Saddle Seat, I Wish I Could Love You

Adventures in Saddle Seat

Do you have any idea how easy my life would be if I decided to rack off into the sunset on a high-stepping American Saddlebred?

I’d give Coach Courtney the nod.

She would find me a horse. The length of time involved would depend on my ambition and budget. If I wanted to show locally, she’d need – maybe – five minutes to decide which horse in the barn would do the job. If I wanted to shoot for the moon, it might take her as much as half an hour to have six potential Louisville horses lined up for me to look at between here and Kentucky.

She would go with me to try the horse. Reagan [Barnshine] might come along to ride them first. I would have supervision for the test ride, advice on the horse’s suitability, and someone to negotiate with the seller for me. No standing about on my own wondering how to exit gracefully if the horse proved to be a no hoper [We Are Not Idiots]. In the first place, there would be fewer no hopers. This would be true whether I chose sale or lease.

My future superstar would live at Stepping Stone Farm. Someone else would climb out of bed to feed in the dark of winter and in the heat of summer. Someone else would worry about finding enough hay and setting blacksmith appointments. Someone else would already be taking care of the horse if I had to leave town.

Coach Courtney would oversee wonder horse’s training. She would decide how much work and how often. I would take lessons on my horse and on practice horses. She would oversee my show schedule, advising me on which shows to attend and which classes to enter. My show career would have a plan, rather than being a drunkard’s walk through local prize lists.

I already know 90% of the shows. I’ve been in the arenas. I know where stable parking is. I was going to say that my horse would be wafted to and from the shows without me, but that already happens with Academy horses. No change there. Ditto, help in warm-up and on the sidelines. I would have advice on how to dress for my show ring suit debut. In fact, try to get into the ring without Reagan’s sartorial oversight and approval!

Can’t you see me, zipping around the ring, resplendent and well-prepared, on a lovely horse who has been trained as my perfect teammate? All it would take is a nod.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Tsundoku Additions

Training Journal

 
Tsundoku is acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one’s home without reading them. Wiki
 

 
Now that I am riding my own horses (Kermit Dance!), I am back in the land of schooling myself, with the help of my eagle-eyed groundperson. To inspire us, I bought several books of horse exercises.

Creative Riding with Obstacles by Barbro Lagergren and Lina Zacha (Brightmare 2013/2106)
Creative Riding in the Arena by Barbro Lagergren and Lina Zacha (Brightmare 2016/2019)
Core Conditioning for Horses by Simon Cocozza (Trafalgar 2019)

I’m not sure of difference between the two Brightmare books yet. Since they were shipped over from Sweden, I tossed the second one on the boat.

Do I need these books? No. Get on. Ride forward and straight. Do figures and corners. Do transitions within and between gaits. It’s simple, it’s just not easy. The quote comes from Steve Maraboli, so Google tells me, and was made popular in horse world by Wofford, Practical Horseman: Simplify Your Riding, [Weekend with Wofford].

“Adopt a classical position, resist all fads and gadgets, and ride the horse quietly and softly between the two straight lines of the stirrup leather and the elbow to the horse’s mouth,” he explains in the book (Training the Three-Day Event Horse and Rider). “It’s simple. It’s just not easy.” Jimmy Wofford Teaches the World

The rationale is that the books may have an idea for a new exercise or a different way of thinking about an old exercise. In truth, buying riding books grants me the illusion of progress.

Props to The Errant Moon: Books and how much I love them for my new favorite word.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Ulcer Meds For Lameness, aka My Horse Is Weird

Horsekeeping

We cleared up Rodney’s lingering lameness with a dose of UlcerGard(R).

Progression of symptoms and treatment:
Tweaked right front [Woe Is I]. Three days of Bute. No major change.

Cleared up.

May have tweaked left front [Noshow Number Two]. No Bute.

Abscess [ibid].

Abscess went away with soaking/wrapping [Treatment]. Kept up two nights.

Then we went into a period of is he?/isn’t he? He was sound at a trot and canter. On a circle, he’d take the very occasion odd step. We couldn’t pinpoint anything, just that he wasn’t mover that he usually is. He was spookier than usual. That could have been explained by all the time off he’d had lately. He reverted to being pushy [Evil Twin]. Well, maybe that’s him.

Finally, by genius in-house diagnostician said, Give him a dose of UlcerGard. Yup, that was it. One dose and his attitude and movement cleared up immediately. Rodney may be a cupcake, but he’s not a complicated cupcake. We gave two more doses over the next two days, to be sure. Three is a nice round number.

This could have gone back as far as the first tweak. His “lameness” for the second show may have been lingering tummyache from the first lameness. Possibly from the meds. Equally possibly from the life disruption of having a stomachache.

Does this make sense in general? It’s not as crazy an idea as it sounds at first. When my stomach hurts, I’m not bounding around the house in gazelle-like fashion. I’m creeping about with my hand over my stomach, taking dinky steps to avoid any jostling.

Does this make sense for this horse? Undoubtedly. He was on ulcer meds for years [Zeno]. We keep tubes of UlcerGard on hand. His stomach is a known issue. We just had to stop looking at his feet.

That was our November. How was yours?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

My New Twitter Handle

Graphic Design, Blogging About Blogging

 

 
@willwrite4feed. willwriteforfeed was one character too long. Using a 4 seemed a more legible option than dropping one of the Ls in will. Why am I back in Twitter? For a writing contest, [Can You Write Short?].

Process Notes
My standard steps: Inkscape for design, Gimp to dress it up. The lettering contains nothing that I would consider drawing, either physical or digital. Everything was geometrically aligned to a grid. Still, I’m pleased with the result. For a change.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

FYI, Another Writing Contest

Writing About Writing

 

 
14th Annual Short Story Challenge
“There are 4 rounds of competition this year. In the 1st Round (January 17-25, 2020), writers are placed randomly in heats and are assigned a genre, subject, and character assignment. Writers have 8 days to write an original story no longer than 2,500 words.” And so on. NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge

Undecided about entering. I remain dubious about paying for contests, but I may be fighting a losing battle. Perhaps if I think of it as tuition for an learning exercise rather than as paying a potential market.

I suspect I heard about this one because I entered the two Gotham Workshop contests [Can You Write Short?]. I am now on their radar.

Early entry deadline, with discount – December 12, 2019.
Final entry deadline – January 16, 2020.

What think you, should I? Would you join me?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Proof of Concept, Race, er, Walk Report, Magic City Run 2019

Fit To Ride

USA: Happy Thanksgiving
World: Happy Thursday
~~~
Magic City Run
Birmingham AL, USA
Sunday, November 24, 2019

Results
Time – 54.26.7 minutes
Pace – 17:31 minutes per mile
Overall – 570 out of 627
Female – 319 out of 369
Female, 55-59 – 14 out of 16

My course map from RaceJoy. Race results are from official start to my finish. RaceJoy numbers reflect when I actually crossed the start.

Before
I will never run a marathon. I have neither the knees nor the patience. However, many big name marathons offer easier alternatives that take place on the same weekend over the same course. The B.A.A. 5K starts/finishes at the Boston Common and tours the scenic Back Bay area. In London, the Westminster Mile finishes in front of Buckingham Palace. In NYC, “Runners will zip through the streets of Manhattan, and finish at the famed Marathon finish line in Central Park—without running 26.2 miles.” Run Guides: NYRR Dash to the Finish Line 5K

Exactly.

In order to test the theory, I signed up for a local 5k. I had no intentions of running a single step. The goal was to stroll around downtown Birmingham enjoying the sights.

During

Unlike any other activity in recent history, I was not the slightest bit nervous. I had utterly no doubt that I could walk 3.1 miles. On a day when I hand-walk both horses and the dog, I can easily cover over 2 miles. The only adjustment I would have to make would be to hussle up a bit. My walks around the pasture are more in the nature of moving meditation than power walks. I needed some speed if I wanted to stay in front of the broom wagon.

Or in this case, the broom balloon. For the half-marathon, runners in brightly colored red-and-white Waldo outfits ran the course at set paces: 1:40, 2:00, 2:20, etc. For the half and the 5K, a Waldo holding a large bunch of balloons brought up the rear of the pack. It was easy to turn around to see how far from the end I was. After a while, I lost sight of the balloons.

I met my goal of finishing under an hour. I enjoyed walking without needing to worry about curbs and stoplights and cars and the total inability of drivers in most US cities to deal with the concept of pedestrians.

But I digress.

In addition to what I expected, the people watching was OUTSTANDING, both in the run and on the sidelines. One spectator group had disco music, silver lamé outfits, and a bubble machine. Since the race was affiliated with Girls On The Run, I was surrounded by preteens and parents in multi-hued tutus and related costumes. One fit gentleman of middle years was walking with three girls. He worn black pussy cat ears and a bright pink tutu. He was the definition of ‘Are you man enough to wear pink?’ I probably spent more time looking at the people than at the city sights.

After
I did get a medal. They ran out of 5K medals and handed me a Half-Marathon medal. It feels rude to show that off.

Will I ever take advantage of this in a major marathon city? Who knows. Now I know it is feasible.

Nod of appreciation to Marathon Runs for the photo, “@Copy Right: These photos are free to download/print/use for all 2019 Magic City Half/5k event participants” Marathon Runs2019 Magic City Half/5k. Border added.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott