Virtual Brush Box

Looking Around, Where’s Waldo?

Horsekeeping

You may have noticed that the blog has been Milton-centric lately. Nothing nefarious. Rodney is fine. Rodney is out standing in his field. Rodney is taking foreeeeeeeeeeeeeeever to get over the world’s mildest lameness.

Seriously, we once went to look at a sales horse who was more off than this. He was sold shortly thereafter. The seller smugly informed us that the vet passed the horse as sound. Whatever. That’s when we stopped saying what we thought of other people’s horses [Note to Horse Sellers]. That says something about horse trading. That also says something about the minuteness of Rodney’s current boo-boo.

He has a pronounced bump on the outside of his right front fetlock down by the coronet band. He takes the occasional bad step on a small circle on a lunge line at a trot to the right. He is spookier than he should be for the given temperature and activity level. Just enough to put him on the Injured Reserve list.

Rodney takes six weeks to get over anything. It is what it is. Sigh.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Looking Forward, Aspirational XC

The Amoeba, i.e. lowest, level course from the show last weekend at Full Circle Horse Park [Show Report] . If I were a goal-setting sort of person, this would be our goal for November [This Is Why I Don’t Set Goals sidenote, just under 6 months later, we jumped the stadium course in the photo. Go us! Eventually!].

Yes, the jumps are small, wee even. Remember, the last time I asked Milton to trot around an open field, he had a hissy fit [Two Hops Forward, One Step Back] Height is not the issue.

Previous FCHP cross-country schools. We have walk or trotted over half to three-quarters of these.
[Dynamic Duo Does Dinky Jumps, XC Schooling, Full Circle Horse Park, March 2019]
[Mr. Excitement Regards His Future 2018]
[Outing Report: Full Circle Farm 2017 Fall Schooling Show]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

The Write Start, Block Lettering

On My Mind, Miscellaneous Visuals

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The Write Start is a 21-day writing prompt program being run by See Jane Write. Hot Pink is the brand color for SJW.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Schadenfreude Saturday, My Pain Is Your Amusement

The following is a result of an exercise for The Write Start, a 21-day writing prompt program being run by See Jane Write. I can laugh about it now. Mostly.
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English professors and I don’t get along. At least, not when they are acting in their professional capacity.

My first term in college, I was put in advanced math and remedial English. At a social gathering for the English department, the head of the department reassured his attentive audience that the remedial English classes were for people with “serious writing difficulties.” It never occurred to him that one of those remedial people might be standing in front of him. Or maybe he didn’t care, which moves him from oblivious to jerk.

After looking through the records of my grades, my tests, and my assigned schedule, the guidance counselor remarked, in a slightly awed voice, “Wow, you can’t write your way out of a paper bag.”

Later, I took a second regular class with one of the remedial professors. I thought we got along. After one assignment, he took me aside to confide, “I finally understand why you write in a confused and torturous fashion. It’s because that’s how you think.” When I was working at the newspaper, I made sure to send him a copy of the paper with my byline.

The irony is that the next year, the department changed their sorting hat. Under the new rules, I would have skipped regular English and been put in the advanced seminar.

During college, I took a semester abroad in California. As an assignment for a creative writing class, I wrote a story about Superman having to function in the world of Miranda Rights and Stranger Danger. The professor asked me, “What is the point of writing on autopilot?” I tried to read their book. Didn’t get very far.

On to grad school.

During my time in the Master’s program, I was a working freelance writer, got all As, with one exception, and was inducted into Sigma Tau Delta, the English honor society. This did not save me from the scorn of my professors.

The head of the department told me that my writing was “pedestrian.” Well, I prefer to think of it as clear and commercially-viable, but thanks for the input.

The head of my division told me that I would not be able to maintain a Master’s-length work of prose. This same professor told the class that if you were on a trek with six people it was okay to conflate them into two people for the purposes of a creative non-fiction piece. No. No. No. What part of NON-fiction do you not understand? Making shit up is why they take Pulitzers away from people. Working with this professor would have been like working with an advisor who thought Shakespeare was the Earl of Oxford when all right-thinking people know that he was a dude from Avon. This person was also the only professor to give me anything less than an A. I got a B.

Clearly, it was time to move on.

I called a university elsewhere in the state to see about finishing there. They offered a degree that combined book arts with English. I had a question about scheduling, specifically could I get my on-campus work done in one long day each week. The polite answer would have been. ‘No, the time commitment is more than that.’ Instead the head of the program chose to yell at me for 15 minutes, telling me that a Master’s degree is a serious project that must be taken seriously by serious people. When they finally wound down enough to ask about my background, I mumbled a few words and got off the phone as fast as possible.

I never did write a thesis nor get my Master’s. I did formulate a life rule. Be done with your graduate work before the age of 40. After that, you will have outgrown the ability to tolerate the bullshit.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Our First Competition Course, Show Photos, Full Circle Horse Park, April 2019

Jumping Diary

Dressage, CT, 3-Phase
Full Circle Horse Park
April 6, 2019
[Show Report]
[Show Report, Jumping]
Jeremy Villar Photography

There were dressage photos. I think we’ve all seen enough of those. Instead, our first jumps in competition, such as they were. Turtle steps.

I’m massively overriding the height, but isn’t Milton adorable? As you can see from the pictures, I talked to him the entire way around the course. I told him which jump was next. I told him what a good job he was doing. He seemed to appreciate it.

Waiting at the start
Jeremy Villar Photography

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Our First Competition Course, Show Report, Full Circle Horse Park, April 2019, Show Jumping

Jumping Diary

Dressage, CT, 3-Phase
Full Circle Horse Park
April 6, 2019
[Show Report]

Major Milton
23. 12″ Cross Rails. Clear Round

Our first, nothing-almost-about-it, jumping class. After our good and bad days the week before, there were two questions:

1) How low would they build the fences? Could we trot over them as glorified trotting poles or would Milton have to lift the landing gear?

2) Which Milton would show up? The happy horse from FHF or the grumpy Gus from home [PreShow]? In recent years, Milton’s meltdowns have come with warning signs. We didn’t always heed the signs, but they were there. I was reasonably sure that Milton would not have a come-apart without giving me a few shots across the bow. I planned to pull up at the first hint of the hairy eyebrow.

First Course Walk – Rider
I walked the course. No biggie. Start at the first fence. Follow the track. Look for the numbers. Note terrain questions. Walk a second time visualizing your ride.

The weird part was that it wasn’t weird. I haven’t walked a course in over a decade. It felt as if I had done one yesterday. I had to remind myself how long it had been.

Another competitor was walking the course with his groom, who had a horse in tow. That gave me an idea.

Second Course Walk – Horse
I was the second to go in the first class. I got tacked in plenty of time. We went over to wander around the course. While riding.

This wildly against the rules. It was a schooling show. I figure they would ask me to leave rather than eliminate me. If they did, well, this was what my horse needed. Plus, the class awarded a ribbon for each clear round. I was not gaining an advantage on any competition.

The management kindly pointed out that what I was doing was illegal, as a teaching moment. They let me continue to stroll about as the course was reset.

Milton looked at everything: the standards, the poles, the tents for judge and steward, the horses next door, this over here, that over there. In his defense, there was a lot to look at. The ring was even more crowded that FHF, with brighter poles. Not only our jumps but all the extra standards and poles and flower boxes for the higher divisions.

I was wrong about the area being fenced on two sides. It had a fenceline on one side, with horses turned out in the paddock. Two sides were open. The fourth side was an ominous, looming wall of primeval forest that threatened to engulf sensitive horses.

Milton was quiet, but edgy. One of the ground crew recognized him and said, “Hi, Milton!” He jumped to the side. Very much like his attitude walking around at his first Stepping Stone Farm show. “He was walking so well, that wanted to see if he was overtracking. When I leaned over his shoulder to look, he gave a little hop to the side that said, What? What are you doing up there? So we went back to calm walking.” [First Blue].

In warm up, we trotted several crossrails, both low and high. I seemed to have the happy version of Milton, or at least not the grumpy one.

The Course
The course was set as low as I could have wished. A long, bright, twisty, pretty course that was a mouse whisker above poles on the ground. The 10 fences involved five passes back and forth across a field. We trotted at and over all of them.

I can’t honestly say how much he looked at the jumps. They were so low that I had enough conviction for both of us. About halfway through, he got the idea that we would land from one and aim at the next.

We walked twice. Once was my idea; once was his. On the downhill turn into #4, I asked him to walk to give him time to sort out the input. On a similar turn into 8, I gave him a “steady boy’ and he said, ‘Oh you want me to walk again, okay.’ For the rest, he was steady and straight and calm, but interested enough that I felt we were in the right place.

Our first legit jumping class, although no actual jumping occurred.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Preliminaries Accomplished, Show Report, Full Circle Horse Park, April 2019, Dressage

The Show
Dressage, CT, 3-Phase
Full Circle Horse Park
Pell City AL, USA
April 6, 2019

Major Milton
Class 3 – 2019 USDF Intro Test A (Walk-Trot) – Adult, 1st of 2, with 61.875%
Class 4 – 2019 USDF Intro Test B (Walk-Trot) – Adult, 3th of 4, with 59.062%

Highest score: 7, various
Lowest score: 5.5, various

Results will be available at FCHP > Shows

The Rides
Show acclimatization. Check. At least for walk-trot dressage at Full Circle. Now we need to learn how to actually do dressage. Or canter. Or forget the sandbox and go jump.

The show ran early & one rider was a no-show. We elected to go early and have a short break between the two tests. We made the bet that Milton was the sort of horse who would prefer a break, even if only for five minutes. He was. Everyone had a pee. We retacked.

In the second warm-up, I decided I wasn’t going to solve our systemic issues in the next five minutes. Instead, I let him pick his pace and used the test as an opportunity to practice my dressage position, specifically not leaning forward to encourage the horse to move forward. This never works. That never stops me from trying.

After dressage, we chilled until time for our next class. More on that tomorrow.

After the rides, we took Milton home, then we came back for ribbons. Therefore, himself was not available to model his winnings.

The Videos
Compare with (to?) video from our first dressage show [Maintaining Our Firm Grip On Last Place And That’s Okay, Show Report, Dressage at Full Circle Horse Park, Summer 2018].

The Scores
Needs more bend, more march, more connection. Yup, yup, yup. On the upside, the judge found Milton to be steady and attentive. Well, he may be slow, but he’s a steady slow. Attentive, yeah. He hears you. He may choose to respond in his own way, but he’s listening.