Ready For Their Close-ups

Celebrating Art

 

 

Rodney & Milton
Ink portraits
By AJ
The Errant Moon
Border & watermark added

The story behind in the art work, The Errant Moon: Horses!

Photo posts, [Getting Our Hunter On] & [For This I Cleaned My Tack?]

Update
Follow-up thoughts [Just Because You Enjoy An Activity Doesn’t Mean You Want To Be Paid To Do It With Strangers]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Have You Got All Day? Anatomy of A Saddle Seat Lesson

Adventures in Saddle Seat

Enjoy the ride.

 

 
I have not had a saddle seat lesson since December. It shouldn’t been this hard. Maybe if I were getting two horses fit for Prelim, I might have an excuse. As is, my life is not that busy. I should be able to fit in a 30-minute saddle seat lesson into my week & get on with my life.

Perhaps if I could go, have lesson, & come home.

But no.

A lesson at Stepping Stone Farm looks more like this. Go. Chat. Unload all my gear: brushes, saddle, helmet, etc. Put drinks in fridge for later. Walk around the barn. Check out the new horses. Watch a training session. Chat. Find horse I am riding. Brush. Get grief for talking too long to get ready. Remind Coach Courtney that excellence takes time. Lesson. Brush down horse, maybe massage. Watch another lesson or training session. More chat. Of course, I don’t bring lunch because I’m only going for the morning, and there’s no point in buying lunch because mine is waiting at home for me. Review lesson. Say my good-byes. Check the board to be sure I’m not missing anything interesting. Load up gear. Distribute adieu peppermints to Sam, Dottie & horse of the day. Start truck. Run back into barn for whatever I forgot. I invariably forget something. Leave.

A 10 am lesson means I get home no sooner than 3 pm. I arrive home hungry, tired, and in need of a shower. By the time I repair the damage, it is 5 in the evening and I am wondering where the day went.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Not From Around These Parts, Schooling Report, Southern Sunday Barrel Association, March 2020

Training Journal

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

 

 
Southern Sunday Barrel Association
D&D Arena
Vincent AL USA
Sunday March 1, 2020
 

 
Music: Turn and Burn by Sam Riggs, also know as the Barrel Racing Song, “Pay no mind to the glitter and shine its a cover up/Cause the girl underneath aint here for the show.” last.fm. Royalty paid.

Barrels?

Why not barrels? The idea was to soak up the show environment. Might as well do slow barrels instead of bad dressage [Finishing The Season].

We didn’t actually make it to the competition phase. We did warm-up on the open arena and then one untimed schooling round. Mission accomplished; we went home. Although it would have been fun to ride in a class, just to say we did, that would have meant waiting several hours and finishing last.

Going in, I knew Rodney was not an undiscovered barrel-racing star. I realized how much after watching the other schooling rounds. Rodney does not have the 0 to 60 acceleration those horses display between barrels. Fun to watch. So not us.

Rodney was a star.

We did all three in gaits in warm-up and during our schooling round. He dealt with other horses in the ring with him. He was fine when they were on the other side of the huge ring. He got excited? anxious? competitive? when we trailed – at a polite distance – another rider. He was good about a horse coming at him, better than I was. I still suffer from Previous Horse flashbacks [Group Therapy]. He didn’t like it when the other horse kicked up dust that hit the side of the arena. The dirt noise has bothered Rodney before [Words]. Adjusting to all of this is a function of getting out and about.

The barrel folks like their footing deeeeeeeep. Even deeper than last time we were in that arena. It was up to his coronet band in places. The trot had almost a passage-y element as he hoisted himself out of the dirt. The canter felt as if he was giving little hops. My lizard brain was not thrilled, but on the other hand, if he had run off to parts unknown, the footing would have sucked off most of the energy in the first 10 feet. He never came close to running off. That was just what I was telling myself. Not the ideal footing for a ground-covering daisy-cutter. No wonder those QHs all have big butts.

We had been practicing our barrel patterns with cones at SSF, with barrels at D&D [New Arena]. Yeah, I deliberately hid the barrels in those photos. I wanted to surprise you. And be sure we had done it before I said anything. In a moment of inter-disciplinary learning, the barrel racing run into the ring is what gave us the idea to use the entry to the round pen as part of a jumping exercise [(Re)Starting Small].

Rodney also gets a star for handling. Usually, we load up and go home immediately after riding. When it became clear this was not happening, he was philosophical about standing next to the trailer eating hay. We have practiced standing around under saddle [Hurry Up & Wait] but not multiple rides. He showed enough in his previous life that I think he knew a second ride was coming. He was fine with it. I made sure to heat his back while we waited.

How many ways can we stand out? An 17-hand Thoroughbred wearing English tack in a crowd of stocky Quarter Horses in western saddles. A rider in boots, britches, and a helmet among riders in jeans with hair blowing in the breeze. I’ve never understood that. Last time I rode in jeans, I had saddle sores in unfortunate places.

Yeah, another group that doesn’t wear helmets. A handful on the young kids. None at all on older kids or adults. I don’t say anything. Nagging is not productive. All I can do is represent [7 Answers]. And make blog posts [Get A Free Helmet Poster]. And give props to Fallon Taylor for spreading the word within the barrel racing community, Taylor & Troxel, #whatthehelmet.

Whither now? We will probably return a few more times for schooling purposes. I am trying to balance getting sidetracked by intriguing activities with keeping my eyes on the prize, i.e. jump! all! the! things!


 
Hurry up & wait. A universal truth of horse showing.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Get A Free Helmet Poster

Training Journal

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

 

 

A digital poster displaying helmet facts and myths: the advisability of replacing a older helmet, the inadvisability of using a bicycle helmet, and so on. The above is a smaller, low resolution image to let you know this exists.

For a full-scale, high-res, printable PDF of your own, please “order” from Horse Hollow Press. Click on FREE pdf of the Helmet Safety Poster. At check-out, click on “in person pick up” and they will email the PDF. Or email a request to jevers@warwick.net. Put Poster in the subject line. The poster is set up for 12×18 or 11×17 by a commerical printer, but can printed as 8 1/2 x 11 hand-outs on a personal printer.

Recommended for handing out to new clientèle at boarding barns, for boarding barns to educate customers, for retailers, and for passing along to non-helmet wearing friends.

Blogging-assist credit to June Evers of Horse Hollow Press posting on the Facebook group Ingenious Horse Care Tips from Seasoned Horse People, 16 Feb 2020.

Previous Helmet Advocacy Posts [Archive]. Looks like it’s been a while. I guess I ran out of ways to say ‘Your head is valuable. Please wear a helmet.’

Previous Ingenious Tip [Barn Hack, Hose Reminder]

Every ride, every time.

Post #2900

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

State Of The Blog Logo & Color Reference

Celebrating Art

 

 
Red, Green, Blue
“This color model is based on adding and mixing light – when you add Red, Green, and Blue light together, you create a pure white.” Modern Soapmaking, DIY Design: What’s the difference between RGB and CMYK?. Think of aiming spotlights onto a dark stage.

R0 B0 G0 = C0 M0 Y0 K100 = hex 000000 = black

s = R255 G0 B0 = C0 M100 Y100 K0 = hex ff0000 = red

0 = R0 G255 B0 = C100 M0 Y100 K0 = hex 00ff00 = lime green

t = R0 G0 B255 = C100 M100 Y0 K0 = hex 0000ff = blue

b = R255 G255 B255 = C0 M0 Y0 K0 = hex ffffff = white

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
“In subtractive color theory, all colors mix to yield black.” Color Matters, Color Systems – RGB & CMYK . CMYK is used for printing. Art media is also subtractive. Think of colored paints piled on a white canvas

C0 M0 Y0 K0 = R255 B255 G255 = hex ffffff = white

s background = C100 M0 Y0 K0 = R0 B255 G255 = hex 00ffff = light blue, i.e. cyan

o background = C0 M100 Y0 K0 = R255 B0 G255 = hex ff00ff = hot pink, i.e. magenta (In my mind, magenta is darker than this.)

t background = C0 M0 Y100 K0 = R255 B255 G0 = hex ffff00 = yellow

b background = C0 M0 Y0 K100 = R0 B0 G0 = hex 000000 = black (also = C? M? Y? K100, as far as I can tell)

Commentary
So it seems that a single RBG color is equal to two CRMK colors. Vice versa, a single CRMK color is equal to two RBG colors. Would you like to convert the CMYK color to a RGB model? This page gives conversion formulas & an automatic converter with handy sliders.

Previous fun with color [Yellow Associations].

Anyone who understands color theory want to educate/correct me? I’m leaving HSL for another day.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

State of the Blog, Watermarks Theory

Blogging About Blogging

 
I’ve probably put more thought into this than warranted for a small, amateur blog. What can I say, I started in newspapers. Journalism habits die hard.

I’m not running a photography business. I will not lose money if my photos float around the Internet. However, I would be interested in tracking any photos that went walkabout. And getting any PR that happened to trickle back my way. I use captions; they are no help. A caption would be the first thing to get lost in a share. Hence watermarks on all photos.

This viral explosion of a photo has yet to happen. I remain optimistic. Also convinced that the one I don’t mark is the one that will become a meme.

Options

Professional photos. I leave them alone. Watermark, logo, no watermark, whatever. I let them choose how they want their pictures presented to the world. [Taking The Reins, Show Report, Alabama Charity 2019, Driving]

The one exception has been to modify the photos Meg was kind enough to take of me during classes. All changes as noted. [Portrait of A Photographer], also [Digital Has Replaced the Darkroom, Portrait of A Photographer In Post Production]

My photos. If the photo says Virtual Brush Box, it was made by me. [My Spirit Animal, LEGO Horse NYC]

Photos of me. If the photo says Virtual Brush Box and it is of me, it was made by my multi-talented groundcrew. [Getting Our Hunter On, Show Report, SSF Home Show 2019] (Fuzziness of photo tolerated due to magnificent cuteness of horse. Taken with phone from across the ring.)

Photos from Friends. For a while I used their name or initials. It’s their photo after all. But that’s not going to provide any tracking information for a photo far from home. Now I put Virtual Brush Box on the first line and their initials on the second line, flush right. The goal is not to claim credit for the photo. I think of it as a citation. The photo came from this place, made by this person. [Green Horses on the Wall, Lisbon, Portugal, Guest Photo]

I’ve only had one person complain that watermarks get in the way of a photo. Meh, I see them. They don’t bother me. Not anymore than a byline to an article or photo credit in a caption.

If you blog, how do you handle watermarks?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott