Show Report: Nashoba Carriage Classic 2017

Nashoba Carriage Classic (Facebook)
October 20-22, 2017
Germantown Charity Horse Show Showgrounds
Germantown, TN USA

Friday: Bliss, Greg & Katherine
Driving Derby, Intermediate Single Horse – 1st of 1
(Jewel & Kate, 1/1 in Preliminary)

Saturday: Bliss & Greg
Turnout – 2nd of 2
Timed Obstacles – 2nd of 2 (by 2 seconds!)
Working – 1st of 2
Reinsmanship – 2nd of 2
Single Horse Division – Reserve Champion

Gambler’s Choice – 1st of 2

Thanks to Kate Bushman for the beautiful Bliss WH and to the Nashoba Carriage Association (Facebook) for putting on the show.

Turned out that Kate and Greg were the only non-draft horses to turn up, thus making a division of two. They swapped ribbons depending on the class requirements. The fancy carriage (Kate) won the turnout class, the experienced horse (Bliss) won the working class, and so on.

Greg was a better, happier driver in the objective, jumper-style classes that featured cones and a stopwatch, than in the subjective, hunter-style classes that relied on the opinion of the judge. Color me surprised.

We will probably continue to show at pleasure shows. Opportunities to drive are limited. You take what you can get. Annoyingly, neither of the carts we have are suitable/allowed in pleasure shows. Greg will need a presentation carriage. Yes, we may be shopping for a third vehicle. How did that happen?

View From The Back Seat
In the Friday night derby, Greg entered the Intermediate level. Training goes through gates A-B-C; Prelim, A-B-C-D; Intermediate, A-B-C-D-E. Since it will be a while before he goes Intermediate for real, it was fun practicing five-gate obstacles.

I rode on the carriage for the derby class. For the Saturday classes, I stood on the sidelines & waved my pom-poms. There were Sunday classes but the horses left early as their chauffeur had to catch a flight.

2017 Season
Thus ends our CDE competition year.
AWWCC Driving Derby 2017
Middle Tennessee Carriage Club Horse Driving Trial 2017
CAA Carriage Festival 2017
MTCC Driving Derby 2017
Indiana CDE 2017
Nashoba Carriage Classic

It was awesome! Onwards to 2018!

Update
Show Tweets: Nashoba Carriage Classic 2017
Foto Friday: Hoofprints on the Road

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

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.

©2017 United States Dressage Federation. Used by permission. Reproduction prohibited without prior written permission of the publisher.

Previous Posts [Behind The Scenes]

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