Month: July 2020

In case I haven’t mentioned it enough, it’s been HOT here in Texas. Triple digit heat, the kind that makes you feel like you’re living in an oven. So Michelle did what any normal person would do, and made the babies a kiddie pool (which will eventually become a water jump with a liner and gravel, but who can wait on all that when it’s 110 degrees). The “hole” was already there, and the babies were hot, so… in went the hoses. Which caused GREAT EXCITEMENT.

But, ya know… big holes take a really long time to fill with water, so after some initial fanfare, everyone got bored again.

In the meantime I suggested that maybe they would like some pool noodles in their kiddie pool, so Michelle went and found some and stuck them outside of the fence to bring in later once it was ready. Naturally, Ollie found them outside of the fence, grabbed one, dragged it in, and proceeded to carry it around the field with him until Michelle came back and took it away.

By the evening it was finally full and ready to go, with the pool noodles in place, so they went back in to check out their new water fixture.

Literally no one who has been following along with this year’s foal crop will be surprised to hear that Ollie was the first one in, and he immediately made a beeline straight for the pool noodles.

Let’s be real, Ollie is the one completely carrying this comedy troupe by now. Granted, he’s such a whirling dervish of activity, I think the other babies aren’t always sure quite what to do with him. He has a tendency to steal the show.

So yes, Ollie totally hogged the pool at it’s opening. We’ll see how the others start to play in it once there isn’t quite so much OLLIE happening in there. They’ve all at least wandered into it by now, so I think it’s a hit.

Hope you guys are surviving summer in as much style as these babies are. Happy Friday!

 

 

I’ve had my Pivo for about 4 weeks now, and while I posted my initial thoughts back when I first used it, I’ve continued to get a lot of questions so I figured I’d do an update.

Short version: I’m still really happy with it. I’ve used it 6 times now and we’re 6 for 6 with success. Not only has it worked for all 6 rides, but it’s lost me a grand total of twice in all that time. Granted, I think the real key to my success is that I know how the software works and always keep that in mind when I’m riding.

There are a few things I’ve done differently though, since I’m still learning as we go.

First, I started filming with the front camera instead of the back/selfie camera. Originally I used the back camera because I wanted the screen to be facing me as I rode, so I could check it constantly because I was mega paranoid about whether or not it was working. Now that I know it better and trust it more, the front camera is a better choice since the video quality is better with that camera. I also edited my camera settings to capture better quality video (I’ve legit NEVER messed with my camera settings before and the defaults are not the best quality, I feel like a moron for never even thinking about that) so I have better quality screenshots. While I changed some of my phone’s camera settings, I haven’t changed or messed with any of my Pivo settings, since the ones I’m using (Horse, AI, Center, Frenzy, Predictive Follow off, Exposure On, Auto Zoom on) have been working well for me.

Second, I got a slightly taller tripod that has a level built into it, with a screw mount on top and a carry bag. Taller tripod because part of my issue with the framing on Presto was that the phone needed to be a little bit higher. I figured a built-in level was a good thing too (and it is, because I almost never set that thing up totally level on my initial attempt before I check the actual level). The Pivo also has a level too so it’s probably a bit redundant, but if my tripod and my Pivo both say they’re level, I’m convinced. The screw mount attaches to the bottom of the Pivo, which I just leave on the tripod with it’s cover over it. And the carry bag is so I can just sling it over my shoulder and carry it with me when I ride out. There are about a bajillion tripods to choose from on Amazon. Pick your poison. I try to set it so that the Pivo is around the height of where my knee will be, so on Henry that’s a little bit lower than it is with Presto. My setup now takes less than a minute. Pop out the legs on the tripod, check for leveling, turn on Pivo, open Pivo app, place phone in Pivo, check my settings, make sure the app is locked onto the horse, and hit record.

And lastly, I also bought a new phone case. Which… the timing kind of worked out because I broke my original one the day before my new one came. But I went from an Otterbox Defender type case (that fully encases the phone like armor) to an Otterbox Symmetry type case with a screen protector. Mostly because that big Defender case does NOT fit well into Pivo’s clamp. You can buy a separate mount from Pivo to accommodate this, but… I didn’t really want to. I’d rather just get a different case since I didn’t like that other case very much anyway. Technically I could shove that bigger case in, but it was a fight, and inevitably it ended up holding the phone at a bit of an angle because it just really didn’t fit. I ended up taking the phone in and out of the case to use it on the Pivo, and I thought that me taking it in and out of the case while at the barn was probably a lot more dangerous for the phone than just buying a slimmer case.

The only other thing I’ve done slightly different is that I haven’t been as paranoid about adding brightness/contrasting colors on the horse. The first couple times I used white boots/white pad to help the Pivo see the horse shape better, but it seems to not really even need that, at least not when the lighting is good. If it was overcast or I had shadows in the ring or my background was darker, I’d probably still err on the side of caution, but it seems to have no problem following either of my horses against our background even without any added contrast.

While I purchased the Pivo mostly for the sake of screenshots for social media and videos for Presto’s vlogs (which it’s delivered on, for sure) I think one of my favorite unexpected perks is the little random things it captures. Like when I said Presto likes to come up to the fence to watch me ride Henry… in the first clip you can see him start walking up when he’s sees me getting on, and in the second clip there he is in the background, totally judging me. I’m amused by these little things.

One of my biggest nit-picks in my original assessment of the Pivo was that I thought the Auto Zoom feature (which had just come out at that point) was a bit too slow to zoom back out. That resulted in parts getting cut off from the frame on occasion, like the horse’s front or back half, or my upper body. Pivo released a new update in early July to address that issue, speeding up the “zoom out” part of the auto zoom. While it’s still a touch slow sometimes, I think its definitely much improved. One really great thing about Pivo is that they definitely DO listen to the feedback that their facebook group generates, and they’re quick to release updates. Like at least once a month, if not more. It’s constantly evolving and improving.

I’m becoming more impressed with Pivo the more I use it. It still can’t compete with a SoloShot or Pixio as far as what it can do, but for how cheap it is in comparison, it’s done an admirable job so far. Really loving this little gadget!

Y’all know how much I love to dye things. Usually here it’s been tack, but way back in the day (and here is where I shall date myself a bit for sure) I also used to dye a lot of TS breeches. That was when they were a 95% cotton blend (which honestly sucked, that fabric was terrible and tended to fade badly over time) so they were really easy to dye with RIT in the washing machine. I would buy used faded ones for cheap and re-dye them. It has admittedly been a while since I tried to dye any items of clothing, though. The thought hasn’t even entered my mind, to be honest. And then someone posted on COTH about dyeing their old sunshirts, which Kelly was quick to try, and DUH I dunno why that thought had never even crossed my mind before.

I did have a couple old Kastels that I was getting close to retiring. One was originally white with purple zipper/accents but over the years had turned to a sad dishwater gray. The other was originally buttercup yellow but had faded to just a sad pastel.

Given my two starting colors, I settled on light blue for the white one and burgundy for the yellow. These shirts are a nylon blend, so you need a dye specifically for synthetic fabrics. The COTH poster and Kelly both used the RIT DyeMore synthetic line, so I stopped there first. They had a light blue, so I got that, but they didn’t have burgundy and I didn’t particularly care for their other colors (or wasn’t sold on how they would look over yellow). So after some research (thanks, The Googles!) I decided to try Jacquard Acid Dye.

The blue arrived first, so the white shirt was the first victim. These types of dyes require a stove top method, so you need a big pot (I used our soup pot because it was the biggest one we have – it worked fine) and a stove and a plastic or metal utensil to stir with. I followed the instructions on the bottle exactly, pre-wetting the shirt, getting my huge almost-boiling pot of water (with the bottle of dye and a splash of dish washing soap) ready, and then in went the shirt.

It requires some effort as far as regular stirring, and keeping the temperature of the water steady. The super hot water is the crucial element that you need for the dye to work, so you will have to be close-by and available to keep a pretty constant eye on the pot. I did make a bit of a mess on my stove top when I splashed some water out during my stirring, but it cleaned up fine. The color was a bit slow to get to it’s full blue, so I kept it in for 45 minutes (remembering of course that colors look slightly darker when wet, so I wanted it to look just a bit past the color I ultimately was trying to achieve).

Once it was done I pulled it out, and again followed the instructions for rinsing/washing (it’s all on the bottle and Kelly talks about it in her post so I won’t repeat it again) and this was the final result:

Which in the sunlight is a really pretty sky blue (the color is called Kentucky Sky, which is a perfect name for it).

With impeccable timing, my burgundy Jacquard dye showed up the next day. Admittedly I was really looking forward to this one most, because I’ve wanted a burgundy sunshirt for a long time but either a) didn’t like the tone of the ones I found (too red) or b) just couldn’t justify yet another shirt.

The Jacquard dye is definitely different from the RIT. The RIT is a liquid and comes in a bottle – all you do is add the liquid to your water (plus the bit of dish soap). The Jacquard is a powdered pigment, which you add to the water along with 1/4 cup of vinegar (the vinegar is the “acid” in this situation – don’t be scared off by the “acid dye” name). The Jacquard is available in a lot more colors, but otherwise they’re quite similar as far as process goes. Again I prepared the dye water exactly according to the directions on the label. The shirt went in, and immediately I was like OH YEAH HERE WE GO! Right off the bat it was already a mauve color.

But of course, I was looking for a deep merlot, so I let it keep going. I expected it to take the full 40 minutes to reach that darkest pigment that I was looking for, but honestly… it was there in about 20.

When I first took it out of the dye I thought maybe I had gone a bit TOO far, it almost looked dark purple, but by the time I was done rinsing and washing/drying, the color was absolute perfection. Exactly the deep gorgeous merlot burgundy shade that I’ve been looking for.

It seemed like a waste to just toss the rest of that gorgeous dye down the drain, so I quickly went and raided my closet for something else to toss in. I came across an old pair of charcoal For Horses tights that I didn’t really love because they were gray, so I just kinda shrugged and thought… why the hell not. The label was long gone so I wasn’t sure what the fabric content was but I figured worst case scenario they were mostly poly and the dye just wouldn’t take. I suspected they were more of a blend though, so I had a hunch that they would at least take some of the color… spoiler alert, it actually took a lot.

Of course, since these started out as a deeper gray that had blue-ish tones, the breeches went more toward the purple side of the spectrum by adding burgundy. I only left them in for 15 minutes, because by that point they had gotten to a really pretty dark eggplant color (yet another color I’ve been trying to find for a long time and haven’t succeeded). Much prettier than gray!

I’m super pleased. These are 3 items of clothing that I was pretty close to tossing or giving away and now I kind of love them even more than I did originally. Especially the merlot shirt. I’m obsessed.

This isn’t a very hard process either, just… follow the instructions. There are also about a billion youtube videos about it, if you would feel better having a visual before you try it. For me, I preferred the Jacquard dye over the RIT, at least for these mostly nylon sunshirts. It reached it’s peak color in about half the time and IMO is more vibrant, plus they have a wider range of colors. It does require a little vinegar additive though, which might be a deterrent if you don’t have some or don’t want to buy some. Ultimately they both got the job done in the end, and both brands are about the same price ($4-5) depending on where you buy from.

Some things to keep in mind before you start dyeing everything in your closet:

1. you must know what the fabric content is, and buy the right type of dye for that fabric. Cotton dyes won’t work on synthetics, polyester needs it’s own special type of dye, etc. Look at your labels before you purchase and do some Googling, there’s a lot of info about what types of dye to use on what types of fabric.
2. Read ALL the directions on the bottle before you start and follow them to a T. If you don’t, your results will probably be shite.
3. Take into account your starting color. Obviously you aren’t going to be able to take a navy shirt to a light purple, or putting blue over yellow will get you a greenish hue, etc. The color wheel is your friend.
4. It won’t dye plastic/metal. Notice the contrasting zippers on my shirts – those stay the same color that you started out with. So keep that in mind when choosing a new color – how will the old zipper color look on the new shirt color? Maybe you don’t want a purple zipper on an orange shirt (or maybe you do).
5. This type of dye won’t work on anything that’s polyester. Hence, if the garment is stitched with polyester thread, the thread will not take the dye (you can clearly see contrasting thread color on my burgundy one, which I don’t mind, but you might not like it). That will be more obvious the darker you go.

If you have any old shirts that need new life or you just don’t like the color of, this is a pretty cheap way to revamp them. Overall I’m super pleased! And kind of sad that I don’t have any more crappy old shirts to dye…

We need to talk about Presto’s ability to tell what day it is. Horses can’t really count, right? They don’t own calendars. They have no concept of days.

RIGHT?

But Presto is equal parts adorable and creepy with his ability to tell which day is his ride day. We’ve settled into a routine where it’s always Sunday, unless there’s something special going on (like his Saturday trip to the XC facility). But, ya know… pretty much always Sunday. Sometimes I lunge him on Wednesday, and I usually bring him in and groom in on Saturday, but Sunday is his Funday (do horses classify being ridden as a “funday”? I dunno.).

Anyway, for the past many Sundays, he acts completely different than he does on other days. I always ride Henry first, since it’s cooler earlier in the day, and then go get Presto. And on Sundays Presto has taken to coming up to the fence and staring intently at me, from the second I start untacking/bathing Henry, right up until I come get him. Like he leaves his friends, comes to the fence, and straight up STARES at me. For as long as it takes until I come out there to retrieve him. As if he knows it’s his day and his turn is next. But horses can’t know that… right?

Once I noticed that he was doing this, I started to pay more attention to what he does on his non-riding days. During the week he pretty much never pays me any mind. He will come up to the fence by the arena and watch me ride Henry for a few minutes sometimes, but he never does the staring-at-me-and-standing-by-the-fence-as-soon-as-I-dismount thing. I go out and give him cookies on most weekdays, so if there were days where you’d think he’d be stalking me, it would be those. I don’t even halter him, I just walk out and give him a cookie and leave. But no… on those days he’ll usually walk up and meet me halfway, but he’s never waiting for me and watching me. He doesn’t do it on his Saturday grooming days either.

So I started thinking, okay maybe I’m doing something different on Sundays and he’s picking up on it. But… no. I’m at the barn a little earlier than I am on weekdays, but the same general time as Saturdays. I always ride Henry first. There’s nothing different about my routine between the days that I can figure out.

So how the heck does he know? What’s cluing him in to the fact that yes indeed, it’s his turn next? Or is all of this just completely random coincidence (that’s happened at least 5 times in a row now, since I’ve noticed) and it just so happens that he picks his riding days to display this behavior?

I mean, I’m not complaining. At all. I think it’s really cute that he clearly wants so badly to come in and do stuff and go on adventures. My heart grows 3 sizes each time I catch him staring at me and demanding I come get him. He wouldn’t do that if he didn’t enjoy it. But still, it’s a little odd. The practical side of me says it has to be coincidence of course, right? How the heck would he know? But after so many times in a row… I’m not so sure.

You’d think that since it’s 9000 degrees here in Texas, these horses would be subdued and well-behaved. YOU’D THINK. But no, both Henry and Presto have been up to no good, in their own unique ways.

