I left you guys on a cliffhanger yesterday. Sorry not sorry.

Anyway, I entered Bingo in his first Beginner Novice this past weekend at Florida Horse Park! Which was also, for those keeping track, his second event, and my first event with him. He’s a pretty big dude and he’s been schooling great, so I felt pretty confident that BN would be totally fine. He did the Starter last month as his first show, so coming back to the same venue seemed like a easy choice, and I thought that making the jumps a little bit bigger might actually be easier for me. It gives me something a little more substantial to be able to ride him up to, which often helps the big and brave ones a little bit.

We started the day off pretty bright and early since I had a dressage time at 8:42. I wanted to be there about an hour ahead of time so I could unload, get my number, tack up, and have ample time to figure out how he was going to be about warmup traffic. On a regular day I’d say he takes maybe 15-20 minutes to get warmed up well, but I wanted to have extra time just in case he had any come-aparts about all the other horses buzzing around.

I went up to warmup and there were a lot of horses in the ring, so I opted to start out with my walking and trotting in a little grass area next to the warmup ring. I figured I’d see how he was out there by himself and then decide if I felt like he could handle being in the actual warmup. And to his immense credit, he was great. We spent maybe 5-10 minutes out in the grass, during which the warmup ring cleared up a little bit, so I took the opportunity to dip in and see how it went. I was very strategic about my paths to make sure he didn’t get in any tight spots, but regardless he handled all the horses very well, like a little professional, and we were able to finish our w/t/c warmup in there like a real bonafide big boy even amidst kids, ponies, and pros on their other very green baby horses.

I was able to give him a nice little walk break, then picked up the trot again as the person before us was about halfway through his test. Then we headed in, making our way all the way down to ring 3. I trotted left around the ring first, so he could see the judge’s booth, then turned around and came back past it the other way. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to make sure he saw it out of both sides of his brain before we had to trot straight towards it.

This is also the part where I put in a small disclaimer that I learned my dressage test on the way to the show (sorry Peter Gray, I know that’s a pet peeve), I have never ridden Bingo in a dressage ring or any enclosed space this small, and it was precisely his second time ever being in a 20×40 in his whole life. Have I mentioned he’s over 17h tall, approximately 75′ long, and brand new to all this?

Anyway, I thought he was actually superb, given where he’s at.

He was obedient, there were no major bobbles, and he had good forward energy. There were definitely places where the geometry could have been better (that first canter circle was wildly ovular), and getting him a little more up in the base of his neck while also maintaining some bend around my inside leg remains a work in progress. Also, he is so big – and just not particularly supple and elastic yet at this stage – that I can confirm it feels a lot like riding a cruise ship in a koi pond. But, honestly… what more could you want from a kiddo that’s literally just starting out in a new career? He tried his best, and he was steady and rhythmical and consistent in the contact.

When we finished, the judge said he had a lovely tempo and rhythm and that if I rode the corners better he would get significantly better marks. I smiled and said thank you, while thinking to myself “I was mostly just glad he went the direction I asked and stayed in the ring” but ya know. LOL. We will get to the point where we can worry more about the corners and I can actually ride them in a more deliberate way – alas we aren’t quite there yet. Then again, if she thought he looked good enough to where his loss of balance in the corners was our biggest problem, I’ll absolutely take that. Our first dressage test, done and dusted! He scored a 36 to sit 6th out of 20 (the judge was equally picky to all of us, no free points were given away that morning, which I don’t mind at all since she was consistent. Almost half of the division scored over 40 and I thought I saw some pretty decent tests for BN.).

After that he got hosed off and I put him back on the trailer with his fan and his hay net while I went and walked show jumping.

Which is also when it occurred to me that I don’t think he’s ever jumped a 2 stride yet. There was never one set in the ring during the month he was in training, and I’ve never jumped him through one. But ya know, he’s clever and bold so that part should probably be fine, right? My bigger concern about it was that 6ab was right next to the small section of covered bleachers, which I thought might provide just enough distraction to make the 2 stride even a bit more difficult. Bingo is a pretty brave jumper, it’s more a matter of controlling his shoulders and making sure he doesn’t just barrel right through my hand, but I knew I’d have to ride pretty positively there.

