stargazing

In grad school, my Bayesian stats professor frowned upon what he called the practice of “stargazing” — that is, staring at the p-values of your model results to determine what predictors were informative or not. He called it stargazing because many academic journals use asterisks next to results to indicate their significance level (* = p < 0.05, ** = p < 0.01, *** = p < 0.001; TLDR you want more stars/a smaller p-value). This professor was more interested in effect sizes and model error, which makes a lot of sense. You can have a very statistically significant predictor with a biologically irrelevant effect size. Which doesn’t make that predictor very good, in reality. Or you can have a predictor with a massive effect size and large error bars that mean it ultimately isn’t statistically significant, but might be worth further investigation. He made a whole R package called “stargazing” that reinterpreted the results of models with little asterisks just to make people happy.

Most of my stargazing now revolves around trying to find shapes in stars. For a long time I thought Murray’s looked a little bit like a horse jumping a fence with his rider climbing waaaay up his neck. A horse with no tail, I guess.

with the purple as the deformed-ish horse and the blue as the rider!

But now I think it looks more like a fetus or newborn kangaroo, which delights me.

I love a good star. There are some classic shapes — the diamond (Wonder from the Thoroughbred series, right?!), the heart. A friend’s horse had the most adorable balloon on a string.

Eugene has one of the greatest stars I’ve ever seen — like a little sunburst.

or a hairy little seed!
Eugene also meets my “makes me look good in selfies” standards

And I’ve seen a couple of horses online lately whose long star-stripe combos look like germinating seeds which I LOVE. I couldn’t find any to post here, but they are particularly delightful.

Jag has a perfect #1.

This guy’s looks like a rose! ❤

I told my husband that if we ever find a horse or a puppy with an Airbender star, I’m automatically allowed to have it. He agreed because it’s so improbable.

I also personally swore to myself that if I found a horse with a star shaped like the continents of Africa or Australia that I’d definitely at least give them a second and third look. Or if it looks like a gang symbol. Or something obscene.

stars just really don’t normally make arrows that point down

I saw a horse at the track with just the best star once! It was a classic diamond, but had been interrupted horizontally in the middle by a line of brown hair. It was fascinating! I also loved him because he was being very Murray-ish about standing around in the paddock. I have no idea what his name was, sadly.

What does your horse’s star (or face marking) look like? What are the best stars you’ve seen? Show them to me! I love stargazing now.

treat yo’ self: custom leather work

I spend a fair amount of time on Etsy around the holidays, mostly window shopping.  I don’t do a ton of Christmas-gift exchange with my friends (we all know how poor we are), and my family doesn’t mind that the gift giving goes in mostly one direction.  But I do find a lot of neat things on the Etsy (because it is a veritable font of neat things), and this year a whole pile of custom leatherwork has caught my eye.

First up: this magnificent, chevron monogrammed belt.  I would adopt this into my show outfit in approximately one second.

I mean yes, yes please. PLEASE.

From the same craftsman, look at these incredibly apropos coasters.

Sometimes beautiful things motivate me to get things done.  Like this sweet leather journal from Brika.  If this were daily-planner style, I would buy it in one second, but since it’s just journal style I’m still on the fence.

I have made my own tote bag with pleather accents before, but it was a lot of work and definitely more than $38 in time.  And I’m into leather totes, but I can in no universe justify buying a Tucker Tweed.  But a leather tote with a subtle monogram that’s just the right size for putting a planner, wallet, and notebook in? Yes please!

And finally the one company I am for sure ordering from this year, Bija Collars!  It’s not secret that I’m completely obsessed with Ellie, and one of the first things I got her was this amazing leather collar from Apryl at Bija Collars.  She does custom work to match color, width, and length of collar to your pup.  The leather has held up through Ellie’s disgusting, hippo ways, many baths, and just a couple of cleanings when I do my saddles.  10/10 will buy again.

Ellie is a bad collar model. Really, it’s an amazing collar and gets a billion compliments.

 

 

the rider adapts: how to become great at just about anything

(Sorry for hijacking your post title, Karen! But it was far too perfect for me to leave it!)

While I’m busily painting, painting, painting away (many poles must be beautified, standards, panels, and flower boxes too!), plus cleaning dressage courts (yes those vinyl pieces do require cleaning, unfortunately!), and generally making merry with the event planning, I’ve been listening to a LOT of podcasts.  And this one in particular resonated with me.

Freakonomics — How to Become Great at Just About Anything

If you don’t already listen to Freakonomics (or haven’t read the book), in it Steven Dubner and Steven Levitt explore the hidden side of everything.  Everything!  (They haven’t done racehorses yet… I need to get them on that.)  In this particuar episode they discuss the difference between hard work and talent, a dichotomy of which I am sure all riders are ALL very aware.  In the podcast Dubner talks with experts both in sports psychology and sports themselves about how to deliberately practice a skill to improve, and the best ways to approach improvement in any area of your life.  (It’s self improvement month on the Freakonomics podcast!)

So while I’m setting up the XC course tomorrow, you guys should give it a listen.  And listen to other Freakonomics podcasts!  They are awesome!

Also, I am a big podcast head, and I am always looking for new things to listen to!  I already regularly download America’s Test Kitchen, The Splendid Table (food podcasts), The USEA podcast, Horse Radio Network’s Eventing and Dressage radio shows (horsey podcasts, obviously), You Bet your Garden (gardening), This American Life, Snap Judgment, Radiolab (umm… life category?), Wait Wait Don’t Tell me, and a few other seasonal podcasts.  Share what you listen to with me so I have more painting fodder!!

everyday threads

Much to my dismay, I did not get to attend this weekend’s blogger meetup with L, Megan, and probably others.  Instead, we went stadium schooling at a nearby facility to prep for Camelot, and fuck is it a good thing I did.  Stops all over the place man.  I wore my show coat and shirt to see what the coat rides like, and it’s a good thing I did, as the weather report is just going down down down for this weekend and maybe coats won’t  be waived after all.  I might do a more detailed recap later, but maybe not.  I have lots of pictures, at least, which will fuel my annoyance at my equitation for weeks to come.

Anyway.

Today is about Murray’s every day tack set up, as suggested by Stephanie!

I’ve actually really enjoyed reading about everyone else’s every day tack setups.  I’m not even that jealous of all the beautiful shiny tack and high quality saddles.  Not really.  At all.  Or maybe only a little bit.

I had a very entertaining time taking pictures of Murray for this, especially because he seemed thoroughly unimpressed by the whole process.  However, he was quite good and didn’t run off as soon as I stepped away from him.  It’s funny, the things I will trust this horse to do — like not run away from me when I release his reins and duck into the tack room to find a whip — when he’s so untrustworthy in other ways.

Anyway.  I have only two sets of tack for Murray, because while mine is an equipment-heavy sport, I don’t have that much stuff.  All of my everyday tack is also my show tack, and I’m not even really clever enough to keep certain pads for shows (except one white dressage one).

Jumping Setup

Murray says staaahhhhpp.

For jump lessons or conditioning rides, I use an HDR figure-8 bridle with a loop gag bit.  Currently the bit is adjusted so it’s basically a single-jointed snaffle and has no gag action, but if I need it’s an easy switch to move the reins into the looped portion of the gag, which you can see better below.  I also ride in rainbow reins, as per a blog post a few weeks ago, which are not hideously ugly but are, instead, semi-patriotic in a kinda  navy-red-white scheme.  I’m also all about rubber reins, so I have two spare sets in my tack trunk.  If I’m in a jump lesson, I will also use a 5-point breastplate with a running martingale, but am frequently too lazy to put it on for conditioning, and Murray doesn’t need it that badly.

