Virtual Brush Box

A straight-up indulgence. The goal is to wear them only in the show ring, take them off immediately after each class, and resell them through Commotion when I am done equitating.

Goal!

After putzing about for the summer, I had dropped my weight from 160 to 158. Bleh. We – the culinary we – got serious at the beginning of August. The objective was 5 pounds a month. The method was straight-up calorie count. My in-house nutrition advisor doesn’t hold with variety diets. It all turns into the same sludge in the end. The question is how one wishes to ingest those calories.

He feels the problem with sugary foods is not any inherent evil, but that it is so easy to snarf down way too many calories in one go. A few weeks ago, someone brought glazed donuts to fire meeting. I had two. I was appalled when I got home to find out that I had inhaled a dinner’s worth of calories (380) in under a minute.

Daily allotment was 1500 calories a day. Three meals totaled 900 to 1000 calories. Daily doses of o.j., V8, & cranberry juice came to 200. That left me ~300 calories to play with. Some days it was Gatorade & raisins. Most days it was Coke. Despite my brave words back in April [Motivation], I still can’t shake the red can habit.

I had a few days under 1500, a few days over 1500, and one or two days way over. The overall trend was downward and under 2000 calories. Of course, this works best if one has a personal chef who is willing to make tasty 300-calorie meals.

Oddly, before swimming I weighed 150.1. The photo was taken after swimming, dry, with slightly damp hair. The body absorbs half a pound of chlorinated pool water? Creepy.

What does this have to do with horses? The entire drive behind the body modification was so that I could button my show vest and not look like a sausage in my jods.

Charles Owen microsuede. Much sleeker than the less expensive schooling helmets I usually have. One has to pay more to get the same safety rating with less material.

Yes, it is a Charles Owen, but from the “lower” end of their price range. The number induces slight staggering rather than a full-on faint.

Since I am often the only one in my saddle seat academy classes with a helmet, I went for as traditional and as elegant a look as possible. Also usable for dressage and hunters.

My legs are well placed, as usual. Nice angle with the feet. Stirrups need to be on ball of foot. Upper body still pitched a little bit too far forward into hunt seat mode. I should sit back to give the horse’s front end room to come up. Arms and hands too floppy. I should be gathering the horse rather than giving to. Looking up! Hat needs to be settled further down in front.

Bingo looks happy. He wasn’t.

Samples scanned. Cut-outs drawn with GIMP. Hand-drawn cutouts would have had more sympathetic shapes but less precise edges. A trade-off.

Continuing to post the entries from my previous monthly blogs Back To Eventing and Back To Riding. This was originally posted on the USEA website Tue, 2010-10-26, archived here.

Back To Eventing: Installment 3 – The AEC, a Realization in Five Phases
by Katherine Walcott
(The author chronicles her return to eventing after 20 years as a jumper rider)

“Have a wonderful time, and let the games begin!” Carl M. Bouckaert
Event Program, 2010 Land Rover USEA American Eventing Championships and Festival of Eventing

[For those only familiar with the short format, eventing used to have 4 phases: A – Roads & Tracks, B – Steeplechase, C – Roads & Tracks, D – Cross Country, plus until 1967, E – Run In.]

A – Roadtrip & Temptation
Since my publicly stated goal is to win the Training AEC, I went over to Georgia to scope out my future. So what did I learn?

I learned that Chattahoochee Hills is huge: six dressage rings, a stall assignment list that ran to 12 pages, and a parking lot that doubled as a horse trailer trade show. Yet, it felt neither squashed nor sprawled. The cross-country warm-up contained three stadium jumps, four permanent jumps and eight horses zooming about with plenty of room.

I learned that I am greedy. The USDF offers three medals covering First to Grand Prix. The USEA awards three medals for each level. A USDF medal represents years of work. A USEA medal could represent one good season. I believed this watered down the impact of a USEA medal, until I saw one on a friend’s lapel. I want one. I want them all.

B – Sidebar
Pause for rant.

During cross-country, it is your horse’s job to perform to the best of his ability. After cross-country, it is your turn. I do not care if it is a long walk back to the barn. He is a tired athlete, not a shuttle service to cart your sorry ass to the stable area. Get off, remove the saddle, and sponge him down, if possible. Now would be a good time to take off your helmet and vest, but I’m less concerned about you. If you don’t have helpers to carry your saddle back, carry it yourself. If you are not fit enough to do a proper job as a rider, go home and come back when you are.

Rant ends.

C – Reflection & Trepidation
I learned that competitions can be disheartening. On my last ride before leaving for Georgia, New Horse didn’t pay me the slightest attention. He only slowed down because he overshot a turn and objected to wading through tall grass. When I tried him, I had an outstanding ride that was indoors, flat, and supervised. My ring is none of the above. Intellectually, I saw daylight. Emotionally, I saw a vast distance between the cross-country in front of me and the amount of control I currently possessed.

D – Course Comments
I learned that fences have changed. Gone are the hay bales, old tires, and slender tree limbs we jumped in my youth. Today’s fences look better than my furniture. I also need to master narrow and angled fences. WEG was all about holding your line.

I learned that courses now run back and forth over open areas, which is easy to watch but hard to ride. Even with ropes, the paths crossed and riders would zip down the wrong galloping lane. Another lower level event had the same format, albeit unroped. Does compact and manageable mean we lose scenic? Doesn’t anyone canter through the woods on shady trails anymore?

E – Reaffirm Intent
Finally, I learned competitions can be invigorating. I stand by my goal of winning this sucker. As for specifying which year, I have no comment.

~~~
Rodney’s Saga Repost locations
BTE 1 of 9: How I Won the Training Level AEC
BTE 2 of 9: The Cast Assembles