Foto Friday: Year of the Dog

 

For today’s post, I had intended to labor mightily in the vineyards of art to produce a stunning, compelling, virtuoso photograph that distilled the essence of canine.

Instead, you get a impromptu smartphone snap.

Holding a leadrope and reading a book while your horse grazes shouldn’t wear one out. But it does. At least, it does me.

Milton is doing great [Medical Update]. My work? The dishes? The blog? Not so much.

Happy Year of the Dog.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

ASHAA Awards for 2017

Saddle Seat Wednesday

American Saddlebred Horse Association of Alabama banquet for the 2017 competition year.

My Ribbons & Trophies

Champion WTC Adult Showmanship
Champion WTC Adult Equitation
Champion Academy Driving
High Point Adult Academy Rider

The high-point prize was a hand-painted glass of your horse, in this case Milton.

At first blush, it seems silly to have a separate Adult High Point when there is only one Adult Academy division. However, if the award included both adults & kids, an adult might show often enough to win it anyway, as I did the first year [Awards]. This takes a ribbon away from a kid. Not a fan [Quietude]. It would be even more likely now, with my points from driving. I’m happy to have it the way it is.

Close-up of high-point table: Amateur, Juvenile, Academy Child, Academy Adult, Trophies, State Awards, Barn Awards.

Trophy Theory
Last year, the ribbons were the same, but suit got better trophies. This year, same trophies; fancier ribbons. Either way, I agree. Suit should have better loot.

Ribbon Tables. Academy on the left, suit on the right, high-point in the middle.

Amusing the Masses
This year, each suit division winner was introduced with one or two factoids. I imagine it was a slog for the trainers write up, particularly for folks who won multiple divisions. For the audience, it was a great way to enliven a long list of names.

List of previous posts [Saddle Seat Banquets].

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Milton’s Medical Update

My life for the next two weeks, give or take.

Not much to report, which is excellent news.

Last Friday, Milton went in to have a large, fist-sized melanoma cut off the inside of his upper right hind leg. Equine melanomas are not the dire diagnosis that they are in humans. It’s a bump. It got cut off. It will come back. On veterinary advice, we waited as long as possible. When the leg around the bump swelled, the time had come to address the issue [God Laughs, Ups & Downs].

In my understanding, the big deal was the anesthesiology. We would have had the bump cut off years ago if it could have been done under local. Therefore, as soon as Milton stood back up Friday morning, the excitement was over.

We are left waiting for the wound on his leg to heal. As soon as the mass was cut off, the skin sproinged apart. Nine stitches were used on a few small blood vessels and to close the hole down as much as possible. The most likely worst case scenario is that the skin sutures give/come out and we have to wait for a larger hole to heal. The medical people involved are not worried.

I will continue to put out a daily update Tweet, on sidebar —>. They may get boring. Boring is good. Update. Tweets moved, see below.

Links
[Milton Medical Update, One Month Out, with Picture]
[Milton’s Missing Photos]
[Milton’s Surgery 2018] wound pics, superficial but messy

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Here We Stand, Still

Rodney and I stand around. A lot. It goes as far back as standing untacked next to the barn in a leather halter [Here We Stand]. I don’t want to think about how many years ago that was. (2013 for those who don’t want to click over.) These days we are standing mounted. Progress. Slow, incremental, microscopic progress.

1) I do it because he has trouble with it. When Rodney began working on halts, he kept popping out of gear [Meanwhile December 2016]. He eventually got it [Rodney March 2017]. The first time we tried to stand by ourselves, we lasted 8 minutes [It Takes A Village May 2017]. We average 20 minutes now.

2) I do it because I am alone. On the weekends, we do more when we have a spectators to supervise/help/talk us down out of the trees. When I am riding on my own, I don’t push the envelope. This is the size of our envelope at the moment.

3) I do it because we need a reset button. When Rodney gets wound up – whether for reasons internal or external – we need a safe space. With Previous Horse, it was walking on a long rein. Or getting off, if he really lost it. For Rodney, for the moment, standing brings peace and counts as a success.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Letter Art, AlphaBooks: Y is for Yoors

 

The Gypsies
Jan Yoors
Simon & Schuster 1967

Bought from Discover Books via abebooks.com

Genre: Travel, Personal Narrative
New Find
Did I read it? Yes. Be warned. You will have Cher singing Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves in your head for the duration of the book.
Horse Factor: Some horse trading, mostly life in horse-drawn wagons.

Process Notes: Progress! Yesterday & today were 99% Inkscape, including watermark. I had to open them in GIMP to convert to JPEG. Since this appears to be standard, I’m not going to mention it anymore. My designs are still basic, but I am starting to see what can be done in vector graphics.
~~~
Past Letters

2018 Alphabet

[Z is for Zigby]

[2017 AlphaBooks]
[2016 Alphabet]
[2015 Alphabet]

[Project Explanation 2017]
[Looking for Letters 2018]

This year, I’m using names of horses in books as well as authors of books. Otherwise, I’ll run out of letters. I’ve already had to with Z, both this year & last. Which books would you choose?

Why reverse alphabetical? Why not? [2015 Alphabet On the ordering of the alphabet]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott