In my TBR pile, but realistically so far down as to never reach daylight. Calkins appears to be a Very Serious writer, who “also published two novels satirizing the local Washington pastime of fox-hunting and socialite lifestyle: Lady on the Hunt (1950), and Calendar of Love (1952).” Wiki. Bought for the blog. I am addressing this unfortunate habit in 2019.
Inkscape. Couldn’t decide between the two designs. Text sizes. Align & center/flush right. Got confused with layers. Had to scatter and realign each time I wanted to edit a lower object. Probably not the ideal method.
Coach Courtney’s caption on Facebook: So this just happened…. 6 years in the making.
Winner
Adult Pleasure WTC National Finals
National Academy Championship Horse Show
~~~
This is the more to say that I mentioned earlier [Show Report, That Elusive Sunday Blue]. I will try not to be obnoxious about this on a regular basis. After today. For today, you get all of it, from the outrageously negative to the outrageously positive.
~~~
First a huge & public thank you to everyone who helped. From coach to supportive husband to dad with a towel who wipes off the toes of our boots before our classes. From tacking up to in-ring advice to taking victory photos, one travels in crowd of people whose collective goal is to help you do your best. Everything I said four years ago remains true:
You and the horse may be in the ring alone, but you can’t do it alone.
~~~
Back to me.
How does it feel one week in?
Awesome.
~~~
The voices lost no time. Most of these, I heard on the way home. A few came along later.
Voices: You didn’t win the second final.
Me: I won one.
Voices: In fact, you rode fairly badly.
Me: Thanks for the reminder.
Voices: You didn’t even get asked to do the pattern. That never happens. Patterns are your thing.
Me: You have to equitate well enough on the rail to be asked to do the pattern. I didn’t.
Voices: The win was a fluke.
Me: Fine. Makes up for the times I lost on flukes.
Voices: You kinda slacked on the equitating during the victory pass … it was just Academy … all that time and money could have been put toward the goals with Milton that you claim to have … it was just one class … a horse show is hardly world peace, or universal sanitation, or …
Me: Do you EVER shut up?
Voices: No.
~~~
I won the Pleasure – i.e. showmanship – Final and resoundingly lost the Equitation Final. Has the time on Milton made me more aware of how the horse is going than of how I am sitting? Is my equitation fading to be replaced by riding better? Is this a bad thing? Of course, both would be nice.
~~~
You would think that SIX Reserve National Finals titles would come close to having the same weight as ONE National Championship. They don’t. [That Moment When …]
~~~
One issue with Nationals is that it takes place over three days, and the classes within each day are separated by several hours. Throughout the rest of the year, Academy is two classes, wait for the Championship, done. It’s not even all-day showing. A handful of classes in a few hours can be survived on stress and adrenaline. For six classes over three days, one needs to have developed coping mechanics for stress and food and sleep. I do not have/have lost said mechanisms. Didn’t affect my rides, but I paid for it every other time of the day. My system took almost a week to recover from the mistreatment.
~~~
From outside looking in, you expect the day you win to be a coronation. You and your equine partner will lay down a flawless performance that reflects your months/years of patient training together. The crowd will gasp in amazement. The judges will toss accolades at your head.
If it happens that way, that’s fantastic.
Maybe it’s a convergence of factors. Maybe you are on a borrowed horse, who you rode for the first time two weeks ago, and your round feels as if you are figuring it out on the fly. Maybe you are the one in the right place at the right time when the favorite has a bad hair morning, and the numbers on the judges’ card are so scattered that you slide into first even though one of the three judges doesn’t even have you in the ribbons.
Still counts as a win.
A win, any win, is simply one competition. It is not the final referendum on you as a person, or the talent of your horse, or the quality of your training. It is one moment on one day. However, it is much, much easier to parade this enlightened attitude with a blue clutched tightly in one’s hot little paw.
~~~
Someone asked if I felt I had earned it. I had trouble processing the question. I was in the ring. I did everything they asked. They called me first. I guess that means I earned it. What would be the alternative?
~~~
In 12 Finals, I have
6 seconds
3 thirds
2 top ten (4th & 10th)
1 first
~~~
Videos of my victory pass are over on the SSF Facebook page. Along with many other happy ribbon snaps.
~~~
There was discussion of the possibility that helmets might have been a contributing factor to lower that expected placings. Helmetless wins & high placings were noted in a few classes. Could easily have been coincidence. *IF* that happened – not saying it did – that’s a hit I will take all day long.
~~~
Has winning been everything I hoped it would be? Yes.
~~~
What actually happened in the second class on Sunday? Watchers on the rail said the first trot was good. During the second canter, horse got tired/excited. Ditto rider. Tigger got heavy in the hand. Instead of sitting up and finessing. I got sucked into a pulling match. The horse always wins those. Thundering around is bad enough in a hunter flat class. It looks even worse in a saddle seat class when the rest of the competition is dinking around at a dainty, teacup canter. Plus the rider heaving and flapping like a loose sail in the wind.
Or perhaps I inflate my errors. Coach Courtney still thought I was going to be asked to do the pattern. Five of the 12 were.
~~~
To be fair, the claim leans heavily on the terms “SSF” and “rider”. This year, we had a guest rider on an SSF horse who won five of their six classes, including one of the finals, a SSF rider who took 2rd & 3rd in the finals, and an Academy driver who won a class.
So, in a technical sense, I am the highest-placed SSF Academy rider. In reality, I’m tied for the title.
~~~
I call this section, Whinings of a Lotus Eater. I was a neurovore for most of the show. I was so over it. I say that every year, but not usually during the show. Every day, before the first class, I was a hot mess. A sniveling, hysterical hot mess. If I could have found an honorable way to leave, an excuse that did not feel like sour grapes or bad sportsmanship, I would have been on it in a New York minute.
As soon as I mounted up, I was fine. Even in warm-up, I wasn’t anxious, particularly when it was clear that it wasn’t my weekend (Yeah, I know). The nerves are horrible beforehand. They clear as soon as I sit in the saddle. I know this will happen. It helps not at all.
~~~
Will I go back next year? Well, this year the Alabama Hunter Jumper Association year-end show was the same weekend (ironically, 45 minutes away in Franklin TN). They have a .65 meter (~2 foot) jumper division. Just sayin’.
~~~
I haven’t talked about much about my fearless mount, mostly about me & my riding. I sat on Tigger for a few minutes at SSF [Talking Back]. Then, I warmed him up briefly on Thursday at Nationals. I was still figuring out how to ask him to canter in our first class together on Saturday (hint, don’t pitch forward and throw him on his forehand. Saddlebreds do not respond well to this.) The first final was the fifth time I had ridden him.
There wasn’t time to hear the story Tigger had to tell [Sam & Natalie, Dottie]. I had to let him do his thing while metaphorically running alongside and hoping to keep up.
~~~
Of all the rides I’ve had in Miller Coliseum, this is the one that wins? Bugs Bunny was correct. One never knows, do one?
~~~
Tigger is The World’s Greatest Horse. Other horses who wish to vie for the title may do so by winning big, fluffy ribbons.
~~~
National Champion. Nothing can take those words away. Not even me.
SSF Home Show Costume Class, one of the most hotly contested classes on our show calendar.
Photo by MegMcKinneyPhoto by Meg McKinney
~~~ Low Key Photo Challenge
Process Notes
None. Top, not my photos. Bottom, phone snap.
Procedure for Low Key Photo Challenge
1) I post photo(s) on a given theme.
2) You comment below with a link to your photo(s) on that theme.
3) We all click over to see what you have.
That’s it. No prizes. No rules. No submissions. For more explanation, see [Inaugural Edition].
Classes 2&3. Open Pleasure, Open Pleasure Championship. 3&4/5
Thank you to Lily Cofield & the Cofield family for Bel Cheval’s I’m Joanie
The weekend before Nationals, we had our annual in-house show. Joanie was not pleased at the commotion. Unlike Dottie last year [Show Report], Joanie did not recognize this as a show and saw no reason to rise to the occasion. I figured her attitude would improve at a real show. (It did.)
Our canter transitions were better but I had trouble holding the canter. I was staying off the rail to a) show the horse & b) stay out of the muddy bits. This narrowed our flight path, and I needed to support her more on the turns. I figured we would improve in the wider ring at Murfreesboro. (We did.)
The classes were held back-to-back, so I’m not sure which ribbon I got in which class.
Milton’s Meanderings
Milton came along for more non-compete experience. He did great. As soon as Joanie was done and put away, I tacked up and got on. We walked and stood for the rest of the show: up the driveway, around the barn, up and down the aisle. I combined directing him with letting him wander at will. One time, I swear he walked behind the barn to see why all the cars were parked in a place where they usually weren’t.
Milton came along for more non-compete experience. He’s not over it yet. He’d stand for a while and then move off. Even if someone was admiring him, he’d amble away. None of it was fast or anxious, but he will usually stand forever to bask in adoration.
Since an barn open house was being held in conjunction with the show, all of the horses got new stall signs. Milton got his.
First class. Way nervous beforehand. Would this be my year? No. Rode reasonably well. Problem with one canter trying to pass someone. One judge saw. Two others didn't. 4/13 means I get to ride again. pic.twitter.com/QVYB63FNxv
Second class. Pressure's off. Rode hard, even remembered to equitate from time to time. Better trip. Oh well. 8/13. Got a little nervous during the announcing. Well, I did say I wanted a missing color. pic.twitter.com/2zAx9KJPp0
Changed horses in midstream. One major error in first class plus many minor adjustments required. Pulled socks up for second class. 9/13 & 3/13. pic.twitter.com/7fRlYwdchz
I never got the full story on this. I’m missing a mid-length, Saturday 3rd. However, I have a full-length, Sunday 1st, so I’m not stressing it. Also some thing about a trophy that wasn’t ready. They mentioned this during the ribbon presentation. Tigger didn’t want to stand, I couldn’t hear, & wasn’t taking a lot in. So, once again, I don’t have the full story. Either a trophy will show up or it won’t. I have the ribbon & the title. I’m good.
The Overall Twitter Experience
As a tweeter, I started well but fizzled out. 3+8+8+6+8+4 = 37. Most of the later tweets are results, judges’ cards or schedule information. As I said in one the tweets, numerical posts were easy. Why no content tweets? Not sure. Did I have nothing to say? That can’t be possible, although I was stressed before my classes and tired after.
Part of the problem was mechanics. My Twitter app got stuck on my feed or some other page that still does not display all of my tweets. Other tweets went off into the ether and never reappeared.
Many of the tweets had photos in place of clever wordage. Maybe next time I’ll try Instagram.
Friday Morning
2. Academy WTC Equitation–Adult, 4th of 13
7. Academy WTC Pleasure–Adult, 8th of 13
Thank you to Lily Cofield & the Cofield family for Bel Cheval’s I’m Joanie
Saturday Morning
31. Academy WTC Equitation–Adult Championship, 9th of 13
36. Academy WTC Pleasure–Adult Championship, 3rd of 13
Sunday Morning 63. Academy WTC Pleasure National Finals–Adult, Top Ten, 1st of 12/13
71. Academy WTC Equitation National Finals–Adult, Top Ten, no ribbon (10th) of 12
Thank you to Veronica Tenerowicz for Tigger by Tiger
Overview
I won the first final (!!!). I squeaked into 10th in the next one. Judges placed me first. Judges placed me 10th, or worse. Often in the same class. It was that kind of weekend. Sometimes a judge just doesn’t like the smell of your perfume. That’s fine. I’ve surfed the upside on enough occasions. If you don’t want your results influenced by personal opinion, take up jumpers. Or barrel racing.
The Classes, Minus One
First class. Joannie and I had one outright error on our shake-down cruise. I went to maneuver around another rider and we broke at the canter. My bad. 4th.
Second class. Much better ride, as voted by both self and observers. 8th. Huh?
Third class. With no obvious adjustments to make, we tried a different horse rider match-up. Tigger had always been in reserve for the pattern class on Sunday. We moved up the switch. I badly mauled the canter transition in front of two of the three judges. Also unsure of horse. This was my third ride on Tigger. 9th.
Fourth class. Cleaned up the canter transition. More sure of my ride. 3rd.
Fifth class. See below. 1st.
Sixth class. The brio that stood us in good stead for the first final bubbled over in the second one. The judges did not like me stampeding around their nice, pretty ring. Ah me. Win some; lose some, but usually not that quickly. That’s horses for you. 10th.
The Class
All of the above was by way of setting the stage. In the ring, I had excellent moments mixing with constantly fixing little errors. I had some traffic management incidents, that would either earn me points for getting out of them or lose me points for getting into them in the first place. I pulled into the line-up feeling that the class had gone well but not perfectly.
Headers invited into the ring. Waiting. I make top ten. Nice. Not guaranteed but not unexpected. Third place. Not me. Second place. Not me. Oh well. I put in good rides. It wasn’t my weekend. Since they only award to third place, no ribbon. Probably fourth.
First place. 427. Say WHAT?
The shock I saw on Coach Courtney’s face was undoubtedly mirrored on my own. We had done it! It was most definitely a “we” situation.
My pole-axed look was quickly replaced with the quiet, gracious dignity for which I am so well known. HA! One is supposed to hoot and holler for riders in the ring, not for one’s self while riding. Too bad.
After all these years [Showtime 2012, Red Queen 2017 retrospective], you’d think I would have more to say. I’m sure I will, eventually. Ditto media. Right now, I’m gobsmacked. And tired. And thrilled. Mostly, gobsmacked.
This was an experiment. I created & scheduled a short post as a placeholder. The goal was to snap and upload a ribbon photo on Sunday afternoon/evening as a way to let you know how Nationals went. If there is no picture here, I forgot or couldn’t get it done or am too happy/sad/tired to bother.
Virtual Brush Box 