SJ warmup was much more chaotic, so I was pretty careful about it. I’m trying to be very aware of the fact that horse shyness is an issue for him, and while I don’t want to baby him and avoid putting him in situations that he’s going to have to learn how to handle, I do want to make sure that I’m being fair to him and make these outings build his confidence rather than take it away. So I looked for little time gaps where things were quieter, kept it as brief as possible, and left the ring to let him stand and chill when I thought it was getting just a bit too exciting in there. While it does mean that our warmup was briefer and more stilted than I would have preferred, particularly the flatwork (I really needed another 5-10 minutes to get that shoulder and cement my half-halt… basic rideability stuff), I do think it was the right choice. He was able to handle it all with no explosions and not too much tension, and I think he’ll be better off for it next time. Sometimes you have to pick your battles.

So I went in the ring with a calmer, not-overwhelmed horse, but I could have used a little more rideability in a couple of the corners. Regardless, he was stinkin cute.

The first jump was a single oxer, and I could feel that he was slightly wide-eyed taking in the sights of the ring, but he was still just absolutely dead honest and happy to jump what was in front of him. We landed from that one and made the very long turn around the end of the ring and back up the middle to a 6 stride line. He got slightly wiggly through the left shoulder there, but it rode well anyway and he jumped well. Then we landed and turned right to a single oxer, again he was good to that, then up the outside line with a 5 stride line to the 2 stride. A decent ask for a BN horse, especially going past the bleachers. He got a little green and wiggly down that line for sure, and I really had to ride him forward to make sure the two worked, but he kept going. Good boy points.

Of course, because I had to ride him forward to the two stride, he landed a bit strong in my hand, and trying to make the turn to the next jump was NOT EASY. He was a little bit of a speedy train there, I had to reaaaally get him back to even make it to 7, and we definitely were not straight. Again though, he was honest and happily popped over it once I got him steered in the right direction. He landed from that one much more civilly and we just cantered nicely all the way back up the middle of the ring and jumped the last oxer, which was super.

Overall there were definitely some green spots, but I couldn’t have been happier with how willing and brave he was. That was, after all, like… the 5th course we’ve ever jumped together? He had one rail just ticking the pole with his hind toe, but no biggie. I was actually quite pleased with his shape in the air and how well he jumped all the ones we were actually straight to. He’s starting to figure it out. It’s a lot of leg and body to put together. And again, the rideability will come along more with time (especially once I feel like he’s a little happier in warmup and I can spend more time there).

I was trying to beat an incoming storm, so I wasted no time in slapping his XC boots on, putting my vest on, and then heading across the driveway to XC warmup. I started trotting immediately, popped over a little log, let him canter away and came back around to a little house, and then called it good. He was already warmed up from SJ, so it was mostly about him understanding that we were moving on to the solid jumps in the field now. Luckily everyone else was also wanting to beat the weather, so they were just taking people as they came to the start box. The volunteer in the chase cart gave me a 10 second countdown, and then off we went!

And Bingy walked into the start box like “OH – are we doing that runny jumpy thing now?!”. It was adorable. We trotted out, I let him pick up the canter on his own, and he locked right on to his first fence, a little roll top. He landed from that one a little strong (can confirm, there is enthusiasm for XC already) so I had to really ask him to slow back down to a quiet canter. He popped over the log ramp at 2, then we made a turn back to a little house at 3. After that we had to canter past some N and T jumps, one of which featured some dead palm fronds that were very rustley in the wind, and he spooked a bit sideways away from that. Fair enough. Luckily we were plenty far away from our fence 4 for me to get him back off my left leg and onto a straight path, no problem.

Fence 4 was the big hammock, which was pretty wide and airy, and had some hay bales under it. It’s big and spooky for BN. He met that one great though, and jumped it with enthusiasm.

He was very proud of himself for that one, and landed and thought maybe he should take me for a bit of a gallop. I, however, did not think we should go for a bit of a gallop. We had a discussion there about the whoa and whether or not it was required on XC (much to Bingy’s chagrin, it certainly IS), but the discussion was over by the time we got to the next jump, which was the rolltop before the first water. He jumped that great, popped into the water, cantered through, and then we came out around a turn (and past the shaded spot where several people were sitting – he gave them a very slight eyeball of suspicion) and forward to the next jump, a square table.

Then we had to yoink left to head to the half coffin – a ditch with 6 strides to another rolltop. On the way to this he could hear some machinery making noise, and got a little bit distracted looking for goblins in the tree line. Bless him though, he still kept going and jumped everything I put in front of him, it was just a bit less focused. Then it was down to the wagon before making the turn back towards the next water. There we had a house several strides out from the water, through the water, and out over a small hanging log.

My dumb ass almost dropped my whip going into the water, and in my effort to grab it, I managed to get my reins so tangled that I’m pretty sure for a second there I was holding them in the wrong hands. Yes, it’s my first day on a horse. Don’t mind me. It made our trajectory to the hanging log very drunken, but ya know… we got there in the end. Good boy Bingy.

After that it was just a nice canter around the bridge to the last jump, a little log oxer, and through the finish. I haven’t worn a watch since Presto moved up to Modified a couple years ago, so I have no idea where mine even is and definitely did not wear it for this show. I figured we’d just lope around and focus more on how it felt. I had no clue what optimum time was anyway, I had to go look it up for y’alls sake. The online map says it was OT 4:26 with Speed Fault at 3:26, and we came in at 3:57, so pretty close to bang on in the middle.

Gold stars for Bingy! He did pull on me more than I would prefer, BUT he also came back to me every time I insisted. Again these are rideability and balance and strength issues that are all part of it, at this stage. He also got better as he went around, as some of the excitement wore off and he settled into the task. All good things. He ended up finishing 7th, adding just that one rail to his dressage score.

At no point during the day did he ever tell me no, or feel like he wasn’t confident in what I was asking him to do. There were green horse things, sure, but he was just so game and really had his “thinking” brain on. I’m so impressed with him. It was also just a generally easy and drama-free day, with him being a well-behaved creature that self-loaded, hauled and stood like a champ, didn’t do any screaming, etc etc. So pleasant.

I’m also really glad we went ahead and did this on our own, it was SO informative for me to be able to play with all of this stuff by myself, and now I feel like I have a very good idea of exactly what we need to work on at home and in our lessons. It was very informational, which is really the whole point. Very proud of Bingy, and excited to get to feel some glimmers of the horse I think he might eventually be! Fingers crossed the show photographers got something cute.

There are pros and cons to summer in Ocala. The biggest con is the sweating. It’s like… so much sweating. SO MUCH. 24/7 sweating from every pore. But I have to admit that I love living here in the off season, despite being steamed like a pork dumpling on a daily basis.

Once all the seasonal people leave, the whole vibe of the place changes. We get back to things being more relaxed, less formal, more friendly. The traffic eases up a bit and nothing really feels like that big of a deal. There are still lots of horsey activities to do, but it feels more like having options and less like drinking from a fire hose. Winter season here can be really overwhelming in a lot of ways.

And as much as I have loved being in a regular training/lesson program for the past two years (and I have absolutely loved it) I have also really come to appreciate that downtime we take in the summer, too. I feel like I always get a little apprehensive right before we take longer breaks, because, well… I am a neurodivergent that lives and dies by her routines and schedules. Alas, we adapt and we move along, because we have no choice.

Having the breaks usually seems to end up being beneficial, really. I will never be the kind of person that wants to get super dependent on a trainer or having constant professional oversight, so having ample time to go off and do stuff on my own and play around with things… overall I think it’s good. Usually by the end of it I come back to the table with more thoughts and observations and things I want to address, just from having some time to play with it on my own. The same is definitely true now too, after the last 5 weeks.

I have certainly not been lacking for field trips for Bingo and Presto. Between jumper rounds and XC schooling I’ve been taking a couple little adventures every week. With Presto we’re honestly just kind of in maintenance mode, trying to make sure he doesn’t lose the few manners we’ve managed to give him in his 9 years of life. He does best if he stays in some kind of routine and gets proper schooling all the time (he is constantly surprised that he is expected to be obedient about literally anything).

And with Bingo, we’re obviously still in major learning mode. He’s really only been in actual racehorse re-training mode for 6 months, and jumping for about 3 months. Not only does he have a lot to learn, he’s also got a lot of strength and confidence to gain. This is SUCH a fun part of their training to me, though. They’re little sponges and they learn so fast. A month ago he did his first Starter event. A few weeks ago I cantered my first full course on him. Every single outing he goes on, he comes back a little smarter and more confident.

In the past few weeks he’s been XC schooling at 3 different places. The first time we stuck to mostly logs and Starter stuff, and worked out some steering and rideability kinks. After that he went to the jumper rounds show, where he was so good and did his first little BN round. Then I took him to Majestic (with Kathleen and Henry) where he literally could not have been better. We jumped all the BN and he just felt really confident and was pretty rideable. It was a big difference in only a couple weeks.

Wait, I must pause here to share this screenshot of Kathleen and Henry from that day. Is this not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen in your entire life? Henny’s still got it, and he loves Kathleen.

Anyway, back to Bingy.

The following week (which was this past weekend) I took him to Florida Horse Park to XC school. They always have open schooling the day before their POP schooling shows. FHP is where he ran his Starter event with Ellie last month, which was his first time going to that venue, but POP schooling days are an entirely different beast. There are always lots of horses and riders everywhere and a general air of chaos.

And he did struggle with some overwhelm in the beginning. Remember that he was actually quite horse shy when he came, to the point where the first time I tried to ride him with another horse he bolted multiple times. It’s also been really difficult for me to work on that at home, given that I’m the only person on the farm that rides with any regularity. It was one of the biggest motivating factors for me sending him out for a month of training.

It has gotten light years better, but every once in a while he does get overwhelmed sometimes with other horses doing too many things, and that expresses itself as little mini bolting sideways explosions. It’s not hard to stop him and it only lasts a few seconds, but it’s like he just can’t process anymore input and has to open the valve. Honestly, that’s fair. This is all still really new and weird to him, and he’s not wrong, it can be really overwhelming sometimes. As long as he’s trying, I really can’t fault him for that at this point. And to his immense credit, once I started pointing him at some jumps, he immediately settled down and focused on his job, and was really very good.

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I continue to be really happy with his progress. Slowly but surely I think he’s getting there! He for sure understands the jumping game now, and even when he isn’t sure about something, he still tries hard to figure it out. That’s a Thoroughbred for you. And even though he still struggles to maintain the balance for long periods, and sometimes forgets what to do with his legs, there’s marked visible improvement week over week. He is so dang big and long, it’s gonna take time, but in this sport so much of it depends on their heart and desire… so far he’s showing me both of those things.

Given his successful adventures, I decided it was time to Just Do The Damn Thing and enter our first horse trial together!

But you’ll have to wait til tomorrow for that story…

This is one of those things I’ll stand ten toes down on, especially today after seeing all the posts on our local community facebook group about injured horses, lost dogs, and sleepless nights. Here’s my OpEd that I wrote for TurnoutHQ last week. Thoughts? I hope your holiday was relatively uneventful.

We are officially entering the dog days of summer here in Florida (the fact that it’s almost July is somehow astounding to me) and the routines of spring have been replaced with new ones. Rides are happening earlier in the morning, we’re keeping things a bit lighter/shorter, and spending more time hacking. My trainer is also still in Europe, so we’ve had a few weeks off from our usually fairly busy lesson schedule. While we’re using it as a bit of a break, I also really didn’t want to just go a month or two without jumping or getting the boys out and about. They both had a pretty light spring, and I don’t want to lose the momentum we got in May. So I set a rough goal of taking both Presto and Bingo somewhere at least once a week, whether it was to trot the hills or do some XC or jumper rounds or whatever.

And so far we’ve been successful with that. The week following the POP show (where I ended up scratching after dressage because Presto’s shoe was about a millimeter from disaster) I took Presto to a XC derby. I looooove when farms have schooling show type stuff on the weekdays, it’s so nice to just be able to pop over there real quick in the morning. The Training division went first at 7:30am, which was perfect for me.

Presto definitely started out a little bit spooky, he’s never been out on the XC at that venue before, but he ended up being good.

I felt like it took the entire first half of the course for him to really get out in front of my leg and not hold tension behind the saddle, but we did get there eventually. I really liked the structure of the class, too… you started with 5 show jumps and then rolled directly into XC, basically like how the YEH classes are set up. The XC starts off softer and then builds in height and technicality as you go along. We had a nice variety of stuff that I thought really covered all the bases – a jump in the water, a drop into water, a coffin, skinnies, going up and down a mound, etc. Perfect little morning.

Bingo has been on a few more outings than Presto has, mostly because I really wanted to use this time for us to get to know each other better and see what I’ve really got. As I wrote about previously, he spent a month with my trainer, which culminated in him attending his first show, and I wanted to get him home and see how all that was going to translate, see how he felt, and start doing more stuff together.

And he really hasn’t put a foot wrong. I think he definitely gained some confidence in the world as a whole during his month away. He’s less horse shy, he doesn’t get worried leaving his friends or when his friends leave him, he’s going to new places like an absolute champ, and most importantly he seems to have a better understanding of his job – and really likes it. He just seems a little bit more settled within himself, in general. That was exactly what I was hoping to achieve by sending him off to school, so I’ve been very pleased with how he’s continued to come along since.

So far he’s been out for a conditioning day on the hills, XC schooling, jump schooling, and to a little jumper rounds show. He’s traveled well, he’s been pleasant, he’s been relaxed… for where he’s at in his training (we’re, what… 6 months in?) I really can’t fault him. His brain in particular.

It’s especially apparent when I switch back and forth from doing things with Bingo vs doing things with Presto, who is not exactly known for his mental fortitude. Presto is a spooky, emotional creature with a flair for drama. Bingo is… not that. At all. I mean sure, he’s a 6yo very green OTTB so a little spook here or a reaction there – totally within his wheelhouse. But his brain just works so differently from Presto’s.

A really good example of this was last week’s jumper rounds.

I took Bingo for a Starter round and a BN round. He’d been to this facility the week before to XC school, but not to the side of the property where the jumping ring is. He unloaded, looked around for a few seconds, then started grazing. I put his bridle on, walked him down to the mounting block, and got on. No fuss no muss. We walked past the jumping ring with it’s little pop up tents and into warmup, where he had one slightly fast trot circle before he settled into his totally normal Bingo self. I trotted and cantered a crossrail and then went over to the ring. He jumped around the Starter easy peasy, with the only dramatic moment being when I tried a perhaps too ambitious (given how gigantic and green he is) inside turn and we subsequently jumped an oxer on an angle, taking the rail. My bad. I had only jumped a full course on him once before so I overestimated his steering.

We came out, waited for a couple other rounds, and then they came and raised the jumps to BN. The whole time we were waiting Bingo just stood there next to the Kubota on a loose rein. Like he does this every day of the week, no biggie.

Then he went back in and jumped around his very first BN round. Well ok, he’d fallen asleep a bit and subsequently walloped the first fence, so we came back around and started the course again (this is why we love the schooling jumper rounds so much). He felt a little bit tired by that point but again, he was just a good boy. He went around and jumped all the jumps like no big deal.

It was a very drama free morning with zero spooks. I mean he’s green, sure, and there were definitely some green horse mistakes happening (keeping track of all 4 legs is sometimes difficult), but there was no naughtiness or drama. He waited happily while Henry jumped around with Kathleen, then we went back, untacked, hosed the horses off, and Bingo self-loaded back into the trailer. Just a really pleasant morning overall.

And then… it was Presto’s turn. To his credit, he is a very good loader and hauler. It’s what he does once you get him off the trailer that tends to vary.

When we got back to the facility they were watering the arena with those big sprinklers. After observing this from a distance for a minute, Presto decided he was going to die. Mind you, he’s seen a lot of arena sprinklers in his day. Even in the past few months. But he’s never seen THESE.

Sooo anyway, he stared at the sprinklers for the whole less-than-10 minutes they were on, and was completely incapable of putting his brain back in his head once they went off. WHERE DID THEY GO? Surely they were still lurking down there, ready to blast him off the face of the earth without warning.

After he finally took a deep breath, it still took me a while to get him near warmup because he was busy spooking at a jump standard. Then it took me a while to get him into warmup because he was spooking at the footing change. Then it took me a while to get him in the ring because of the Ghosts of the Selkies. Then it took me a while to get him anywhere near the corners where the sprinklers had been. It was DRAMA. I just had to keep trotting circles, working our way closer and closer to whatever the current offending item was. He spooked at everything that existed and everything that didn’t. It doesn’t help that he’s had a meltdown at this facility in the past when he discovered that there’s a horse and cows living just across the treeline from warmup. Still… he’s been here for jumper rounds like 4 or 5 times now. I’ll let you know when he runs out of things to be spooky about.

To his credit, I was able to work him out of it and he ended up jumping around the meter with no problem. It just took a while to get there because we had to take a side quest through Dramaland first.

By the time we were done I was getting overheated, so Kathleen and Lija took him to hose him off. I’m told there was only minimal naughtiness, so we’ll take that as a win.

Presto is, without a doubt, the most talented horse I’ve ever owned. He’s also the most challenging. I’ve gotten so used to his idiosyncrasies and the accommodations I make to help his mental state… having Bingo, who requires none of those (although he does have a few little idiosyncrasies of his own, as they all do) really highlights what a handful Presto can be. I love him dearly, and always will, but owning that horse gives me more of an appreciation for one like Bingo. It’s nice to have him to balance out my Drama King. Maybe Bingo is meant to be my emotional support creature?

Either way, it’s fun to have them both, even if (especially if?) they’re so wildly different. And I’m particularly pleased with how much Bingo has really stepped up this month. I’m starting to see glimmers of a really nice horse underneath all the awkward, I think!

The first 3 jumps are him:

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Which is why I decided to late enter him for the RRP Makeover. I entered him on Friday and we got accepted Monday!

If we can’t get into one of the jumping divisions I don’t know if I’ll take him, but I do think he’s the right type of horse to mentally handle that kind of show/environment really well. So, we’ll see. Our hat is in the ring, at least! If we don’t go this year, now he’ll at least be eligible for the Graduate classes going forward.

I did start a Make The Makeover page (these funds go directly to RRP, and I get refunds on some of my Makeover fees depending on how much I raise) if anyone is interested in supporting the journey!

As for the smallest member of Team Bay Boys, Neville is still stinkin’ cute.

He is, as of now, definitely the quietest of this year’s crop. He likes a game of Bitey Face, and he’ll run around a bit, but he’s for sure less rambunctious than the other colts. I suspect that this is because he’s currently the only one of the 7 colts on this farm that doesn’t have at least one descended testicle already. A couple of them already have two, most have one, some have just a hint of one, but Neville’s have yet to make even a glimmer of an appearance. Which is very normal in the realm of foals, but I do think it has something to do with how he’s less inclined to naughtiness than the others. He’s also just a clone of his mom’s temperament so far. Which kind of makes me chuckle, because she also really likes this foal. Her first one, she was fairly indifferent, her second one she found annoying, but this one she actually enjoys hanging out with. I think because he’s obedient and polite and acts just like her. Don’t worry, that could all change really quickly, and probably will sooner or later.

For now though, he’s cute and sweet. Please enjoy his one-colt Pride Parade.

@breed.ride.event

Happy Pride from Neville! 🏳️‍🌈✨🪩

♬ MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) – Lil Nas X

In other baby news, Bear is officially sold so that means Tommy is our ONLY remaining available foal out of the 9 we had this year. Pretty crazy! Oh, and unfortunately Fey is not pregnant, so I decided to quit for this season and just start early next year. It’s just too hot here. So now I have many months to decide if I want to buy another dose of Diathletico (it did look really good quality under the microscope) or if I should try something else. We’ll see!

I was recently invited to be a guest on the Amateur Hour podcast to talk about everyone’s favorite subject – Henry! The host, Jessica Paquette, is a racetrack announcer by day and a h/j rider in her free time. She recently started this podcast and has already had some really good episodes, highly recommend checking it out if you’re a fan of podcasts! She’s tackling some really interesting subjects that are so relevant and/or interesting to most of us.

The episode where I talk about Henry is called The Horses Who Made Us and was just released today. You can find it here:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Audible