Just me or has this been the longest week ever? I thought yesterday was Friday for most of the day so that was a massive disappointment. I hate when that happens.

Not that it really matters, because it’s supposed to be like 105 here all weekend. I’m over it and it’s not even mid-August. Send help.

Anyway, this week has certainly been interesting in my little world. Dramatic, but interesting. The highlights for me were two-fold, and the fact that they’re my “highlights” is probably pretty telling about the week as a whole.

First of all, I noticed that Riding Warehouse is carrying Quick Knots now. You used to have to order them from Europe and wait.wait.wait., but NOT ANYMORE, friends! Granted, I’m still working through the original package that I bought over a year ago. And I probably won’t need anymore for like… another year. But still, I’ve bought a few for friends now and the wait is always a little annoying. I’ve become a total Quick Knot convert (because lazy. so incredibly lazy.) so it’s exciting to me that they’re now easily and readily available, and for cheaper. It’s the little things, y’all. I do a little happy dance every time I don’t sew in a f*(%!#g braid. Thank you, overpriced paperclips. Worth every penny.

But, I have to say, I think the best thing of the week for me has been the video that I got from the vet on Wednesday morning. Remember Presto’s little hematoma from last week? LOL. Yeah well, over the weekend it went very suddenly from the size of a tennis ball to the size of a watermelon. It. Was. Nasty. I’ve never seen one that big with my own two eyeballs. Of course, he happened to do that over the few days when the vet was out of town. Horses. They have a sixth sense for when to require veterinary care, I think. As soon as the vet got home, he came out first thing the next morning and lanced it.

And, y’all.

O. M. G.

If you’re easily grossed out, do not watch this video. But if you’re ready for some of that pimple popping shit on steroids, you have to see this. I’ve watched it no less than 100 times.

This isn’t even all of it, it had been flowing for a while before he started filming (you can see way up on Presto’s hip where it started), and then after he stopped filming he had to keep massaging more fluid out. It’s so nasty. It’s so fascinating. I have to say, if you’re gonna get a $215 vet bill, it’s nice to at least get a great video out of it.

True to form, Presto has been a good patient. He’ll let you massage it (or as I like to call it – milk it) and clean the drain cut just standing in his stall without a halter on. The vet left the hole open to drain but it seems to keep closing up quickly (by now Presto is an expert in healing himself, I guess), so we might have to put a drain in today. We’ll see. It’s already back down to tennis ball size again, but it’s going to need to be able to keep draining freely for a while as it heals.

Horses, am I right?

In less disgusting news, for anyone who was interested in those Premier Equine merino wool pads, they’re back on sale again this weekend, 20% off. For Americans, VAT is removed once you go through checkout so they’ll end up even cheaper, too. Like $52.

Another highlight of the week for me in bloglang came from Meg, who wrote what I thought was a really great post about how horses think and what it means when it comes to how we relate to them. If you read one thing this week, it should be that. It’s a good reminder to all of us to always remember the big picture.

Last but not least, thanks to everyone who reached out to talk after yesterday’s blog post. I’ve been on the fence for a while about throwing my opinion out there on this issue, and didn’t after the Rob Gage turmoil, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that our industry is in this situation now partly because we haven’t talked about things openly enough. Also, I’ll be honest, I was frustrated as hell. It’s been enlightening for me in a lot of ways, whether we agree on this particular subject or not. I’ve had some really great conversations with some of you, especially the younger contingent on Instagram. Trainers and industry professionals, too. Groups I never would have expected. This is a tough topic, very emotionally charged, but it isn’t going to go away so we have to figure out a way through. Thanks for being open to having the conversation with me, it’s been really helpful.