In this picture I’m using a Roma pad which is also my stadium show pad, but I have a few other AP pads (a solid purple Roma, a burgundy Dover with our barn logo on it) that I rotate through also.  For a half pad I use an Ecogold Flip Half Pad, which I seriously appreciate because it is #flippinggenius.  Murray used to get pretty sassy after the jumps sometimes, especially when I’d land funny, and since I got this pad he’s basically stopped that at home.  Is that definitive evidence?  In no way.  He also got older, more schooled, and lazier in that time.  But I appreciate it’s cushy padding and memory foam for his back.  It’s on the white side in this picture, but obviously my flip side is JEWEL TONED PURPLLEEEE.

Okay, on to saddles.  I have a 17″ BT Crump TomBoy that I found on Tack Trader for super cheap and essentially new last year.  Its still got that (rather heinous, IMO) new-leather feel that not-super-high-quality leather gets.  The seat and billets are breaking in nicely but the flaps are hard going.  I need to ride more in the rain or something.  It’s not a perfect fit for me or Murray, but he’s not a pansy boy and I’m not too fussy, so we’ll stick with it for now.  I’d almost like to wait to upgrade our saddle until we can get a really nice one, which won’t be for several years at least.  This is both because until someone STOPS dumping saddles I am not going to spend a lot of money on a saddle, and also because I am poor.

I use HDR leathers that are calfskin (I think) sewn over nylon that I bought back in 2010 and are still going strong.  It helps that I’ve changed my stirrup length a ton in the last five years so no one hole is particularly worn.  I also have regular Fillis irons with Super Comfort Iron Pads that provide extra grip.  And finally a Stubben overlay girth that is quite nice and squishy with double elastic (someone thinks he’s really fat and then has to have the girth tightened mightily in the arena).  Sometimes I also have a Nunn Finer neck strap, but right now I need to punch some extra holes in that baby to make it usable.

 

Murray always wears velcro bell boots on the front, because in the beginning I thought that would help him stop pulling shoes (spoiler alert: it doesn’t; rubber breaks more easily than nails) but now I mostly keep on to stop him from grabbing a quarter in turnout.  My only set of jumping boots are Woof Wear brushing boots, which Murray sports for stadium, XC, and conditioning, typically on all four feet but once again: laziness can sometimes get me.  I am lucky that he doesn’t interfere too much.

Okay so that was a shocking amount to write about my jumping outfit. Let’s see what I have to say about dressage.

Dressage Tack aka Purple Rain Outfit

I’ve seen several times on Facebook (and other locations) the meme that’s all “don’t make your gelding wear purple! he’s confused enough as it is!”

Don’t look at me.

To which I say, “fuck off, horses don’t have the same colour vision as us, and my horse will wear whatever the fuck I want him to.”

Anyway.

I only own two sets of polo wraps (purple and pink plaid), so homie gets to wear my favourite colors.  Murray is also rocking the one bell boot look here because he ripped up the other and I hadn’t yet replaced it.  I have a few dressage pads, but use either this purple one or a white one with purple piping regularly.  My Equine Couture pad folds up funny on him and, as I don’t have any black or red boots or polos, does not make for a matchymatchy outfit.  I also got my dressage saddle on tack trader, it’s a Forestier monoflap.  Forestier is a French brand that isn’t very well known in the US, so I didn’t spend toooo much on it.  I find it quite comfy, it fits Murray and I fairly well, and it has never hit the dirt thank goodness.  I have the same calfskin HDR leathers on here, only in black, and regular Fillis stirrups as well.  Since a certain somebody is sensitive about cold leather touching his precious tummy, when I first got this saddle I also bought a used Smartpak brand (I think) fleecy dressage girth that suits us just fine.  Under my dressage saddle I use my Ecogold Stabilizer Pad, which I got originally for jumping but fits my dressage saddle fine.

 

I’m so ashamed.

Murray goes in a regular French-link D-ring for dressage, the kind with the flat middle piece.  I originally had him in a Korsteel version with the bead in the middle, but Alana thought it was too big/heavy for his mouth, and he’s been just fine with this one since then.  Our bridle is by Delfina Saddlery, a brand actually owned by a friend that I have some… mixed opinions on.  The reins are lovely and soft and I adore them, but somehow not all the keepers fit the leather pieces.  My browband I won in a raffle on Horse Junkies United, and it’s a magnificent, sparkly Judi browband that I hope to blind judges with so they can’t see our flaws.  I seriously adore the way the rhinestones are set on the Judi browband, but it’s a good thing I won that baby because I would never have been able to afford it for myself.

 

the really weird reasons I love horses

There are lots of reasons I love horses.  I imagine there are lots of reasons anyone reading this blog loves horses!  But I will be the first to admit to you there are some slightly odd reasons I love horses.  Perhaps even “really odd” or straight up “weird”… I’ll let you decide.

Weird like my pony’s face.

I think sweaty horse smells good

Yep, I said it.  I think that horses after a workout smell pretty damn good.  Gray horses excepted — sorry gray lovers.  There’s just something about gray horses that smells a little funny, more like wet dog than horse.  Maybe it’s from a childhood of riding mostly during summer camp instead of during the year.  I don’t know why.  I just love it.  And I don’t mean “it’s a hundred degrees out and I stepped out of my stall sweating bullets” sweat, I mean “I just did an awesome conditioning set in the fields and raced the barn manager’s daughter and her thoroughbred and it was AMAZING” sweat.  It smells like hard work, honesty, and love.

“Grooming”

I am an inveterate picker, it’s one of the traits I share most with chimps. (You should see a chimp go crazy on a pimple sometime!) If I have a scab, I worry it until it’s all peeled off.  If Ellie has a patch of funny hair, I pull it out.  Horses — especially Murray — are a veritable cornucopia of shit you can pick off them and feel like you’re “helping” them while you do so.  Murray is constantly covered in scabs that I can peel off, little burrs or fox tails buried in his mane and tail, ergots that can be trimmed down.  There’s all kinds of currying, manes need pulling, tails need banging, and there’s always CHESTNUTS.  Chestnuts, you beautiful, groomer’s daydream.  Always peely, and they look better flat anyway, and it doesn’t hurt anything!  Then there’s abscesses.  Do not pretend you aren’t a little morbidly fascinated with abscesses.  The internet is in love with them.  I have seem just the foulest and yet most fascinating stuff come out of some horses’ skin.  And it is awesome.  And you get the clean them every day when they have them!!!

I like being held to a higher standard

Maybe this isn’t just a riding thing, but I like when my trainer tells me I can do better.  I love being told that I’m doing well, and I love it even more when I’m told that I can improve.  It’s not just that I should do better, or should ride better, or should be better, but that I can do it.  That someone, other than myself, holds me to a high standard is pretty awesome.

I love being covered in dust and sweat at the end of a hot day

There are definitely Summer days when I will spend the entire day at the barn (and Fall days, and Winter days, and Spring days… it’s not necessarily limited to Summer!).  I’ll ride my pony, ride other peoples’ ponies, clean tack, move jumps, turn horses in and out, and lately, garden.  And after all that I come home at the end of the day covered in dust and sweat and salt and horse and, let’s be real, probably some poop and I love it.  It feels like an honest day’s work — though I didn’t do anything income-producing at all.  It’s a really good kind of tired feeling.  And then showering feels AMAZING when you finally get to it.  It’s only slightly disconcerting to see the water run down the drain all brown and dirty.

Horse Breath

Okay, so possibly not such a weird one here, but if you think about it, liking the smell of another animal’s semi-digested food and unbrushed teeth is at least a little weird.  You know when your horse breathes on you and you’re just like ahhhhhhhhh pony smell?  Yeah, love that.  Even better after a mouthful of grass!!

Grain Car

I will often pick up my grain while out running an errand and might not make it to the barn for a day or two.  In the central valley, that means that it heats up a little and my whole car smells like delicious, delicious grain.  Sometimes the rolled barley smells a little vinegary but no matter.  Stable mix smells absurdly delicious.  I would probably eat it with a spoon if I were hungry enough.

I like it when Murray looks sad/defeated

 

We’ve been having a lot of discussions lately, Mr. Murray and I, and I’ve been winning them. (YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!)  And after I’ve put a solid kibosh on one of Murray’s absurd demands that he get to run all over the barn aisle while I’m tacking up and instead insisted that he stands quietly without moving, he always looks a little miserable.  It’s a very “I have the worst life ever” kind of look.  And if I have any humor left over from the fight, I have to say, I think it is hilarious.  I don’t think I’m a mean person, or a mean-spirited person, but I think Miserable Murray looks hilarious.

Along the same lines, I love it when a really naughty pony is having their butt kicked by someone who totally has their number.  The look on their faces when they realise they can’t get away with anything is priceless.  PRICELESS.

best riding friend

When I started riding with Alana, it was in lessons with a friend of mine from graduate school.  I ended up being an adult among many juniors, like, for real young juniors, kids who rode for fun and did a great job but were kids.

Thug Pony Lyfe

I started taking semi-private lessons with the aforementioned friend and after two lessons Alana said “look, you don’t necessarily need more weekly lessons, you need more saddle time.”  So I started leasing Mighty, a twelve-ish year old ottb who was well-known for taking care of students and generally being a really solid guy.

I met my to-be Riding Best Friend (we will call her RBF from now on for ease of typing for tipsy Nicole), when she started taking a semi-private lesson with me.  I wasn’t super confident about riding at the time, but when I met her I apparently said “I’m sooooooooooo glad there’s another adult here I can talk to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

(Writer disclaimer: I have had a lot of gin and I don’t remember this moment at all, regardless of the gin I just had!!!  However, I do recall being very excited to have a new riding friend.)

It didn’t take many lessons for RBF and I to start riding together outside of lessons to.  We would coordinate our lease rides so that we could sit the trot or canter without stirrups together, and then bitch about the pain and the glory of it.  You know how some people are just totally easy to ride with?  You just stay out of each others’ way and don’t have to worry about what the other person is doing, and can even work together?  That’s what riding with RBF is like!

“Mighty Adonis” an ottb better known as “Mighty Mouse”, when we jumped 3’3″ for the first time

So then I went to live in Kenya for the summer and do some pilot research, and RBF stayed home and honed her dressage skyllz.  I did not hone any riding skills in this time, and when I came home I started leasing a new horse.  Quincy was going to teach me a lot about riding, I just didn’t know it yet.

Quincy is like “No, Nicole, dressage is NOT for you right now.”

RBF and I could no longer take lessons together, which was sad, because we were at totally different levels.  I was back to jumping 2’3″-2’6″ and learning how to get stronger and straighter and avoid runouts on a horse that wasn’t going to do it all for me, and RBF was training for Novice level with her horse.  But we still drove out to the barn together all the time, and I somehow ended up watching a lot of her lessons.  I had way more free time then.

RBF’s horse in his first day back in “work” after six weeks off for sarcoid removal.

After two more years apart — I went and did research for a year and came back, RBF moved away for a year and came back — we still ride together all the time.  We would send one another dressage articles constantly, and were always chatting about our ponies’ progress.

Why do I love riding with RBF so much?  It’s always fun, even when it’s a hard ride or a bad ride.  We put things in perspective for one another, and can reflect on our rides together.  We can be helpful during our rides, or before or after them, and I think we’ve both learned a lot from one another.  We have the same philosophy, make fun of ourselves for the same things, and of other people, and we’re always there in a pinch.  Last month when Murray squashed me in the wash rack and then bolted when I was trying to poultice him, RBF was on the other side of the stables when she saw Murray loose and immediately ran over to the wash racks because she knew it was nothing good.  Then she poulticed and wrapped my renegade demon horse, after wrapping me with an ice pack!

Everyone should be so lucky as to have an RBF as good as mine!

 

garden, food, thesis, life

Now that the pressure of the PPE is gone, I seem to be able to focus on my thesis again, so I’ve been deep in thesis-mode.  Oddly, writing/coding/analysing/graphics forming for my thesis does not lend itself to lots of blogging time, as somehow when I give myself a break from thesis all I want to do is play solitaire on my phone.  With any luck the chapter will be done in two days and I’ll get a tiny respite in time for Derby Day this weekend!!

Murray and I had a lovely ride Sunday, wherein I popped him over a few tiny jumps and two-pointed around and generally felt unbalanced and floppy.  I haven’t ridden in my jump saddle in close to two weeks, so that was definitely not helpful.  I will need to spend some time reacquainting myself with my correct two point position and strengthening my legs again.  Then, my friend and I switched ponies and I jumped her 25 year old paint mare (yes, a 25 year old paint pony who is KICKING ASS AND TAKING NAMES, she is amazing) and she jumped Murray.  Apache, said paint mare, was hysterical and very sleepy, but perked up quite a bit as we headed to the fences.  I have mad respect for this friend since Apache, despite her many years of training, is a super tough ride.  Give me my skinny little thoroughbred any day!

25 year old mare cannot be stopped!! Beast mode engage!

Murray was angelic for my friend.  She was a little worried about antics, but he too was pretty sleepy/mellow, and I told her just to keep her leg on to the fences and be soft with her hands and he’d go over anything.  Which he did.  It was awesome.  I’ve been wanting to see someone else jump Murray for quite a while, and this definitely fulfilled my hopes and dreams — he is just as quiet and perfect with others as with me!

I spent rather more time than I should have this weekend planting my garden at the barn.  Isn’t it magnificent?

 

What do you mean you can’t see barely any of my 6″ seedlings that I put into ground carefully and lovingly fertilized with shavings and horse manure?!!  It’s true it’s a little disappointing now, but I’m hoping things will pick up fast now that they’re in the ground for real.  I’ve been plotting this garden (see what I did there?) for months, painstakingly started and lost many seedlings, and now that they’re in the ground I’m filled with happy!!  It’s a bit more spread out than it should be, but I’ll fill in the gaps with greens (chard and kale, I think) and herbs (basil everywhere, also dill and cilantro, and probs some parsley), and carrots, beets, and even probably some pepper plants.  None of my pepper starts worked — they all just failed to thrive.  Peppers are bitches.

I also made this epic lasagna.  It was stuffed with meatballs.  It’s kindof a process, but it was one hundred percent worth it.  You can find the recipe here.  The pictures alone are worth looking at on that article.

Worth every cheesy, meaty, saucy bite.

Food comforts me when I’m deep in thesis. Don’t judge me.

Monday a friend and I went over to our trainer’s house to play with some ottb projects and pick one for her to bring over to our main barn to work with for a few weeks.  Very upsettingly, when her gorgeous chestnut had his ultrasound at our joint-PPE (we scheduled them for the same time to give moral support to one another), we found out that the “suspensory strain” that had been reported was actually a giant, whopping, devastatingly huge and unhealed suspensory tear.  So Ronin is not jumping or even in work any longer, and is going to rehab at trainer’s place for a while (thus us bringing over a different project to take his place.)  We are all really upset by this, as it means we were lied to by his track trainer (they either never imaged, which they claimed they did, or didn’t disclose to us what they did find) and Ronin had really become part of our lives in his short time in training.  Very upsetting.

Comforted by adorable baby thoroughbred faces.  This guy, Cory, is my fave, and I can’t wait to spend some more time playing with him this summer!

So that’s life right now.  This week, we’re back to real work with Mr. Horse and have both a jump and dressage lesson scheduled.  I knew as soon as I had those awesome dressage rides on Murray that I had to get into a lesson to capture/check in on it, so we will see if that lifted-back-pushing-from-behind pony shows up again.  Jump lesson also scheduled, and I’m hoping I keep it together a bit better than my last jump lesson.