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

Kitten Report, No Toe Games

Home Team

Show report coming soon. Meanwhile, a baker’s dozen of kitten pix. Photos in chronological order, not necessarily bearing any relation to the surrounding text.

First Photo

The four kittens continue to be tiny but mighty.

The Ride Home
More Ride Home

They are three times the size they were when they came three weeks ago [Our New Four-In-Hand]. They add the equivalent of an Original Kitten each week, mostly lengthwise. They still have tiny heads & paws.

They were so small to start with, tripling in size is still wee. I can pick them up with one hand, but kitten drips out on either side. I keep thinking how big they have gotten, then I look at our adult cats & realize how much farther the kittens have to go.

In bed, I make a point of keeping my toes absolutely immobile. They pounce, then wander away bored. I would be amused by random attacks on my toes in the middle of the night. Other toe owners, not so much.

Much as I would love them to bond with me, I am deliberately letting them play amongst themselves so that they bond with each other.

No particular allegiances as far as I can tell. Play or nap with whoever is available when they want to play/nap.

They play all the time. Fun to watch but I wonder about their socialization. All they do is attack each other or sleep. They never sit quietly together or grooming each other. (Is this something kittens do?) It makes them hard to snuggle. They play with/attack my fingers.

The tails are weird. The stubbies have squishy flesh surrounding the stumps. As if the skin was available to cover a full-size tail, but the bone never grew.

Two weeks & two days

They are remarkable silent felines. They made no sound on the initial ride home. I’ve had cats who would have screamed for the entire two hours. I hear squeaks on two occasions. One, when they are on the losing end of a wrestling match. It’s less crying Uncle and more, Oh, I’m so gonna get you for this. They will also squeak if one has misplaced the other three. Where did everybody go?

Not the boots!
Postprandial Kitten

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott