I could’ve sworn I came back here and wrote a show recap after the last show, but apparently I’m delusional (this is not news). So I guess now it’s a quick show recap and then a catch-up on what else has been happening the past couple weeks.

After taking last fall to give Presto a bit of a reboot, and then starting back to lessons last month, I entered us in the Majestic Oaks Wednesday schooling show at the end of January. I wanted to use it as a bit of a test to see how Presto and I were feeling about things, and then kinda make some decisions for our season based on that. I entered him in the Training, since it was his first show since his meltdown(s) at out of town shows in September, and my first show with him since the end of May.

It was freezing. And I’m not just being a wimpy Floridian when I say that, it was LITERALLY freezing. I was the second horse of the day in the ring at 8:05 and it was like 29 degrees when I swung a leg over to get on. Which… I got on kind of late, because… I just didn’t want to. I was a popsicle. My reluctance meant we only had like 10 minutes to warm up, but I was too cold to care that much. To Presto’s credit, he went in the ring and was very obedient. I didn’t ask for much in the canter lengthenings, and my first little loop of 10m half circles was not the most accurate (did I learn the test the night before? MAYBE.) but it was a respectable effort. We scored a 27 from Lori Hoos, including a 9 for the halt.

I did go walk the show jumping course, but did not walk the XC. I had hacked around the field a few days prior and knew basically where most of the jumps were, so that seemed good enough. I was by myself with no ground help and still hobbling around with my smashed foot, so even just walking showjumping was about all I could manage.

SJ was… not bad. He was bold and forward-thinking, which is good, but maybe got a little bit away from me as the course went on. It’s always the fine line we walk with Presto. He has to feel a little egotistical, but the second it tips over into cocky, you lose the rideability. He buried himself a bit out of one line when he blew off my half-halts and miraculously was a little bit more amenable to my suggestions after that.

Then it was back over to the trailer to put his XC boots on and trade my heated vest (I was still FROZEN) for my XC vest. SJ had been running a little early, so when I got to XC warmup there were lots of people already there waiting for XC to start. We walked around for a while before we warmed up, and I was straining my eyeballs trying to make sure I could see and remember all my jumps. Finally we were 6 out so I started warming up again and popped over a few jumps.

I really had no idea what to expect of him on XC. When he gets anxious he gets nappy and spooky, so I really was just hoping for a straightforward and easy round. Leaving the start box was heading straight away from warmup, but he actually seemed pretty relaxed and happily went out and over the first fence. I let him go a little bit to fence 2 as we passed the trailers, because he also gets an inflated ego if he thinks he’s really running (he almost never is, but don’t tell him). And honestly, he just chugged right along and popped over everything like the happiest boy in the world. I mostly just let him go and stayed out of his way, trying to make it a confidence-building round for him. He was super, and more importantly he felt HAPPY again.

I do think we’re still very much in the one-thing-at-a-time stage with him. I’m going to do another schooling show at Majestic and see how that goes, because he’s always historically been happiest and most confident at that venue. I’m encouraged by the fact that he seemed to really enjoy the day, but this horse can definitely be a bit mercurial so I hesitate to take one successful show to mean a whole lot. We’ll take it for what it was: a good day!

And if that day wasn’t cold enough we got justthetip of that disgusting cold winter blast that went through most of the country. It was 18 degrees here. 18. You know what’s not built for that? Florida. Or me. Totally gross, but luckily we didn’t have any major damage to our pipes or anything (just my will to live).

Luckily the weather has improved tremendously over the past week, and now the forecast looks pretty normal for a Florida winter (ie 70’s and 80’s). Thank goodness. I’m built for sunshine and sweating, not frozen fingers and 5 layers of clothes.

Bingy boi has also been trucking right along. He’s a pretty straightforward horse, not particularly emotional or silly, but he does have a little bit of a cheeky side to his personality that’s been coming out a little bit more as he settles into his new life. He’s honestly kind of funny, and you can practically see his gears turning sometimes. Luckily he is considerably less mischievous and chaotic than Presto… mostly Bingo just has little jokes. I’m really happy to see him feeling comfortable enough to have more personality and expression. He’s also become quite the little treat hound, which with him does make some things easier.

He’s had one or two more training rides since I last updated (I can’t remember the last one we discussed… he’s had 3 total) and he just seems to get a little bit better every day. The strength is coming slowly but surely, he’s starting to understand how we’re asking him to move and carry his body, and last week he had his first real jump school! I’ve trotted him over a crossrail here at home and cantered over a little cavaletti a time or two, but since I’m inevitably pretty much always alone at the farm, I wanted to wait for his first real concentrated jumping lesson to be when I had help. Doing it as a training ride seemed even better.

Ellie got hung up teaching a lesson so Alex hopped on him instead, and honestly I think it worked out for the best. He just kinda goes and does things and doesn’t overthink it and does a great job of supporting but staying out of the way. And he’s super brave and hard to intimidate, so ya know. We started with a pile of poles on the ground, then he trotted and cantered a single crossrail, then a vertical, and then ended by trotting in and cantering out of the line over an oxer.

Bingo is a big long horse with no real clue of where all his parts go yet, but he was SO willing and genuine about it. No stops, no attempts to run out, no shenanigans whatsoever. He clobbered a couple of them, as expected, but he was never deterred. He was calm, he was rideable, and he did the thing. What more can you ask for from a first real jump school?

Alex thought he seemed really brave and willing, and we were all quite happy with him. ESPECIALLY because there was also a ton of hubbub going on around the ring (lots of horses all over the place, the driveway around the barn getting repaved, I had to park next door and walk him over from there, etc). He’s been a little bit horse shy so far but was honestly really good about the other two horses in the ring with him, too. He started to get slightly keyed up while we were waiting for Alex to get on him, but as soon as he had something to do he immediately settled and got to work. I greatly appreciate that quality. He doesn’t want to be a dingo just for the sake of being a dingo, and he doesn’t really get himself worked up to the point of no return (again, unlike Presto…).

I think it’s going to take him some time to figure out what to do with his feet, but it’s a good start! So much of it is just going to take time with him. Redoing all that muscling and teaching him a whole new way of carrying and using his body isn’t something that happens overnight. I also really feel like waiting and getting a little more flatwork on him, and having his first jumps with a pro were the right choices. You only get to have a first experience one time, but it’s a really important one… I’m glad that his got to be so positive and he got a great ride from someone who does this all day everyday.

Everyone also got a visit from their favorite horse dentist last week, which was Bingo’s first time seeing her. I knew just from what I’d seen of his teeth that he had a little snaggletooth, and at this point I just kind of expect that any horse coming off the track will likely need to be done. Turns out his snaggle tooth was a retained baby tooth, so she popped that out, and he had an incisor that hadn’t erupted yet. Otherwise yes he needed a good float but there wasn’t anything too major going on.

I’ve ridden him a couple times since then and he does feel a little bit more confident and consistent in the contact. Next I want to try a few different bits on him to see if he has any noticeable preference… I’ve kind of been waiting to do that until I knew his teeth weren’t a negatively attributing factor in that process.

In other news, guess who had a birthday last week???

Henry is officially nineteen now. Crazy, huh? You guys are getting old AF.

He got like half a box of Oatmeal Creme Pies and seemed absolutely delighted. I posted a video of him in my IG stories and tagged Little Debbie (I cannot tell you how many times over the years I’ve tagged them to no avail) but I guess it was finally Henry’s time. Guess who wished him a Happy Birthday??

I mean we’re still waiting with baited breath for that OCP sponsorship but ya know. We’ll take a Happy Birthday.

Last but not least, we’re officially rolling into foal watch season. I’ve been checking teats for a couple weeks now, but our first couple mares are steadily approaching the 320 day mark and we’re starting to see some tata action.

Fey is at day 320 today and is definitely starting to work on making a bag. She’s a maiden so we obviously have no idea what to expect from her, but so far she’s looked fairly textbook, knock on wood. Peyton is the next one up, with her 320 mark on the 23rd. Last year she went completely off the books and foaled on day 320 with zero warning signs, so ya know it’s totally fine you guys I don’t have any kind of major trauma about it AT ALL and I’m def not anxiously eyeballing everyone all the time.

Once we hit March things are going to start happening hot and heavy around here. We’ve got 9 foals due between March 9 and May 12… so basically 9 foals in 10 weeks. Heh. Heeeeeh. Who needs sleep or a peaceful lifestyle anyway?

For the first time in literally years, I signed up for a clinic.

Ok that’s a lie, I signed up for the Kai Steffen-Maier clinic last year but then he had some issues with his visa and couldn’t come. That doesn’t count tho since technically it didn’t happen. The last clinic I actually rode in was like… 2017? I’ve had mixed experiences with riding in clinics, and generally tend to avoid them in favor of spending the money with my regular trainers.

BUT… my trainer brought in Tom McEwen, and I was like ya know what, why not?

I signed up for XC and SJ days pretty much as soon as my trainer posted it, and then a couple weeks beforehand told her to let me know if any dressage spots opened up. One did, because the person unfortunately broke her leg. (in hindsight, was this subtle foreshadowing? a cursed time slot?) So I went ahead and added that on too. YOLO. We’re not spending as much money on showing this season, and I’ve really focused hard on education, so spending the money on a clinic seems to align.

We had a private dressage lesson scheduled for Wednesday, SJ group lesson on Thursday, and group XC lesson on Friday. The timing seemed perfect, because the following Wednesday was set to be my and Presto’s first full horse trial back together since June. After a light mid-November through December, we’d only had a couple jump lessons this month and the first one was a little, uh… rusty, so I figured a few intensive clinic days might help snap us back into form. I gave him the Monday off, and planned to flat him on Tuesday.

He was great on Tuesday right up until the counter canter loops, which admittedly I haven’t worked on in a while. Sometimes in the counter canter, especially to the right, he wants to turn into a pogo stick while he has a moment about having to do actual work, and then settles in. Except this time he went to be a pogo stick, somehow tripped over his feet and ended up sitting abruptly on his hocks, and failed to right himself. Very slowly, like a felled tree, he flopped over on his side. He landed with my left leg under his shoulder, breaking my stirrup iron in two places, and then just kinda sat there on my foot like “weird, how the heck did that happen???”.

He did a real number on my foot. I didn’t think it was broken, but it was definitely injured. I got back on him and rode him for another 10 or so minutes with one stirrup, to make sure he felt alright (he magically did not offer to pogo stick anymore…) and he was great. I hobbled back up to the barn and figured I’d get on Bingo and see how hurt it really was. The verdict was that I could ride, but not with the stirrup on the ball of my foot. Cool cool. Noooo problemmaaaa.

I started Magnawaving and icing and NSAIDing the hell out of it, because SERIOUSLY?!?! I was determined to not miss the clinic. My foot was swollen for sure, and hurt for sure, but I was hopeful that I could at least make it through dressage day. I figured worst case scenario I could ride without the stirrup, right?

Luckily it was alright enough by the following afternoon. I had a significant limp and I couldn’t really press my weight down into my stirrup, but I could rest my foot in it just fine with my stirrup sitting a little further back than usual. It worked well enough, so we’ll call that part a success.

As for Tom, I really had no idea what to expect. I’ve not seen a lot of footage of him teaching so I really went into it more blind than is typical of me. I tend to be a little obsessive about trying to find info on people before I get anywhere near riding with them. I’m comfortable with the program I’m in though, so I figured if they were bringing him in, odds were good that his teaching would probably align.

After a quick little intro, Tom put us straight to work. To no one’s surprise, he was big on precision and quality (the Brits don’t get as good as they are without it, I suppose). More fluidity in the gaits, being more precise with the shapes, making sure that the aids don’t just get a response, but a specific and deliberate response. We did a lot of lateral work, starting with leg yields to and from the quarterline and centerline, and then moved on to shoulder-in, and then progressing to doing the two back to back, to and from particular spots.

We also did a lot, I mean A LOT of 4-loop serpentines and 12m or 15m circles. The change of bend was to be precise, and he got onto me several times about looking UP and THROUGH the next movement. He said that if he was just watching ME and not the horse, he should know where my next movement is by where my eyes are. (Stay tuned, that was a recurring theme throughout the clinic.) He also pointed out that my right shoulder was always collapsed a bit, although he gave me the benefit of the doubt and said that it might be compensatory because of my left foot. I appreciated his tact, but realistically I think it’s a consistent trait that I can’t blame on the foot.

I really liked the flat lesson and felt like we got some good feedback out of it. None of it was completely new information that I hadn’t heard, but he had some different exercises to try and worded a few things differently in a way that helped, I think. Also, we walked for maybe 2 minutes of the entire lesson and cantered for what felt like (to my foot anyway) 70 years, so… we got our money’s worth I’d say.

***Special shoutout to Kathleen who came and endured not just dressage day but also XC day, so that I could have video. MVP.***

I was a little bit more worried about the foot for showjumping day. Landing in your stirrup from a jump is obviously harder on your foot, and I wasn’t sure how it would hold up. Luckily I was in the last group of the day, so I had some extra time to work on it. I wrapped it up in vet wrap with a lidocaine patch, downed plenty of NSAID’s, Magnawaved the absolute hell out of it, and hoped for the best.

And for the most part, it was fine. At least for a while. This lesson was, however, quite extensive as well. We got right down to business immediately. I’m not sure why, in my head, I was expecting more a gymnastics type of experience… I guess maybe that’s pretty common for clinics. But no, we had a full course set (by Peter Wylde, who had been here teaching Mia Farley and Woods Baughman, who are leasing the other half of the farm for the season) and we got right to it from the get go. There was no cavaletti exercise or single jump to start us off, we went straight to stringing a few jumps together. Mostly off of turns, looping rollbacks.

After that we went straight to some lines, the first of which we had to add in a stride, and then to a longer set line that was really forward. Tom did not hesitate to use all the jumps in the ring for all of the courses. Once again, we really got our money’s worth and we did A LOT of courses. I though I perhaps might die by the end… my foot was screaming. We jumped like 8 courses and a couple partials.

There was a lot of feedback, but two major themes. First, I need to do a better job of getting him off my inside leg in bending lines (we definitely don’t always put enough bend in them) and in short turns off the left lead. He tends to drop his shoulder a bit that way and we end up slightly out of balance.

The second big takeaway was that I have to do a better job of staying ahead of Presto mentally. Tom said that when I was a jump or two ahead of him, thought-wise, everything flowed much better. But if I went a little lala and let Presto take charge of things, I ended up in a reactive pattern instead of a proactive one, and while Presto was genuine and happy enough to do the job, when he did it his way it was certainly much less polished and effective. So – eyes up, brain engaged, and always be riding the NEXT thing, not the thing right in front of me. Hmmm it’s almost kinda like he said the same thing to me on the flat…

We were the first group of the day on Friday, so I didn’t have as much time to help my foot recover, but it really didn’t seem much worse for wear after jump day. Swollen, yes. Bruised, for sure. But the pain wasn’t any different, and I did alright with my foot in the stirrup. So, off we went bright and early in the FREEZING COLD (it’s been so damn cold here – for Ocala anyway, I know not as cold as most of you but COOOOLD for Florida) on Friday for our XC lesson.

XC was at Robin Walker’s place, which Presto and I have never been to before. I was kinda like “oh great, this is really gonna be just the perfect scenario to make his little demons come out”. New XC place, which can make him spooky for sure, AND a group lesson setting, which has historically made him nappy. I warmed Tom of this in advance, so naturally Presto immediately set about making a total liar out of me. He wasn’t nappy or spooky at all, not even once.

Any guesses as to what Tom said to me most on XC day?

$20 if you said “Eyes Up”. I know, you’re super shocked by now, I can tell.

He also thought most of my left turns were garbage (rubbish?). Ok he didn’t use those exact words, but ya know… basically. I was once again reminded that my left foot, while perhaps slightly mangled and marginally useless, still had a job to do. I also got called out at one point for not being PRECISE about the trot fence (he had us canter around to a mound, trot at the top of the mound, and jump a rolltop at the bottom of the mound). I did not jump it dead center, and it didn’t go unnoticed.

He also had us walk down and up banks, which I confess to hating. It went fine, and his reasons are very valid, I just personally don’t like doing it. Good for me to have to, though, I suppose.

A lot of the carryover was the same as the day before. The left bend in particular, keeping my eyes ahead to the next thing, etc. Presto, to his credit, was really quite good for all of it. I kept expecting some naughtiness and there just wasn’t any to be found. Tom probably thought I was crazy.

Presto’s shining moment was when we went to the crater in the back corner of the field that had a wide ditch in the bottom of it, where Tom set up a coffin. We jumped a brush rail on a steep angle, then came around and had a showjump vertical coming down into the crater, 2 or 3 strides to the wide ditch at the bottom, and then it walked more like 3.5 strides to a skinny Jump4Joy shoulder brush. It rode a little rough for the people that went ahead of me, so I was just like well… I’m gonna keep my eyes up (because I was probably almost as tired of hearing it as Tom was of saying it) and keep my leg on and let Presto figure it out.

And ya know what, he was clever as hell. He popped down into the crater, over the ditch, did 3 strides up the slope and popped in a little one before the shoulder brush to make the distance work better on the way out. I wasn’t sure if Tom would hate that we essentially did 3.5 strides, but he said that was actually the perfect ride and he wouldn’t have done anything different. He said that he doesn’t like to chase horses out of things like that, they end up flat and that’s when you have a runout, but also pulling isn’t helpful up a slope. It’s best to just sit in balance, keep your eye up and your leg on, and let the horse pop out. Makes a lot of sense honestly, and he was right, Presto was perfectly happy with that ride. A good reminder that eventing isn’t about being perfect, and getting hung up on that kind of stuff can sometimes be a detriment.

We ended with the water, which Presto trotted through the first time as if he’s never done it before in his life. Feet to his belly. Tom was like he’s a little funny about the water huh… I said the word is “precious”. He’s precious about the water. Always has been. Probably always will be. He goes in, but he’s dramatic about it touching him. Presto was really good through the questions there though, including a mound out of the water with another Jump4Joy shoulder brush on top.

All in all it was a great few days of learning and Presto was actually on his best behavior for all of it. For my first clinic in 9 years and his first clinic ever, it was a good experience! We came home with some helpful takeaways, and all of what Tom said compliments our normal program really well. I’m always kind of worried that I’ll end up with conflicting instructions or advice in those situations, but no problems with that here. And even better, my foot didn’t really give me too much trouble, all things considered (granted, a week later I’m still hobbling around on it and it’s still swollen and bruised, which is really annoying). The clinic was definitely worth it!

I have a post that’s been sitting half-completed in my draft folder since last week. Presto and I did a clinic with Tom McEwen, and it was fun, and I’d already made it about halfway through writing up my recap.

And then Saturday morning rolled around, and I watched a man get murdered in the streets of Minneapolis by the government, right there on my phone. Two weeks after, on the same phone, I watched a woman also get murdered on the streets of Minneapolis by the government. For the past year we’ve watched increasing violence, racism, misogyny, and blatant disregard of the law. Not to mention the propaganda and gaslighting.

We are 27 days into 2026 and ICE is already responsible for the deaths of 9 people. I’m struggling to wrap my head around that, and especially struggling to wrap my head around how to just… continue carrying on with the rest of my life, as if nothing is on fire. As if we aren’t currently living through the most dangerous moment of my lifetime. It doesn’t feel right to move along as if none of it is happening. To not at least acknowledge how absolutely insane and dangerous and heartbreaking this all is. How it absolutely DOES and WILL affect the horse industry and every single one of us… everything is connected.

On the other hand, I know that demoralization, stagnation, and fear are the goals of this regime. A populace that has no joy left is easily cowed. While it doesn’t feel right to just carry on as usual, it also doesn’t feel right to go dark and silent. There’s a constant push and pull. The horses are helping me cope with all this, and reading everyone’s updates helps to balance out everything else. I have to assume it’s the same for many of you, as well?

