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?

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.