What’s Been Happening, Jumping!

Jumping Diary

Maybe one of these days I will not feel the need to chronicle every single obstacle I have hopped over. Someday, when jumping is not quite such a novelty. Today is not that day.

Recent jumping history. (I have a recent jumping history!)

Saturday, November 24, 2018. Milton jumped a cavalleti on the line. [A Small Jump Forward]

Saturday, December 15, 2018. We deliver a new jump to Stepping Stone Farm. [Rollerskates for Grandma, Milton’s New Jump]

Sunday, December 16, 2018. Rodney over the SSF jump. [What’s Been Happening, Rodney, no media]

Saturday, December 22, 2018. Milton over the SSF jump. [It’s Not All About the Ribbons, Riding Recap 2018]

Sunday, December 23, 2018. Milton checked out Falcon Hill Farm. While we didn’t leap valiantly over any obstacles, it was still a big day for the lad. He’s never been in a ring with that much visual stimuli. So much to look at! He thought the purple jump blocks were the absolute limit. Next time, NBD. [Enough Retrospection, What’s Been Happening, Milton, no media]

Wednesday, December 26, 2018. Milton over the SSF jump multiple times. Unlike Rodney, Milton utterly failed to get torqued out about it. A future hunter? A jumper who conserves his energy for the big moments? [Enough Retrospection] Went over to get a ride in before the predicted deluge.

Saturday, December 29, 2018. Milton back to FHF for jumping exercises. He did a series of 6(?) trot poles that elevated his trot to the point that I felt it in my back. Then we did a two-pole canter exercise. There may have been one or two elevated strides/low hops over the poles as we sorted ourselves out. [Enough Retrospection] Took advantage of a break in the gloomy, misty, wet weather. Not the five-day deluge that was predicted but enough wet to require a covered ring (SSF) or top-flight footing (FHF). Otherwise, we are stomping around in the squish (home).

And that’s where we are. Basically, two crossrails. Nothing to make Phillip Dutton tremble in his stirrups. Gotta (re)start somewhere!

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

What’s Been Happening, Driving

Driving Thursday Resurfaces

 

No driving, but driving progress.

When last we spoke about driving, we had a busted cart and a horse who hadn’t driven in a while [We Say Goodbye to Driving Posts, For Now in October, with brief reappearances for show posts Lights-Camera-Classes in October & Once More Into The Cart in November]. Now we have a semi-assembled cart and a horse who doesn’t remember a thing about being a driving horse.

We gave up on finding a cart. My driver kept finding the perfect cart … in the UK. In the US, it was all pony carts. So we ordered new shafts and the various crosspieces that one replaces when one is replacing the shafts. Coach Kate brought them down as far as Tennessee. I drove up to fetch them. It was cheaper. Ninety-six inches of wood costs more ship to than it does to buy.

Driver spent the holidays putting together the 3-D puzzle that is our new cart. Fortunately for me, he counts working on the cart as driving, so I got to spend the holiday period riding Milton.

We brought the cart into the field to test-fit the space between the new shafts.
Us: Milton, this is your new cart.
Milton: What’s that? Why is it near me? Get it away from me. Agggg, it touched me.

No worries. We will recapitulate the steps we took when we introduced driving the first time. Then we will have Coach Courtney help hitch. It’ll come back to him.

You may be wondering how we will balance Milton’s activities. Should we work in the backyard? Ride or ground-drive? Should we go to SSF? Ride? Long-line lesson? Drive? A combination of the above? Should we go to FHF for a jump lesson?

I have no idea.

No worries here either. We will let Milton tell us. I think it is fairly clear by now that we can be accused of many things, but not of pushing our horses.

Kitty Photobomb

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

What’s Not Been Happening, ASB

Adventures in Saddle Seat

 

Between the ears at Stepping Stone Farm. Sam wants to know why we are standing about rather than getting a move on. The boards with holes are for cornholing. I know, right?! Down here, cornholing is a beanbag toss game played by everyone from kids, as here, to professionals, complete with an association and a championship that appeared on ESPN. I am constantly startled to hear people use this term in polite company.

Anyway.

Finally had another saddle seat lesson. First once since the end of November [Second Day]. Because we have one vehicle, I have to wait for the other driver to be home before I can go to SSF, at which point we take Milton over. We’ve tried Milton and Saddlebred in the same visit, but the schedules don’t work out.

Which leads to the current situation:

1) I squeeze in a lesson when a show is imminent.
2) In general, Sam and I have a good record together.
3) In specific, I am leading or tied in all of my divisions for this year’s Winter Tournament. This is mainly due to advanced riders not showing at one or both of the shows so far. Still, a lead is a lead.

Which means it’s hard not to think about winning, both the classes at the next show and Winter Tournament as a whole. Enthusiasm is good. A focus on results is not. I can’t control who shows up. I can’t control which Sam shows up. All I can do is ride well, or try. So that’s what I focused on in my lesson and will attempt to remind myself of as the show approaches.

Meanwhile, my inner competitor ignores this blather. She is marching up and down, beating her fists in the air, chanting rib-bons! rib-bons!

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

What’s Been Happening, Rodney

 

Between the ears at Stepping Stone Farm. Saddle seat barns are designed to ride in the aisle. Took me a long time to get used to this.

When we last heard from our hero, he was excited about his adventures off the farm [New Tank Syndrome].

Rodney Is Simple
The day after delivering the jump [Rollerskates], we took Rodney to SSF. He took the inaugural hop! And then he got himself all in a state because he was JUMPING. Yes, I want my horse eager to jump. This does not mean getting one’s panties in a wad about an 18″ crossrail. Save it for the 4′ jump-off.

Unlike Milton, Rodney works the same at home as he does abroad, for good or for ill. Yeah, he was interested in all! the! other! horses!, but that’s a normal response for someone who doesn’t get out much (trust me on this). He didn’t find reassurance in the small ring as we had expected. Covered ring, big ring, walking up the driveway, working at home, I had pretty much the same horse. This means we can work in the backyard rather than hauling him hither and yon.

Rodney Is Complicated
I get on. We walk about. I pick up the tiniest contact. Nothing else. Sitting quietly, asking my horse to walk gently around the ring. Whereupon Rodney slows down his pace, curls his head and neck assembly, jackknifes his turns, and basically ties himself into a pretzel. Then he gets mad because this is hard work. I’m like, ‘Dude, this whole pretzel thing was your idea.’

Knobs on 11 and a disproportionate response to stimuli. Le sigh.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Enough Retrospection, What’s Been Happening, Milton

Photo by Brian Pope

 

Milton has been happening all over the county.

SSF
Stepping Stone Farm remains his happy place. After our inaugural jump [Riding Recap], we went back a few days later. We jumped repeatedly! A whole 3 or 4 times! My ground crew reminded me of the words of a previous instructor, ‘You need to go 55, not 35.’ As in, mph. As in, get a move on. So there we were, trotting ’round the round pen. It occured to me that Milton had no idea how to do this. That means I needed to be the adult in the room. Oh sh*t. I put on some leg. We shifted all the way up to a moderate trot. He hopped a cute little jump and cantered quietly away for one or two strides.

Such a good horse!

FHF
Milton has added a new happy place. Fortunately, he is capable of having more than one. After three visits by the people and two visits by the horse, I think I am justified in saying that we are now taking (proto) jumping lessons with Molly McCown of Falcon Hill Farm.

First Lesson
After chatting with Miss Molly [A Small Jump], we brought Milton over. He came off the trailer lit. His attitude was reminiscent of the semi-disastrous dressage lesson – only semi, because we all walked away from the landing [Missing Lesson]. Not as bad this time, but more hysteria than I care to see in a horse I am about to get on. He lunged. He calmed. This reminded me of Northeast Georgia, where the familiar routine settled him [Notes].

We came back to the trailer to switch tack. I did NOT want to get on this horse. If I wasn’t in tears, it was on a technicality. However, if I stopped every time I didn’t want to do something, I would never get anywhere. I promised myself that all I had to do was get on, maybe walk a few steps. I did. He was chill enough for us to continue. I chilled eventually.

Milton and I did a bunch of walking and some trotting while Miss Molly watched. It was more of a supervised schooling session than a proper lesson. Afterwards, we stood around discussing life. Milton hung with us, relaxing and having the occasional yawn.

Second Lesson
Shipped in. Lunged. Changed tack. Presented self for first official (proto) jump lesson in I-don’t-want-think-about-the-number years.

We trotted. We trotted the other way. We cantered. We cantered several laps. We went the other way. More laps. I was amazed and ready to declare victory. Miss Molly set up two poles ion the ground some distance apart. She wanted us to canter over them. Do what?! I don’t think the nice lady in the middle of the ring realized how little cantering Milton and I had done.

We cantered back and forth over the poles, working on getting a short 4 or a long 3 strides. Well, that was the plan. I worked on staying straight and keeping Milton cantering. Milton worked on figuring out how to deal with objects underfoot. Striding was a distant afterthought.

Go, Milton!

Home
Riding at home is still a work in progress. I wanted to start getting acclimated. Groundcrew reminded me that Milton and I had walked and trotted over the summer while practicing our dressage tests. I had totally forgotten.

Yes, it’s partly me. I get anxious and anticipate problems. In my defense, Milton has given me cause. The meltdowns at Northeast Georgia and the dressage lesson, above, come to mind, both of which had nothing to do with me. Even at SSF, he is sensitive to what ring he is in. He prefers the covered to the big ring and the big ring to the outdoors. Fortunately, he seems to like the FHF ring. And he seems to be agreeable about shipping to his various appointments.

Onwards!

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Return to the Sea … of Statistics, State of the Blog 2018

Looking Backward
Happy with where the blog ended up after the break. Less emphasis on Rodney, less frustration for me. Plus, I aimed for entertainment, at least in addition to my generalized yapping. If I’m struggling with a post, you probably won’t be interested either.

Being happy with my own content does not make me immune to blog envy. When I read posts on other blogs, I notice number of comments, number of Facebook shares, and so on. Recently, a post praising a riding coach after a successful horse show appeared several times on my news feed. Hey, I wrote that post four years ago [Lessons From Nationals: The Value of a Coach]. Why didn’t mine go viral?! But that is petty and I try to move on. We all have different virtues.

Looking Forward
The format of blog is reactive. I do things with horses. I write about it. Therefore, there’s not a great deal of planning required for the blog itself. Continue to do things with horses. Continue to write about it.

Statistics
Today is post #2471 total, 294 (calculated) for 2018
Barring great upheaval, 12/31/18 will be #2473 and 296 (calculated) for 2018.

WordPress says I posted twice on 3/11/18 & missed 11/4/18. No in both cases. Well, the difference comes out in the wash.

Stats for 2011 t0 2017 [State of the Blog: A Sea of Statistics]

2018
First Post [Goals 2018. Not.]
Break March 16 [Getting Off the Struggle Bus], Total 2252
Dark 44 days
Interim April 30 [I am not back. This is not a post.]
Dark 25 days
Return May 26 [Bright-Eyed, Bushy-Tailed, & Back to Blogging]
#2331 [Equines of Edinburgh, Guest Post] Miscounted & thought this was #2400.
#2400 [So It Continues, Show Photos, Dressage at Full Circle Horse Park, October 2018]
Blog anniversary [Christmas Gift, scroll down] 7 years
Today, #2471
Last Post, #2473, pending
Double posts, 0
365 days, missed 69 days, therefore 296 posts

Top Ten Posts
Last 365 days, as of 12/28/18. I don’t expect the list to change in 3 days.
Top Ten 2018
[USDF Interview: Heidi Degele, Dressage-Horse Sales Agent]
[Spotted at the Birmingham Mural]
[Fever Rings] 2013
[Ribbons Are For The Dogs, Guest Post]
[I Ride Milton!]
[Road to the World Cup: First Team Practice. Guest Post]
[Faint Praise]
[ Saddle Seat Versus Dressage, In A Nutshell] 2017
[Road to the World Cup, Traveling for the Team, Guest Post ]
[In Which I Consider Being Part of a Barn]
Top Ten for 2018, written in any year
[What Riding Means To Me: Christopher Wamble]
[Landscape of Darkness, Author Guest Post & Book Giveaway]
Top Ten for 2018, written in 2018

Top Ten Overall
Written in all years, read in all years. Which explains why the Fever Rings & Degele posts are reversed. No, I continue to have no explanation for the ongoing popularity of Fever Rings. Something in it must hit the joy button of an SEO search matrix.
[Watching The Tevis] 2013
[Fever Rings] 2013
[USDF Interview: Heidi Degele, Dressage-Horse Sales Agent] 2018
[Fotography Friday: Texture] 2012
[Why I Ride by Rachel Wamble] 2017
[Why I Ride by Katie Wood] 2015
[Help Me Name My Horse, Prize Offered] 2012
[Show Report: Mid-South Spring Premiere, Rainsville, AL] 2013
[The Naked Challenge] 2015
[What Happens at a Model Horse Show?] 2015

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott