Virtual Brush Box

Show Report: Dixie Cup 2017

Saddle Seat Wednesday

Timeline. The activities below occurred and were written up on Saturday before our inadvertent jump school on Sunday. Hence the mood-swing back to the dark side. IRL, I’m still basking [Jump!]. (I don’t usually write up a show immediately, but I was attempting to process.)
~~

Show Details
Dixie Cup Horse Show

Georgia International Horse Park
Conyers, GA, USA
Saturday, May 6, 2017
With HB Whizbang
301 Academy Equitation WTC – Adult, 1st of 2
302 Academy Showmanship WTC – Adult, 2nd of 2
321 Academy WTC Championship, 4th of 5
Thank you to the Alvis family for the wonderful Mr. Whizbang.

Show Report
I decided to go at the last minute. Pro-AM was so awful [Report], it was deemed that I could use as much practice as possible.

Didn’t help.

I had some good moments. I had some bad. I ping-ponged between them like a demented pinball. Occasionally, Mr, Whizbang and I ping-ponged around the ring. The middle class was going the best, until I made an adjustment in the canter, overadjusted, and we broke into a trot. I can’t remember the last time that happened.

With apologies to Casey McBride Photography, I am not ordering a photo from the show. Again. I’m all for supporting show photographers. Part of me wants to buy one to document the horses that I show over the years. OTOH, there is no reason to own a photo when I can’t bear to look at the proofs.

I can’t win every class. Well, I’d like to, but it ain’t gonna happen. Ultimately, it’s not about how I place. I have no control over that. It’s about how well I ride. If I lay down my best trip and someone else has a better round? Fine. Go home and work harder. If I continue to make mistakes that I can’t feel and don’t know how to fix? That’s when I go home and write self-pitying blog posts.

In the not-you-it’s-me category, Mr. Whizbang had a full day. After suit equation in the morning, he did the full run of Academy in the afternoon: driving, walk-trot-canter, and walk-trot. He was Champion with his young owner. Smart Snippy!

GIHP show reports [list]. My best day at Conyers was my first [Report]. After that the wheels came off to varying degrees.

And Now For Something Completely Different
Part of my justification for going to the show was to stop in Atlanta afterwards for anniversaryesque activities [Village].

The Spotted Trotter
A boutique butcher

Dekalb Farmers Market
Food from everywhere, shoppers ditto.

Yat Tuh
Eater Atlanta: The 38 Essential Atlanta Restaurants, Spring ’17

We be foodies.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Jump!

We jumped!

In truth, Rodney jumped and I went along for the ride. It was all his idea.

We often set up standards and a few poles for Rodney to walk over so that he doesn’t feel trapped in the sandbox. I like to start a ride on the buckle [Fifth Leg Training] to give the horse a chance to settle in, get coffee, read email, and so on.

Combine a crossrail with walking about on the buckle. Can you see where this is going?

The first time caught me completely by surprise. There was discussion of whether it really was a jump, if he truly had both front and back feet off the ground at the same time. The second time, I was better prepared. We came out of the corner, stayed straight, kept a nice walking rhythm, got to the base, whereupon Rodney said, ‘You know Boss, this is gonna be easier if I jump.’

Over we hopped. Neat as you please.

As with our few steps of dressage [Lesson], reporting that my awesomely talented horse jumped a tiny crossrail is several shades of pitiful. I don’t care. I’m THRILLED. It was my first jump in way, way too long.

Wheeeeeeeee!

Rodney is unimpressed with my efforts at documentation.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Rodney’s Dressage May 2017

Breaking out the full-seat britches for lesson #2.

No surprise, our second lesson built on the first one [Dressage]. We halted. We trotted a few laps. Mr. E says we would have cantered if the footing had been better. On the grand scale of things, it remains pitiful. On our personal scale, it was FANTASTIC. A few of the strides where the best dressage I’ve done. Ever.

Perhaps it is Mr. E’s approach. He doesn’t use the ‘push with the inside leg, hold the outside rein’ blather. Or perhaps I’ve never had a horse who can do what I ask. Either way, Mr. E says ‘Do X,Y,Z.’ I do. Rodney does. Cool.

Partway through the lesson, Rodney was tight? Tired? Tense? I wasn’t sure. This made me miss Previous Horse. I’ve thought of PH as my heart horse because I always knew what he was thinking [In Defense of Caesar]. Now, I’m starting to wonder. I could hear him, but he never had the slightest interest in listening to me. That’s not a communication. That’s one party being loud about what they want. Regardless, I need to put the past behind me and ride the horse I have.

I’ve spent a lot of blog time pondering how the different riding disciplines overlap [Styling]. In my last saddle seat lesson, Coach Courtney told me to set my hands. Okay, I will, but that is the Wrong Way to Ride. One should have soft, following hands that are sympathetic to the horse’s mouth. Obviously. Fast forward to dressage lesson. For trotting, Mr. E told me not to pull but not to give. Really? That sounds a lot like Set Your Hands.

Later, Mr. E wanted me to use my knees. In fact, he asked, ‘How hard can you dig your knees in?’ Well, after five years of saddle seat, pretty durn hard. We will overlook the fact that my heels shot out sideways as I did so.

On a final note, Rodney seems to really like Mr. E. With both his chaperone [It Takes A Village] and Mr. E on the sidelines, Rodney started out the ride super relaxed.

Update: further thoughts from Mr. E in comments. See “themuerdago” below.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Letter Art, AlphaBooks: I is for Ipcar

The World Of Dahlov Ipcar

Inside front spread from World Full of Horses
written and illustrated by Dahlov Ipcar
Doubleday 1955

Bought from Better World Books, via AbeBooks.com, thanks to a recommendation from Robin Bledsoe, antiquarian horse books and art books.
~~~
This Year

[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

Taking The Easy Way, A To Z Reflections

Posts: 30
Letters: 21

The A To Z Challenge plays to my strengths, perhaps too much.

I’m already blogging daily. I have been since 2012; unbroken, since 2014. Twenty-six posts is not a problem. Barring drastic life changes, I do 30 posts in April anyway.

At the moment, I have a list of activities and a schedule that works for me: my horses, saddle seat lessons, driving, photography, writing, & lettering. I wouldn’t want to take a month-long break from blogging about them. Therefore, no theme. Unless I can come up with a meta-theme that applies to all sections on which I can pontificate on once a week for 4 weeks. Hmmm.

So, my A To Z 2017 Challenge boiled down to putting alphabetical labels on posts. I missed on 5 days for an 81% success rate. In all of the missed cases, I had a time-sensitive post that didn’t match the letter.

This approach involves being clever. That’s easy for me. Diligent, insightful, nuanced, not so much. Quick? Smart-ass? Good with words? That’s me.

Plus, I’m already messing about with two other alphabets. Lettering on Sunday [H is for Hatch] and playing the alphabet game [Origin] with myself on Instagram [@alphabet2017]. That is ample alphabetization for one person.

If I want to visit blogs, I can still use the list. No blogger is going to complain that I can’t visit because I’m not participating in A To Z.

Why does it matter? Changing the post title from New Equipment: Stirrup Leathers to New Equipment: Stirrups Up doesn’t take much time. It matters because the little bits add up.

I need to do what’s hard. Write thoughtful essays. Take better photographs. Or I could turn away from blog, to writing letters for my near-moribund freelance career, to writing my Hugo-winning novel that doesn’t seem to be writing itself. Or I could step away from computer entirely.

Spending time on what comes easily to me. It’s possible this applies to other areas of my life as well.

A To Z 2017, list below
A To Z 2014 [list of posts]

Any challenge suggestions for A To Z 2018?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

A To Z 2017
[Awards Weekend]
[Rodney Channels His Inner Brat]
[Milton’s Contract]
Delight [Winter Tournament Results 2017]
Education [Lots of Lessons]
[Foto Friday: Instagram March 2017]
G Missed by a day. My yearly alphabet almost matched the monthly one.
[Why I Ride, Six-Word Essay] & [Letter Art, AlphaBooks: G is for Gray]
Heart [Keeping it Real]
Impressions [Rodney in Wraps]
~~J-K-L~~ [Show Reports, list, Spring 2017]
M [USDF]
Had the posts. Couldn’t make the letters fit.
Not Again The Bratitude Increases
Milton’s Overtime
This Is Why I Am Paranoid Around The Barn
Que Pasa?
Foto Friday: Reflection
Self-Improvement
Tape We Spooked. We Survived.
New Equipment: Stirrups Up
Different Versions of the Same Thing
Show Photos: Pro-Am 2017, The Wonderful Mr. Whizbang
Foto Friday Fail, X Version
Young At Heart
Letter Art: Zebra Stripes