Because what I need in my life right now is another barn and another discipline.

Overcoming Obstacles in Our Way

 

Alabama Obstacle Challenge Series
AOCS website, Facebook


 

This would be for Rodney. No jumping. No sand box. Done at a walk. Yes, Rodney had a melt-down over a leather halter [Life in the Slow Lane]. Oddly enough, with the weird-looking shit, he’s brave. Not police-horse, bombproof brave, but for a high-strung TB, surprisingly curious about new things, see below. Could be a good idea. Could be a non-starter. We shall see.

I have been over to the local barn for a chat. Pretty standard lesson/schooling arrangement. $X for help; $Y to go over and mess about ourselves. In our discussion, year-end awards were mentioned. Well, that doesn’t concern me (Ha). I’m just here for a fun activity with my horse (Ha!). There is zero likelihood that I will go to one show, get bitten by the bug, and find myself shipping all over the state to qualify (HA!). As with Miss Molly [Small Jump, Enough Retrospection], I will out this person once we’ve had a lesson & a chance to discuss the blog.

Milton would definitely benefit, but a) he would be deeply suspicious of the horse-eating obstacles & b) he has enough on his dance card at the moment.

First step. Keep shipping Rodney over to Stepping Stone Farm. Get us comfortable riding off the property. Then, over to the AOCS barn, either for a lesson or for a look-see on our own.

Previous Obstacle Posts
Huh. We did more of this than I remember. We sputtered to a stop because we were a victim of our own success, or of Rodney’s success. If memory serves, we’d work 45 minutes to construct something that Rodney would dismiss in moments. We were getting to the point of needing to build big, complicated things. Easier to play with obstacles built by someone else. Plus, in 2014, I wasn’t riding Rodney & Milton had arrived.
[Whole New World] Went to see a competition. 2012
[Noodling with Rodney] Shiny, weird, plastic, scary things? Meh. 2013
[Weekend Report] Trotting in hand. Walking through a ring. Which one do you think he handled? 2013
[Rodney Is Awesome: Attack of the Swimming Noodle] Equine ring toss. Who knew. 2014
[Rodney’s Week: Pool, Pen, & TENS] Wading Pool. 2014
[Rodney’s Week: Dry Pool] This horse is the weirdest combination of fear and confidence. 2014
[Rodney’s Exercises as of January 2015] Wading thru a kiddie pool, cross a “bridge”, standing on a platform. 2015
Note. All of these exercises were done in hand. Things change with a rider on board.


[Photo from Just To Put This Out There 2014]

Hooves crossed.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine

Dressage Is For Every Horse, Two New Horse Blogs For You To Love

Adventures in Saddle Seat

 

Recently, two ladies in my area have started horse blogs. Both are working at the intersection of saddle seat and dressage. Sound familiar?

My Horse Journey

“I have decided to do Hunter Jumper and Dressage riding with my horse … I am going to use this blog to chronicle my journey … My horse is a double registered Palomino American Quarter Horse. His registered name is Lil’ Bo Streak. I call him Bo.” About This Blog

In her post about the Awards Banquet, she points out that returning to the same banquet space year after year can remind one of the changes in life, for good or for ill. It was the one I blogged about [Banquet With A Bonus]. We’ve been showing against each other for years in Adult Academy. At this banquet, she won the year-end awards for our divisions.

If I may offer one small correction. In the Winter Tournaments post, first place in the equitation class went to an Academy rider (ahem) and second to the Performance rider. (Post amended. o= (My attempt at a blue ribbon emoticon. You saw it here first.)) The rest is accurate. She did a great job with the pattern.

Show Horse • Sport Horse: Nautica the American Saddlebred Dressage Horse

“Twelve seemed like the perfect age for Nautica to take up a new challenge and I found the idea of him learning basic dressage to be the ideal next step.” About Us

I’ve seen this rider around over the years, but she shows in suit which happens when Academy doesn’t.

In her first post We Bought a Saddle!, she talks about leather snobbery when riding in a Wintec saddle. I reach. She bought a leather version. I assuaged my snobbery by considering mine temporary [New Equipment: Saddle].

So, these are my two new blogging buddies. Milton and I may see them at dressage shows this year. Each of us is starting a dressage journey, each with a different breed of horse, none of them typical dressage breeds: TB, QH, ASB.

At A, Enter …

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Ambushed By My Mailbox


 
Years ago, when I was young & hopeful, I received a large check at the end of a big job. Instead of having it disappear into the general fund, I splashed out on life memberships for the USDF and the USEA.

I have never used them.

It’s been over 10 years. I have not evented. Only in the last year have I ridden any dressage tests at all. None of them required the intercession of the USDF.

If I think about it, I realize how far I am from my equestrian goals. (Yes, yes, blessed to be riding in any fashion. Blossom where you are planted. Glorious photo with inspirational caption. Meanwhile back in my petty reality.) If I think about it too much, I come over all superstitious and wonder if I jinxed myself. Would I be eventing and dressaging if I had never sent in those memberships? I know that’s not logical.

Usually, I don’t think about it. I mean, think about the memberships. I think about equine competitions – the ones I’m doing and the ones I am not doing – all the time. As you know. Some day, maybe, I will need those memberships. Meanwhile, I remain on their lists. So, I have this exchange every so often.

Mail: Hey, thanks for being a member!
Me: Hey, thanks for the reminder!
(Searches for sarcasm font.)

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Chiro, Dunno

The home team had chiropractic adjustments two weeks ago. I have not blogged about it because Milton has been off and on lame since that day. These are NOT related events.

The doctor went to Stepping Stone Farm first. I went over to watch a few horses. When I came home to get these two ready, Milton was waving his right front foot in the air. Really, Horse? Today? I wasn’t overly worried. The presenting physiologic symptoms were minor. The attitude was pitiful but Milton has a tendency to be … um … emotional about injuries.

I figured that chiropractic work was mostly structural (?), so the doctor should be able to see something anyway. He poked and prodded. Milton spooked at the mounting block. Doc told me that horses should get a couple of days off or you lose the advantage of the adjustment.

As I suspected, by the next morning, Milton was 95% sound, at least well enough to gallop up to breakfast. Between chiro and foot, he got the rest of the week off. Toward the end of the week, it rained. When I finally rode during the weekend, all we could do was walk [When Life Gives You Rain]. Maybe his back was a trifle less tight when I first got on, but data is limited.

Then, at the beginning of last week, Milton showed up waving the left front. Slightly puffier leg/ankle. A few nights of stall rest. Done and dusted. We think he tweeks a tendon/joint/important moving part while cavorting in the epic, endless mud that is our lot these days.

I have thoughts on my opinion of chiropractic before the appointment and whether or not those opinions were borne out during. However, I want to wait until I have an after to report. We need to have done more than stomp around, in particular, I want to see how back & butt adjustments affect Milton’s canter and canter transitions.

Rodney also got done. Doc didn’t find much. I didn’t sense a great deal of change in Rodney’s way of going in the limited time we worked [Walk]. He hasn’t done much either because … drumroll … I have also been off and on sick for the last two weeks. Gadding about in public [Being Mobile], exposed my defenseless system to all manner of new germs. Rather like sending a child to kindergarten, Indexed (that would be me at x).

Bad weather, lame horse, sick. Conservation of misery?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

State of the Blog: Call for Ideas

On My Mind, Miscellaneous Thoughts

 
Happy with the blog. Not planning to change. Am looking for advice on interesting adventures for occasional variety. The following is a combination of topics and techniques, as they occurred to me.

Require Action By Others
Guest Post – hosting. Yes, please. I have pressed friends, family, and total strangers into writing posts. To know me is to get drag into the gravitational vortex of the blog. I have an open invitation in the header of the blog, above. I joke that I like not having to do the typing for a day, which is true. Really it’s all about hearing other people’s stories.

Guest Posting – writing. Meh. Sounds too much like work. Seriously, that’s what I get paid to do. I guest posted for New York Cliché, New York Cliché, Guest Post: Born and Raised a New York Native….But Now?, and was tickled [In Which I Reblog Myself]. Statistical probability would allow for the existence of other places wherein I would write for free. None come to mind at the moment.

Illustration. Would love to work with an illustrator. Not sure how that would work with daily posting. Expenses could rack up quickly.

Blogger meet-ups. Another ‘Yes, please.’ Given the frequency that I fail to haul my ass off the farm, horse shows would be the best bet. Unfortunately, there are vanishingly few ASB bloggers out there. If you are a saddle seat blogger and show in the Southeast, come say Hi at the next show. I’m with Stepping Stone Farm. Otherwise, this one will have to wait for hunter/jumper, dressage, or eventing. Lots of bloggers in those disciplines. Not sure how many are in the Southeast.

Contests & Give-Aways. Historically, I have proven horrible about picking a winner. I end up giving the prize to everyone. Not a sustainable model.

Collaborations. With other bloggers. With other creatives. With a puppeteer? An electrical engineer? ?????

Could Do On My Own
Post my novel. Get a publish contract and a movie deal. It worked for John Scalzi with Agent To The Stars (novel), 10 Years On (print release) & 20 Years On (online novel), and for Andy Weir with The Martian (novel & movie), How a Series of Blog Posts Turned into a Multi-million Dollar Bestseller. Need to write it first.

Model Horse Show. Rumors of one coming to my area, Central Alabama Live model horse show. We have established that I have not done the background work to show my own string [What Happens at a Model Horse Show?]. Volunteer? It’s likely to be a Saturday and those get spoken for quickly.

Participate in Photo Shows. I could. I haven’t [M is for MEPSA]. Clearly the mood has not struck me.

More Low-Key Photo Challenges. It’s on the list, as I find likely subjects. [Low Key Photo Challenge, Holiday]

Back-Burner Ideas. Along with model horses & photography, there is still stamps & LEGO bricks. Not sure what to do with either of these, but the interest is still there. Also, graphic design & books. Ditto.

Book Reviews. Meh. Been there. Done that. Keeping up with what upcoming books takes far longer that one might expect. Not ruling out commentary on a random book that catches my fancy. As I’ve said elsewhere, I do not need more books to read nor any prompting to buy books.

Blog Hops. I do them when the topic strikes my a chord [What Makes You, You? A Blog Hop.] Generally, I don’t have trouble thinking of things to say. (Yeah, yeah. Anyone who knows me IRL can stop chortling now.)

Research and Write About X. Meh. Again, work. Plus, I need excuses to get out of the house. I spend enough time on my posterior staring at a keyboard as is. No, I’ve never learned to touch type. OTOH, I’m generally composing as I type. Brain speed and finger speed are approximately equivalent.

Go Places. Do Things. Write About Them. More this style of thing. A western lesson? Find out about the Alabama State Horse? ?????

Problems
Access. Without a magazine or widely-read blog behind me, I am reluctant to bother people. They deserve a return on their investment.

Time Considerations. I don’t calculate how much time I spend on the blog. I don’t want to know. I tell myself an hour a day. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. This is one reason I am eliminating any repeat projects. So, an adventure needs to be interesting in its own right for me to devote extra time to posting about it. An adventure would have to be hella interesting for me to make it a regular feature. Such activities exist. I don’t know what they are [What I Want From My Blog].

So I’m asking you. Hit me with your ideas.

[Previous SotB posts]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

The Under-Appreciated Walk


 
Rodney and Milton and I have done a lot of walking. At home, we are trying to keep our shit together. At new places, we are trying to keep our shit together. In the winter, we are stomping through the mud. So, I’ve been thinking about the walk lately.

In bad weather, we try to make it interesting [Rain] or do what work we can. Both Milton and Rodney have a tendency to shorten their front ends. Milton telescopes his neck. Rodney curls up like a shrimp. Recently, we used the walk time to work on getting both horses to stretch their necks out. When a horse sucks back, it is almost automatic to adjust the reins to reestablish a connection. Instead, I kept my reins the same length, repeated the request to move forward, and gritted my teeth to ignore any telescoping, inverting or shrimping.

Since Milton is green, I kept him on big circles and booted him forward. I wanted to trot. How I wanted to trot. But then I started to wonder, would trotting help or would I simply be making the same mistake faster? Instead of trying to squeeze in a few steps of trot, we staying in walk and keep at it.

With Rodney, I added figure 8s to give him something to focus on. He would want to trot off, but trotting on a tight turn was too much work. Similarly, rounding the front end and going forward from the back end was too much like dressage. Out came the neck.

After a few repetitions of the exercise, both horses had made what felt like real progress. All three of us were certainly tired. I felt that going slowly had helped me be clear in my own mind, which enabled me to be clear to the horses.

To work at the walk properly, you need a ground person, or at least I do. The changes are so small, I needed someone telling me, ‘Yes, you got a response. Reward it.’ Or, ‘Nope, not yet. Keep trying.’

Have I discovered a fundamental truth of flat work?
Or
Am I fabricating a theoretical silk purse out of the sow’s ear that is our footing?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott