We hope to keep the morning walks going through the winter. It’s good for all four of us. While cold & rain may stop the parade, darkness won’t. [The Morning Constitutional]
Due to orbital mechanics and Daylight Saving Time, we are now less than 10 minutes from the darkest mornings.
This morning, 25 Oct 2023, sunrise at 6:58 am
End DST Saturday, 4 Nov 2023, sunrise at 7:07 am Sunday, 5 Nov 2023, sunrise at 6:08 am
Solstice, 21 Dec 2023, sunrise at 6:45 am Latest non-DST mornings, 6 – 11 Jan 2024, sunrise at 6:50 am For a while after the solstice, the day gets longer but sunrise gets later. Weird.
DST returns. Saturday, 9 March, sunrise at 6:04 am Sunday, 19 March, sunrise at 7:04 am Mornings dark again for a while.
Looking ahead to the rest of the year. Earliest, 11 June 2024, sunrise at 5:36 am Equinox, June 22, sunrise at 5:38 am
Transformer (Optimus) 93. Academy Pleasure Driving, 1st of 1 94. Academy Showmanship WTC-Adult, 2nd of 3 95. Academy Equitation WTC-Adult, 2nd of 3 98. Academy WTC Championship, 4th of 6, (second highest placed adult)
Thank you to the Gray family for the terrific, talented, two-division Transformer.
Thank you to Stepping Stone Farm for the show in general and extra thanks for the logistics it takes to get a driving horse into the ring.
If I had come up with this plan earlier, I could have done a smaller fun show rather than one of the big shows. Still, it’s not a bad thing to break out the fancy duds once a year. Plus, I enjoyed the chance to run around the large ring.
Driving Class
Optimus is definitely a three-coffee individual. He was still on his first cup during the driving class. I’d ask him to hustle up. He’d swish his tail at me. Hustle. Swish. Hustle. Swish. He finally got with the program during the victory pass. We ended up zipping out of the ring in fine style. We passed through the ring exit and the arena doorway as if we were doing marathon gates.
Riding Classes
Style. Good moments. When I slipped, I remembered to adjust. Maybe 80% to 90% of what I was doing in lessons. That’s good stats. [Lesson Notes]
In the first two classes, I tried hard. Pretty much the best the old man & I were going to do. The third riding class, the Championship class, was Adults & Juniors. Adults rarely score well in combined classes. So I gave up. I’m just gonna go in and have fun with my horse. Ride came out about the same. There is a lesson there.
Lines. Did well here. Had some nice passes. Some good turns. Good use of the ring. I see places to improve but pleased that it was on my radar.
Horse Form. Not even a little bit. Thought about it once and then forgot. On the other hand, Optimus was showing a bit of sparkle. Maybe he doesn’t see the need to rise to the occasion at the fun shows.
Trot. Mostly good. Had a beast of a time getting the correct diagonal after the reverse. Even when I went to change, I still came up wrong. I think Opt hadn’t shifted his weight to the new direction & that was throwing me up on the incorrect diagonal.
Canter. Mostly good. One canter depart, I wasn’t clear and we sputtered a bit. The rest were clean and we had no trouble holding the canter. The first canter, Opt was either in a mood or trying to catch the horse in front of him. He picked up the canter and ever so slightly ran off. We gallumphed partway down the long side until I sat up.
Me: Teacup canter, please. Opt: Oh, alright.
Dude was feeling good.
Storm Clouds
Still? I rode in this class almost a decade ago. The rut has worn deep.
I am not comfortable with the growing popularity of the ASB hunter classes. It messes with my head to see people in tall boots walking around saddle seat shows.
Silver Linings
I was offered a fancier horse, which brought the possibility of better ribbons. This shouldn’t be the case, but Optimus does not pull the judge’s eye. I passed on the fancy horse. This is the last chance to practice on the big stage before the National Academy show. So I took one for the team, let the kids practice their National rides, and went into the ring with a horse I was comfortable on. [Emotional Support Horse]
Speaking of Nationals. A red bouquet makes it easy to say no. I have zero intention of going to Nationals, maybe ever, certainly not this year. If I had swept the board, I still would have said no, but it would have been harder.
Four classes. That’s always fun.
Am now qualified in driving for the year-end awards. Bring on the fluffies! Given the lack of competition, driving is likely to be a fancy fluffy.
Speaking of awards, placings at this show are unlikely to affect my year-end slot for riding, making the color of the ribbons irrelevant from that point of view.
To paraphrase Benny from the LEGO Movie, Horse Show! Horse Show!
We will go places for serious dressage & jump lessons. Then I will bring him – odds favor a gelding – over to SSF, hang a show bridle on his head, and figure out how to get through two country pleasure classes without unduly traumatizing, or reprogramming, the horse.
Every year, people get upset about Halloween. I hear yipping about devil worship and satanic influences. I have three words for these folks.
All. Hallow’s. Eve.
Hallow – Holy. As in ‘Hallowed be thy name.’
Eve – The night before. As in Christmas Eve.
Therefore, Halloween is the evening before All Saint’s Day.
Want to complain that Halloween has lost its true meaning? Fine. Wanna lament the commercialization of Halloween? Fine. At least acknowledge Halloween as a religious holiday. It’s right there in the name.
I know this is a lost cause. Up there with Advent starting on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, not December 1, regardless of what the advent calendars say. Or Christmas season being after Christmas, which I tried to stay with but eventually gave up. “I can stomp my feet all I want.” [Looking Back], [Reference]
Don’t take my word for it. “In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints. Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween.” History.com: Halloween 2023
Horse Shoe Pumpkin. f/16.0, 1/100 sec., 45.0 mm, ISO 100. Manual mode & auto-focus.
Post production. Resize, border, and watermark.
Process Notes
Because of the horse shoes, I could have taken a phone snap and used this as a regular post. Would using the SLR require sufficient technical skill to be useful as a photography exercise?
As it turns out, yes.
A) I got the big camera out. This qualifies under the ‘Go somewhere. Do something.’ criteria. [Photo Safari The First]
B) I took way more photos than I would have with a phone. Worked on background, angles, lighting and so on. I was surprised at how many I took. Even one set where I bracketed up and down to get different lighting.
Okay, content subjects can be photo exercise subjects. Good to know.
Awareness of the outside world. ASHAWire: Exploring Use of Hippotherapy as a Treatment Tool, Dismuke-Blakely, Miller, & Rocco, 2019. Note, ASHA = American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Also note. “Don’t confuse hippotherapy with adaptive horseback riding lessons, also known as therapeutic horseback riding.” ibid
~~~
Continuing the conversation with myself. Saddle seat versus other English disciplines, hunter/jumper/eventing/dressage. [Lower Legs & Lesson Horses]
6 October, Optimus, Ride
Starting Position. Sit back in the saddle, waaaay back. Lower legs out. Hands up. Pinkies inside the reins.
Verdict. Different. So very, very different.
Incremental improvement. Do what you did before, while adding new stuff. Needed everywhere, for everything.
Verdict. Same
Prepare in turns. I was doing so, but late in the turn, as I came out instead of in the turn itself. In the dressage ring, I need to be doing this closer to C than M. Also everywhere, every sport.
Verdict. Same
“Chin, chest.” Coach Courtney says this when I start slumping.
a) The need for good posture is pervasive.
b) I realized that it means my basics have slipped. If I just adjust my shoulders without realigning my heels, I am fixing the icing without correcting the cake.
Verdict. Same
Tipping forward. Observers said everything looked good, yet I still felt that I was falling forward. I decided that Optimus was dragging me into his view of the world. As I discovered with walking, cruising along at 80% effort is easy. Staying closer to 100% effort requires constant input. Not nagging or fussing. More constant awareness of my own position and then preventing horse from starting to phone it in. Yes, we are still doing this. This is wonderful. You are wonderful. And so on. [Magic City 5K]
Verdict. Same
Pull back to canter. No. Wrong. So very, very wrong. Sigh. It’s a signal. It works. If I do, the ASBs canter promptly & neatly. If I don’t, they don’t.
Verdict. Different.
Lock elbows in the canter. I wanna say this is wrong as well, but I can see the point. Saddle seat is all about gathering the horse. Therefore, one does not want to follow with the arms. Consider a dressage rider asking for collected canter versus a jockey urging the horse for more stretch. Especially true for me as I have a tendency to fling the reins at the horse.
Verdict. Different.
Practice. You ride better with regular riding, even if it is in a different discipline, even if it is just sitting on the horse at a walk. I know I rode well because Optimus told me so, by going well.
Verdict. Same
6 October, Optimus, Drive
Photo by Courtney Huguley
Brilliant drive. Due, of course, to my excellent reinsmanship. Also, Dude was in a good mood. He seems to like cooler weather. Plus he was just clipped, so he was even more air conditioned. He was in a good mood all day.
Problem. I am presented with a nice horse and asked to trot around in circles. I start to think I know how to drive. Bzzzzt. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pleased with what I have accomplished. However, I am not ready to take Bliss out on marathon.
He doesn’t lead the barn in power and flash, but there is no reason we can’t be as correct as possible. I encouraged him to maintain as much form as he could without pushing him to do too much. We may be slow but we be snappy.
Hunters and dressage have objective metrics, Can you do the maneuvers? They also have a subjective element, How well did you do the maneuvers? I never got far enough along in either that I was in a position to worry about style points.
Verdict. ???
13 October, Optimus, Ride
On the theory that getting out of the house is good for me, I went and had a second lesson that week.
The plan. Maintain my position (6 Oct). Encourage Optimus to maintain his position (11 Oct). Add working on ring position. Stay off the rail. Cut the turn early to get ahead. Go wide to hang back. Get by myself. Stay out of the wad of riders. Solo lesson working on techniques to be used in a group.
Show classes are exercises in traffic management, I knew this. It’s a constantly evolving dynamic. For one thing, everyone “finishes their pass” and gathers in a herd at the end of the ring after each transition. You are always having to reevaluate your route. [Getting Our Hunter On]
Thinking about this caused me to articulate something obvious. Jumping and dressage classes give you a path. Oh, you might go wide to fit in a certain striding, but generally you go from here to here to here. In dressage, you know exactly where you need to be when, down to the meter.
Not a lot of game-time decisions in terms of where to go. I knew H/J/E/D were solo. I hadn’t thought about it in these terms.
In practice. Tis hard to keep all three balls in the air.
Verdict: different
In appreciation
A message of appreciation to Coach Courtney,
For allowing me to ride a horse who already has a busy schedule with actual beginners.
For understanding how important this is to me.
For not making me feel stupid about riding a simple, easy horse.
And finally,
For letting me take the time to start every lesson with a photo.
Virtual Brush Box 