Virtual Brush Box

AlphaBooks, F & E are for Farley & Ebony

Graphic Design

The Island Stallion (Flame)
Walter Farley
1948 Random House 2003

The Ebony Horse
Adapted by Anne Terry White
Garrard 1969

Even though “Flame & Ebony” is poetic, I put Farley in the title. Fire and horses are not a good mix. I also toned down the color to basic orange. Dark orange & orange red mixed with the black were too evocative of colors on a fire scene. I’m aiming for happy fun letters, not visceral ones.

Farley bought from Discover Books via AbeBooks.com; Arabian Nights from Thrift Books via AbeBooks.com.

TBR? Maybe the Arabian Nights. Never got on the Farley train. Suspect it is too late. To tell you the truth, I bought these for the blog. That is not a good precedent. I do not need encouragement to buy books.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

This Is Why I Don’t Set Goals

Home Team

Back in the heady days of starting to ride Milton [Milton’s Show Schedule], the original plan for last weekend’s show [For This I Cleaned My Tack?] was to do the small three-phase.

Ha.

Okay, it wasn’t so much a plan as a hope. Lots of stars needed to align for that to have happened. More realistically, there was the idea of jumping around one of the little stadium courses.

Ha. Ha.

At least we could do walk-trot-canter dressage tests and come back the next day to school cross-country, this time at a trot [Mr. Excitement Regards His Future]?

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Because of my thwarted plans, I was not prancing about about farting rainbows and spouting platitudes.

Every ride is a special occasion.

If you are lucky enough to be on a horse, you are lucky enough.

I believe these platitudes. I was not feeling these platitudes. Instead, I was watching horses of all shapes and abilities go over teeny, tiny, wee jumplets, and thinking,

‘That should be ME!’

I hate goals.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

So It Continues, Show Photos, Dressage at Full Circle Horse Park, October 2018

Photography

Dressage
October 13, 2018
[Show Report, For This I Cleaned My Tack?]

Poetry in motion we were not. These are from our second test. The one that rode better but scored worse.

2015 USDF Intro Test B (Walk-Trot)

Between K&A, Medium Walk. I picked one photo that showed what we might look like some day. Possibly. In the far future. There is another moderately acceptable shot at the other end of the walk section. The rest, pfffft. That makes 2 out of 60.

B, Circle right 20 meters, working trot rising. In contrast, this is the worst of the photos. I decided to steer into the skid.

Leave arena free walk.
Horse: That was … I can’t even …
Rider: Drama queen much?

For the rest of the gallery, Jeremy Villar Photography > online store > Full Circle Horse Park – October 13th > enter email > #346.

Collective Remarks
For comparison, our previous tests [So It Begins, Show Photos, Dressage at Full Circle Horse Park, Summer 2018].

Braiding. Several competitors braided this time. I didn’t. Despite a ride time of nearly noon, there wasn’t a convenient time to braid: feed, load, ship, warm-up, and so on. I decide that I would see if he was more relaxed without braids. I can always practice at a lesson if he needs to get used to the idea. As it turns out, I don’t think it made a difference in either our appearance or his behavior.

As one might expect, I have been been perseverating about our performance. Before the tests, I told Milton that if we came out of the ring together with our ears up, he could not fail. Therefore, given my own definition, he did not fail. Didn’t even come close. To use Coach Courtney’s term, there were no jackass moments. The only hint of outright disobedience was at one point in each test, Milton eyed the ankle-high ring fence and thought about how easy it would be to make a quick exit.

Not a dressage star. Not a jackass. Milton has worked his way up to green.
~~~
Post #2400

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

We Say Goodbye to Driving Posts, For Now

Blogging, Combined Driving, ASB Pleasure Driving

Driving On The Blog
I have one more driving post coming shortly. After that, I will be retiring Driving Thursday for a while. Neither us been in a cart since September [Husband Greg, Katherine]. Milton hasn’t been hitched since June. None of us has done serious schooling since our last non-compete adventure [Notes from North Georgia, Milton]. I’ve spread the driving peanut butter as thinly as I could over the blogging bread, hoping for a resurgence. Didn’t happen. I’m out of news.

Maybe Jumping Thursday?

Driving IRL
We are not giving up.

Our Equipment Manager is searching a way to fix our two-wheel schooling cart or to get an inexpensive one with competition-compatible features (i.e. non-pneumatic, non-wire wheels). He has found several used carts that he likes. All in the UK. ‘Pick up in Sheffield’ does us no good.

Meanwhile, he has been long-lining both horses. This is good exercise for them and keeps his hand in.

All of the riding and showing I have done this year will contribute to making Milton a better driving horse. He needs to learn to go to shows. He needs to learn to tolerate the sandbox. Even jumping and cross-country – should we ever get there – will introduce concepts applicable to cones and marathon.

I shall continue ASB pleasure driving as Coach Courtney and the nicely tolerant horses at Stepping Stone Farm permit.

[Ready For Our Close Up]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

This Is Why You Can’t Do It All

Adventures in Saddle Seat, or Not

For the first time since I starting showing saddle seat in 2012, I did not ride at the Alabama Charity Championship show. This is our big fall show. The association runs it. Everybody goes. Except me.

I had two shows this month. They occurred on the same day, at the same time. This is why dueling disciplines does not work.

Let us airily wave away the cost of two horse show seasons. Let us make the rash assumption that I could possibly leave Horse A in the care of someone while I show Horse B. Let us decree that I am a brilliant, adaptable rider who can encompass conflicting styles.

You can’t fight the schedule.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

For This I Cleaned My Tack? Show Report, Dressage at Full Circle Horse Park, October 2018

Home Team

Dressage, CT, 3-Phase
Full Circle Horse Park
Pell City AL, USA
October 13, 2018

With Milton, aka Moonlight Rainbow
Class 3 – 2015 USDF Intro Test A (Walk-Trot) – Adult, 2nd of 2, 60%
Class 4 – 2015 USDF Intro Test B (Walk-Trot) – Adult, 5th of 5, 58.875%

Highest score: 7.5, halt
Lowest score: 5, circle & two collective marks

Results will be available at FCHP > Shows

Yes, I am riding and showing my own horse. That is good. I also feel as if I have been granted the barest possible minimum performance level that fulfills the criteria. When I said I wanted to show, I did not expect the culmination of my year to be pair of mangled walk-trot tests. Perhaps I should have been more specific.

First Test
Milton came out more settled than our last dressage show [Show Report], although he still likes to fool everyone. The ring steward complimented him on looking chill. Yeah, he looks chill. He is chill. Right up until he isn’t.

This time, he wasn’t a hissy fit looking for place to happen. OTOH, if a reason presented itself, he wasn’t ruling out going sideways. We walked this way and that. We trotted this way and that. Eventually, we achieved an acceptable approximation of our work at home. I figured he would be better in the ring with possibly firmer footing and without other horses to snarl at.

Then we went in the ring …

… and I had a totally different horse.

Milton spooked when we went past the new judge’s hut. Normal. Once in the ring, he decided the entire sandbox was an unsafe space. He wasn’t bad. He wasn’t good. He just endured until he could escape. We scored 5 points higher than last time. Go figure.

Second Test
As the first to go after lunch, I had time to trot back & forth past the judge’s hut and to trot several times around the outside of the ring. Milton got over himself. Horse, groundcrew, and rider all felt it was a better test. More forward. More rideable. Not good, but better. It scored 2 points less. Go figure.

By The Numbers
Judge: Pam Kimble

Note the impassioned plea in the comments of our second test to please, for the love of all that is sacred in dressage, please pick up the front end of my horse. At least, she seems to think the hind end was going somewhere. Progress.

Update
This Is Why You Can’t Do It All
So It Continues, Show Photos, Dressage at Full Circle Horse Park, October 2018
This Is Why I Don’t Set Goals

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

The World’s Most Adorable Filler

Home Team

I got nothing. Have a some kitten.

September 16, 16 weeks, 1 day.
~~~
I write & schedule Monday posts the week before to keep the weekend free. Therefore, one reason I got nothing today was that I spent last week in horse show prep mode. On Saturday, Milton and I made our return to the dressage ring. It would take a better writer than I to wrest narrative possibilities out of endless iterations of Intro A & Intro B.

Although, I will say that Milton doesn’t seem to mind practicing the entire test. The books all say Not To Do This, lest the horse learn to anticipate. Rodney certainly would. If I even do a trot transition twice in the same place during schooling, he’s convinced – convinced, I tell you – that I will require a trot in that place the next time we pass by. Milton may know the tests by now. I think he doesn’t care. ‘Yeah, we’ll probably trot when we get over there. Why get upset about it now? We may not trot. She may learn to ride. The horse may learn to sing.’

Dressage results tomorrow.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott