Steady On, Lesson Recap

Training Journal

 

 
Had first lesson with Coach Brian, aka Brian Tweed. You know how some folks describe their instructor as a therapist? This one really is, Licensed Professional Counselor, MA, LPC. The lesson went as well as I had hoped it would [Where To?].

The lesson was last Sunday. Initially, I bailed on the horse show because I wanted to set up a lesson on Saturday, the same day as the show. Then that fell through. No horse show. No lesson. Dramatic sniffle. I advised those in my house capable of leaving to go elsewhere for the day. Even work would be a better place than remaining in my vicinity.

Instead, we elected to go to the show [Spontaneous Showing]. Yay! While we were in the truck, driving to the show, Coach Brian texted to see if I wanted a lesson on Sunday. Double Yay! So, horse show one day; lesson the next. I’ll take one order of bread landing butter side up, thank you very much.

Anyway.

My main take-away from the lesson was to ride in an calm, organized, steady fashion at all times. Don’t sit on the horse, riding about, doing nothing, waiting until something goes wrong. Ride in a way that keeps things from going wrong in the first place. Conversely, when something does go wrong, and it will, don’t grab at the horse in trying to fix it. Keep a steady pressure and position. When the horse returns to proper behavior, you soften.

I think. All errors mine.

Coach Brian worked us both harder and longer than I had expected to survive. He did it such a low-key fashion that Rodney kept saying, ‘Yeah, okay, I can do that.’ I don’t know if the teaching style kept me calm and organized which meant that I kept the horse calm and organized, or if Rodney was responding to Coach Brian directly. Either way, we went the entire hour! We did walk-halt transitions from my seat and legs, then trot-walk transitions ditto. Then some straight up trotting on contact and a little bit of flexing left and right.

At one point, Rodney start to think about getting tired and fussy. I asked him to go forward. The questions stayed easy and consistent. He rallied and went back to work. He never got overwhelmed.

I, OTOH, got overwhelmed all over the place. I could feel it happening. So, I grabbed hold of two ideas – riding steady and stopping by slowing my seat – and figured that was a good start. Further into the lesson, Coach Brian was explaining something to me. He asked if I understood. I said it was going to take 3 or 4 tries for me to get it. He said, ‘Let me explain again.’ I’m thinking, ‘Dude, you don’t understand. It’s going to take 3 or 4 lessons for me to get it.’ I have no recollection of what we were discussing.

Rodney was proud of himself for daaaays afterward.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Lessons, Theory Vs. Reality, Further Considerations

Adventures in Saddle Seat


 
On Monday, I wrote about my weeniness overcoming my ambition [Theory Vs. Reality]. On Tuesday, I wrote about the show being more fun than progress [Spontaneous Showing]. Joking and self-deprecation aside, it is a legitimate question. Should my saddle seat lessons at Stepping Stone Farm be challenging & exciting, or should lessons be reassuring, thereby saving c&e for my own, non-saddle-seat horses?

Option One
Take advantage of whatever opportunities Coach Courtney is kind enough to present.

The Exclamation Point Life
Be bold! Seize the day!! Be daring! YOLO! Challenge yourself! Progress starts where your comfort zone ends! Do! All! The! Things!

Knowledge is Never Lost
Learn as much as possible, always. Even if I never ride in a suit class, the new skills may help me with my hunter/jumper/dressage/eventing riding; may help me in ways I do not yet know; may be worth pursuing as interesting in their own right.

Option Two
When I’m in a dark place, one of the things written on the wall of my soul is, ‘There are only two horses I can ride, and one of them is dead.’ Previous Horse was the latter. Sam is the other. Embrace this. Enjoy that I feel comfortable on a horse.

Progress Now
Athletes don’t make progress by staying on the ragged edge at all times. If I am always at sea on a horse, I will never had the chance to consolidate what I know. Riding a horse who gives me confidence enables me tackle new things with other horses.

This is true of mental skills as much as physical skills. For now, use lessons as a time to rest, to regroup, to rebuild. Reserve the emotional upheaval for my own horses.

Progress Later
Now is not the time. You can do everything; you can’t do everything all at once. Perhaps in the future, when my hunter/jumper/dressage/eventing horses are resting after a successful Preliminary season, the right saddle seat lease will come along and I will dive headfirst – wearing my helmet – into the world of show trots and suits.

No Progress
Life isn’t always about achievement. Gasp. It’s okay to do something simply because I enjoy it.

Making The Decision
As I have undoubtedly mentioned before, I want to be the person who willing leaps onto any horse. I’m not. This makes my decisions harder. Is Option Two the right choice, or am I finding a way to justify wimping out?

There is no single, permanent answer. I have this debate before just about every lesson.
~~~
And Now For Something Completely Different
My annual explanation for why the blog ignores so much of what goes on in the world [Speaking Out].

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Spontaneous Showing, Show Report, Alabama Fun Show, ERA Stables, 2019

Adventures in Saddle Seat

 

ASHAA Fun Show
Elite Riding Academy Stables
Arab AL, USA
Saturday, September 7, 2019

3 Academy Driving, 1 of 2
With Whiskey Throttle
30 Academy Showmanship WTC Adult, 2 of 4
31 Academy Equitation WTC Adult, 2 of 4
With Sultan’s Miracle Man
Thank you Courtney Huguley for ever-willing Whiskey & the ever-fabulous Sam.

Last weekend, plans for the home team fell through. Instead of sitting around being pissy, I asked if I could be included in the horse show at the last minute. The following conversation ensued.

And that is pretty much how it went. No boundaries were pushed, but a good time as had by all. Yes, even Sam. BTW, Coach Courtney’s icon is from our demo a few years ago, [Alvin Goes To School]; mine is of The Ribbon [More Thoughts].

Driving
As I got into the cart, I tried not to think about the fact that I had not driven since the last Winter Tournament, back in February [Round & Round]. No problem. Class is simple. Whiskey is a pro. We got it done. I even managed to pass the other cart in a reasonably tidy manner at the trot.

I have a bad habit, both driving and riding, of floating the reins at the horse and saying, Go, Horsie Go! This is fine if you want the horse to thunder around on the forehand, in a free and frolicsome fashion. If you want the steed to stand up and salute, you have to ask. One of the rail advisors reminded me to do this in the middle of the second direction. We put in a few fancy steps right at the end.

Although the class itself went well, I was a hot mess before and after. Suit driving went first. We swapped drivers in the ring. I got in. I moved off. Coach Courtney said go left. I was trying to adjust my reins and get around the other cart and avoid squashing the other driver walking across the ring and I went left >>>>>. The fact that saddle seat classes always start counter clockwise <<<<< also escaped my attention. Sigh. After the class. Unhitching. Coach Courtney asked if my side was undone. Yes, I said, the safety was undone. The trace on my side? Not so much. Note to self. Driving leaks out of my head even faster than saddle seat.

Riding
When I mount up in saddle seat, I have to remind myself of the differences [Switching Gears]. I REALLY have to remind myself of the differences at the canter transition to remember to use outside-rein, outside-leg aids. Otherwise I use the inside rein and get a lovely counter-canter. Overall, the bulk of it comes back to me better than I had been expecting.

On the other hand, I could feel in the first class that the fine-tuning had left the building. I could not get my shoulders back enough. They were okay but not equitation-level snappy.

In the second class, Coach Courtney had me motivate Sam a little more. That I could do. The dressage shows and hunter classes have reminded me how much more I prefer showing when the focus is on the horse. I heard a few startled 'Look at him go!' comments, as we zipped by. These days, most people know Sam as a school horse for beginners. The audience said that Sam appeared to be having fun. I think even Sam was surprised to find that he still had a few show horse maneuvers left.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Lessons, Theory Vs. Reality

Adventures in Saddle Seat

 

Home, 100% Potential Energy
So many options at Stepping Stone Farm. A barn full of horses to ride.

Maybe I’ll see if one of the fancy horses wants to go slumming.

Or, the barn has a lot of green horses who need mileage.

Or, they have ventured into ASB hunt seat. I could help with the horses over fences. I’m a jump rider. I can start a horse over crossrails. Easy peasy.

En Route, Reality Sinking In
Maybe I’ll stick with the lesson horses.

The suit horses can be touchy. There was the time I forgot myself and thumped Robert on the side with my lower leg. Boy, was he offended. Coach Courtney says he only got two legs off the ground. Felt like all four to me.

Am I really going to offer to blithely hop on a green horse? Who am I kidding? I can barely wrap my mind around a new lesson horse.

Who am I to think I can school a horse over fences? Sure, I knew how to jump at one point, but that was a long time ago. I’m having enough trouble getting my own horses over crossrails. Do I really want to wade into those waters with strange horses?

This is not a problem. The lesson horses have a lot to teach me. I need to learn cool my jets to converse with Whiskey. Alternatively, Optimus would tolerate me to learning the show bridle.

There is still plenty of opportunity.

Barn, 100% Reality
I’ll ride Sam.

Update [Lessons, Theory Vs. Reality, Further Considerations]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Yellow Associations

Graphic Design

 

Hex Yellow

Czech Republic & Germany: 1st place
US, New Zealand, Sweden, &UK: 3rd place
Canada: 4th place
Australia & Norway: 5th place
Wiki: Horse Show

Pantone Yellow

Palominos. Yellow Labs. Bees (with black). Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.


Sun. Daffodils.


Yellow River (Huang He), China. Yellow Pine, Alabama, USA. Yellow Springs, Kentucky, USA. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Montana, & Idaho, USA. Amarillo (Spanish for yellow), TX, USA.


“His mama named him Tommy, but folks just called him yellow.” “Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road.” “Tie a yellow ribbon ’round the ole oak tree.” “We all live in a yellow submarine.” “It was an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini.”

Subtractive Color Mixing

Banana. Lemon. Egg yolk.

Subtractive Color Mixing

Smiley Face. Rubber Ducky. Tweety Bird, SpongeBob Squarepants. Big Bird.

Shade

Maillot Jaune. Yellow card.

Tint

YellaWood(R). Mello Yello(R). Yellow #2 pencil. Yellow Pages.

Tone

In the interest of harmonious living, I have omitted the viler associations. Other that those, what have I missed?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Best Laid Plans, Writing Accountability, August 2019

Writing About Writing

 

Crossposted [Will Write For Feed Blog: Best Laid Plans, Writing Accountability, August 2019]

I need a new plan.

In August, I signed up with 750 Words, an online writing site. Does one need a computer site to write? No. Does it help me? Yes. I talked about it earlier [A Place To Write].

Writing for the blog happens in the morning. I like to get the next day’s post done and scheduled. Writing for work happens when it needs to. So, the plan was to write my 750 fiction words at night. Freewheeling creative work right before bed would fire up my resting neurons to worry about plot details rather than letting my brain gnaw on itself.

It was a great plan. Thinking about fiction allowed me to separate from the activities of the day and put me in a better place to get to sleep. I came up with some cool ideas. I even wrote an entry that might charitably be called a sketch. Another time I started with a fiction idea and ended up with a blog post.

So, it worked great. When I got to it. The plan utterly failed to take into account the fact that I crash like a falling tree immediately after dinner.

Yes, yes, if I really wanted, I would do it. Fiction writing is like exercise. I should do it. It would be good for me to do it. I enjoy it when I can – metaphorically – drag my ass of the couch. I certainly enjoy having done it. Alas, as with exercise, I am full of good intentions.

August stats. I wrote anything at all on 8 out of 31 days. I wrote over 750 words on 4 of those days. This is ridiculous. I can bang out a 1,000 word blog post without breaking a sweat. I am capable of generating a cover letter that is longer than the article I am submitting. Surely, I should be able to write 3 pages of fictional nonsense. But then, I should be able to exercise for 30 minutes a day as well.

How are you doing with your projects?

See you on my book tour,
Katherine Walcott