My existence is not political.
My life
Gettysburg Trail Riding
The Gettysburg battlefields are about an hour away from me. Because of this fact, I haven’t walked them in over ten years. I think the last time I visited them was an 8th grade field trip. When you live close to an iconic location the whole I’ll go to it in the spring or I’ll go visit when tourist season is over becomes a phrase uttered for years.
This changed in November.
The Gettysburg Trail Ride took place over the second weekend in November. It’s been occurring since the early 2000s.
This was my first year attending it. My schedule just didn’t mesh with the ride in previous years. The festivities began on Friday, but I opted to drive up on Saturday to hang out for the day.
After breakfast, it was time to start grooming and tacking up. Nova was first before I tacked up Lady.
Riders came from NY, Maryland, and other parts of PA.
It was a great mix of riders.
And then we were off!
We rode trails for about 2-3 hours.
We rode through the battlefields, and it couldn’t have been a prettier day. Nova did a lot of firsts. She crossed a steam with water, crossed over a bridge and dealt with crossing the road with cars.
We took a few breaks.
Which meant photo ops.
I’d love to do this in the spring and be able to go at my own pace to really look at the different monuments.
Group photo.
I throughly enjoyed this ride!
In Which I Find My Throne
A week after Breyerfest, I boarded the train in Harrisburg to NYC. I love flying, but traveling by train has become a very close second in terms of my favorite modes of travel. When book events are out of driving range, a train is the ideal replacement. You can check a bunch of luggage and have numerous carry ons for free. I’d love to travel to a model horse show by train one day. Anyyyywayssss.
This was my second trip to NYC for the summer. The first trip was book related and this final trip was too.
This was for the RWA conference, or Romance Writers of America conference. Instead of BookExpo, where I went solely as an industry person, I went to this event as a hybrid–industry person and writer. Every other year RWA conference is located on the East Coast and I didn’t want to miss it since it was 3 1/2 hours away. Plus it’s my second year of membership and figured this was the perfect way to be more involved.
I stayed at the Marquitt on Time Square. It was amazing.
Before the start of the conference, I wandered around Times Square.
As we signed in I noticed this. Michelle was Bookseller of the Year so I made her take picture with her face.
And then it began.
RWA is about craft, industry people, and books.
There were many many book signings. In these book signings you didn’t need to bring a single book with you. The authors had a set amount of books to be given away by their publishers or themselves, if the author was indie.
I went to many signings. Imagine the NPOD, but with books in a smaller space.
I met awesome authors, and told people to come to Pennsylvania to do signings.
I belong to the local chapter of RWA, and many chapter members also attended RWA. When we could we ate dinner together. We ate a lot at this restaurant.
It was wonderful and the cheesecake was to die for.
Michelle’s friend gave us tickets to see Frankie and Johnny. I had no idea about what it was about going in. It wasn’t bad, but I feel as if I wasn’t the target age.
Then we had a chance to see Wicked. I read the novel years ago and had been told for forever that the play was amazing.
Before getting seats, we found police horses.
I found my throne.
Wicked was spectacular. It was visually stunning, the singing was beautiful, and just everything. I loved it more than the book by far. Not that there was anything wrong with the book, but it just worked so well as a play.
When the conference was over, I took a loot photo.
And then it was time to lug everything home. I enjoyed the conference, and hopefully I can make it when it’s on the east coast again!
Bill Pickett Rodeo History 2019 Part 1
On Saturday, I drove to Maryland along with two fellow barn mates.
We were all buzzing with excitement because of the reason: The Bill Pickett Rodeo.
The last time I’d attended was two years ago.
We brought two horses from the farm.
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| Don Jr with his horse, Dolly. |
I borrowed this wonderful paint mare from a Maryland friend(I cannot for the life of me remember what the mare’s name is).
I rode in the opening ceremony.
It was fantastic.
I was excited about what this year would bring. This was the Bill Pickett Rodeo’s 35th year.
I never knew about the rodeo until two years ago. In all of the years I subscribed to the main horse magazines I never saw any mention of it.
So here’s a bit of history about it.
Lu Vason attended the Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1977, and noticed the lack of Black cowboys participating. Curiosity captured him. Were people aware of the cultural history of Black cowboys? He did some digging and created an all-Black rodeo called the Bill Pickett Invitation Rodeo. He wanted to break the narrative of Black people not being present in the story of the west. He named the rodeo after Bill Pickett. Bill Pickett is credited with creating the technique of bulldogging.
Vance said, “People knew the name Will Rogers. But who they hadn’t heard of was Bill Picket and if they had, they didn’t know he was Black.”
He wanted to use the rodeo as a way to educate people, and to create a new business.
The first Bill Pickett Rodeo was held in 1984 in Denver, Colorado. Today, the rodeo brings in over 130,000 spectators across the United States. Both of the Maryland shows on Saturday were sold out.
In the last two or so years, major non-equestrian publications such as Smithsonian magazine, New York Times and The New Yorker have covered the history of Black western riders and the white washing of the American west. Black Reins was created in 2013 to spotlight the black cowboy and to “shed light and represent the strong tradition of these heroes–both men and women-who have been left out of mainstream media publications…..” They also highlight diverse riders on their Facebook page.
Vance passed away in 2015. He said, “The Rodeo is education; I’m trying to promote the culture of the Black west. A lot of people can’t relate to the pyramids in Africa. I believe a lot of us can better relate to Black Americans who were a part of developing this country.”
Kristian Beverly 