The World’s Most Low-Key Photo Challenge, Inaugural Edition, Hello!

Photography

 

Welcome to the first edition of my Low-Key Photo Challenge.

Theme: Hello!
No prizes. No rules.
Photo: Notice the sibling ear in the bottom of the frame. Two of the new kittens [1,2] in a basket of horse laundry.

Procedure
1) I will post a photo on a given theme.
2) You comment below with a link to your photo on that theme.
3) We all click over to see what you have.

That’s it.

Links can be from blog, Twitter, Instagram, whatever. My preference would be for links that lead to platforms open to the public, without requiring an account or a log in, i.e. not your personal Facebook page. I have accounts in various stage of inactivity all over the place, but a lot of people don’t. Make it easy for folks to find your work.

Yes, this means more clicking. Instead of collecting photos in one place, as many photo challenges do, the photos will be spread around the Internet. Think of it as a really simple scavenger hunt. This spreads the joy – out there; rather than gathering it in – over here. Also, less work for me. I’m trying to maximize my chances of staying with this.

At least one of you is an excellent photographer who hasn’t posted much lately (gives the stern side-eye). Go. Make photos. Entertain me.

(In the South, one makes a photo rather than takes a photo. A simple word change, but I like that it emphasizes the creative aspect of photography.)

Comments
As a suggestion, one link per comment, only because multiple links will upset the comment oversight program & I’ll have to go rescue your comment, if it doesn’t get buried an avalanche of car insurance pseudo-comments. Does anyone know the point of those?

New versus Old
I will post new photos, with my Nikon, on manual. For me, the point of this is giving me a kick in the pants reason to get out and use the big camera. You do you.

Confession, this one is new but taken with my phone. When I pulled my camera out yesterday afternoon, the battery was dead. This phone snap was supposed to be a placeholder, but it handed me a great theme, so what could I do?

Deadline
30 days. That’s when the comments automatically close on each post. This limits the bots to the current month.

Frequency
My goal is every week on Friday. Ha! Reality is closer to twice a month. Mission success will be defined as at least once a month for six months.

Submissions
Okay, one rule. Don’t send photos. None. Really. I will ignore any photos or links that come by email. I will not be hassling with downloading, uploading, permissions, copyright issues, editing, and so on. I do not need this blog eating any more of my life.

If you really, really want to send me a photo AND you are my mother, go ahead. Anyone else, consider opening a Flickr account.

Questions? Comments? Concerns?
Any suggestions? I may modify, expand, reduce, adapt, change, or terminate this challenge at any time if it takes off, tanks, or ceases to amuse me.

Thank you for reading … and photographing,
Katherine Walcott

It Beats A Membership Sticker, NHBS 2018

Driving

 

National Horse Brass Society

[National Horse Brass Society 2016]
[NHBS] 2013
~~~
As with saddle seat [Go, Team!], driving hasn’t been happening around here lately, other than my lovely trip with Whiskey [Show Report]. We are still committed to Husband Greg’s driving. We will get back to it. The delay has been due to a combination of logistics, my shows (yay!) and learning Milton management. The latter can be done under saddle as easily as to cart. Possibly better. Although it puts the work on me, I have to admit that misbehavior – at least mild, green-horse misbehavior – is easier to deal with under saddle where one can apply legs & weight, in addition to hands & voice. Once we are all on the same page, back into harness Milton goes. We already know he loves cones.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Go, Team! SSF at Louisville 2018

Adventures in Saddle Seat

 

Two Stepping Stone Farm riders are showing at the World’s Championship Horse Show in Louisville KY, August 16-25.

On Sunday, Reagan Upton & Undercover Agent were 3rd (!!) out of 17 in class 18, ASB Adult Three-Gaited Show Pleasure, Division II. As best I can parse the prizelist, 8 ribbons were awarded but only the top 4 will move on to the Class 176 ASB Adult Three-Gaited Show Pleasure Championship class on Friday morning. Reagan will join the qualifiers from the other two sections for a 12-horse final.

Check out the pro pics by Howie Schatzberg & Doug Shiflet. White jacket, brown derby (see photo, from Tues, same clothes), brown pants, chestnut with blaze & socks. (I wish I had managed a better shot than line-up. None of the action screenshots turned out. I only took a few. I didn’t want to get so caught up in the photography that I missed the class.)

On Tuesday, Reagan & Attache’s American Patriot rode hard in class 89, ASB Amateur Park Three-Gaited, Division I. Despite a unanimous championship last month at Lexington, they did not place here. That’s horse showing. 😦

On Wednesday, Sterling McDonald & Super Scandal will show in class 133 (Saddle Seat) Equitation-Open, Walk-Trot Rider 10 Years Old. The top six will move on to class 177 (Saddle Seat) Equitation-Open, Walk-Trot Rider 9 & 10 Years Old on Friday morning.

All three horses are owned by McDonald LLC and trained by Milestone Stables.

Did you notice the consecutive numbers on Friday morning? Reagan’s ride with Undercover Agent is the class immediately before the Eq final. I wish Milestone all the luck should they end up in the position of getting two riders ready to go at the same time for such a big occasion. A nice headache to have.

What happened to not living vicariously, hmmm?
Yes, I did promise not to get distracted by other people’s lives [The End of the Road]. Yes, I am spending more time than I probably should refreshing the ASHA’s show app. At least this time, my involvement is limited to cyberstaking and text messaging. I am still at home living my own interesting [Our First Blue, But …], but less exotic life.

Would I ever ride on the green shavings?
With a massive rearrangement of my horse situation, I could see owning/leasing/having access to an ASB who was good enough to earn me a first-timer’s participation ribbon. I don’t foresee myself ever getting deep enough into saddle seat to be competitive at Louisville.

On the other hand. I livestreamed the show yesterday to watch Reagan’s class. I admit to getting a wee bit choked up watching the first class of the day storm into the ring. Perhaps I am already deeper into saddle seat than I am willing to admit.

WCHS posts
2016
[Louisville 2016]
[Pretty Ribbon]
[Pick Your Crazy]
2014
[Logistics: Shipping]
2013
[Why Green?]
[Breaking Radio Silence]
I always follow and cheer for our riders at Louisville. I don’t usually blog about it because I usually have my own saddle seat to write about. Between transportation issues (boo) and Milton (yay), I have hauled out the saddle seat saddle only a handful of times this summer. Hardly conducive for blog material. I’m not scraping the barrel, but I am reaching in and rummaging around.

Update
Reagan will not be showing Chrome back on Friday. He will be auditioning for new homes instead of prepping for the Championship. I guess at that level one can’t do both. Sterling was 7th out of 12. She needed to be 6th or better to move on 😦 . So, that wraps up Louisville for us this year.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

What’s In The Feed Scoop, Summer 2018

Horsekeeping

 

Here’s what we are feeding these days.

Rodney
Triple Crown Naturals [Feed Adventures]. I want to try to get off this if we can get Milton straighted out. Expensive and I don’t like supporting the non-GMO hysteria.

Electrolytes. I recently read that one should feed salt instead of electrolytes. At the beginning of the summer, we bought a big tub to save on buying several smaller ones . We’ll finish this and I’ll investigate salt vs. electrolytes for next summer.

Flax. Recommended as an additive when we were having trouble with Milton’s coat. Now that Milton is responding so well to the cimetidine, we may think about tapering this off. Less is more.

Apple or carrot. The first thing both of them look for.

Yeast. Just finished the last of. Market forces caused us to stop [not a post Horsekeeping]. Instead of tossing the remnants, we added a small amount to each bag of feed until the yeast was gone.

Milton
TC Naturals. Fortunately, the greedy horse gets more food. We don’t have to stand around defending the beta horse’s dinner.

Electrolytes. Neither horse is in hard work. We started feeding this in summer because Milton is obsessed with salt blocks.

Flax.

Cimetidine. Unfortunately, now that Milton gets meds, we are back to separating or watching them at feeding time.

Sand-Aid. Milton eats enough dirt that this is still a good idea [Sand Colic?]. The package recommendation is one week a month. We did that at first, then spread it out. We’ve been on once every 3 months. I may move it up to every 2 months. Or drop it. Depends on his response to cimetidine.

Yeast. Ended.

Apple or carrot.

Notes
Notice all of these are Milton-related. The large, brown dork is a fairly easy keeper [Diet Change, 3 Feed Sacks]. Yeah, I’m back to calling him a dork [not a post Rodney]. I mean it affectionately. Mostly.

Stunt meal in photo. Actual meals are soaked before serving.

UlcerGard as needed [Finding the Solution to Gastric Issues, Unfortunately].

What’s in your feed scoop?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

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