Last week I promised an update on everything that’s been going on aside from all the babies, so here we go! Plus… more babies. Tis the season, after all.

First and foremost, I did make the trip to Kentucky again this year.

This year I was flying solo, and mostly was there to collect and generate social media content for a few clients. I drove up from Ocala, which is about 10 hours with gas stops and traffic, but it was a pretty easy drive to and from. I stayed with Lauren (the person who now owns Rubes) in her camper onsite, so it worked out great. To give a quick summary of Kentucky (because to write it all out would be days… it was a whole Patreon podcast episode in and of itself): Friday was content creation, picking up some frozen semen at Hagyard to bring home, the stallion showcase at Spy Coast, tattoos with friends, then dinner out. Saturday I traipsed around the ENTIRE day getting content, from one end of the trade fair to the other and one end of the XC to the other multiple times. I met up with my friend Jenn to watch the 5* and she gamely traipsed around with me while I was getting content, then gave me a couple Founders Club tickets for the big Grand Prix that night.

That was a very bougie and nice experience, the food was fantastic and so was the view. Sunday I was up early to catch the morning jogs, then hit the trade fair one last time to wrap up some loose ends before I hit the road to Georgia. I stopped there overnight at Rising Star Farm and picked up more frozen semen and booped all their stallions and babies before I was back on the road before dawn the next morning for the final leg home.

It was a relatively insane few days where I clocked 28 miles of walking, but boy did I squeeze a lot in. I also did a small amount of damage in the trade fair, picking up a couple new nameplate bracelets, some sweaters from Mango Bay, a new breastplate for Bingy, some treats, a few grooming related items, and souvenirs for friends. Oh, and this stock pin. I almost never wear a stock or a stock pin, but on the rare occasion that I must, I now have the absolute perfect pin. I couldn’t pass it up.

I also got one more little thing when I got home…

Your eyes do not deceive you, that is a black glitter show coat. I saw it on Instagram and immediately googled the maker, found the model, googled the model to find stores that had it, dug around until I found a singular tack shop in Florida that showed it online, messaged the store owner, arranged an appointment to come shop at her house (she has mobile stores) which was conveniently 30 minutes away, and went and bought it the next day. Shoutout to SunSpree for being the most accommodating. I mean, the coat was made for me. Plus it was only $165. In horse girl math, that’s a free show coat.

After I got home from Kentucky, Bubby was born, and then Neville. I am completely obsessed with Neville.

He’s out of Vee, aka Vonhra, a full TB mare that has had two foals for the WTW program before – Andy who is now 3, and Dash who is a yearling. The same person bought both of them, and they’ve been some of my favorite foals we’ve raised here. Vee just has my type of temperament, and she reliably puts it on her kids too. They’re confident, brave, smart, really like people, and juuuuust cheeky enough to keep you entertained.

Neville’s sire, Connect, is also one of my favorites. He’s the sire of many upper level horses, although the one most of you would probably be familar with is King’s Especiale. Connect’s sire, Connor, has produced even more upper level horses, like Commando 3, Lady Chatterly, HSH Connor, Senor Crocodillo, etc etc. I’m a big fan of that sire line. When we bred Vee last year, Michelle said I could have first dibs on the foal since I love both the sire and the dam, and in my mind I told myself that if it was a filly, we should def keep it.

And then it was a colt, and I was like well lets wait to see how he moves. And then his personality started to unfold and omg it’s really like he was made for me. He’s got all the characteristics of Vee’s other foals, but maybe with just an extra touch of cheek. He spent his first several days greeting me in the morning with a big gummy smile (seriously, it came pre-installed), and he loves to play with his ball. I adore him. Soooo anyway, Neville is staying. I had to have him. Let’s do it all again with a baby horse, shall we?

After Neville, we had our last foal of the season:

This is Ursa Major WTW, aka Bear, and he is so stinkin cute. He’s a BIG chestnut (will turn gray, hopefully very slowly like his mother did) colt by the 1.45m jumper stallion Dia Corrado (from the Diarado line) out of Gossip. This is the second foal for Gossip, who evented through the 3* level in the UK (her dam evented to the 4* level) – her first foal was Ivy, from last year’s crop. This colt has a SUPER temperament, he’s very friendly and sweet and such a dude. We’ve got to find just the perfect person for him, he’s so nice and really checks all the boxes.

As for the rest of my crew, Bingy has been fabulous. Before I left for Kentucky I took him over to Majestic to do his first XC school, and he was a super good boy. He’s a mix of bold and careful, so I think if we’re patient with him and take the time to properly build his confidence, he’ll be a very bold XC horse. He jumped around the whole starter course and did ditches, banks, and water.

After that school I really started thinking hard about sending him to my trainer for a month. He’s at that stage where he’s soaking up everything so quickly and putting all the basics together, I feel like if I’m going to do something like that, now is the time. There were some main draws to sending him, including 1) his biggest weakness is that he’s horse shy. I cannot work on that at home when I’m the only person here who rides. He needs to consistently be ridden with other horses for a while until he gets over that. 2) they have everything right there at their farm – jumping ring, hacking, xc, etc. He could do more there in a month, without the stress of having to haul out constantly, than I could do with him here in the entire summer.

I hemmed and hawed over it for a couple weeks, bounced the idea off of some friends and then finally brought it up to my trainer. We all agreed that a month of “finishing school” would probably be of great benefit to him. I’m hoping that he’ll come away with more confidence in both his environment and his job, and a better understanding of what we’re asking of him.

I dropped him off on Monday (which was kinda sad for me – I’m SO used to having my horses at home, I hate them leaving my care even when I know where they’re going is great) and so far he’s had a few rides. I got to see his Monday flat ride with Alex, and then his Tuesday jump school with Ellie. Every day he “gets it” just a little bit more, and he does seem to genuinely enjoy his new job.

I’ll get to see him again tomorrow, and then hopefully he’ll do some XC next week. If all goes according to plan I should get him back about a week into June, after which they’re leaving for Europe for a good chunk of the summer.

Which is also why I’m fitting in as many lessons with Presto as I can at the moment. Things seem to be pretty much back on track, and my thought was to spend the summer just kinda toodling around schooling shows and jumper rounds and stuff at Training and Modified height to get us back in the groove of horse showing. Hopefully then we’d be ready to get to some of the fall recognized shows.

I don’t think Presto really requires his standard one-month summer vacation this year, considering how light his schedule has been (and the fact that without having to keep him eventing-fit for Prelim, I have tabled the majority of his conditioning work in favor of trying not to unnecessarily pound on my 17.2h horse’s joints when I don’t need to) but we might take a couple weeks to just hack around or whatever. We’ll see how I’m feeling once the inevitable oppressive heat sets in. There is literally no pressure, so we’re just gonna spend the summer doing whatever we want, really, and try to keep us both moderately tuned up.

Otherwise the only other exciting thing left to report is that I went to Rockville again this past weekend. It’s a huuuge rock music festival in Daytona Beach, and last year me and my friend Lisa went for the first time, but only for one day. This year she rented a house, brought her husband and brother, and they went for 3 days. I joined them for Saturday and Sunday, and we had a great time. It was a lot… like… Saturday was a 3pm to 1am kind of day, complete with 1.5hrs sitting on a concrete floor because of a lightning delay where we all had to evacuate. But we fit a lot in, including a trip to the beach (upon which I was reminded how much I absolutely HATE the beach). Between the two days I walked 12 miles and saw about 20 bands, including some of my favorites like Bring Me The Horizon, Motionless in White, The Plot in You, Yellowcard, Architects, A Day to Remember, and My Chemical Romance. Most of them were pretty good, although if I had to pick a winner it would be Motionless in White. It was my second time seeing them and they were just awesome. It was VERY cool to see BMTH as a headliner though, I’ve liked their music forever and never seen them in person before. Incredible show.

I think I’m mostly recovered from that now, and aside from breeding these mares back, there’s not much on the docket for the next few months. Honestly, I think I’m ready to feel a little bit bored and well-rested, it’s been a hectic spring!

I think after this foaling season we’re going to have to change the name of the farm from Willow Tree Warmbloods to Bay Colt Emporium or something. The WTW program is now sitting at 6 bay colts and 1 bay dun/grulla filly, with one mare left to foal out. At least we’re consistent?

When I last left off, we had three WTW foals on the ground: Uncorked WTW aka Cory a bay colt that will go gray (he’s sold), Upscale WTW aka Tommy a bay colt, and Unbothered WTW aka Beau a bay colt (he’s also sold).

Since then we’ve added:

Uncharted WTW aka Charlie, a bay Sportpony colt by Fox Creek’s Masterpiece. Anyone looking for a super fancy large pony sportscar? This kiddo is very athletic and a super mover, he’d be great for a petite adult.

Upgrade WTW aka Madeline, the sole non-bay and non-colt so far. Well ok she’s either grulla or bay dun, we haven’t color tested yet, but still. She is CUTE as a button and is being retained for the program.

Upton WTW aka Bubby, born the Monday after Kentucky and from two eventing parents so he had to have an eventing name. He’s by the Connemara stallion WH TopGun out of our Irish mare Kilpatrick Grace. He’s still fresh and unfolding but also super cute and should make a really fun event horse or jumper for someone.

And then last night we added Uprising WTW (still working on a barn name I think), a bay colt by Connect out of our TB mare Vee. He is absolutely cute as a button with a great type, I can’t wait to see him moving around outside. I might claim this one for myself, I love Vee and her foals so much.

We only have ONE MORE foal left, from our imported 3* mare. Should we take bets on whether or not it’s a bay colt? She had a black filly last year.

I have updates on other stuff too, like Presto and Bingo and Kentucky and aaaaalll that, but it needs to be another post. To be continued…

A lot has happened in the past month, y’all. Time is absolutely flying by, and every time I come in here to do an update I seem to get distracted and then before I know it another week goes by. So we’ve got a lot of ground to cover here, including Presto’s 9th birthday.

It’s absolutely insane to me to think that next year he hits double digits. Just… what??? How??? Never fear, though, he’s never acted his age a single day in his entire life and I don’t think he plans to start now.

We actually had to have Presto’s party a day early, because on his actual birthday I headed up to North Carolina to see Bad Omens, my favorite band. My fellow horse friend and metal lover Lisa lives in Southern Pines and the show was in Raleigh so I drove up on Sunday, went to the concert Monday, and drove home on Tuesday. We had an absolute blast dressing up as characters from their latest videos (I was the sparkly ghost… which in the videos is just a regular ghost but I figured for a concert it should be sparkly, right?) and just being absolutely ridiculous. I had a great seat, front row, and they even hand-delivered a guitar pick to me.

That was my third time seeing Bad Omens since 2023 and somehow, despite it seeming impossible, they get better and better every time. I first saw them at House of Blues and this year is their first arena tour, so it’s quite a big change in the past few years. It’s cool to see how big they’ve gotten but I’m also glad I got to see them in a smaller venue.

Oh, and somehow I’ve never actually been to Southern Pines before so it was nice to get a glimpse of yet another horse-centric area and spend a tiny bit of time up there.

And THEN, the day after I got back, Fey had her baby!

Fey belongs to me and Hillary, and this foal is Hillary’s, plus it’s Fey’s first. Her registered name will be Uphoria, barn name Phee, and she’s bay but will go gray like her sire Future Guilty Pleasure. She is very very cute and Fey is being a fantastic mom. I think she likes the job! This filly is already sold, to a 4* rider.

A few days later we had the first foal of the year (of EIGHT) for the actual Willow Tree Warmbloods program, a bay (will also turn gray) colt by Cevin Z out of the TB mare Peyton. He is CUUUUTE as a button, super bold and confident and 100% colt. He too sold very quickly and had a few people in line for him – he also got a fantastic home so we always love that. I think this might be Peyton’s nicest foal to date.

We’ve had two more babies since then (both last week) – Chanel had a bay colt by Ustinov and Nalah had a bay colt by Quality Touch. Chanel is the super nice mare that jumped 1.45m with pros and juniors, and has produced so far a 1.50m horse and a 1.45m horse in Europe. This is potentially her last foal and she really went all out… her foals are all nice but Tommy (Upscale WTW) is absolutely stunning. He’s available to a serious showjumping home.

And then Nalah’s foal was already spoken for, having sold in utero. He’s a very cute dude with a big star just like his mom, and four little short white socks. His owner named him Unbothered WTW aka Beau, although I admittedly have been calling him Piglet sometimes because when he plays he makes little oinking noises. It’s very cute.

We still have 5 more foals left to go for the season, which seems insane (probably because it is). The two ponies are taking their sweet time at the moment, both having gone well over the average gestation length. I guess the ponies will do whatever the ponies want to do but hopefully they release their hostages soon. After those two we’ve got 3 more eventer mares to round us out for the season.

As for the riding horses, Presto spent most of the last month getting some training rides. He decided after winning those two schooling shows that maybe he was The Shit and could do whatever he wanted, however he wanted, and that just wasn’t really working out for us. With a little bit of professional wrangling, after which you will be shocked to hear that most of the problem was me, I think things are hopefully back on track. I don’t have any media of him though, so… I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Bingo tho, I have lots of media of him. He’s been an absolute little superstar.

On the 1st he went back to Majestic’s little jumper rounds show (where he made his very exciting ground poles debut last month) and did the crossrail class. He started out a bit more tense this time, probably because there were more horses and more stuff going on, but I was very happy with how quickly he settled. As soon as you give him a job to do he really tries his best to focus, and then he locks in pretty well. He hadn’t jumped around a course yet but you could literally feel him understanding the job as we went, and by the end he was very proud of himself. I ended up letting him canter out of a couple of the lines and honestly he was just a super good boy. He spooked a little bit at one of the food trucks next to the ring that was starting up a generator, but 1) that’s fair, 2) it was just a slow yoink sideways in the corner and then we course corrected just fine. No big deal.

After that we really got back on his training ride schedule in earnest, because I felt like something really clicked with him at that show and I wanted to jump on that momentum (no pun intended). You know when it feels like they’re really close to understanding it? That’s how he felt after the jumper show. So this month he’s now had 3 training rides, and every single time he comes out a little bit better, smarter, and more sure of himself.

He’s done a few lines now, including oxers and even a little bit of fill, and yesterday he did his first little intro grid. Bingo is a big long horse with a lot of leg and body to figure out, but every time he jumps his shape and his straightness get better. He also seems to like the job, which is obviously a very good thing. I think this week/weekend I’ll try to take him out for his first little XC adventure and see what he thinks of that but watching his confidence bloom has been so fun, especially from his training rides this month. He’s not even the same horse that arrived here in October, all withdrawn, sullen, and irritable. Now he’s full of personality and eager to learn, happy to go forward, and clearly proud of himself when he figures something out. That’s my favorite part.

We’re about to get into really the most insane time of year, with so many mares left to foal, and then breeding season, plus Kentucky (I’ll be there for a few days!). At least the babies are cute, even though they’re stressful.

It looks like we might be on track to try to breed Fey this week, fingers crossed!

Do you even own matching horses if they don’t win matching ribbons?

Granted, they each earned their ribbons doing very different things. Let’s start with Presto (because the world revolves around him, you know).

A few weeks ago we went back to Majestic for their next schooling show, this time entered in the Modified/Training (so Modified dressage and SJ, Training XC… they don’t run anything higher than T XC at the schooling shows). He’d been so good at the show prior to that, winning the Training on his dressage score, so my trainer suggested we bump back up to the M/T for the next one and see how that went. I was once again disorganized and didn’t really look at the dressage test until the day before. You could probably tell considering I was slightly off my markers in the test itself (whoopsy) but Presto was very well behaved anyway, so we ended up with a 30. There were only 3 of us in the M/T, which may be the smallest division I’ve ever been in at Majestic, but the other person was a professional with two very nice young horses. I was ok sitting in second after dressage.

Once again I was at this show by myself, no trainer or ground help. I also took a work meeting between dressage and the jumping phases (Wednesday morning horse show vibes, ya know) so I ended up not walking SJ or XC at all… I just took Presto over by the ring and watched a few of the Prelim SJ rounds to see the course and how it was riding. The XC at Majestic is in a fairly wide open field with just a little bit of a treed area, so I could vaguely see most of it from the warmup area. I figured I’d find the rest as I went. Truly a fine plan. Follow me for more tips and tricks.

By a stroke of luck Maya Black happened to be standing next to the ring when I went in for my SJ round, and when she saw that I didn’t have anyone at the gate she whipped her phone out and videoed for me. Maya’s wife is my horses’ bodyworker and they’re truly some of my favorite people (side note, it’s also great to see Maya back out eventing again on a nice young horse! She’s one of the good ones.). I greatly appreciate her videoing because it ended up being one of the best rounds Presto and I have had in a long time. That’s two shows in a row where I’ve been by myself and someone has randomly videoed for me without me asking… absolute queens out here saving the day.

As for the round itself, Presto was rideable, I was patient, and we were both consistent and on the same page the whole way. Presto jumped a super clear round and I was really happy with that. He’s jumped a lot of clear rounds that I felt like I didn’t entirely earn, but time it felt justified. It also moved us up into first after SJ.

I saw Maya on the way out of the ring and quickly debriefed with her (she agreed – good, smooth round) and then stopped back by my trailer to put on his XC boots and my vest. The show had been running early so they were just letting people go out whenever they showed up to warmup, and because of that there was no backup of horses waiting. I was the only one out there in that moment, so I did a couple laps of galloping forward and bringing him back, jumped 3 warmup fences, and trotted down to the start box.

The show prior to this I’d felt Presto have a little bit of anxiety on the way to the box/when we were waiting for our countdown, but this time there was none of that. He was LIT and ready to go, with a real “LEMME AT EM” feeling. The startbox volunteer counted us down and he blasted out of there with his eyes already locked on jump one.

He jumped around the whole course feeling exactly the same way. Never one thought of hesitation, never a strayed second of focus. Just a heat seeking missile out for a late morning stroll. Did I know where I was going? Not entirely. But we found all the jumps in the right order with no major straying from the path. Success.

We came home clear about 30 seconds under optimum, and Presto was VERY pleased with himself. Another show with a FOD to take the win! And most importantly of all, we both had fun. No pressure, no worries, just good solid casual confident fun. There’s a lot to be said for that at the moment, because last year felt like a lot of pressure and left me questioning how fun this really was.

Oh, and Presto was back home rolling in his favorite sand pit by noon. You can’t beat that. I do love an Ocala weekday schooling show.

Speaking of which, Bingo made his debut at one this past week! Not a horse trial, but Majestic has jumper rounds one Wednesday a month, and I decided it was time to see what he thought of the whole experience. The shows start at pile of poles and go up throughout the day and it’s $35/round with no other fees. Great for young horses!

My main motivation for taking Bingo to the show was to let him get used to some of the hubbub of a horse show and see what he thought of the warmup ring. He’s a bit horse shy, something I’ve been unable to work on at home since I’m always riding alone. I figured taking him in the morning during the poles/crossrails time would be best since those classes tend to be just a handful of horses and the facility is still quieter that early.

What I didn’t count on was no one else showing up for the poles class. Not a single other trailer was there yet when I pulled in, or by the time I went to the show office, or by the time I tacked up. Since my original plan of getting him used to warmup traffic was clearly going to be a bust, I decided to pivot and instead use the opportunity to let him get acclimated to the ring and the environment while it was nice and quiet, and enter him in the poles class.

They offered to let me warm up in the show ring, so I absolutely took them up on that. Bingo was a little bit on edge at first, so we just walked around for a minute, bending left and right and moving off each leg, giving him some work to focus on. Despite it being an insanely foggy and creepy looking day, he was really brave about everything. There are a lot of jumps and covered seating and signs and people and poles and and and all the stuff that comes with horse shows, but he didn’t spook at anything. Well, until a guy walked out of the portapotty by the ring and let the door BANG shut behind him, then poor Bingy teleported a little bit. That one seemed pretty justified, and he settled right back down immediately.

After a few minutes of walking and trotting and exploring the ring, I told her we were ready to start our super fancy poles class. Keep in mind, Bingo has jumped a few times and done lots of poles, but he’s never done a course. When they’re this green I feel like you’re mostly just hoping to get them between the standards and into the corners. He was a little bit impressed by the first few and jumped over them, but he quickly figured it out as we went along and his overachieving got less and less as he went. He came back down to trot when I asked, was very brave about all of it, and went nice and deep into all of his turns. A totally perfect pole-trotting boy if I’ve ever seen one.

He was the only one in the class so the winner by default, but really… he earned that one I think. A gooder boy does not exist for his first attempt. I briefly considered hanging around for the start time of the crossrails, but that seemed greedy considering he’d been pretty perfect to that point. Instead I took him over to the warmup ring and did 5-10 minutes of w/t/c flatwork in there. I kept it just like we do at home, with changes of bend and circles and leg yields, and to his credit he went pretty much exactly the way he does at home. He’s the kind of horse that settles really well once he’s got a job to focus on, and I was happy to see how quickly he was able to do that in a new environment as well. Gold star for Bingy. Maybe next show he can do the crossrails.

Also, how cute was he as a baby nugget?

His ears didn’t even fit in the frame.

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?