Show Tweets: Indiana CDE 2017

Tweet record from the Indiana CDE [Show Report]. 93 tweets, plus replies.

Day 0: Getting Ready
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
5 tweets

Day 1: Travel
Thursday, September 21
22 tweets

Second note to self: navigators/grooms are *not allowed* to walk cones, even if they will be riding on the carriage. It’s a crowd issue. Those not on the carriage don’t need to know. Grooms on the carriage are not supposed to move. They are there as ballast. So, they don’t need to know the course either. Also, drivers must walk the course in show clothes. Rules not strictly enforced below the FEI level. “Only Athletes, Chefs d’Equipe and Trainers are allowed to inspect the course on foot and they must be correctly and smartly dressed.” 973.7.1

Day 2: Dressage & Cones, CT
Friday September 22
23 tweets

… make (ya wonder) …

Day 3: Dressage & Cones, CDE
Saturday, September 23
24 tweets

Day 4: Marathon & Trip Home
Sunday, September 24
19 tweets

The interesting point of all these beer photos is that these are the only 3 beers I will drink this year.

This ended up being a photo essay as much as a tweet storm, maybe because it was our first CDE, making everything all new and shiny and interesting. Although, it is a photo essay of everything else. As soon as the competition got going, I was watching/participating instead of reporting.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Show Report: Indiana CDE 2017

TLDR: Greg won his first CDE!

Indiana Combined Test & Combined Driving Event
September 22 -24, 2107
Hoosier Horse Park
Edinburgh, Indiana, USA

Greg & Bliss WH in Training Single Horse
Friday
CT Dressage: 1st of 6
CT Cones: ? of 6
CT Overall: 3rd of 6
Saturday
CDE Dressage: 2nd of 8
CDE Cones: 2nd of 8
(leading going into Marathon)
Sunday
CDE Final: 1st of 8
Training Level Champion

Thank you to Kate Bushman of Whip Hand Farm for Bliss. (Yeah, I said it yesterday [Indiana CDE 2017], but I always thank the horse owner here, and it bears repeating.) Kate & Jewel won the CT Training Single Horse, had the only double-clean cones in our division both days, and were 5th in the CDE.

Thanks also to the folks of Indiana Whips and Wheels and all the volunteers for taking a weekend out of their lives so that we could play.

Achievement Unlocked
Greg has done driven dressage. He’s done cones. We’ve done obstacles in derbies. We’ve done a schooling event. This weekend was our first full CDE, with our first full-scale marathon phase. As soon as they let us trot onto the start of phase B of marathon, our weekend was a success. Whatever happened next, we got to do what we had been targeting all year.

View From The Back Seat
That was a lot of work!

The main job of a navigator is to shift weight from side-to-side, thereby keeping the wheels on the ground and making the carriage easier to steer. The level of conversation is up to the individual driver and gator.

Greg wants a constant stream of flight data. He takes it all in, then decides which bits he needs. That meant I talked for 45+ minutes straight (15 min phase A, 10 min walk phase, 21 min Phase B, plus three starts & a vet box). Fortunately, talking comes easily to me. Unfortunately, he wanted the data to be good intel: gate numbers, time to next kilometer marker, where we sat in relation to min/max times. I was looking at my stopwatch, counting gates, doing math on the fly, hanging on, reminding him to shorten his reins before each obstacle, calling out our number, making sure we passed through the start line, remembering the turns so I knew when to shift my weight, looking for the exit, saying thank you to the volunteers as we left the area. Lather, rinse, repeat for 5 obstacles.

We are honors even in remembering the course. Two small moments of uncertainty against me; one big certainty in my favor. (My blog, my scoring system.)

To keep the different levels in sync, our gate numbers 2-5 on phase B were all one physical gate. I knew this. I did not make a note of it on my sheet.

Gate 1. Gate 2. Gate 6. Wait, where did gates 3-5 go? If we miss a gate, we are eliminated. Greg was on top of it.

Fourth obstacle. Go in. Back around for A. Turn left backwards thru E (E didn’t count at our level). Keeping going left. Swing wide around the white pole. C? Wait a minute. Crap. Where was B? If we go through C without B, we will be eliminated. (In truth, those are eventing rules. As long as we corrected before we left the obstacle, we were okay. Circling, crossing your tracks, going out of order are all okay, just time-consuming.) Bottom line, there was no way to “circle the white pole” without going through B. We had to have done B. I had no memory of it. I don’t remember what I said. I can still feel the panic.

After the exit of each obstacle, there is a red sign at 30 meters to mark where any missing navigators/grooms (for teams) need to be back on the cart. Turns out some folks were letting inadvertently dismounted grooms jog to the next obstacle. They’d gotten the faults, might as well save the weight. Now there is a specific rule against this practice. The little red signs also indicate which way to go. Greg hauled out of the last obstacle, heading at warp speed for parts unknown. I whacked him on the shoulder, No, no, red sign thataway.

Where’s The Rest?
Regular readers may note that show reports are usually more comprehensive, particularly for a three-day show that was such a big deal. Reports from Academy Nationals cover several days. This weekend belonged to Greg. It’s not my story to tell. Emotionally disemboweling myself for strangers? No problem. Disemboweling others? Not so much.

Short version: he’s gonna wanna do this again.

 

Update – ICDE Posts
[Indiana CDE 2017]
[Show Tweets: Indiana CDE 2017]
[Foto Friday: One Day at a Horse Show]
[Letter Art: Indiana CDE 2017]
[Show Photo: ICDE 2017]
[Show Photos] pending

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Indiana CDE 2017

We did it! Our first Combined Driving Event!

 

Indiana CT & CDE
September 22 -24, 2107
Hoosier Horse Park
Edinburgh, Indiana, USA

I can say we/our because I was physically on the cart for marathon & psychologically on the cart for the other phases.

Before I spend the rest of the week yipping about the show, I want to recognize Kate Bushman, aka Coach Kate, Whip Hand Farm, Franklin, TN, USA.

Huzzahs for …
… Trusting us with Bliss.
… Lending miscellaneous pieces of driving equipment as needed while we purchased our own pile. So. Much. Equipment.
… coaching, shipping, advice, support, enthusiasm.
… for sharing your love of driving with so many people.

Basically, she made the whole weekend possible.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Equestrian Bloggers Blog Hop: A Blog Is More Than Words

September Equestrian Blog Hop Theme: Why did you start blogging? Write a post about why you were inspired to take the plunge and show the world your experience as an equestrian. What have you learned?
Bridle & Bone: Equestrian Blog Hop
Equestrian Bloggers Facebook Group

Why did you start blogging?
Blog history, with links, appears on my About page [About]. Short answer: I was being paid. Metaphysical answer: I was being paid, at the start. I continued on my own as an exercise. I keep going as my way of fight back against the void.

What have you learned?
At the end of last year, I had my fifth blogiversary [Five Years Ago Today]. At the time, I didn’t think I’d learned much. I hadn’t; not about producing text. My blogging voice hasn’t changed. I’ve been writing professionally since the late 80s, so I already knew about cranking out copy. Twenty inches of school board report on deadline will get you over writer’s block in a hurry.

What else?
In considering this blog hop, I decided that I have learned something: A blog is not just text.

Photo Skills
Loading photos from camera to computer. Uploading photos from computer to blog. Location scouting. Photos that look good in the camera don’t always look as good on the screen. Take extras. Cropping. Embracing digital (yeah, I’m that old). Resizing. Watermarks.

Graphic Design Skills
GIMP. Layout. Paragraph size. Use of white space. Headline fonts.

Social Media Skills
Posting to Facebook [Rodney’s Saga]. Understanding Twitter, or not [Another Aborted Twitter Adventure]. Instagram [rodneyssaga].

Still To Go
Photo post production: light levels, color balancing, other than for humorous effect [Color Cat]. SEO. Self hosting. Analytics.

Words of Encouragement
If you are new to blogging, or are considering a blog, don’t be intimidated. Starting a blog is extremely simple. The hardest parts are deciding on a name & picking a color scheme. As for posts, I will often throw up an unadorned wodge of text and call it a day. You can do all of the above, or none. It’s your blog, do what you want with it. If you’d like direct help, feel free to email me, rodneyssaga@gmail.com.

Blog away. Entertain me.

More to Read
Blog Hop list to appear here, soon. My posts are scheduled to publish automatically at 12:01 am. Once I’m up, I will add the required code. Come back & check out the rest of the hoppers.
Click the blue button to read more posts in the blog hop.

#EquestrianBlogHop #EquestrianBloggers

Previous Posts
Referral Saturday, Equestrian Bloggers Facebook Group
What Makes You, You? A Blog Hop.
My Best Class: Blog Hop Invitation
Loot. A Blog Hop.
~~~
Today’s post will count as State of the Blog for September. [Previous SotB]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Letter Art, AlphaBooks: T is for Tewson

 

The Fat Pony, Adventures, Mishaps and Musings 2009-11
The Fat Pony, Incidents, Accidents and Pumpkin Lids
The Fat Pony, Has Anybody Seen My Halo?
The Fat Pony, The Slim Years
By January Tewson
Lulu.com
The Fat Pony on Facebook

Tewson on RS
Book Arrivals

T Authors on Rodney’s Saga
Tuttle Aunt Faity
Toby Milt Toby, author of Noor, on Researching for Books

~~~
This Year

[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

Starting Points

In August, my mother went to the 100th anniversary of her summer camp.

At the age of 7, my mother began attending Camp Nyoda, an all-girls summer camp. She acted in plays. She did arts & crafts. She took riding lessons, briefly. She stayed at the camp for thirteen years, eventually becoming a counselor. In college, she rode in her one and only horse show. She won a ribbon. She rode a handful of times on vacation or with relatives. She has not ridden in decades.

At the age of 7, I began attending Fireplace Lodge (now defunct), an all-girls summer camp. I acted in plays. I did arts & crafts. I took riding lessons, briefly. I rode in a camp show. I won a ribbon. I left the camp after three years to attend a horseback camp. I went to a dude ranch for one summer. At 15, I leased my first horse and disappeared into the horse world.

Same start; different paths.

At the age of 7, my mother began attending Camp Nyoda, an all-girls summer camp. She acted in plays. She did arts & crafts. She swam. She swam throughout camp, elementary school, junior high school, and high school. At college, taught swimming and was on the Water Ballet Team, now known as the Olympic sport of Synchronized Swimming. These days, she does water workout. One of her spirit animals is a seal. She gets cranky if she does not immerse herself in water on a regular basis.

At the age of 7, I began attending Fireplace Lodge, an all-girls summer camp. I acted in plays. I did arts & crafts. I swam. I passed the Red Cross Advanced Beginner swimming test. I went to a new camp. I passed the Red Cross Advanced Beginner swimming test. I went to college. I passed the two-lap swim test. Soaking in a bathtub makes me feel like a stewbeast marinating in its own gravy. Until recently [Spring Fitness], I had not been in a pool for decades.

Same start; different paths.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott