Horses in the Grocery Store I
List of Posts: Logos & Other Horse Art
Elegance Evolves
I seem to have helmets on my mind lately. (Helmets -> mind -> head? No? Well, at least I amuse myself.)
Last Thursday, I made a point of getting my paws on our iPad2 for the day so I could stream the sidesaddle division from Penn National. Back when I showed, we wore top hats for the flat and helmets over fences. In retrospect, duh. In my flimsy defense, I was always at the forefront of what was considered safe at the time. We have just gotten collectively smarter over the years. When the ASTM certifications came out, huntcaps were listed in catalogs as “Item of apparel only.” I had already stopped wearing them. Riding an OTTB helped with that decision. But I digress.
The Ladies Hunter Sidesaddle Under Saddle (non-jumping) class had five entries. Four wore standard plastic hardshells. In the interest of maintaining my helmet evangelist street cred, I will will only say that the helmets looked … practical. One woman had a black velvet, low-profile helmet with a fitted brown leather harness. I thought it looked just as lovely and elegant as a top hat.
It’s all what we are used to seeing. In another class, a rider had black stirrup irons. I imagine the idea was to blend,to not have the silver color stand out. However, I am so used to seeing that bit of shiny silver at the end of the rider’s leg that I don’t even notice it. The black irons drew my eye by omission. Where were her stirrups? Oh, there. I spent more time staring at her leg than I would have had she used standard stirrups. Similar tricks have been used for helmet harnesses. Clear plastic is supposed to be invisible, but sparkles in the light. Black straps are too much of one color in one place. Nylon is too sporty for traditional turnout. Simple brown leather straps fade into the background of all the other tack draped around the horse. In addition, her harness fit. It didn’t hang under her chin like a third jowl.
Progress doesn’t have to be ugly.
As I have said before, I love awards ceremonies, watching as well as riding in. For the Penn National classes, a friend with whom I used to show sidesaddle was the presenter. Cool.
Foto Friday: Out. Standing. In Fog.
Other Writing: USDF Connection October 2013
“Judge Manning, Judge Manning Horse Transportation”
October 2013
USDF Connection
United States Dressage Federation
A short interview with a horse shipper.
Helmets at Shows, Postscript
I have said this before but it bears repeating: the saddleseat world has been totally cool with my helmet.
Helmets are not traditional saddleseat wear. Performance classes wear derbies or top hats, academy riders wear nothing. I, OTOH, wear an ASTM helmet with harness. I am nigh-on always in the minority, for both lessons and shows. However, I have not heard a negative word, seen a raised eyebrow, nor imagined a whisper of criticism aimed in my direction.
Personally, I got more static from the hunter world when the first, and supremely ugly, ASTM helmets came out back in the 90s. The materials were less space age, so the profile was far larger. The helmets looked as if an old Styrofoam bike helmet had been covered in black velveteen. We called them mushroom hats.
Currently, the dressage and eventing dressage worlds are undergoing helmet realignment. I am not in either world to gauge what is being said in person, but I have heard haughty sniffing noises in the media.
Score one for the saddleseat folks.
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Gratuitous Sunset Picture
Taken from the top of our pasture during an evening dog walk.
Show Report: Alabama Charity Championship, Decatur AL
After the accusations of being less than calm at the last show [Report], I spent a lot of time minutely examining the whys and wherefores of keeping myself still when I ride, particularly keeping my head still. I came up with a hatful of theories. I didn’t use a single one.
Bring It On
As I zinged into the ring for the first class, I thought, ‘Eeek, my horse is running away with me.’ With Trump, I have learned that I cannot stop his energy. The best I can do is contain it. I decide to try this with Alvin. To which this veteran show horse responded, ‘Ooooooh, are you ready to party? Let’s rock!’
To the extent that Academy Equitation and Academy Showmanship are judged differently, I was fortunate that Showmanship came first. They are usually the other way around. In the first class, we were jazzin’. On a scale of 1 = lesson horse and 5 = five gaited at Louisville, my instructor says I got it cranked up to a 2, or even a 3 on occasion. In the Equitation class, Alvin was a hair steadier, allowing me time to perform the equitation equivalent of sticking my pinkies out.
At the end of our second victory pass, I finally lost positive control. I was trying for big, expressive trot. I got canter. I didn’t have the heart to haul him back down. I’ve always been a sucker for a victory gallop.
She looked around: the other horses were showing signs of stress as well … Corlath’s Fireheart was standing on his hind legs again; the king could bring him down as he chose, but Harry rather thought the horse was expressing the mood of both of them.
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley [Greenwillow 1982/Ace 2007 p. 187]
My First Step Into a Larger World
Aside from the above, I have no words about events during my classes. As I came around the top of the ring, my instructor patted the ring wall in front of her, indicating that I should head for that point and do a diamond turn [Begins]. The analytic side of my brain registered, ‘Sharp turn. That means I need to keep my horse on the outside rein.’ To which the operational side of my brain replied, ‘Nope. Too busy riding to listen to you.’ I was assessing too much input too fast for my internal word generator to process the data into sentence form. I was riding instead of thinking about riding. People have been trying to get me to do this since I was 15.
Doug Shiflet Photography
View Proofs button or Horse Show Proofs icon > 2013 Alabama Charity > Saturday Morning > 124 – Aca Showmanship WT Adult, 126 – Aca Equitation WT Adult > black horse, blue vest, (only) helmet. Download rant, per usual [Photo Disclaimer Rant].
Photos of note. In the background of photo 124-022-AC13/first class/Showmanship, you can see a woman in a blue Stepping Stone t-shirt. This is Julie W., owner of Alvin. Clearly she is about to tell me, “Chin up” because in the next photo, 124-023-AC13, I have my head tilted so far back that it looks as if my eyes are closed. In the last photo of my day, 126-037-AC13/second class/Equitation, I have a rather happy if goofy expression, I have fallen backwards, and Alvin’s hindquarters have dropped about a foot. This is probably just before he cantered off. We are clearly go for launch.
Alvin sightings in three other classes: with his owner, Rachel, in 110 – 3 Gaited Country Pleas Novice Rider (pink coat) and with another Academy student in 129A/123A – Aca Equitation/Showmanship WT 9 and 10 – Section A (light green vest). Sam is also in the two 9-10 classes (chestnut horse, blue vest). In this show, all juniors in Academy were required to wear helmets. I heard a fair bit of squeaking on the subject. I took a deep breath and stayed silent. Words will not change minds. All I can do is wear my helmet and represent. Every ride, every time.
Final Note
Thanks once more to Rachel and Julie Wamble for sharing Alvin.
Next Stop: Nationals.
Learning Styles
Crazy Opinionated Jumper Mare [pictured here and here] learned like lightning. She could scope out the height of an entire course as she trotted through the ingate. The only time I ever felt her unsure of a fence height was at an evening show. The ring was covered, the lights were low-power, and the sun was setting. Result, funky illumination. I could see the jumps. She could see the jumps. I didn’t realize that she didn’t have a grasp of the fine details until we were on course. She could see the standards. She could see the poles, kinda. Her solution was to clear the standards and assume the poles would pass under her hooves. Wheee-ha! Other than that, she was always aware of her surroundings.
Previous Horse never got the idea that jumps could be raised. We would jump a course. My jump crew would reset the fences. We would follow the jump crew around as he set the fences. We would pick up a canter, head toward the fence, and it would come as a complete surprise to the horse that the jumps had changed.
Rodney needs to go back to kindergarten. Always. Every time. When a horse (person, dog, ferret-in-training) has a good day, a trainer has three choices: increase the exercise, stay the same, drop it down. Since he appears to have anxiety issues, asking for more is out. I keep thinking that asking him to repeat what he has just done successfully would build his confidence. Nope. No matter how calm he appears, we have to go back to simple, simple, simple. The parallel in jumping would be if we schooled 3’6″ – a dog can dream -, we would have to drop back to trotting cross-rails on the buckle to reestablish a baseline. I suspect this will always be the case. I suspect I will always be relearning this lesson.
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Gratuitous Cat Picture
Virtual Brush Box 