Kat Farrington, Esq.

Wren perched in shrub beside spider web, painting.

Morning.
🖼️ Toni Watts

three horses with fiery manes, surrounded by yellow and green chrysanthemums. A green snake weaves it under the horses' hooves

Charge On. Something to celebrate year of the fire horse

Please enjoy 50 seconds of a former colony cat learning how to play with toys.

(Video description: Setzer, a grey and white tuxedo cat, one hind leg recently amputated, tentatively bats and makes some tiny pounces at a white toy mouse, rolling over to paw at it while laying on his side, purring).

For ppl who aren't aware:
Old temperate forests are insanely rare nowadays and extremely important ecosystems lost forever once cut.
They're not just "old trees" but intricate networks of trees, fungi and all kinds of living creatures.
You CANNOT replant this!! Once it's gone it's lost FOREVER!!!

Barn owl perched in tree, painting.

🖼️ Amy Keller #OwlishMonday

I forgot to mention that my 31 page opp was in response to a 2 page motion

A small, thin, white dog is on all four legs with its tail in the air. The dog is playfully looking up as if its hoping to get a toy or some food.

A lovely, svelte dog from the late 13th-century Percy Psalter.
(British Library Add MS 70000)

Documentary series highlights Alaska’s MMIP crisis and questions of justice The series “Lost Women of Alaska” now available on HBO examines the crisis through the investigation of an Anchorage serial killer and how police handled the case.

A new documentary series on HBO called "Lost Women of Alaska" examines how the Anchorage Police Department handled the Brian Steven Smith murder case and considers lingering questions of justice for Alaska Native victims and families. (via @alaskabeacon.com) www.adn.com/alaska-news/...

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Bequest, Richard S. Zeisler, 2007 © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

The Landscape of Wonders by André Masson, 1935
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137178

that they have kept their relationship intensely private to the point that this is how we find out is probably the best sign they might actually make it

anyway, rules are rules, here is the exact moment she fell in love

Pure Painting, by Theo van Doesburg

Pure Painting, by Theo van Doesburg

Screenshot from Obituary showing two adult women speaking to a young boy. The caption reads "'A sentimental hack with a limited vocabulary. Your prose is laborious, with a grasp of grammar so poor. It would make a six-year-old blush.' Callum. You're six. Does Elvira's grammar make you blush?"

Best line so far

Okay actually Siobhán Cullen in Obituary is like if Jaye never met God in a smush-faced lion figurine

You might enjoy this shirt

This is a flying tutu I love her

Also that second photo is Ares' face when I'm bribing him to take selfies by holding a baby carrot just out of reach. That's his carrot face.

All that to say, I am learning to trust my own instincts as a rider and horse owner, and more generally learning to discard others' opinions when they don't work for me. The beauty of Ares being mine is that I don't *have* to listen to anyone else, really.

I realise that the Heartland books were not a training manual, but the principles of riding in the gentlest tack and training methods possible really imprinted themselves upon me young. And I think, so far at least, it's really working.

I didn't expect the tack thing to be an emotional moment for me, but it really was. Riding *my* horse, in the tack *I* bought him. Like this project is really just him and me, for realsies. I could have cried when I first mounted him.

So we finally rode in our own tack today, too. Which included switching him to the snaffle bit I bought with his bridle. He seemed confused by it at first, but I think that also contributed to his responsiveness.

The other thing is, people kept telling me I had to return the tack I bought because it was too small. And it just felt untrue, so I dragged my feet on it. Finally, yesterday I brought out the saddle stand and tried it out and whaddaya know, I fit fine in it. And the new girth went all the way round

Then we tried again, and again, and eventually I had him going fully around the ring. It was so exciting!!! I never thought I'd say that about a trot!

There were other horses in the ring, and I think the spirit of competition took over his body. Because they were all trotting, and I felt him speed up like he wanted to join in too. So I asked him for it, and we trotted a few steps! We were both surprised I think lol.

So anyway. I had decided to focus on the basics at a walk until he felt ready to move on. He's gotten so much softer, and responds to stops, starts, and turns without bucking or grinding his teeth (most of the time). That felt like enough of a win.

Even today, people kept saying, "you have to MAKE him do what you want!" and that just isn't how I relate to any animal. (Or person??) It's not the relationship I want to have. And it's also not how I've made the progress with him that I have. You can't compliment my work then tell me how to do it.

Owning Ares has been such a lesson in trusting myself and my own instincts, and really coming into my own in an authoritative way. I've talked before about rejecting people's advice, and it has once again proven the right choice for us.

Profile photo of a bay horse in English tack. The saddle is black and the saddle pad is a plum colour.

Selfie of a white woman with a bay horse

Today was a big day for us!!! First, we actually rode in his own tack—doesn't it look pretty? Second, I actually got him to trot! Several times! I realise this doesn't sound exciting but it is for us!!!

It’s March, so it has to be the daffodil dress 🌼

#Ootd is actually a two-for-one- both dark blue sequined 1930s Chanel evening gowns. The first is from 1932, and its silk tulle is covered head to toe in blue sequins. The second was made in 1939, from the same materials, but the sequins cascade like fireworks from the bodice, down