Faces In The Crowd, A Fiction Exercise

Random Words

Writing & Writing About Writing

Procedure
In the post Big City, The Errant Moon daydreams about passersby. Two tradesmen become supervillians. Policemen being polite to tourists are really scanning for stalkers. That woman? Well, you’ll have to click over to see what she is about to do. Update, blog rehomed, The Errant Moon: Big City.

I was impressed – and a bit cowed – by that much gratuitous imagination being flung about. I’m so flipping literal. Great for journalistic accuracy. Less great for flights of fiction. Despair. How will I ever write a novel without that kind of creative thinking?

Well, if it doesn’t come naturally to me, maybe I can get better with practice. So, I went to a local mall to stare at people.

Product
The dude filming his grandson on the Zoo Scoot is a cover for recording entrances, exits, security cameras, etc.

The woman at the eyebrow kiosk doesn’t care that there is no traffic. She is writing her novel.

The three women with babies are lesbian sister wives.

The guy walking along staring at his phone just found out that he won $500 on a Las Vegas bet.

The angry-looking, goth chick is coming off 24 hours as a NICU nurse and just wants to pick up a package of clean underwear for the laundry she doesn’t have time to do and then go home & go to bed.

The man walking about with a spray bottle and janitor gloves and a belt of keys is a sociology professor doing a study on labor perception in the retail setting. He will return tomorrow in suit and tie holding a clipboard and posing as a survey taker.

The carousel used to be a dead drop but 30 year old spies on the ride by themselves were too much of a giveaway. It never pays to be cute in international espionage.

The freestanding TV crawl has embedded subliminal advertising. But no one looks at the surface ads long enough to receive the subliminal messages. #poorplanning

Office workers overlooking the atrium play mall bingo: woman with double stroller, 6 or more teens in one group, a kiosk making a sale. Some squares are harder than others. If you win three times in a row, you have to take an advanced card the next time.

The man in multi-colored leggings lost a bet.

The man in multi-colored leggings is a dancer with a visiting ballet troop staying in a mall hotel. He is making a Starbucks run for the troupe’s artistic director.

Process
I found it easy to go negative, i.e. robbers, undercover spies, etc. Once I realized this, I tried for positive spins.

I fell into copying TEM instead of being original, i.e. robbers, novelists. I tried to stop.

A famous book about first impressions, or possibly about marketing, tells of a study wherein a man in different sets of clothes asks for money in a subway station. Wearing a suit outperformed the other clothes by a large margin. He was assumed to be a businessman who didn’t have change for a token. (This was before subway cards, ubiquitous ATMs, and/or paying with your phone.) One person even gave him a copy of the paper to read on the train. I think that is where the janitor/suit came from. I remember the study but am having trouble recalling the book it came from … it’s a well known book … it’s right on the tip of my fingers … Google has failed me … it’s … nope …ring any bells with anyone?

Update on the update. Saving you the click & storing it here in case the page goes away. “That middle-aged woman, shyly smiling as she passed you, obviously proud of her re-usable coffee mug? She is really a world famous, yet reclusive, author about to sign an 60 million pound publishing contract.” The Errant Moon: Big City.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Not Rising To The Challenge

Foto Friday Fail


 
May As Well Event issued a challenge to bloggers, “Let’s see ONE horsey picture for each of the last ten years.” The 2010s Picture Challenge. Links to the responses have been assembled in their own post 2010 Picture Challenge – BlogHop Recap. Some of these blogs I have been following for long enough that I read about the events in real time. Was it that long ago?!

The above was the service-to-reader portion of this post. From here on, I whine. You have been warned.

Whine the First
I will confess to being jealous of May As Well Event for coming up with an amusing & successful blog hop/challenge. Successful in this case meaning catching the eye of other bloggers and getting such a high response rate. Blog envy.

Whine the Second
Since I enjoyed the others, I wanted to do mine. I tried a few times.

Approach One. Pick photos that represented significant events for each year. Many of these would be the same as those in an earlier photo post [10 Day Challenge], e.g. Mathilda, learning to drive, winning at Nationals, and so on. I could use different photos, but no new information.

Approach Two. Pick photos that summarized each year. All of my years would look the same.

On the left, a blank space that is not a progression of Rodney, and later Milton, leaping boldly over ever higher and ever more exciting jumps, from hunters to jumpers to cross-country. On the right, a series of show photos displaying the ever valiant Sam carting me around any number of venues. This one is from my first ASB show in 2012, photo by MC [My First Show, Sorta]. Multiply this by 10 for my decade. Okay, technically Sam was only 8 of those 10 years. The first two would be the blank all by itself.

In 2020, I am still trying to achieve the things I was trying to achieve in 2010.

The above is my vision board for this year and for every year since 2010. Seriously. From [Repost, BTE 1 of 9: How I Won the Training Level AEC] written in 2010 & posted in 2014, to [Predicting the Future] written in 2020. This page from the USEA magazine is posted on my refrigerator. You thought I was kidding about vision board?

There has been activity. And nice horses. And pleasant diversions. But progress? Not so much. And then guilt. Always guilt. Guilt for not being adequately grateful for all the things that did not go wrong. Guilt for wasting time and advantages and resources. Guilt for having the audacity to say anything bad about anything ever. That hasn’t changed either [A Look Inside My Head 2016].

So I didn’t do a decade retrospective. Why post about a post that I didn’t do? Sentences get stuck in my head, the text version of an earworm. Posting is the only way to exorcise them.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Waving My Arms to Music

Fit To Ride

 

 
Tomorrow, the adult dance classes resume at The Dance Foundation. I shall be there, standing in the back, looking gormless, wondering which way to go.

Remember when I said, ‘I may never be better than the first time’ [Challenge]? HA. I should be so lucky. I expected my learning curve to be shallow. I did not expect it to nose dive. I got worse with each new dance style.

Variations? It helps to be good at the original first.

Tap? Combines dance with musical expression, an activity that is even lower on my skill chart.

Floor Barre & Pilates? My back is too tight/stiff to tolerate extended amounts of time slithering around on the floor. I actually skipped the Pilates. There is a difference between working your muscles too hard and your body saying, ‘No. You will not do that again.’

Since the teachers change each week, they often ask if I have any dance experience. Technically, I do. I took ballet as a kid and as an adult. I could even name drop at least one heavy-duty dance school name. Instead, I answer the unspoken question, i.e. What can I as a teacher expect from you as a student in the next hour? Let’s all assume I know nothing. That’ll work out for the best.

Has any of this helped with riding? Not yet. Not directly. I’m proceeding under the theory moving is better than not moving.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Adventures in Predicting the Future, The 2020 Show Season

Adventures in Saddle Seat

Enjoy the ride.

 

Predicting a show schedule is as useful as reading tea leaves. Who knows what is going to happen. To me. To the horse. To the expansion rate of the universe. Rodney is currently at bat. Maybe this will continue; maybe not. Maybe Milton will step up. Maybe I’ll learn to keep two balls in the air. Maybe my unicorn Saddlebred will show up. Maybe none of the above, for good or for ill. Who knows.

All of which is going around Robin Hood’s barn to say that the Stepping Stone Farm show schedule has been sent out. Most of the decisions were easy.

No to any shows that involve going away overnight. That’s not where my money and effort are going currently. In addition to the base fee, there is travel, hotels, meals, etc. Plus time away from home.

Yes to any local shows that don’t have a conflict. That means one big show and the three summer fun shows, barring a sudden surge in hunter/jumper activity on my part.

Also no to Nationals. I have the same arguments I had last year [Where I Am Not, Stomping]. If I go, I want to take the time to be ready, and then be able to put the pedal down when I get there. Really, no one should be in Academy for 8 years. It’s a pass-thru division. I can believe this and still compete in it. I am vast.

This plan does not look good for the three driving classes I wanted to do this year in order to qualify for year-end awards [Looking Back ASB Driving]. SSF does not always take a driving horse. When they do, others may have the reins. Nor does it leave me much leeway to qualifying in the riding classes.

All logic and sensible, right? Well, there’s one temptation. Our first show of the year, The Louisiana Carnival Horse Show, held in Baton Rouge in March.

Pro
Have not been to this show. Barn went two(?) years ago. Brought back good reports.

Four, count ’em four, riding classes for me. Two driving classes.

My riding classes are adult only. No competing against kids, even in the championship classes.

In addition to being a fun day in its own right, that many classes would set me up sweet for the 2020 year-end awards. I’d be two-thirds qualified before the season barely started. Add one summer fun show and I’m in the mix. I have no illusions that I will win at the level I have in the past, but it would be nice to have something to pick up at the banquet in 2021.

Never been to Baton Rouge.

Con
The horses available for Academy are new to me. The stress level would be high.

Going away, in addition to the expense mentioned above, involves finding a horse and pet sitter, paying same, and getting the house ready. The latter is not an insignificant task, making sure we have all the right food, separated into individual servings, instructions, emergency numbers, and so on.

How much of Baton Rouge would I really see? It’s not like I would be going to fancy dinners if I have to show the next morning. Maybe a few tourists sights if I could pry myself away from the showgrounds.

All of the above are minor. They could be handled.

The main con is a Full Circle Horse Park show that weekend. I have no more desire to do bad dressage than I did last year [Finishing The Season]. However, there are six FCHP shows this year. I really, really, really would like to be jumping something by the end of them. By this I mean actually jumping a course –  maybe stadium in summer and cross-country by the autumn? – not walking over one class of crossrails at the last show of the year. Since Rodney takes so very, very long to acclimate, both on the day and over time, I feel that I need to take every opportunity to expose him to these showgrounds and to show environments in general.

Tea Leaves I
Intro dressage here we come. I don’t know if missing one show would make a difference. But I don’t know that it wouldn’t.

Tea Leaves II
I want it aaaaaalllllllllll. I want attend every one of the shows on a spritely Saddlebred and still be at home to ride my horses. I didn’t say this was physically possible, I just said I wanted it.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Rodney’s Holiday Rides

Training Journal

If you’re riding a horse, you’ve already won.

 


Chilling in the arena. Rodney has learned to stand in center ring at SSF. He’s gotten good at watching other horses work. Now he’s learning he can do the same in the sandbox. Who knew?

 
tldr: Going well, Lots of trailering. Lots of walking.

Rodney. Is. Exhausting.

Because of course he is.

Partly due to the enormous expectations I put on him from day one. Will this be the horse who takes me amazing places? Now I add, will we ever amount to anything? Will it all some day be worth it? So, no pressure.

Partly due to time spent trailering. Right now, riding means loading up and going to Full Circle Horse Park for lessons, more on this below, or to Stepping Stone Farm, for practice, ditto. Our footing is awful and Rodney isn’t focusing at home because he is fascinated by the cows next door.

Even if I were the ultimate Zen rider with Olympic facilities – and no cows – on my doorstep, Rodney would still be the most emotional, anxiety-ridden, complicated, hot mess of a horse in my experience. (Yes, yes, horse-rider similarities have been pointed out to me. I’ve suggested he write a blog post on the subject. End of digression one.) (Milton is a close second within horses I have know. How we ended up with two such fragile flowers is a frequent topic of discussion around here. End digression two.)

Because, mostly, the key to Rodney, at the moment, appears to be saddle time. Lots of long, slow saddle time.

All of this effort and exhaustion is paying off. We are making actual, legit progress in Rodney management. It arrive thusly.

We used the holiday break to ship horses hither and yon, as we do [Weekend Voyages].

Lesson 1, attempt 1. Fail. I forgot my bridle. ??!?!?! I do not forget things. I’m the one who always has everything. Extra halter? Spare show clothes? A string to tie up your sign? Ask the Pony Clubber. I checked everything. My boots. My hat. Rodney’s multiple saddle pads. I filled the treats bucket. I remembered the battery for his warming blanket. And yet I forget the blankity-blank bridle?!?!?

Lesson 1, attempt 2, two days later [Red and Green and Riding]. Success. Kinda. Lesson occurred; it was terrible. No relaxation on the horizon. At one point Coach Brian [1, 2] asked me to trot. I shook my head. Not happening. When we did trot, it was for short spurts. I didn’t avoid the issue. I made Rodney work, but at a walk. I deflected instead of confronted. I didn’t have it in me put my leg on and say trot d*mm*t.

Side note. The way I can tell Rodney is relaxed is that he will stand. If he pops out of gear, he is still anxious. So Coach Brian had me make tiny circles every time Rodney moved off without being asked. Don’t want to stand? Then make circles. Eventually Rodney stood. Although it worked, I don’t like the exercise. I could tell Rodney was standing because he didn’t want to do any more circles, not because he was relaxed.

I finally did something I have never done. I had someone else ride. I asked Coach Brian to get on. It wasn’t a miracle cure, but at least someone was willing to push him forward.

For lesson #2, attempt 1, five days later. Fail. Success. We changed everything. One. I took out the folded saddle blanket [Recent Changes], deciding that Rodney would prefer a more stable saddle over more padding [Not As Good]. Two. We decided he was old enough that “senior” might be a good word to add to his diet. Watching him from the ground, I thought he looked skinny. We think he may be spending so much time watching cow TV that he’s not getting his daily allotment of grazing. Really, he’s that obsessed. Three. We made sure to dose him with UlcerGard before. Four. We changed the warm-up plan.

We know Rodney needs to walk to get his body loose and his head in the game. To insure that he got as much time as he needed, we would warm up in another ring, away from the lessons. When he was ready, we would go over. If that mean we had a 30-minute lesson, so be it.

Five, out of our control but to our advantage. The day was warmer, which helps immensely when your horse is part lizard [Therapy].

It worked wonderfully.

Actually the lesson never happened. But the warm up plan worked great. We walked for 40 minutes, both in the dressage warm-up area and in the covered arena at FCHP. After, we did a few moderately decent trot circles in both directions. Huge improvement from five days earlier.

Lesson #2, attempt 2, one week later. Fail. I bailed. Not enough riding in between. That fine line between having lessons to improve and improving between lessons.

Lesson #2, attempt 3. Scheduled for next Saturday. We shall see,

In between lessons and lesson attempts, we took Rodney over to SSF. We walked. We walked in the covered. We walked in the ring. We walked around and around … and around the circular driveway. We walked through the barn. (This is an ASB thing. They use the aisle for straight-line practice. Took me years to be okay with riding into the barn. I was always taught that was verboten. End digression three.) After, we would do trot sets in the small, contained, covered arena with me using as little rein as possible consistent with maintain the trot and staying marginally straight.

We also took a trip back to FCHP to acclimate for lessons and for – maybe? possibly? – the 2020 show season. We walked the ring road, with Rodney choosing to curl sideways as if he intended to leg yield the length of it. He used to do this at home on our pasture walks. In the covered, he did some nice trotting, including going the length of the long side several times and doing big trots across the diagonal. Finally, we went over to the dressage ring to walk and stand and learn that the sandbox is not always a place of effort and crisis, see photo.

I’ve gone on long enough. That was Rodney’s holiday. How was yours?

Props to my groom, groundperson, & chauffeur, who finds this an acceptable way to spend his free time.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

New Equipment, Hoof Care

Horsekeeping

Lucky enough to have a horse.

 

 
We needed hoofpicks. All of our many, many hoofpicks had gone to live in the Land of Lost Socks. So, I thought I would try the fancy ones, The Ultimate HoofPick . I’ve never felt strongly about hoof picks, with the exception of not liking the homemade version from bent screwdrivers. Too easy to poke a hole in the sole with one of those, I found.

The brush is because Rodney grows gunk in what look to be clean hooves.

Sourcing. I tried to shop local or direct but without success in either case. Hoof brush originally from Jeffers, Legends Trotter (brush).

Have you tried The Ultimate HoofPick? Are you particular about your hoof gadgets?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

What Does Success Mean To You?

Celebrating Art

 

 
What does winning mean to you? Awards? Money? Fame? Does it only count as a win if it is awarded by an outside source? If you award your own wins does that mean you are strong or that you are deluded?

Would you choose Van Gogh, hailed as a creative genius but unappreciated in your lifetime, or Fanny Fern, a popular author now forgotten by most of us, Fanny Fern in The New York Ledger?

Would you rather win with a bad ride or lose with a good ride?

Can you come in second & win? Can you come in first and lose?

Related to my New Years Day post [Onwards].

Wondering about my answers?

My love of horse show ribbons & my need for external validation is a matter of record, 2843 posts and counting.

Fanny Fern. Hands down.

I honestly do not have answer to win/bad ride vs lose/good ride. Winning with a good ride would be nice. I remember posing this question to a super-competitive friend. She looked at me like she could not understand why I bothered to ask.

Yup. “Coming second to her was like winning without the blue.” [Perspective, the first part, before I start fussing]

You?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott