Diana Brickell
@dianabrickell
Grumpy Middle Aged Cat Lady. Life-Long Equestrian. Rocky Mountain gardener. PhD in philosophy. Progressive. Occasional raver. Queer. Ski Instructor & Wonder Woman at Breckenridge. Only moderately superhuman.
This is Teddy, with a double rainbow behind him, not long after he told me "THIS RIDE IS OVER" when it began gently drizzling on him. He got worked hard in the rain on the ground, and then the weather cleared, and so I tacked him up again and rode again. He was a good boy but JEEZ.
Teddy went on a trail ride with four other horses from our barn — and no one died! He was really great — no spooking or balking. He was chill on a loose rein the whole ride. GO TEDDY!
First pic: I tuned six pairs of skis. I’d already done the edges, so I just waxed today. I have another two pairs to tune, plus some snowboards. Second pic: Seven pairs of skis that I tuned this spring (or earlier). Cleaning and oiling tack is much easier, mostly.
Current air quality in Frisco, Colorado. Emergency alert says it’s from fires in western Colorado and Utah. It’s like sitting downwind of a campfire.
Teddy and Lila are ready to be the first horses blasted into space! Not really, but it’s nice not to be devoured by mean, biting flies.
Teddy’s hind end muscles have gotten all tight and knotted after his SI injection obliterated his compensation. So he’s been getting lots of massage — including now from the percussion massager. He was a good boy for his first time yesterday! #horse
Lila got fancy braids today too thanks to RG today. Here’s her tail.
How do my cats get along, you ask? Just like this, with Mister Bister on top and the Miss Miss underneath.
I was just in SF, and 90% of billboards are for AI. It was creepy and unsettling. I can only imagine the tech bros swimming in their own little weird alternate reality right now, where instead of people doing and learning stuff, there are just various butthole-shaped AI logos floating around.
Happy Buddha puts his hands in the air like he just don’t care. (At Palomas in Carmel, CA)
I got a mustache ride* in the Castro today. * Not really because the machine was broken
Some pics from Florence + The Machine last night in SF. Just a magnificent performance, so powerful and so personal.
Me visiting Pixar today with @qwertz0.bsky.social. His name is Heimlich, I am told.
I got to ride Teddy today! 35 minutes at the walk! He was comfortable! Teddy has had a very sore back these past few weeks, and nothing helped, until we did a few days of muscle relaxants. I’m truly delighted that he’s feeling better! #horses Here is he is last week getting good scritches.
I hope that’s interesting! I would love to see more expert women skiers — not imitating men, but really developing their skills so that they can ski expert terrain with control and grace. 8/
D: The industry has been very male dominated, and female role models can be hard to find and understanding of female physiology is often inadequate. I’m lucky that my mentor is a woman who is flat out one of the best skiers on the mountain. 5/
Here’s me and two bananas today! Closing day at Copper Mountain, and the snow was glorious!
Today was my second day of training at PSIA’s National Academy at Copper. We got a few inches of powder on top of frozen slush at Copper. By the afternoon, I was skiing on ice topped irregularly by sprays & piles of snow. 1/