Virtual Brush Box

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. TOMORROW. Livestream musical rides to benefit breast cancer research. Challenge of the Americas – Musical dressage Grand Prix. I know nothing beyond what is written here. Will be tuning in with fingers crossed.

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Schooling/lesson for Milton & Husband Greg at Stepping Stone Farm.

Original plan was for Milton to watch the lesson from center ring. Hence the standing around pic. Milton handled the confusion so well that he ended up doing a majority of a walk-trot lesson with six other horses in the ring. He walked. He trotted. He did not have post-parade flashbacks. He got passed without getting upset.

Gold star for Milton!

Gold star for Rodney for staying home! [Rodney’s Semi-Permanent Gold Star]

Also gold stars for the six beginners in the class who had an spontaneous lesson in traffic management as their school horses lapped the race horse.

Sadly, Milton only got a silver start the next day when Rodney went to FHF. Milton was suspiciously damp from hanging out alone in the stall for a few hours. Maybe we need to put up the fans. Maybe he ran around a bit. Time will tell. [Ears].

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Ancient Alabama recap. AL.com: Ancient Alabama journeys through 500 million years of the state’s history, Pillion 29 Dec 2021.
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Lesson with Bubba at Stepping Stone Farm.

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Coach Courtney knows firsthand how stressed I can make myself.

At her suggestion, I now arrange my lessons the morning of, rather than days before. Gives me less time to swivet.

Making exceptions takes effort. Much easier if everyone acts predictably and uniformly. Coming up with alternative approaches takes effort. It requires acknowledging the existence of the client at times other than when they are directly in front of you.

These attributes are not as common as one might think.

And that, Dear Reader, is the second reason I keep coming back to saddle seat.

The first, of course, being the horses. [Saddlebred Attitude]

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Charlie’s Diary: A letter from Ukrainian artists to the world artists.
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Schooling at Falcon Hill Farm.

Jumping Diary, The Restart

Walk poles: single, multiple, lines.

Trot poles: single, lines, course of three.

Not much on an absolute scale. Not bad for a horse who took February off.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

“Spirit in Motion.” Paralympic Motto

I took the online workshop I mentioned a while back. [Nevermind]

While the workshop was free to the group, I assume someone somewhere paid for it. So I won’t give out any proprietary information.

The presenter was well spoken, the ideas well-presented. Unfortunately, it all had nothing to do with me.

I don’t think I am telling tales out of of school to say that the presenter emphasized visualization. This is a big deal in sport psych. The idea being that the brain can’t tell the difference between physically performing an activity and a fully-visualized version of the activity. Therefore, one can practice repeatedly without wear and tear on horse or self.

I am not a visual person. Oh, I’m passable. I’m more visual than I am musical. But that is not a high bar to vault over. I do photography, but it tends to be plot-based. What’s IN the photo, what’s happening, rather than evocative depictions of mood.

Undoubtedly, if I practiced I would get better. Perhaps it would help. Even if visual is not my main mode of information retention, how could it hurt?

The problem is that these practices are aimed at helping people from letting their nerves interfere with their ride. As I’ve said elsewhere, that is not my problem.

I have a long list of things to fix about my riding. Improving my skills. Being more subtle. Listening to the horse. Sitting up. But pre-ride/pre-show nerves do not affect my ride. (crosses fingers)

I show pretty well. In that I can generally ride at a show as well as I do at home. I have even been known to rise to the occasion. I would consider myself a competitive show rider. (looks around to see if anyone is spitting out their coffee.)

So, methods for addressing show ring nerves do not speak to me. In fact, when I did fix my pre-show nerves, my riding got worse [Show Report MSSP 2016 No More Magic Bullets]

I don’t know where this leaves me. Aside from back to where I started, plus the added thought that even with the best help in the world I ultimately have to address my own issues. [Nevermind]

For unrelated reasons, I have decided not to pursue an individual appointment. Thus ending this go-round of sports psychology.

Posts
[The Mental Side Of Sport]
[Nevermind]
[Mindset Monday, The Crux]
[Mindset Monday, Wondering Where I Am Going With This]
[Mindset Monday, A Moment]
Mindset Monday, The Followup

Onwards!
Katherine

Images

Images of the outside world. Online jigsaw puzzle. Arizona State Museum: Wrapped in Color: Legacies of the Mexican Sarape.
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Legend

M – Mardi Gras

A – Lent.

You came from stardust.
To stardust you shall return.

R – Saint Patrick’s’ Day

C – Equinox

H – verb

Posts

[The Illustrated Month, January]
[The Illustrated Month, February]

Onwards!
Katherine

Blogging About Blogging

Awareness of the outside world. Pondering this online open enrollment class for Spring, Chicago: Whales, Whaling, and American History. Class with have two virtual tours and a guest speaker. Introduction to the course, UChicago: Whales, Whaling, and American History: A Conversation with Michael Rossi. OE means $ but no tests. I see it as paying for interesting lectures. Online, 2 1/2 hrs, Tues nights. Starts March 29. Anyone wanna sign up and we can take it “together”?
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I am getting on board with 36 Days of Type. Sorta.

“Participants are challenged to design a letter or number each day for 36 consecutive days.” The 36: The Project. It is mainly an Instagram activity. IG: 36daysoftype

However, I have no desire to design every day, nor to reopen the blog’s Instagram account, [Cosy Cats last post, Contact because]

So, I will be posting seven letters here each Sunday.

I picked five colors and five shapes. Used a sophisticated randomization process – slips of paper stirred by someone else. Result.

Week one, Sunday March 13 – blue triangle, A B C D E F G

Week two, Sunday March 20 – red diamond, H I J K L M N

Week three, Sunday March 27 – purple square, O P Q R S T U

Week four, Sunday April 3 – orange crescent, V W X Y Z 0 1

Week five, Sunday April 10 – green circle, 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 & 9

Can we take a moment to appreciate that the square got round letters and the crescent got spiky letters? Well I picked the crescent as challenge, so.

Excited. I’ve been playing with ideas since I came up with the plan in mid Feb. Now, if I could only develop this level of momentum for a Saturday fiction project.

Note. My first set of letters won’t be until next weekend. I’m putting this here now so I can link to it as an introduction for the weekly posts.

Update

Onwards!
Katherine

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games start today.
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Added an online class from the Tai Chi Foundation. Old school format. Leader for the day does the form. The rest of us follow along as best we can. No instruction. This translates into a fair amount of standing in my living room waving my hands about. I figure if I do enough waving about, the pattern will eventually settle in.

TC most weekdays.

Walk most days.

Not a thunderous program, but sustainable.

Places

Mainly walked in pasture, with or without horse.

A few exceptions when running errands, during wet weather, or both.

The back 40 at The Stables of Shiloh Farms. [Milton Has A Lesson]

Publix shopping area & open field next door.

The Summit [Lots of Walks]

Local Park

Onwards!
Katherine