Into Each Life A Little Dressage Must Fall

Home Team

 

Milton and I hope to make our dressage debut soon. I have entered two walk-trot tests at a local schooling show. As with the Saddlebred shows [1,2], the goal is to get in & get around, to finish with a number rather than a letter. Don’t care about the size of the number. As long as we have happy kid on happy pony, I will celebrate.

I see several ways this could go and still be considered a success.

Milton could discover his inner warmblood and blossom into a flawless Intro level dressage horse. I could discover my inner diva and blossom into a flawless Intro level dressage rider. It could happen. Theoretically.

Milton could discover his inner giraffe and stare at everything. As long as he does so reasonably calmly and goes where he is supposed to, no complaints.

Milton could discover his inner Quarter Horse and treat the test as a western pleasure display. Milton does not like to move and poop. I could see him stopping mid-test. As above, no complaints.

Concurrent with any of these scenarios is the rider completely forgetting herself. Voice commands are used in both saddle seat and driving. I deliberately use my voice when I ride Milton, to ease the transition between riding and driving. Voice commands are penalized in dressage [Why Wup?]. If Milton stops to poop I will be hard pressed not to yell, ‘Milton, Walk!’

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Pat Yourself on the Back, International Helmet Awareness Day 2018

Tackbox Tales

 

Do you wear a helmet? Kudos.

Do you wear a helmet in a discipline where helmets are not standard protocol? Double kudos.

You are not just protecting your head.

You are protecting me, as a human being, from having to hear another horrible head-injury story.

You are protecting me, as a taxpayer/insurance client, from having to pay a share of your catastrophic hospital bill.

You are protecting the next generation of riders who see you as a role model, whether you know it or not.

Go, you!

Riders4Helmets: What is International Helmet Awareness Day?
Ontario Equestrian: Ten Things To Remember On International Helmet Awareness Day 2015
[List of helmet posts]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

It Takes a Barn, Show Report, Alabama Fun Show #2 2018, Stepping Stone Farm, Acknowledgements Page

Home Team, Adventures in Saddle Seat, Pleasure Driving

 

ASHAA Fun Show
Stepping Stone Farm
Chelsea AL, USA
Sunday, August 12, 2018
[Show Report]

Five classes in four hours. Three horses. Two saddles and a cart. Two sets of pants & boots (hunt seat britches/boots & saddle seat jods/jod boots). Two hats (schooling and show). Two sets of gloves (I drive with a black version of the super-grippy navigator gloves [New Equipment].) Two quick changes (schooling -> saddle seat -> hunt seat) in the dressing room of the trailer, hoping that no one was looking. I could not have accomplished this without help.

Thanks for the first classes of the day go to SSF Assistant Trainer Melissa C. She supervised the driving: headed Whiskey when I got in, stood at the ring telling me to slow down or speed up as needed, headed him in line up, and then unhitched while I headed. I tell you, driving is labor intensive!

At the hunter end of the scale, thanks to my wonderful groom, in both senses of the word. Husband Greg took charge of Milton for the day. If I wasn’t riding Milton, Greg was with him: sitting next to him at the trailer, grazing when Milton got restless, holding him next to the trailer if Milton wasn’t quite settled enough to be tied. I think I attended to Milton for five minutes, maybe.

In the middle, collective thanks to everyone who made the show possible, from organizing, to judging, to volunteering. Despite being our home show, I did not pull my weight. I was gatekeeper for about two classes before I wandered off to get on another horse.

Finally, thanks to MJ for “pulling” (actually, carefully combing & cutting) Milton’s mane. Even though I ran out of time to braid, Milton looked sharp with a short, tidy mane.

They made it easy.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

The Nice Way To Be Taken For a Ride, Show Report, Alabama Fun Show #2 2018, Stepping Stone Farm, Driving

Pleasure Driving

 

ASHAA Fun Show
Stepping Stone Farm
Chelsea AL, USA
Sunday, August 12, 2018

3 – Academy Driving, 1 of 1
With Whiskey Throttle
Thank you to Courtney Huguley for the Wonderful Whiskey.

Driving is hard. Sitting behind a well-mannered horse, tootling around an enclosed ring, as a solo procession? That is easy.

Whiskey had been in two short – it was a summer show, everything was short – suit driving classes before the Academy class. I got in. We cruised around. I got way more excited than was probably merited by a one-horse class. What can I say, I love a horse show.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Getting The Band Back Together, Show Report, Alabama Fun Show #2 2018, Stepping Stone Farm, Saddle Seat

Adventures in Saddle Seat

 

ASHAA Fun Show
Stepping Stone Farm
Chelsea AL, USA
Sunday, August 12, 2018

30 Academy Showmanship WTC Adult, 1 of 3
31 Academy Equitation WTC Adult, 1 of 3
With Sultan’s Miracle Man
Thank you to Courtney Huguley for the Stupendous Sam

I hadn’t ridden Sam since Mid-South in May [The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly]. Didn’t matter. We picked up right where we left off. When Sam shows with me in Academy, he has a chance to reminisce about his glory days to an impressionable audience without the heavy lifting of a suit horse in a performance class.

My competition did me a favor. At one point, I looked up to see another of the Academy adults getting on their horse. The schedule said I still had loads of time before our class. Instead of sticking to my plan, I panicked and got on. We were ready way too early.

However, Sam came out of the stall cranky and annoyed. The time we spent walking and standing and a little bit of trotting and walking and standing was just what he needed to loosen up in mind and body. When we hit the ring, Sam threw it into show gear and flew down the long side. All that was left for me to do was style my feet and wonder what to do with my pinkies. (In? No out. Let’s see, pinkies go outside the reins for hunters, inside the reins for saddle seat. I was right the first time.)

To the spectators and the judge, I’m sure we looked like a nice Academy student on a pleasant school horse. Between the two of us, we were lost in mutual admiration of Sam as a fancy show horse.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Our First Blue, But … Show Report, Alabama Fun Show #2 2018, Stepping Stone Farm, Hunt Seat

Home Team

 

… we were alone.

ASHAA Fun Show
Stepping Stone Farm
Chelsea AL, USA
Sunday, August 12, 2018

30a Academy Open Hunter Pleasure Walk and Trot, 1 of 1
31a Academy Open Hunter Equitation Walk and Trot, 1 of 1

Milton’s attitude was a huge improvement from last time [The Canadian Horse & The Red Queen Take Second, Show Report, Alabama Fun Show #1 2018, ERA Stables]. I wish I could credit our brilliant horse training. The truth is better living through chemistry. Milton is now on cimetidine to slow down the progress of his bumps. It has the side effect of taking away a low-grade irritation that was making him jumpy and nervous. Apparently.

He still has his moments. Last weekend, Milton ran back to barn twice when we introduced cantering on the long lines. While dramatic to watch, it was within the parameters of a green, excitable horse making his feelings known. He’s lost the element of psycho horse.

Except.

Since we were unsure what the new model would do at a show, we stuck with our original plan of going early to school in the SSF ring, the way we did to settle him for camp [The Canadian Horse]. I’m hacking about. Husband Greg says, ‘Trailer coming. Why don’t you get off.’ I did, but I wasn’t sure why. At which point, Milton threw a technicolor, hissy fit: whirling, staring, gnashing the bit, trotting in place, the works. I had forgotten that Milton has a thing about other trailers [NEGA Milton, NEGA US].

What can you do? Everyone has that one thing that presses their buttons. The important point was this his objection was limited to the single issue of moving trailers. The hysteria didn’t leak out to slosh around the rest of his brain. Once the trailers stopped moving, he was fine with them, to the extent of trying to steal a bite of hay from one. Well, he was fine with them until they pulled out to go home.

The rest of the day he was great. He stood. He ate hay. He grazed. I got on. We walked. He looked at this or that. He thought the cars parked near the ring were weird, but that’s normal for a horse at a home show [Sam 2015, Natalie 2014, Trump-the-Horse 2013].

Although, Milton wasn’t quite as chill as he was letting on. He was walking so well, that wanted to see if he was overtracking. When I leaned over his shoulder to look, he gave a little hop to the side that said, What? What are you doing up there? So we went back to calm walking.

Since the classes were solo trips, they were short. Trot this way. Trot that way. Line up. In the second one, I asked him to move out a bit and practiced with different contacts. The rein adjustments didn’t make any difference, but at least I felt able to try.

So much difference.

Update, show report posts
Our First Blue, But … Show Report, Alabama Fun Show #2 2018, Stepping Stone Farm, Hunt Seat
Getting The Band Back Together, Show Report, Alabama Fun Show #2 2018, Stepping Stone Farm, Saddle Seat
The Nice Way To Be Taken For a Ride, Show Report, Alabama Fun Show #2 2018, Stepping Stone Farm, Driving
It Takes a Barn, Show Report, Alabama Fun Show #2 2018, Stepping Stone Farm, Acknowledgements Page

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott