Virtual Brush Box

Tertium Quid

Third horse, yes or no?

Pros
Next Generation – Even if both horses pull their socks up tomorrow, Rodney is entering senior territory, and at best I will be sharing Milton. Time to have one in the wings.

Resources – Sufficient pasture, time, money. Thankful for these.

Third Time’s the Charm – Maybe I’ll get it right this time.

Cons
Numbers Game – A third horse would be exponentially more hassle than two. As it is now, we can each grab a horse to do whatever is needful. Three horses becomes herd management. Not impossible. People manage herds all the time. Definitely different.

Search Party – I wouldn’t know where to begin looking. The good ones sell by word of mouth before they have time to hit the classifieds. Local hunter/jumper/dressage/eventing trainers are too busy with their own clients to be interested in helping a stranger of unknown seriousness and unproven pocketbook. Jumping/all-purpose Saddlebreds exist but it would be a matter of stumbling upon one. Having utterly failed to turn Milton into an eventing star, I sense that Fairy Godmother is not an option this time.

Rider Error – Given the scrambled state of my psyche, I can’t envision a suitable horse outside of a holodeck. In a related matter, given my increased reluctance to ride new horses, I have no idea how I would try out a possible addition.

Bottom Line
So, I’m not so much horse shopping as letting the universe know that I am open to a unicorn trotting up my driveway. We’ll see how that goes.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

What I Love About The Horse World

We all have horse world horror stories that cause us to roll our eyes, gnash our teeth, and doubt human nature. Other times, it can be a great place.

Saddlebreds show with freakishly long tails. In between shows, the tails are braided and tied up to preserve as many tail hairs as possible. In the ring, the tails are combed out to float gloriously in the breeze. In between classes, tails are fastened up temporarily with hair bobbles.

At the show, I took Dottie for a walk. We were far away from our home stalls when I realized her tail had fallen out of the bobble. I detangled bobble from tail. I had trouble rebobbling, as it required two hands on the tail and one hand on the leadrope.

I walked up to the nearest trainer-shaped object, held out the green-plastic bobble and said, “Can you do these?” She said sure, introduced herself, and attended to Dottie’s tail. We chatted a bit about the horse she had in cross-ties. Dottie was done. We resumed our walk.

Where else can you ask a complete stranger for help with the assumption that you will get it, happily and with competence?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Letter Art, AlphaBooks: V is for von Tempski

Born In Paradise
Armine von Tempski
Duell, Sloan and Pearce 1940, Ox Bow 1985

Not one of her horse stories, but has horses in it. At least as far as I got. My reading has not kept up with the alphabet. Seems amusing if dated. “One of the favorite books of old Hawaii, … Von Tempski vividly depicts the lavish and wild pattern of island life in the early years of the twentieth century.” Hawaii for Visitors: The Complete Works of Armine von Tempski

Bought from Better World Books via abebooks.com, recommended by Robin Bledsoe, Bookseller.

V or T?
Googling said T (sites lost to time). Copyright page says V. I needed a V, not a T. V it is.

~~~
This Year

[U is for USDA]
[T is for Tewson]
[S is for Severin]
[R is for Rubin]
[Q is for Queen]
[P is for Pace]
[O is for O’Connor]
[N is for Newsum]
[M is for McKinley]
[L is for Lewis]
[K is for Krementz]
[J is for Journal]
[I is for Ipcar]
[H is for Hatch]
[G is for Gray]
[F is for Francis]
[E is for Endicott]
[D is for Doty]
[C is for Cooper]
[B is for Brown]
[A is for Anderson]

Past Years
[2016 Alphabet] [2015 Alphabet]

Project explanation [AlphaBooks 2017]. Open to recommendations for the remaining letters. Which books would you choose?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

USDF Interview: Jo-Anne Young, Collegiate Equestrian-Program Director

“Behind The Scenes: Jo-Anne Young, Collegiate Equestrian-Program Director”
USDF Connection
October 2017
United States Dressage Federation

A short interview with the director emerita of the Houghton College program.

Previous Posts [Behind The Scenes]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Show Photos: Alabama Charity 2017

Alabama Charity Championship Horse Show
[Show Report, Riding]
Terry Young Photography

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Show Report Driving & Lessons

Driving Thursday

Lots of driving lately.

Katherine
Alabama Charity Championship Horse Show, [Show Report, Riding]
96 Academy Driving with HB Whizbang – 2rd of 3
Thanks to the Alvis family for Mr. Snippy

Snippy deeply objected to the big, soft, rubber, straight bar bit that went with a set of borrowed harness. Go figure [Bits From Hell]. In the lemonade-from-lemons category, I was able to channel his outrage into the best extended trot we’ve gotten to date. We even got a little bit of drift going in one corner. Not Alvin-level drifting [Show Report I, II], but I could feel a slight sideways slide.

Sorry Snippy, we’ll do better by you next time.

Greg
The day after the show, Greg had a driven dressage lesson with Mr. E. Yes, the same instructor Rodney and I can’t manage to take lessons from [Leg Yield, Dubious]. At this point, I am so far down the rabbit hole that, come the day, I wasn’t all that upset [Laugh or Cry]. Although, that night I did have a dressage stress dream wherein Milton was tacked up, I still needed to get dressed, but couldn’t find out if my test was right away or delayed until tomorrow because of the large number of barrel racing trips in front of us. Clearly, it’s still on my mind. But I digress.

Mr. E liked a lot of the things Greg was doing, and thought Milton had good conformation for driving. Some of the comments were things Greg has heard before, e.g. Use your voice. The main focus of the lesson was transitions, which is more of a dressage thing than a ASB thing. As I’ve said before, dressage horses wait to hear what comes next; saddlebreds get on with their jobs [Obedience Epiphany].

By the end of 45 minutes, Milton was walking better, trotting off more promptly, and downshifting without giving his ewe-necked cow impression. All with a horse who has been hitched less than three months [Maiden Voyage]. Go Milton!

Greg & Katherine

Milton’s first drive with the carriage [New Equipment]. Miss Courtney’s picture is over on Instagram, and for the moment on the sidebar. Milton was a star about pulling the heavier load and about entertaining multiple drivers.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Show Report: Alabama Charity Championship 2017

Saddle Seat Wednesday

tldr: Good show. Not great. Needed to be great.
~~~
I’m going to Nationals. I don’t expect to win.

I want to win. I will try to win. I will spend the next three weeks preparing to win.

It seems to me that if one wants to win on the national level, one ought to be hitting it out of the park locally. I had a good show, but out of the park I did not hit it. Last year [Show Report], I got a middle ribbon (3/5), won the second class, and was highest placed adult in the championships. This year, middle (2/3), win, highest adult. Still struggling with the double bridle and still struggling to get my shoulders back.

Winning at Nationals would not require a miracle. Come Sunday, I expect to be in the top 3, per usual (acknowledging that all manner of things can happen and that I might not even get past Friday). Taking the top spot would require everything to come together and require a following wind from the judges and the other competitors.

I don’t usually obsess this badly over results. I know there is more to a horse show than winning. I know that all I can control is my ride. In this case, a) the word “national” is in the title, b) I’ve been often enough that learning from the experience is less of a draw, & c) I’ve come so close. Greg thinks I should go and have just fun. That may be the hardest task of all.

Update: Having gotten all of this out of my system, I am feeling more cheerful.
Onwards!

Show Results

Alabama Charity Championship Horse Show
October 14, 2017
Celebration Arena
Priceville AL, USA

100. Academy Showmanship WTC, Adult – 2rd of 3
101. Academy Equitation WTC, Adult – 1st of 3
104. Academy WTC Championship – 3rd of 12. Highest placed of 3 adults.
Thank you to Courtney Huguley for the delightful Dottie.

Show Photographer: Terry Young Photography
[List of previous ACCHS posts]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott