Virtual Brush Box

750 Words, A Place To Write

On My Mind, Miscellaneous Thoughts

Timeline of day 1, 750 Words, April 22, 2019

750 Words is a tracking site for daily writing. I heard about it from The Write Start, a 21-day writing prompt program being run by See Jane Write. The goal is to write 750 words each day as writing practice or therapy or creative release, or some combination thereof.

I already write daily, or close to, for the blog. I already do a credible amount of self-reflection, also for the blog. So, as with The Write Start, I will use 750 Words as a fiction exercise. Signed up on Monday. As of this writing (Friday), I have done 3 of the 5 days. I skipped Tuesday due to lessons and riding, so not too bummed about that. I plan to join once my 30-day free membership has elapsed.

The parts that appeal to me are game-ifying the practice and typing. In addition to points for completing each day’s writing, the site displays speed, distractions, mind-set while writing, time orientation, and various other ways your word usage can be sorted and categorized.

Either this appeals to you, or it doesn’t.

Drafting in long-hand never made sense to me. I’d just have to retype. Now, I’ve gotten used to composing on the computer. Writing the daily prompt for TWS in a journal has been, if not hell, at least heck. I thought about switching to the computer, but decided that I could survive journaling for 21 days. Then 750 was mentioned at the beginning of the third week. I couldn’t log on fast enough.

My handwriting is horrid. Despite owning more pens than I wish to admit, I don’t write by hand all that much anymore. I still take interview notes by hand, but heaven help me if the recorder fails and I have to rely on those hashmarks.

My handwriting is slow. I’m so much faster with a keyboard, even with going back to correct typos. Yes, it’s a draft that one one else will see. No, I can’t let them be. Yes, I’m uptight. Moving on. Part of the goal of daily writing is to move quickly through your thoughts. To get into a flow.

As I said, it’s a personal choice, either it amuses you or you clutch your journal to your chest and regard me with an appalled expression.

Privacy? The site claims not to do data mining for any purpose, nefarious or otherwise. It is presented as a writing community run by two well-intentioned individuals. Is this true? Probably. Could it be a well-crafted front? Possibly. I work under the assumptions that A) nothing is truly private on the Internet. Hacks happen. Alternatively, I become sufficiently interesting to the government/general public and everything I’ve ever written winds up in court/on the front page. B) Big Brother is here. Has been for a while. Such is life. Might as well put him to good use as data storage. I probably should be horrified. There are so many more immediate concerns about which to be horrified. But I digress.

Off to write today’s words.

TWS week 2 [Writing Utter Nonsense]
TWS week 1 [Schadenfreude Saturday, My Pain Is Your Amusement]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Even The King

Visual Storytelling

You may be a beloved corporate icon. You still have to poop.
Mt. Laurel, AL, USA
April 17, 2019
#followthehitch

Visit to Birmingham 2016
[Clydesdale Humor]
[Hitching The Clydesdales]
[Foto Friday: Horses in the City]

Miscellaneous Budweiser Clydesdales
[Postcrossing 2016]
[Bucket List – Accomplished 2012]
[Superbowl Sunday 2012]

I never know how much to give away. Will anyone get the references in the title? Should I say something? Let folks figure it out on their own? As a compromise, hidden answers: Wiki, Wiki.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Driving Ups & Downs

View From The Back Seat

After successful lessons with the new cart [1,2], we hitched by ourselves. Yay.

Next lesson, Milton started hopping as soon as he was asked to move off. Been a while. Caught us by surprise. Boo.

The fit lasted only a few moments, the distance from quarterline to quarterline. Out of habit, I headed him with a leadrope. I was able to wrestle him to a stop, just before we crashed into the only obstacle in the ring. After half a lap of accompanied walking, he decided to fly right and was fine for the rest of the lesson. Yay.

Canceled plans to go off and school on our own. Boo.

Next lesson, a little side-eye at the start, then a fantastic lesson. Yay.

This is the second time Milton has pitched a fit a few days after a jumping lesson [Extremes]. He loves the ring at Falcon Hill Farm. He goes well in it. However, he may work harder than everyone – including Milton – realizes. This may leave him with lingering, post-gym muscle aches. He’s not the type to loosen up on his own. I’ll just stand here and rust, thank you very much.

We are learning that Milton folds at the first sign of adversity. If he thinks he is capable of what you are asking, he is a happy, willing horse. If he is overwhelmed – even the slightest bit – in mind or body, he is utterly convinced that he can’t do the thing. We posit his defeatist attitude is a remnant of his lack of success on the track.

Amidst all of this, we went up to volunteer for a MTCC schooling day. My driver was stoked. I could see he wanted to be out in the field running around the obstacles. I was less enthused. Much like Chatt Hills [Jumps], all I could see was gap between where we were and where we wanted to be. What can I say, I’m a dewy-eyed optimist.

Even when Milton is going well to cart, it’s hard – for me – to rest easy. He was going well before our driving debut last year. We’re still twitchy from that. We have learned that driving a horse is really easy, right up until it’s not. Things can go wahoonie-shaped in a hurry.

Three milestones to achieve before any al fresco driving competitions:

1) Driving competition(s) in a ring. No idea how to do this.

2) Riding competition(s) in the open. Gulp.

3) Practice staying overnight away from home. Not sure how much this contributed to his moods in Tennessee & the non-competes [not back, GA1, GA2]

All of these have subtasks, such as seeing other horses hitched to carts, riding in a class with more than one other person, schooling in the open, driving in the ring with other carts, hitching outside the ring, surviving warm-up with a cart and so on, added to the skills mention previously [The Next Rungs On Milton’s Ladder Of Success].

Well, if Milton is not our CDE horse, if he never leaves the ring at SSF, he has taught us huge amounts about driving. Good on him.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

The Saddle Seat Saddle Gathers Dust

Non-Adventures in Saddle Seat

I rode saddle seat one day last month. There looks to be no saddle seat at all for me in April. This is a scheduling issue rather than a philosophical statement.

We were deep in dressage land … or the barn was away at a show … or Milton went over to Stepping Stone Farm for riding/driving. My ASB lessons filter to the bottom of the list.

OTOH, I forgot how much I like working with own horse. Rodney doesn’t count as he has managed to avoid a regular program. It’s nice to focus my riding on a long-term project rather than adapting on the fly each time I get on a horse. It’s fun to make plans for the next steps in a horse’s training.

Saddle Seat Wednesday will be back. Need to figure out how to work it all in. A pleasant problem to have.

Milton experiences the world outside of the ring at SSF.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Times Change, KY Edition

~~Rolex~~ Kentucky starts tomorrow [Archives]. Huh. Took me completely by surprise. There I was, reading the post Are You Ready over on Contact: The Pursuit of PSG. I’m expecting high-level dressage musings. I get a picture of the author and friends in front of the main stadium at the Kentucky Horse Park. Wait. What?

Rolex-as-was used to be a huge part of my Spring (photo [Nostalgia], lyrics Wiki) I went up to Lexington for a week every year from the first four-star in 1998 to WEG in 2010. I wrote about it. Editors cover the big events themselves, so I usually had a behind-the-scenes angle, from fence decorating to organizing the awards presentation. I worked it. I’ve volunteered for every phase, from crowd control at the jog to lining up the top 20 after show jumping. If you add in writing and recovery time, Rolex was easily 2% of my life. Now, it’s not even on my calendar.

Times change.

Of course, Kentucky is managing just fine without me. ‘Fraidy Cat Eventing has Kentucky Fever! A comment by Jen mentions, “My tailgate party! Going to be a ton of bloggers there.” Tailgate? Bloggers? This wasn’t how we did it in my day.

Times change.

Would I go back? Meh. Seems like a lot of work, a lot of driving and a lot of time away from home. I’ll stay here and watch the livestream. Unless the home team comes up with a better offer.

Times change.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Extremes of Emotion

Jumping-sorta Diary

Milton is an emotive horse. He’s either chillin’ to the max [Goofy] or having a hissy fit [While there is more than one post to chose from as an example, I don’t want to give the incidents energy by looking back at them. Onwards! But I digress.]. Whatever Milton feels, he feels deeply.

We went over to Falcon Hill Farm to work on cantering and jumping. The canter is coming along. I’m remembering how to maintain a faster pace [Lessons]. Milton is getting stronger and managing increasingly smaller figures. We can do about a 30-meter circle at the moment. Our jumping work was several canter pole lines and a canter gymnastic (photo).

Our sticking point is the canter transition.

Me: Canter.
Milton: Don’t wanna.
Me: Canter.
Milton: Ain’t gonna.
Me: CANTER!
Milton: Take that!

Pow. Massive cow kick as he tells me what he thinks of a thump on the side.

Remember our drill team experience last year [Camp Report]? He showed the same black/white behavior. He was either trailing the pack or leaping about because another horse invaded his personal space.

Middle ground, here we come!

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

The Write Start, Circle Lettering

On My Mind, Miscellaneous Visuals

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

Process notes: 13 letters. 5 duplicates. 2 rotations, H -> I because H comes first, W -> E because I never get E right, but a rotated W works just fine. Go figure. 6 original letters to draw, T, H, W, R, S, & A. I wonder if this is how real graphic designers work.

Last week, [The Write Start, Block Lettering]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott