Be Vewy, Vewy Quiet, I’m Back On Instagram

Photography, Blogging

 

Looking Backward
Back in July, I opened a new Instagram account to match the new name of the blog [New Title, New Instagram … or Not]. For reasons known only to them, Instagram canceled that account the day I posted about it. I elected not to jump through their hoops to restart that account. I took a break.

I lasted a little over a month.

So why did I return? I missed the pretty pictures and the updates on peoples’ lives. I find Instagram a much more congenial place than Twitter. Five minutes of reading tweets and I want to hide under the couch. Doesn’t matter what account. Twitter’s default state seems to be outrage. YMMV

Also, I have an immediate family member on Instagram (Waves Hi!). My family has a low social media presence. I have to go where they are.

Looking Forward
The old VBB account was hot off the press when I posted about it. I wonder if the newness combined with one or two people following at the same time convinced Instagram that it was a bot. The world may never know. This time, the account – @myvirtualbrushbox – has been in place for several weeks. It has a few followers. We shall see what happens today.

Looking Around
According to my self-imposed rules, Instagram doesn’t “count” for photography on Friday. The way I use Instagram is all about content, i.e. catching the cute photo op. Friday posts around here are supposed to keep me accountable for technical improvement.

What to do. Get over the idea of archiving my Instagram feed? Not likely. Archive it on another day? Storage Saturday has a good ring. Work on incorporating more “art” into my Instagram photography? A worthy goal, but not one that helps me with f-stop and aperture. Realize I have fallen down the blogging rabbit hole & move on? I shall ponder.
~~~
Instagram posts for August & September 2018, @myvirtualbrushbox. Previous recap [July 2018]

Breakdown
Horses – 4/9, or 5/9 if Spotted counts as Horse rather than Other
Cats – 2/9
Other – 3/9, or 2/9

Home 5/9
Elsewhere 4/9 – two shows, one lesson, one other


Serious Version

Taken at the Georgia International Horse Park [Show Reports First Dance, Whisked About].

Taken at Stepping Stone Farm on cross-country day [WEG XC]. Written about later [Milton Canters].

Taken at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens during a photo shoot [If The Pin Fits].

We have reinstituted naptime so that Rodney can eat his hay in peace.

Taken at Full Circle Horse Park during our first dressage show [Show Report So It Begins].

Companion to the final @rodneysaga post [New Title, New Instagram … or Not].

I crack myself up.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Whisked About, Show Report, Southeastern Charity 2018, Driving

Pleasure Driving

 

Joanie & Whiskey modeling their blue ribbons. Apologies for the blur on the right. It was dinner time and I was trying to hurry.

Southeastern Charity Horse Show
Georgia International Horse Park
Conyers GA USA
Saturday 22, 2018

Whiskey Throttle
108 Academy Driving. 1st of 1
Thank you to Courtney Huguley for the winning Whiskey.

Show Photographer Doug Shiflet

Despite the fact that my horse was a star, I did not feel as bulletproof as I have come to expect in a cart. Apparently showing three times a year with no practice in between is not the route to mastery. Imagine that.

A third class means I am qualified for year-end points in driving, regardless of how the rules are interpreted [Driving, Not]. While that’s not why I went to the show, neither am I heartbroken that events unfolded thusly.

Whiskey wins the Alvin Ailey Award for versatility [ETSA MidSummer]. At this show, Whiskey was in suit driving, a last-minute sub for suit equitation, and then the full suite of Academy: driving, walk-trot-canter, and walk-trot. On Saturday, he won four blues out of eight classes (others: 2,2,4,&7), three of which involved beating other competitors. My driving blue was uncontested. Eight classes may sound like a lot, but one was my Academy Driving which was two times around, if that, and five were walk-trot.

His warm-up was suitably abbreviated for his schedule of classes. My warm-up for the Championship consisted of napping in the shade while we waited. When I snarked on this, Coach Courtney remarked, “It worked, didn’t it?” Can’t argue with that.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

First Dance, Show Report, Southeastern Charity 2018, Riding

Adventures in Saddle Seat

 

Joanie & Whiskey modeling their blue ribbons. Apologies for the blur on the right. It was dinner time and I was trying to hurry.

Southeastern Charity Horse Show
Georgia International Horse Park
Conyers GA USA
Saturday, September 22, 2018

Bel Cheval’s I’m Joanie
110 Academy Equitation – Walk, Trot & Canter – Adult. 3rd of 5
111 Academy Showmanship – Walk, Trot & Canter – Adult. 1st of 5
Thank you to the Cofield family for the jaunty Joanie.

Whiskey Throttle
126 Academy Walk, Tot & Canter Championship. 5th of 11
Thank you to Courtney Huguley for the wonderful Whiskey

Show Photographer Doug Shiflet

Hi! My Name Is Joanie, First Class
Joanie looks to be my new dance partner. At the eleventh hour, we decided to enter this show to see how our partnership did in the show ring. At Heathermoor [Show Report], I had watched her canter about with one of the wee walk-trot riders. It didn’t look disobedient as much as being in different classes. The kid was riding in a schooling class. Joanie was doing Park Pleasure.

How would I deal with all that extra energy? As soon as I trotted down my entry line, I knew all would be well. She. Was. Awesome. Totally down with her job and ready to party.

She is not the most comfortable ride. Her trot is choppy and her canter is not the gallop on a cloud that Sam’s is. OTOH, she looks better than she rides. I was amazed when I saw her with one of the kids later. Show ring sparkle oozes from every pore.

In NASCAR, there are two approaches for tuning a car. In the first, the driver communicates to the engineers how he wants the car to feel. In the second, the engineers tell the driver which set-up is fastest and the driver learns to cope. Guess which one wins.

Go Big, Second Class
Since the goal of the show was to test the parameters, Coach Courtney told me to go for it in the second class. Make a mess. If I made a mistake, make it by overreaching. She paused, then qualified, ‘But don’t go crazy.” I laughed out loud. She knew her audience.

I put the pedal down and Joanie was just as willing and adjustable as in the first class. Fortunately, the judge was rewarding the “show” in showmanship. Now, I have to sit down, sit back, and remember where I left my inner equitation diva.

I did absolutely zero to set up for the victory pass. We turned down the straightaway, aimed for Coach Courtney, and Joanie was all, ‘I got this.’

Alas, she was spoken for in the Championship.

What’s In A Name, Third Class
According to the MotoSport.com, a “Whiskey Throttle” is when a driver zealously guns the engine and is thrown back to comic effect [Whiskey Throttle Vs. Panic Rev].

A week or so ago, one of our portable chairs unfolded underneath me, thumping me to the ground from backside to shoulders. No damage. Stiff for a few days. All better. Or so I thought.

Whiskey and I have improved dramatically from our last time out [Show Report], when I utterly failed to downshift from the canter. However, he still finds me alarming. In the class, I gave a directive in a way that startled him. We whiskey throttled. As he shot forward, my injured tailpipe impacted the cantle of the saddle. Ow. Ow. Ow.

We walked, trotted, and cantered as required. OTOH, my atrocious canter transitions caused Coach Courtney to froth at the mouth. Magnanimously, I waive that point. I do not press it. I look over it.

I was the highest placed adult, I think. Waiting for online results to be updated.

Show Posts
[First Dance, Show Report, Southeastern Charity 2018, Riding]
[Whisked About, Show Report, Southeastern Charity 2018, Driving]
[Putting the SHOW in horse show, Show Photo, Southeastern Charity 2018, Riding]
[Ready For Our Close-Up, Show Photo, Southeastern Charity 2018, Driving]
[Lights-Camera-Classes, Show Videos, Southeastern Charity 2018]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Rodney’s Semi-Permanent Gold Star

Home Team

Every time we ship Milton off the property, Rodney gets a gold star. Granted, we are easy to score gold stars from. We give hand them out like elementary school teachers with fistfuls of sticker sheets. Still, Rodney deserves his.

As I said yesterday, the horses are cool with the three of us going over to Stepping Stone Farm.

Milton ships well and has learned to auto-load. That means we toss the leadrope over his neck, point him at the trailer, and he walks on by himself. I’ve said before, I may be a hot mess under saddle, but I know from ground manners.

Rodney is totally fine with Milton leaving, even when we are gone for days. He gets the run of the place, speaking metaphorically as the whole point is that he doesn’t gallop about. We leave the stall door tied open for the express purpose of letting him wander in and out, which he seems to enjoy. He gets a large hay snack and his toy/treat dispenser [Cookie Ball!]. His response? ‘Via con Dios. Don’t let the gate hit your fluffy gray tail on the way out. Now where is that cookie ball.’

As anyone with horses knows, this could so not be the case. Most horses don’t like to be alone. Easier to become cougar bait that way. Milton used to have trouble when I would take Rodney out of the field and around to the other side of the barn for the blacksmith. Milton could SEE Rodney, was five or ten feet away, and still got upset. He’s getting better, but still doesn’t let Rodney take a lap of the field without screaming &/or galloping over to find us. That is closer to normal.

Yay, Rodney!

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Milton Canters

Home Team

 

Video taken at a walk. I’m happy to be cantering. Cantering one-handed will have to wait.

Not much to add beyond the headline. We shipped over to Stepping Stone Farm. Milton and I cantered around the big ring several times on both leads. Progress. We’ve cantered before, both at SSf and elsewhere [MSSP]. This time was more proper transition and less run and hope.

A lack of an enclosed space has been more of a rate-limiting step than we had anticipated. The day after the lovely work at SSF, Milton cantered at home. He had a hissy fit and ran back to the barn. Husband Greg was lunging. Milton may find it hard to maintain his balance around the smaller diameter of a lunging circle. Cantering under saddle would allow me to make a bigger loop. It’s possible that Milton would canter in the pasture just fine with more room. Possible. It’s not a theory I am willing to test quite yet.

So, we continue to ship over. Yes, it would be more convenient to have a ring at home. However, the ring is close, the people are supportive, and the horses are cool with it.

Onwards.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

AlphaBooks, K & J are for Kenrick & Japan

Graphic Design

 

Horses In Japan
Vivienne Kenrick
J.A. Allen 1964

Book. Long-term resident of my TBR pile.

Writer. Japan Times: Clips List, Japan Times: Obituary

Letters. K. Can one hate a letter? I have been saddled with K all my life. I’ve never figured out how to make it look good. J. I had no idea that Romans had swashes. “The letter J originated as a swash letter I, used for the letter I at the end of Roman numerals when following another I, as in XXIIJ or xxiij instead of XXIII or xxiii for the Roman numeral representing 23.” Wiki

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Riding Abroad

Tackbox Tales

 

I’ve ridden abroad twice: once in Italy, once in France. Although I had independent control of my mounts, both occasions were basically glorified pony rides. Both occurred during my semester abroad in France.

Piccolo Americana
My father came over for business in Italy. I went to visit him. (This all sounds terrible jet-set doesn’t it? Really, my teen and college years were as well-off, white-bread suburban as one can get. Comfortable, fortunate, but not the slightest bit exotic. But I digress.) One of the paralegals(?), junior lawyers(?), at the Italian firm exercised racehorses in the mornings. I was brought along.

It rained, so we were limited to walking and trotting in a small, covered exercise shed. I have no idea what I would’ve done had we been sent to the track. It’s possible I wasn’t completely tuned into what was going on until they heaved me up on the horse. My Italian was even more nonexistent than my French, which was pathetically abysmal after 10 years of French class.

What I remember was that the horse was a dark bay, and reasonably well-behaved, at least at a walk and trot in a closed space. The woman I came with was at the opposite end of the herd. I could see her but not talk to her, nor have her translate.

The guys around me kept mentioning the ‘Piccolo Americana’, which even I could figure out meant Little American. I was tall – my adult height of 5’8″ – but thin – less than 120 pounds. I would not put on adult weight until I married my personal chef. Little wasn’t a far off description. On the other hand, I have no idea what they were saying about the piccolo Americana. They could have been marveling at my flawless equitation, or saying, Dear God in Heaven what is she doing up there? We can’t let the lawyer’s daughter get hurt.

That was riding in Italy.

Chevalier Ferdinand
A group of us went down to the Camargue for a guided horse tour. Since I was the only equestrian, everyone expected me to dash about in a vivid display of horsemanship. Meh. I have plenty of opportunity to gallop nut-case Throughbreds at home. I’d never been to France. I was perfectly content with my happy little stroll through the pretty marshland. Horse and I trailed the field the entire ride.

That was riding in France.

Or It Didn’t Happen
This was long before cell phone cameras or cheap photography. So, no pics. Photos were taken of our French ride. I did not buy mine, although I wanted to. I can still pull up the image in my mind’s eye: a vertical shot, taken with a long lens from a low vantage point by the horse’s left shoulder, so that horse and rider dominate the frame at a three-quarter angle. The white horse is surrounded by green plants and blue sky. I am smiling at the photographer. A nice image quickly printed on incredibly cheap paper.

One member of our group took it up themselves to engage in a heated discussion with the photographer about the photos we had supposedly “ordered” and the outrageous price being charged. I didn’t overrule my friend because, the price was indeed outrageous, it was clearly a tourist trap, and I wimped out. Now, 36 (!) years later, it would be a fun photograph to have.

Halt, Salute
I’ve never ridden seriously, much less competed in another country. I wouldn’t go so far to say it’s on my bucket list, but it would be cool. Have you ridden abroad? Tell us in the comments. Better yet, write me a guest post [Riding in Reykjavik].

Clip art via Inkscape import, Go Inkscape!: Free Commercial Use Clip Art for Inkscape, openclipart.org: share

Thank you for reading … and possibly writing,
Katherine Walcott