Circuit Champ 2018

We were soundly beaten by a thirteen year old. But since my rider was in the 18 and over age group, we were technically in different classes and awarded separately, even though we did the exact same 0.95 meter jumping course.

Princess tends to jump right into things, so let me give you the whole story. The 2018 Sonoma Horse Park season is 7 horse shows spread out from May to September. I participated in four of them. Amazingly, we climbed up to second place in the accumulated points towards a circuit championship in the division of Modified Adult Jumpers (meaning low jumps). In the second to last show, we did not do very well and dropped to third. I considered not bothering to enter the last show, if the prior week was any prediction. But barn mates encouraged me, "But you're so close..."

So another Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent walking the course, counting strides, planning the inside turns to shave off time, and mulling over anything and everything that could go wrong. I vanished those thoughts as soon as they entered my head.

Friday's round was not a great outing and completely my fault. I was so surprised she jumped the scary Kastel jump that I sailed past fence 5, having to circle and accumulating 4 jumper faults and a time fault to boot. That left only two rounds to get our act together.

Saturday, big win! Sunday, a good rider with a really fast a brave horse was just ahead of me. They had a stellar round but did not make one inside turn in the jump off. That was my window if we could accomplish it. We were clear for the power phase then proceeding to the jump off. We jumped the aforementioned Kastel jump without drama and made a 90 degree turn within one stride to a vertical at a ridiculously sharp angle. Princess was a little surprised and rapped it but it stayed up. We completed the course with one more tight turn and a steady 8 to the last oxer and sneaked by the previous time by a full second. Winner, division champ and circuit champ sewed up.

I sheepishly asked the winning 17 and under champ how old she was. Translation: how soon will I have to compete against that speedster? She was two seconds faster than me. Her trainer laughed. "She's thirteen!" Quick math, by the time she is 18, I'll be 70 and just watching. Plus, with her skills, she'll be jumping mush higher.

Timely Timer Change

Last Sunday, Princess and I entered the final class of our division, Modified Amateur Jumpers 0.95m. The day prior, she took issue with one jump and stopped. Theories abounded why she had a brief anxiety attack and shut down with a slide stop like a reining horse. Was it the writing on the jump and she was worried that she couldn't read every word before completing the obstacle? What if it had stated, "Alligator Crossing, Beware" and we blithely sailed over, disturbing its mid day nap with dire consequences?

But we had a plan: jump something scarier in the warm up. I voted for taping up the NYT expose on Trump's latest misdirected directive, but instead Lindsay swung a horse blanket over a vertical in the center of the warm up ring. This is a notoriously unnerving obstacle for any quadruped. Moving gently in the wind, any lion or tiger or bear could crawl out and give chase. She must have cleared it by three feet judging by the g-forces I felt.

Ready, I spotted an open gate and asked Tyrell politely if we could enter. Just inside, the judge announced, "Hold on, we need a battery change at one of the timers." I picked up the trot and figured eighted the scary fence two times, side stepping ever nearer each pass. When feeling compliant, I heard the starter buzz and we could proceed. Her adrenaline level was still elevated from show excitement and the activating warm up, but there was no hesitation at all at the famous Kastel jump! A win and division championship to boot, Princess chose a doggy jacket for Winston as the prize.

Echo and Iris

There is nothing like teaching to make you learn something. I was asked by by former guild, the Tamalpais Textile Arts Guild, to give a talk on Echo and Iris. I learned this new technique by reading books, not by attended a workshop. Normally I am a hands-on learner. The deadline gave me instant impetus to get my act together, stop merely copying other people's drafts, and gain an understanding of the structure to be able to create my own and explain it as well.

A very short presentation was followed by lots of samples of my collection handed around. I finished the scarf above at 5 pm, just in time to start driving to Marin.

Sources:

Network Drafting: An Introduction, Alice Schlein

Exploring Multishaft Design, Bonnie Inouye

Weaving with Echo and Iris, Marian Stubenitsky

Too Pinterest links to count!

https://evasweaving.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/interleaved-echo-weave/

http://www.weavezine.com/content/flowing-curves-network-drafted-twill.html

http://weaverly.typepad.com/weaverly/2016/04/jeans-twill.html

https://evasweaving.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/interleaved-echo-weave/

Top: 8/2 Tencel warp Deep Coral and Blue Purple. Weft Lemongrass
Bottom: Weft Olive, treadling reduced to 144 repeat

Murrum on the Jump

Firstly, who is Murrum? Murrum is a beautiful black cat with striking white markings. She lives at the barn, fending for herself all alone in a world of off-leash dogs, coyotes, raccoons, and whoever else appears with darkness. She is a great mouser and rather acrobatic. And she is unusually dog-like. When Lindsay takes her horse for a walk with her two dogs, the cat comes along like a third canine, for miles!

But more about her acrobatic endeavors. Sunday morning, private lesson, Princess and I were doing a simple exercise jumping a small plank jump, proceeding straight for 2 strides, then forming a perfect circle and coming forward to the plank again. I saw Murrum on the jump right next to my goal. All these thoughts raced through my head in succession.

1. Will she stay there or move forward to my jump?
2. As predicted, she did, sauntering across this top of the jump as nonchalantly an The Man on the Wire.
3. Will Princess jump the jump with the cat on it?
4. How high over a moving feline will that effort be? Can I stay on her with that level of surprised effort?
5. No, better to pull up and wait for kitty to complete the crossing.

I pulled up and said "I can't do that" though I was secretly tempted but thought better of it. Everyone else in the ring could not understand why I wouldn't jump a tiny obstacle with everything seemingly set up so perfectly. Then they saw the cat and finally understood I was not being chicken.

Moral of the story: Say something more clear, like "There is a cat walking across my jump and I don't was Princess to get Post-feline-traumatic-stress-jumping-disorder" so your buddies don't think you are a wimp. There is always a back story.