I don’t really have an eloquent, poetic message here. I wish I did. What I can offer is acknowledgement and solidarity. I know many of you are feeling the same way I am, and it’s just an absolutely surreal way to be moving through day to day life. I’m sad. I’m pissed off. I’m scared for our country and its citizens. But I still have horses to ride and care for, and work to do. I don’t know the right way to balance all of that alongside my online presence.

If anyone needs a safe space to talk or vent, my PM’s are always open. If you know someone who needs help, I’m happy to assist with that however I can, too.

In the meantime, I felt like it was important to at least put this out there and say that for me, this is NOT business as usual and I don’t want it to appear like it is. I’m struggling to make odds or ends of it. Struggling to know what the right way forward is, as far as content. As someone with a platform, I feel an obligation to say something, but I really have no idea the right way to handle all of this together. This is my first dystopian hellscape experience, please bear with me while I find my way through it.

Ready or not, winter season has officially started in Ocala. All the snowbirds are trickling in, the circuit shows have kicked off, and suddenly the calendar is full to bursting. Depending on how you feel about all that, it’s either annoying or exciting.

It also means a return of the Great Seasonal Side Hustle for me, because we definitely do like extra money. Last year I mostly worked at HITS, which is my preference between the two major h/j facilities here. The vibes are better, the parking is close and easy, and the vendor area is near a couple food options. As a vendor, those are selling points. This year, however, the store is doing something a little different. We have 3 locations in Ocala – a really nice cabin at WEC over by the hunter rings with all the latest and greatest, a clearance trailer at WEC up by the vendor village with literally everything inside 15-50% off, as well as a trailer at HITS. Since my hours of availability are the least predictable and consistent, I’m in the clearance trailer at WEC this year. Which, let’s be real, is probably the best place for me anyway. Who loves a good deal more than me? Literally no one.

The downsides are that parking at WEC is a literal nightmare and there’s nowhere for me to get food anywhere nearby. Also, the WiFi blows (to be fair it also blows at HITS… and in this entire town, really…). The clearance trailer is kind of fun though, since discounting stuff always makes people happy. Also, one of our customers has the cutest corgi puppy. Bonus.

This is also the time of year where everyone starts to come visit, so it seems like friends are always trickling through, and I have a couple business meetings set up next month with people I’ve only ever talked to on the phone or through Zoom.

Things are also back in full swing with riding, too. I started up lessons again this week, and I’ve got a clinic and a show on the calendar for this month. I’m trying very hard not to think about the fact that we’re less than two months from foaling season… the first mare hits 320 days in mid-February and after that they’re pretty much all just bambambam one after the other through mid-May. We’ve got 9 expected foals this year, which sounds relatively terrifying because 6 felt like a lot last year.

I guess I should do a post on what all foals we’re expecting, in case anyone is thinking about adding a cute little baby horse family member to their herd this year. You know you want one. We all want one right? Of course we do. Baby horses are fun (mostly).

Anyway, on to more fun things. Bingy boy and Presto have both been in regular work, gearing up for the season. Presto got a bit of a chill time/mini hack vacay around Christmas and New Years since I knew we’d be hitting the ground running in January. Bingo has mostly just been chipping away at the basics. Like learning to go straight, the beginning of lateral work, transitions and half halts, etc. He’s pretty clever, and gets better ride over ride.

He’s naturally pretty well-balanced but was very crooked when we started and, like most racehorses, is a bit stuck in the base of his neck and wants to do everything with this weight down in his shoulders. That’s the way they run, after all. He is a very big and long horse so it’ll take him some time to build up the muscle and ability to truly carry himself from behind, but he’s starting to understand what I’m asking and shows glimmers of it now and then. He’s naturally quite well balanced and definitely has the ability to be uphill, so I think as soon as we get the “shoulders up” concept and muscling established, he’s gonna be fancy on the flat. I haven’t really done much jumping at home aside from trotting and cantering cavaletti… I’m alone most of the time and it’s difficult to start one over fences without a ground person to set things and pick up rails, so I’ve been holding off on much of that.

As of this week we’re back in our regular lesson schedule. Presto had a jump lesson on Monday, which was rusty at best.

I haven’t jumped a course on him since mid-November, aside from XC schooling, so I was honestly expecting him to be a little wild and wooly. Presto was the opposite. A little TOO quiet, and behind my leg. We finished up better than we started, but we’ve got another lesson scheduled for today to try to polish that back up a bit more. My trainer is hosting a Tom McEwen clinic next week and I signed up for a private dressage lesson plus both the SJ day and the XC day, so Presto will be busy. Hopefully we’re back in sync by then.

As for Bingo, he had his first training ride on Tuesday, which was very exciting. I’m maybe like 5 weeks into actual retraining with him, and the past two weeks are the first ones where he’s done more “working” than hacking. He’s still pretty brand new to all of this, but I really wanted my trainer to sit on him because 1) she’s a much better rider than I am, and can help him understand things more clearly 2) obvi I wanted to see what she thought of him.

He loaded and traveled great, and while he was definitely wide-eyed and interested at all the activity (their place always has a lot happening, it’s overstimulating to the max compared to our very quiet life here at our home farm) he was reasonably behaved. Trainer did some groundwork with him, which he was mostly good for but tried a couple times to bolt and exit the arena, so she went absolutely skiing. He eventually gave up and focused and decided that maybe he could circle her politely after all.

She got on him for maybe 10 minutes at the end and he was foot-perfect for that. He trotted and cantered and did his transitions and was straight and relaxed. A+ for sure. She said he felt really straight and even, and especially liked his canter. We’re on the same page there.

After she was done I untacked him and grazed him by the ring for a while so he could take in more of the activity, and by that point he was very settled. He loaded back up like a champ and ta-da, first training ride in the books. I think the goal will be one a week, and then we’ll kinda see how things go week by week from there. The first one was kind of a “let’s see where we’re at” so we can make a plan for him going forward. The big thing at this point is obviously just strength. All of what we’re asking is brand new to him.

Patreon folks, you have video of him on your dashboard, and I’ll try to get some video up from every training ride so you can see the progression. Sometimes I set up my Pivo at home to get some footage of me riding him too… the goal is to document his journey pretty clearly from the start, so hopefully the change will be fun to watch over time!

One other fun happening that I’m finally able to announce publicly – I was invited to join, and elected to the Retired Racehorse Project Board of Directors. They have some really interesting ideas as far as breeding, registration, databases, pedigree tracking, etc so I was approached due to my history with those things. I’m very honored to have been asked and looking forward to seeing what we can do over my two year term!

Time is FLYING, it feels hard to believe that it’s already been almost two months since Bingo got to Florida!

He arrived on November 11th, and his transition from race mode to sport mode has been, knock on wood, relatively uncomplicated so far. New shoes, ulcer treatment, 24/7 turnout with 24/7 forage, massage, magnawave, chiropractic adjustment, daily stretches, and learning how to move and carry his body differently… he’s already started to morph into a new animal.

Here are pics from November 4, his retirement day:

And these pictures are from December 20th, so 6 weeks off the track and 5 weeks in Florida.

I think it’s safe to say that the off-track life definitely suits him!

He still needs another 50-100lbs of weight and has PLENTY more frame to fill out with muscle, so I can’t wait to see how he keeps developing. He’s going to be massive when all is said and done, I think. He’s just turning 6 at the end of March so there’s still a bit more development to come, in every regard (he really doesn’t need to get taller tho please… he’s tall enough…).

I’m also pleased with how he’s coming along under saddle so far. The first couple weeks were a mess of tangled limbs, body parts going different directions, and tripping all over himself and everything in his path. He’s gotten better week over week, and is starting to feel a) stronger b) straighter c) like he’s beginning to have the slightest little inklings to push and carry (listen, the moments are fleeting, but they do happen).

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We’ve got a very long way to go, of course, but considering that half of his rides are just walk hacks, I think he’s starting to put things together pretty well.

On Christmas Bingo went on his first off-property adventure, just a quiet hack around a local XC venue, and he was a little superstar. It took him a few minutes to believe he could walk in the water and not drown, but once he was in he seemed to have fun.

I’m hoping I can get him to a lesson or training ride this month to keep the progress rolling!