Milton’s Chariot

First Day
First Day

Finally!

What We Bought & Why
Ford – Good experience with previous truck. I like the sightlines in the Ford.

F250 – We could tow with a F150, but we would be topping out the range.

Gas – As a dedicated towing vehicle, diesel. Since I will be sashaying about, gas.

Extended Cab – Didn’t want to drag around the weight. Don’t need the seating. In 3+ years, we’ve had a human in the backseat of the Fiat [Stocking] once, for 10 minutes.

2WD – Excess weight. Previous truck was 2WD. Never felt the lack of 4WD.

XLT – Spent way too long trying to get dealers to explain the difference between the XL with add-ons and the XTL package.

White – Extended cabs are work trucks. Work trucks come in white. We would’ve had to order to get color. Didn’t feel strongly enough about it.

New – Used trucks were not a bargain. A truck with 2/3 of a useful life would be 2/3 the price. Or high-mileage. Or deluxe diesel crew cabs.

No Hitch – Ford no longer has this as an option. (?!?) Since it will be after-market anyway, we are having done ourselves rather than pay the dealer to arrange.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Rodney Objects

Rodney is not happy. I have been taking long-line/ground-driving lessons at Stepping Stone to improve my groundwork at home.

Rodney is having to cope with pressure. As I improve where I stand in relation to the horse, I am better able to push forward. Rodney doesn’t like the pressure. Suck it up, Cupcake. If we are ever to get anywhere, I have to be able to talk to you without you curling up like a shrimp. This is the least possible amount of pressure that would still register on the scale.

Rodney is having to cope with me. The upside of being an amateur’s horse is personalized attention. The downside is occasional moments of infelicitous rein-handling.

Rodney is having to cope with using his brain. It is SO much easier to give him space to sort himself out when I am standing on the ground 10 feet away rather than sitting on his back.

Rodney does not like having to cope. On Friday, he ran off once he was dismissed. He hasn’t done that in years.

I am choosing to see all of this as signs of growth. Time will tell.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Letter Art, AlphaBooks: C is for Cooper

2017-c

cov-cooper-gr

Pandora
Jilly Cooper
Bantam 2002

This one is about art rather than horses. As with the others, the people are glamorous & ghastly. Their stories are over the top & impossible to put down. Also check out Cooper’s non-fiction, e.g. Class and Turn Right at the Spotted Dog.

Cover image from Goodreads. My copy was not presentable. Letter inspiration:
C

 

 

From Daily Drop Caps by Jessica Hische. “Individuals are welcome to use the drop caps on personal (non-commercial) sites within blog posts”.

C Authors on Rodney’s Saga
Crabtree, Saddle Seat Equitation [Saddle Seat Sidesaddle], [Partial Progresses], [Gearing Up For the Dark Days]
Chong, To The Nines: A Practical Guide To Horse And Rider Turn Out For Dressage, Eventing, And Hunter Jumper Shows [From the Shelves IV]

2017 Alphabet

[B is for Brown]
[A is for Anderson]

[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

Jealousy

We were hangin’ at the barn. Coach Courtney was talking to me and one of the kids, age approximately 15. Coach C said something along the lines of, “X is great at shows.” Then looked at kid. “You are good too.” The specifics are not important. The idea is two individuals described by value-laden words of different weight.

Kid said, in a joking tone that indicates underlying seriousness, “Oh, I see. X is great, but I’m good.” I took her response to be insecurity and a concern for status. I had noticed the word choice on the way by. Had the comment been aimed at me, I would have thought exactly the same thing, for the reasons indicated.

However.

I would not have said it. The one thing I have learned in the intervening years is the wisdom – when I can remember – of keeping my mouth shut. To my mind, true maturity would be not having such thoughts in the first place. Looks like the best I can hope for is to be petty, spiteful, and jealous … inside.

Update, per comment below: I may not have explained the situation sufficiently. It was more about being around that person at the shows than riding ability. Taking it personally was not out of the question. Over-sensitive and not intended, but not outside the realm of interpretation.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Foto Friday: Instagram January 2017

January Instagram pictures from @rodneyssaga.

Comment: ❤ ❤ ❤

6 likes

Comments: Such a cute picture of him!, love the blurry tail wag!

Comment: Looks like F—-'s place.

… in THE South.

 

Procedural note: I have learned to embed Instagram posts rather than cut & paste my feed, as I had been doing before.

igram-jan-2017

Upside: 1) So much easier. 2) Get to keep the captions.

Downside: 1) Bigger images makes the post longer. 2) Pretty sure this is not archiving the posts. Underneath this is a list of links to individual Instagram pages, as with Twitter archive posts [SSF Kitten Tweets]. If Instagram or Twitter goes, so goes the content of the related blog posts. OTOH, is any record truly permanent? The 2,212-year-old Rosetta stone is gonna outlast whatever is done by me & thee.

Neither up nor down: Repeated images from show reports. Not worth clicking over for two photos. Unlike a show’s worth of tweets.

[Instagram December 2016]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Alabama Whips and Wheels Carriage Club

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AWWCC Website
AWWCC Facebook

AWWCC had an organizational meeting at the end of last year. We went. I held off the announcement until the club was official. So far, the plan is for a competition in February, a clinic in April, and fun drive in the summer. I shall keep you posted.

Carriage Clubs, e.g. AWWCC & MTCC, cover combined driving and pleasure driving, which refers either to driving for fun or to Carriage Pleasure Driving classes, see the Pleasure-driving Show at the CAA Carriage Festival. This we do with Coach Kate at Whip Hand Farm.

Saddle seat driving is filed under saddle seat riding, e.g. ASHAA. ASB Show Pleasure Driving, ASB Country Pleasure Driving, Open Pleasure Driving, & Academy Driving are specific classes at saddle seat shows. This we do with Coach Courtney at Stepping Stone Farm.

Confused yet?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

ASHAA Banquet 2017

Saddle Seat Wednesday

Riding Awards
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Champion WTC Adult Showmanship – ribbon & trophy
Champion WTC Adult Equitation – ribbon & trophy
High Point Adult Academy Rider – grooming box with plaque
Groom box passenger is a memento for competing at Nationals

Driving Awards
banquet-2017-2

Reserve Champion Academy Driving – Katherine
Third Place Academy Driving – Greg

Team Stepping Stone

Photo by Becky Anderson
Photo by Becky Anderson

Sure, we have the standard line-up shots. I’ll share them on the Rodney’s Saga Facebook page when I post this. But this may be my all-time favorite banquet photo. If memory serves, I was saying Yay! or Go Team! rather than trying to bite Miss Courtney’s ear off.

Barn Awards
Stepping Stone Farm
High Point Adult Academy
High Point Junior Academy
High Point Junior
High Point Amateur

High Point Academy Barn
High Point Performance Barn

Yes, we swept the awards.
American Saddlebred Horse Show Association of Alabama

~~
2016 Banquet for 2015 Show Year
Annual Awards 2015
Banquet Today

2015 banquet for 2014 show year
Banquet Photos
Why I Ride by Katie Wood
Recursive Photography
State of the Blog: Lightning in a Bottle

2014 Banquet for the 2013 Show Year
Awards
Spotted at the Banquet
Silent Auction

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott