Virtual Brush Box

Alvin’s Big Green Obstacle

One-quarter of our combined driving obstacle

Alas, no group shots, nor action shots from lesson or show [Report]. Maybe next time.

How It’s Made

Raw materials: a pile of out-dated signs

Plus self-stick hook & loop tape, paint, brushes, screws, & screwdriver.

Three of the four loaded up for transport to SSF.

For the show, we had 24 panels in the back of the Fiat.
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Can’t have a photo project without a feline photo bomb.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Show Report II: DRIVING, Fun Show 2016 #3, B&W Stables

Driving Thursday

I went off course. I won.

ASHAA Fun Show
B & W Stables
Hartselle AL, USA
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Academy Driving. Alvin & Katherine, 1st; Alvin & Greg, 2nd.
Thank you to the Wamble family.

To accommodate two drivers with one horse, Greg and I have been doing combined driving patterns at the smaller saddle seat shows, either a single pair of cones [Winter 2016 #1], or a course [Winter 2016 #3, Fun Show 2016 #1]. This time, we set up a portable marathon obstacle. We had a start/finish line, a timer, a four-element obstacle, and a outlying derby cone with ball.

Greg went for the tight, inside turns. His time was 1:06.68.

I opted for wider turns with less risk of stalling out. I’d take a longer line but run faster. It was going great, until I took the sweeping right to swing around from B back to C. Heavy on sweeping; short on turning. I found myself facing B again.

Damn.

I decided to plow ahead. Went thru B. Turned back to D. Skipped C entirely. My time: 1:07-something. I didn’t keep track. I figured I was automatically second.

We gave the judge the option to judge on time & faults, or on style & reinsmanship, or on a combination thereof. I don’t think the judge realize that I was off-course, therefore technically eliminated. To me, the plan of a marathon obstacle is easy to understand. It’s like a jumper course with letters instead of numbers. However, to saddle seat folks, “It’s like a jumper course” is not a useful simile.

Style carried the day.

I’m not sure what the rest of the folks thought of the sudden eruption of combined driving into the middle of their saddle seat show. We designed a fast set-up/take-down to avoid delay. The entire operation took approximately the same time as a regular class. They shouldn’t have had much to complain about. I hope they were amused. We certainly were.

Alvin, of course, was a star about the whole thing. We brought the obstacle to Stepping Stone earlier in the week. By the end of one lesson, Alvin was turnin’ and burnin’ as if he had been doing it all of his life. Wonderful horse!

Tomorrow: obstacle photos.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Update: Coach Kate tells me that, under combined driving rules, we were all eliminated. One is not allowed to go thru D on the way to A, B, or C. I knew this going forwards, but not backwards. As set, the course is not possible to drive legally. Oops. OTOH, once you’ve been through a gate, it’s fair game, i.e. my going thru B a second time did not automatically disqualify me, just added time. I would have been fine had I gone back and picked up C. Had I not eliminated myself going backwards thru D.

Update on the update: Turns out it depends on how one goes out of order. Going backwards thru a later gate is elimination. Going forwards thru a later gate, i.e. A, C, then B, C, D – one of the few mistakes we did NOT make here – is 20 penalty points. Making a mistake and not correcting your course – what I did – is the big E. Coach Kate says double elimination is not a thing, despite my best efforts.

Show Report I: RIDING, Fun Show 2016 #3, B&W Stables

Saddle Seat Wednesday

I lost. Then I won.

ASHAA Fun Show
B & W Stables
Hartselle AL, USA
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Academy Showmanship WTC Adult with Sultan’s Miracle Man, 3rd of 3
Academy Equitation WTC Adult with Sultan’s Miracle Man, 1st of 3
Thank you to Courtney Huguley for the marvelous Sam.

Error One: Gravitational Vortex
I adore Sam, but he’s not one to do more work than required. I’ve known this from day one [Sam I Am]. He gradually relaxes his frame, pulling the rider forward as he goes. He gradually slows down, pulling the rider into expending more and more effort. He’s sneaky about it, so one must be vigilant.

At the show, we warmed up full of vim & vigor. Inside. In the shade. When we went out in the sun for our first class, Sam eased down a gear. I got sucked in. The ringside advisory committee reminded me to sit back. When I tried to pull us out of the downward spiral, Sam knew that my responses were limited while we were within the show ring. We discussed the situation in the break between classes.

Me: Excuse me, Sir, I politely request that you shoulder your half of the load.
Sam: Well, if you put it that way.

We went back in and sparkled.

Error Two: Sartorial Choices
I wore the wrong shirt. When Greg started driving, I bought coordinating short-sleeved shirts for us to wear. Mine is hot pink. His is green. I forgot this. Cast ‘locate shirt.’ It is a driving shirt? Check. The extra material luffed in the breeze, looking unkempt and rounding the shoulders I was trying so hard to hold back.

Also, I put on the wrong top undergarment; one for daily wear and lessons, not my special show undergarment [Ladies Only, Thank You].This was not a visually suitable choice. Apparently.

Clearly, a good shirt (and bra) will not cover up bad riding. But since I am strong on technical but weak on artistic merit [Boot Camp 2015,2], a sloppy outfit does not help the elegant, effortless image I am supposed to be projecting.

As I said in the report for this show last year,

Energetic? Dynamic? Entertaining? All day long.
Still? Pleasant? Harmonious? Never in my life.
[Show Report B&W 2015 #2]

In Sum
I win. I lose. I don’t know why.

All of the above is hindsight. At the time, I thought I was knocking it out of the park. I can’t fix what I can’t sense. Well, I might not be able to fix it anyway, but sensing errors in real-time is the first step. Yes, I have had success [ProAm 2016], but I lack consistency. I can go from winning all classes one day, to no ribbon 24 hours later [NEGA 2016].

It’s possible that I do not possess the ineffable quality necessary for equitation stardom, particulary Southern equitation stardom. Either I never had it or I lost it along the way. [Three Reasons I Suck At Equitation]

Or I am impatient. Not from a sense of entitlement. I operate from a sense that if I was working harder/wasn’t screwing up so badly, I’d have it by now. For any given value of “it.” But, that is too big a topic for the end of a post.

Oh well, I shall see what I can do with what I have and where it gets me. For now, if I want to show, I must equitate.

Bring on the next class!

Tomorrow: Driving.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Widdling Thoughts

In Thoughtful Equestrian: Plan Your Pee, a blogger discusses her horse’s weird urination habits. So, it got me thinking about urination habits around here.

Milton hates to pee in his stall. If he’s in for an hour, if he’s in for three hours, the first thing he does upon exiting is to park out. As the person who cleans up after him, I am pleased with this quirk.

OTOH, Rodney is a proponent of contained urination. He loves the stall. He thinks of it as his. If I give in to his demands to let him in for a few minutes, he checks out the feed bucket, has a big drink (carried water in a bucket tastes so much better than trough water), and pees. He also stomps around the stall, mixing the poop into powder. Rodney is not the chambermaid’s favorite.

Or perhaps he likes padded piddling. If the stall is not available, he has been know to pee on his hay. This does not slow down his consumption of said hay. Perhaps he dislikes splashing?

Recently, once or twice, Rodney has peed after leaving the stall. Is he learning from Milton?

I’ve said all of this before [Daily Routine: Housecleaning, Let Me In]. but not as its own post. Yes, these are the sorts of things, one thinks about when minding horses. In fact, we have added the ability to take a good solid stance to our list of horse evaluation tools.

Speaking of peeing. Have you even noticed that before a class you always have to pee, even if you just came from the rest room? Then, after the class, you’re good to go. You don’t have to pee for the rest of the day. At least, that’s what happens to me.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch, Sept 2016

I’m sitting on Rodney. He’s wearing a bit. From a Rodney perspective, this is progress. When I consider that the American Eventing Championships were held at the beginning of the month, when I consider that I once had the plan of winning the AEC with Rodney, I feel stuck in mud. [Countdown]

Milton is doing great with ground driving. He’s been introduced to a proto-cart, which he thought was weird, but go over quickly. He took serious, airborne objection to the feel of the new crupper [Equipment]. We are told this is perfectly normal.
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Gratuitous Guest Cat Photo