Ok technically “Moo Pony” is what my SO calls a cow (I dunno, he’s weird. I’m weird. What more do you expect?) but I have to be honest, this week I have officially seen a real bonafide Moo Pony.

That would be Stormie, the pony mare, the last one we’re waiting on to foal for our Baby Bets contest. She is a freaking whale. Every time I see more pictures all I can think is OH LAWD SHE COMIN because I’ve spent way too long laughing at that Chonk Chart thing that was going around facebook a while back and now every time I see a fat animal that’s my ingrained reaction.

For real, I saw a fat corgi when we were out the other day and I said OH LAWD HE COMIN before I could even stop myself. I have a problem.

But really, is Stormie growing a full size pony in there? She’s still about a week away from her “due date”, but she’s passed the 320 day threshold that is considered full term, so it could theoretically be any day now. Hopefully soon, because… geez. Also because 1) I need some pony baby pictures in my life. 2) I really wanna see what color it is. 3) Nalah needs a friend. Nalah is still beautiful, but she is bored. Adult horses aren’t fun. Baby horses need other baby horses to do dumb baby horse things with. Hopefully Nalah doesn’t smoosh the pony baby, but she’s ready for a friend for sure.

In other fun news, the Usandro frozen semen finally arrived from France a little while back (lord, it was a paperwork nightmare getting that stuff exported), and we’ve got our first confirmed pregnancy with it! The quality is good and obviously it does the job, and it’ll be fun to see what we get from him.

There really isn’t another stallion like Usandro available here in the US, and I’m still unsure what the market will be like for him, but he’s proving to be a successful producer in Europe already. Will the American breeders use him? I don’t know. Next year we’ll start marketing him more and see what happens.

In other slightly Europe-related news, my Burghley tickets already arrived! I wasn’t expecting them to actually mail them for a while, so that was a fun surprise when I opened the mailbox the other day and saw an airmail envelope. I’m excited to really start planning the trip, since we’ll also be spending several days after Burghley driving around France, looking at stallions. I’m trying not to get too excited about seeing Mighty Magic in the flesh, in case it doesn’t happen, but… I’m hopeful.

Last but not least for today, if you haven’t listened to the episode of Major League Eventing with Boyd Martin, you should. He’s pretty candid about a lot of things, including the new flag penalty and the Will Coleman/Rolex situation. It’s an interesting episode, long but worth the listen! OH and if you missed the one last week with Jess Redman (the OTTB seller that Cannavaro came from) – that one is also a must listen. Lots of great info there for OTTB fans, riders, and buyers.

Happy Friday everyone! We’re off to Louisiana for a weekend of XC… hope you have something fun in store too.