Henry has been… honestly kind of wild. Which makes no sense because it’s so hot he can barely breathe. Apparently oxygen isn’t really a necessary component? I’ve been riding him fairly lightly since I don’t want to actually kill him in this weather (the high today is 105. Not the “feels like”, the actual friggin temperature.) and he got an extra day off last week. I came out a little earlier than usual yesterday to jump him before it got too hot and good god I was riding a bronco. He squealed and leaped his way through almost every corner before and after every jump. It’s kind of hard to see a great distance when your horse’s head is between his knees most of the time. He seemed completely non-plussed by it though… *squealleapdolpinwheeJOMPleapsquealdolphinJOMP*. I have nothing but eye rolls for him right now (he’s lucky that I find his particular brand of naughtiness to be pretty amusing). He might spend most of his days huffing and puffing because of the heat but clearly he is not suffering.

I did do an ACTUAL dressage ride on him last week, like… in my dressage saddle and with his dressage bridle/bit. I thought he might be terrible since that was our first real dressage ride since… coughFebruarycough… but he was actually pretty good. He’s not as strong and as fit as he was a year ago when he was show-ready (we were at Coconino a year ago, btw. Sob.) but otherwise, he honestly felt almost the damn same. I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I mean it’s awesome that he hasn’t regressed, but also… for real, we can go 5 months without taking this very seriously and it doesn’t really matter? I used to do dressage 3 times a week for what reason exactly? Ha. Hahahaha (more sobbing).

Presto, on the other hand, has been excellent under saddle. Yesterday I took him out for his second solo hack, but this time I skipped the arena work and just got on him at the barn and headed straight out.

He definitely had more pep in his step this time, just heading out “cold turkey”, but he was still really well-behaved. His ears get so busy as he tries to take in everything at once, it’s pretty cute. He seems to really enjoy exploring, because he marches right around there by himself like he’s totally entranced. This time we didn’t really have to stop to take in any scary things either, he was pretty bold. The only thing I didn’t really love was that he has this tendency to want to trot DOWN the hills for some reason, which… he’s super narrow and he’s 3, thus it kinda feels like you’re gonna tumble into a heap and die. So we had to do a few halts on the downhills. The first time I did it, I kind of forgot that his verbal “whoa” is REALLY sharp (I almost never say whoa when I’m riding him, it’s mostly a lunging cue. Usually when I’m riding I stick to his gait cues “walk/trot/canter” or if I need something to steady the tempo I tend to say “easy”, but his whoa from the seat is pretty solid so I just don’t really use the verbal cue) and when I said whoa he screeched to a halt on that hill so fast that I about lost my balance. Note to self: be real judicious about the use of “whoa” under saddle, it works like an e-brake.

While Presto is the better-behaved one under saddle right now, surely you know he’s never exempt from his own personal brand of naughtiness. And this time, it came about in the form of murder. Not just murder, but terrible gruesome murder complete with dismemberment and an attempted framing.

Those are the body parts of Ball #3. Ball #1 lasted months before he finally bit it hard enough to put a quarter sized hole in it. Ball #2 lasted about the same amount of time, and it just had a slow leak from being rolled through a cactus, nothing dramatic or violent. Ball #3 just debuted last weekend, and I came out on Saturday to find this particularly horrific crime scene. I dunno what the hell Presto did, but he did it very thoroughly. I can’t be sure of who actually popped the ball (I found a hole that looks suspiciously like the same teeth marks that led to the demise of Ball #1, though, which would point to Presto since JB tends to play with it more with his feet than his teeth) but there’s zero doubt at who mutilated the body. That’s TRADEMARK Presto. He ripped the cover apart, pulled the dead ball out, and then tore chunks off of it before depositing the largest piece over the fence into Henry’s field, as if dumping the body on Henry’s property would somehow shift the blame. It was in 9 pieces. Total massacre.

So, ball #4 is on it’s way. I apologize in advance for what’s going to happen to you, Ball #4.

Clearly this terrible disgusting heat hasn’t taken much out of the horses, if they’re both still managing to be cheeky. Me, on the other hand. I feel like a walking swamp creature.

You know it’s bad when you have sweat dripping off your second chin like a faucet before you’re even done tacking up. Ugh. Is it October yet?