realized I was out of my areas of expertise and starting reaching out for help. And we got it, in spades. This last weekend, Giulia Manzoni and Pippa Murray put on a fabulous mosaic workshop for 10 participants. Friday night was TGIF, wine and cheese, and a visual potpourri of 5,000 years of mosaics. Good inspiration, and a little humbling to see micromosaics and realize we would be trying out the activity for the first time the very next morning.

Saturday, with hammer tapping even with the straight edge of the hardy, tile held gingerly in between the moving metal parts, we broke up tile or marble into really tiny rectangles and trapezoids called tessera. Tweezers holding the tesseras tightly, we scooped a some thinset and set the pieces in place one by one. The thinset engulfed the base like a tooth with a long root, reaching up 2/3 of the sides. Letting that dry overnight, the platters were ready for grout Sunday morning. The artistically adventuresome made their own designs. Those of us concentrating more on learning to make clean cuts and keeping all 10 fingers whole borrowed from Giulia's, generously shared. We were all wowed by each others' works.

 Lesson learned, start small and finish on time...

Debra and others diligently working in silence...

Princess Diary, What color are you?

Okay, I am a fashionista. They say horses and other mammals except primates are color blind. Really?  I can spot an Appaloosa three rings away and snort alarmingly in any equitation class. It is just that we equines are more sensitive to subtle colorations. We do not need turquoise and gold lame blouses for embellishment.

I am a blood bay. I would be black, after all I have a black mane and tail, lower legs and tips of ears. But I inherited the Agouti gene that suppressed the black gene from working all over me, so that my body is a lovely red. Simple enough, if a horse can figure out Mendelian genetics, why did it take till 1865 for humans to figure it out?

I have to admit I am a little jealous of the truly black horses,  especially the non-fading ones that are resistant to sun bleaching. Imaging the cost savings of not having to buy horse sized bottles of sunscreen or only riding at night.

My chestnut friends come in a rainbow of variation, if rainbows were composed of only red tones. Liver, sorrel and blond from darkest to lightest make matching in a pairs class more challenging.

Grays are especially adept at sleeping on homemade “pillows” creating different green splotches every morning. Once scrubbed off, however, you would be able to discern all the variations of grays including steel, dapple, fleabitten and rose grays.

Buckskins, duns, paints, Cremellos, Rabicanos, I could go on and on. And don’t even get me started on markings! Beyond standard issue star/stripe/snip, there can be very special variations, all with specific terminology. Some of us may appear to be a chestnut, but have black shading that won’t rub off with any amount of brushing or product. These birthmarks, or Ben d’Or Smuts can be present at birth or develop later. At the other extreme, white spots appear like bird droppings. But you can call them a much more sophisticated name, Tetrarch, to be cool. And coolness counts. So when marking your horse show entry color box, take time and choose carefully! All the best, Princess

Kwick Kwiz: What's a Kerf?

I am 60 years old and it took me 60 years to find out that cutting wood parallel to the grain is called ripping and uses an entirely different saw than cutting across the grain. That and when one cuts wood, the gap created, appearing as saw dust on the floor from the chisel action of the teeth of the saw is called a KERF, the exact width of the saw, of course.

Master furniture maker Tim Bulkley volunteered Wednesday morning to lead a basic woodworking workshop for the Craftclub. Starting with the most basic information, embellishing steadily with concrete examples, and time for us to give every tool a try, we triumphed in creating a mortise and tenon joint.  Not just any mortise and tenon joint, but strong enough, even without any glue used, to stand on. We moved on to using a brace and bit and auger bit to create smooth sided holes for doweling. Some much to learn, so few CraftClub dates!

Tim between 2 Joan's showing extreme patience with our skill level. 

The Frugal Equestrian

Don't start scoffing immediately at the oxymoron in the title. After 2 weeks at HITS Thermal weeks V and VI, 2015, I paid diligent attention to all aspects of frugality at a horse show. If the following steps are followed assiduously, one might be able to save a buck fifty, or a down payment on a latte.

Wake up at 5:30 am and braid your own horse's tail.

Wake up at 4:30 am and braid your own horse's mane. Some suggestions are easier to sustain than others

Thermos in your morning coffer and cooler in your afternoon beer, the bookend beverages of the equestrian set.
Learn your course.

Don't scratch for wind or rain, late scratches are not credited and what's wrong with a little excitement anyway?
Wear last year's hunt coat. HW variation: Wear last millennium's jacket. Duct tape works great on fraying edges and torn lining.
Only buy one picture - they all look the same anyway!
Have fun. Proven to cancel out most of the fiscal anxiety of the sport.


http://youtu.be/F6lcBm883oY
http://youtu.be/smQpEUaTnj0

Joan - Hugh - Brenda - Bailey