The Non-Material Cost of Showing


 
The goal was to attend a horse show [A Huntering We Will Go] without warping our training schedule too badly [To Show Or To School, That Is My Question].

How did we do? Pretty good for a first attempt.

Week before show. 100%. No change. On Wednesday evening, Milton went to Stepping Stone Farm to lunge in the big ring and be ridden in the covered ring. Excellent work in both rings. Tired but proud-of-himself pony.

Friday. T-1 day. 50%. Without the show, we would have gone back to SSF for a repeat of Wednesday. With the show, we lunged at home and I trotted about mildly. If we could have worked in the morning, or if the show classes had been in the the afternoon, we might have taken him over anyway. As was, it didn’t seem fair to give him a heavy workout and then get back on 12 hours later.

Show Day. 0%. There will always be opportunity costs in showing rather than schooling. We could have had a lesson, or hacked outside the ring, or worked at home. The hope is the lost time will be replaced with valuable lessons from the show.

Sunday. T+1 day. 0%. Milton got the day off. Another sunk cost. Rodney had his turn at SSF.

Monday. T+2 days. 25%. Milton went for a handwalk to loosen up. By the time the designated long-liner got home from work, we were both done. Neither horse worked. We probably would have been perkier on Monday if we had spent more of Sunday recuperating rather than hauling Rodney about. The Bay Wonder is many things. Restful is not one of them.

As with taking time out to attend the show, there will always be a mental toll, that translates into time lost to recovery. As soon as local shows become NBD, it’s time to aim for bigger shows.

Week after show. 100%, in theory. Massive scheduling problems, but they had nothing to do with the show.

What about you, how do you planning showing & recovery time into your schedule? Pointers appreciated.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Showing In The 21st Century, Online Entry, El Gezira, June 2019

El Gezira Jumper Show
[Show Report]

As it says in the title, I entered the El Gezira show online. That was a first. For me at least. It may be old hat in the horse world by now. Aside from the ultra-local dressage schooling shows Milton has been to, I’ve had someone else doing my entries since 2012. And that’s a weird thing to say considering I’ve always been an AOT and have had my horses at home since 1992. But I digress. We all know my riding career has been odd lately.

Anyway.

I am familiar with the websites HorseShowsOnline and horseshowtime.com from stalking following Stepping Stone Farm at shows over the years.

Entering was simple. Make a free account. Add personal & horse info. Pull up specific show. Click away. When you arrive at the show, the secretary has a pile of numbers with pre-printed labels, sorted by barn. Give your name. Get your number. One less thing for an overburdened show secretary to worry about.

They have a $50 late entry fee. That is large enough to scare anyone into entering on time. Worked on me. Well, I’m compulsive enough that I would have entered on time, but it did prompt multiple emails to Coach Molly. These classes? It only says submitted. Does it need to say processed?!

Welcome to the new millennium.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

A Huntering We Will Go, Show Report, El Gezira, June 2019

The Gray Wonder

 

El Gezira Jumper Show
Alabama Hunter Jumper Association
El Gezira Riding Academy
Harpersville, AL, USA
Saturday, June 22, 2019

1 Academy Caveletti I, Adult – 3rd of 4
2 Academy Cavaletti II, Adult – 4th of 5
3 Academy Beginning Hunter I – 4th of 20
4 Academy Beginning Hunter II – no ribbon of 16

Our first two classes do not appear in the results. They split out the adults. In the second two, I have no idea how one judges a round that consists of four trot crossrails. Therefore I could not tell you why we placed in one nor why we didn’t place in the other.

The Classes
In case you don’t have these in your area:

Academy Caveletti I. Four sets of trot poles. Layout similar to poles class at dressage show [Sorta, photo]. Around once.

Academy Cavaletti II. As above with last obstacle a crossrail. Opposite direction from first class.

Academy Beginning Hunter. Four low crossrails. Around once. Reverse direction for second class.

The Minuses
– I had grand plans to canter the two crossrail classes. Probably unlikely anyway. Definitely unlikely with warm-up off in the middle of a huge pasture. Canter transitions are a work in progress. Riding in the open is a work in progress. Canter transitions in the open were a bridge too far. Since I never asked for it in warm-up, I couldn’t expect it in the ring.

– He was sooooooo slow. Looks like my choice is narcoleptic, slug pony or hysterical, hopping, wind-up toy.

The Pluses
+ His feet stayed where they belonged. Given the choice between narcoleptic and hysterical, I’d have to go for Mr. Sleepyhead. Milton’s version of hysterical is not game or animated, it is a horse completely out to lunch. There’s no upside to that.

+ We cantered one fence.

The Maybes
? Milton did seem to perk his ears when aimed between standards – I can’t really claim that I aimed him at any jumps. Most of our classes have been on the flat. Perhaps there is a third option between the two extremes? Maybe Milton will like jumping and turn into a reasonable horse? Cross fingers. Cross fingers.

🙂 Milton saw no point in closing hunter circles. ‘The jump is back there. Why am I still moving?’

Update
The Non-Material Cost of Showing
Showing In The 21st Century, Online Entry, El Gezira, June 2019
A Huntering We Will Go, Show Report, El Gezira, June 2019
To Show Or To School, That Is My Question

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

To Show Or To School, That Is My Question

I am trying to learn how to keep shows as an element of the program rather than gravitational black holes that suck in all my time and attention.

Sometimes shows are destinations. Rolex-as-was. The AEC. The show may be national and noteworthy [That Elusive Sunday Blue]. The show may be tiny and local and of huge value to you (*cough* Full Circle Horse Park in November *cough*). Got a big show coming up? That’s great. Come up with a plan [Let the Tune-Up Begin]. Work that plan [Final Progress Report]. Own that sucker [Show Report].

Other times, shows are scheduled within the plan as a step in the learning process. So I’m told.

The original summer schedule had six weeks off until our next show [Aspirational Events]. My mature, rational side decided this was a good thing. Looking back, I felt that I had spent too much time targeting each show and not enough time doing the work in between to do well at said shows.

That was one reason I declined a small local show, despite the convenience factor. Then we ended up there as spectators [Milton Went To Watch]. It was a small, relaxed show. Hmm. Coach Molly convinced me that it would be okay for an adult on a green horse to show in the ultra-low classes. There weren’t just for kids and ponies. Double hmm.

Milton needs to learn to show. He needs to go into show rings and keep the lid on. This is an acquired skill as much as canter transitions or trotting on the bit.

New plan. We will continue to work at home as needed. We will go to shows as they occur. We will not change the former to accommodate the latter. At least, not until the delightful day that we are ready to plan for one of those lovely destination events.

Which is a roundabout way of saying, schooling experience/show report tomorrow.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Tao Of Horse Shows

On My Mind, Miscellaneous Visuals

 

 
The graphic is for tomorrow’s post. I was sufficiently pleased with the result that it gets its own post.

Meaning no disrespect. It’s an illustration for trying to understand the deeper meaning of horse shows and their role in my life. How would I feel if someone made a cross out of ribbons? If it was related to discussing how horse shows brought them closer to God, I would not have a problem with that.
~~~
Process Notes. I had no idea how to draw the swishy s-shape. The rosettes had awkward square backgrounds. Had the time come to struggle with union, difference, and all the other object combinatrics? Nope. Not while I can find clever work-arounds. I piled up the various shapes (big circle, big half circle, two medium circles, two squares with inset circles), made them the same color, et voilà. Smoothness. There’s a metaphor lurking in there.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Now Or Forever? Six Publishing Possibles To Ponder

Writing About Writing

 

 
What kind of book would I want? Which would you choose?

Famous in my lifetime, forgotten after, OR disregarded in my lifetime, discovered after I die, and heralded as a work of genius for the next 500 years? In this scenario, both is not an option.
Easy. Fame while I am alive to enjoy it. If it were to come after, I would never know. If I am around post-death, I would assume pressing afterlife business that would take precedence over my Amazon sales ranking. (As of yesterday, ranked 8,572,548 in Books for my PR project [Writing Life].)

My answer might be different if I had an Artistic Statement that I felt the world need to hear, whether or not said world was for said statement. Don’t got one. Never claimed to be more than a commercial hack.

Besides, nothing is totally forgotten. My work would still exist in some dusty corner of a library or the Internet. A lost grad student might stumble on my book and find herself enchanted. I did this with Fanny Fern. Never heard of her, have you? “In the mid-nineteenth century (she) became the highest-paid newspaper columnist in the United States.” Fanny Fern in The New York Ledger

A break-out bestseller/prize-winner IF everything I write afterwards is rejected by publishers or sinks without a trace when self-published?
Hmm. Maybe if the bestseller was a massive tome over which I labored for years and then walked away from the keyboard forever. If I continued to write, I suspect rejection in the present would overwhelm any appreciation of the accomplishments from the past.

What if the one-shot is a brilliant work that creates a new science fiction/fantasy sub-genre, such as William Gibson and cyberpunk?
This one is more tempting. I could eat out on a new sub-genre for years. Plus, the mystery. Why hasn’t she written anything since??

I like the book BUT it is met with critical and public scorn?
Unlikely. Even if I started out committed to the book, my self-belief would never stand up to universal disapproval.

Critical praise but no money and public derision?
Deeply unlikely. To the point I can’t even imagine the scenario. I have no use for the literary world; the literary world has no use for me.

Vice versa. Popular but a critical flop?
Easy. I loved the movie Mannequin. It scored 19% on the Tomatometer.

I could see being content with a slim volume of stories that attracted a small but loyal following while being ignored by the rest of the world. We could wallow in clique-ish superiority together [A Plea for Hobby Tolerance].

Coda
I realize this discussion is moot. No one can choose their reception. Still, it makes an interesting thought experiment. Which values take priority? Clearly, I crave public approval. This is not a newsflash.

I want everyone to like me, all of the time. And to tell me so. Often. [I’m Baaaaaack … With Camera 2013]

I think my answers also say that am interested in entertaining folks & in connecting with readers. If they don’t, they should.

Your turn. Which?

Thanks for reading,
Katherine Walcott

The World Is Vast And Weird, Hay Equipment Edition, Guest Photo Post

People collect hay-making equipment. There are at least two associations for such folks,
Hay Tool Collectors’ Association, North American Hay Tool Collector’s Association. There are auctions at which one can compete to purchase collectible hay equipment. Photos by Roaming Reader [Archives].











Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott