Month: May 2020

Since Ellie is the last WTW foal of 2020 I figured she could get this edition of Foal Friday all to herself before we get back to including all the babies. Plus I have like a bazillion pics of her from this first week, and it’s hard for me to pare them down because I am admittedly biased towards Presto’s little sister and her beautiful dam.

But first and foremost – the Baby Bets contest winner. This one was a nail-biter right up until the very end. Austen came out swinging, being the only person to guess Remi pretty accurately. That was impressive, because nobody else saw a chromey chestnut colt coming, that’s for sure. Getting the date right was what sealed the deal for her there with the early lead. But then Madelyn guessed Ollie pretty close to spot-on, tying things up. It all came down to Ellie, and even that didn’t break the tie because they both guessed bay filly. For the second year in a row Michelle had to pick a name from a hat, and the winner is Austen! We will start getting your prizes together and be in contact with you shortly. Thank you to everyone who participated, I always think it’s really fun to see who guesses what.

Ok, back to Ellie.

It took her a few days to really figure out those crazy long spider legs. As you can see she’s still in the process of unfolding, but she’s managing herself pretty well, getting more and more sure of her stilts by the day.

She’s brave and curious, not scared of things but always wanting to figure them out. That sounds pretty typical of Sadie and her foals. The first day she was turned out in the paddock with the poles Sadie took her over there to let her sniff it and take a look, then made slow deliberate circles over the pole with her, leading the way and showing her how it was done. I told Michelle she owes Sadie a bonus for her training services.

Every time I see Sadie with one of her foals I remember how awesome it is to have a mare that really “mothers” their foals like this, teaching them things calmly and clearly. She’s so intelligent and deliberate about it. Not all mares are like that.

Both Sadie and Ellie have continued to do well over this first week. Those couple days around the birth might have worried us a bit, but luckily everything has been good. Ellie got plasma as a precaution, and while some foals are a bit backed off from humans after that (running a bag of plasma requires an IV catheter, time, and restraining the foal to keep them still while it runs, so it’s not particularly pleasant) it didn’t seem to phase Ellie at all. She was still just as friendly and kind afterwards as she was before. Sounds like someone else we all know.

As she’s figured out her legs she’s gotten more and more playful, galloping around, leaping over the pole, and even managing some fairly impressive bucking.

It also looks like she has a registered name now too, although I’m not sure if the spelling/format has been finalized yet, it has been the center of much debate. It’ll either be O’Tembo or Otembo. Tembo is swahili for elephant and O’ kind of combines the english “of” with the swahili “elephant”. Otembo is a creek/wildlife area in the Congo right in the heart of African forest elephant territory. Although just for fun, go google translate “O tembo” from Swahili. Spaces and capitalization change the meaning, and it kind of had me rolling. But anyway, whichever one it ends up being, I think it’s a pretty word, and unique, and kind of makes for a good story. (Also this did lead to me googling the Swahili word for giraffe so I can use it on Presto)

It was a great foaling season for WTW and I’m excited to see how these four kids continue to grow and interact. For those who have asked, Ellie and Remi are sold (to the same person, so maybe we will get to see a continuation of their adventures over time!) but Oakley and Ollie are still available. You can message the WTW facebook page if you’re interested!

Out of curiousity, how long do you guys want me to keep doing Foal Friday? I figured the world needed some weekly cuteness this spring in particular, but how long do you want me to keep it going?

The barn owners made it back safely from Florida on Sunday, so I am officially living back at home in the city. It’s necessary of course, but I’m suffering a little bit from horse withdrawal this week. Although the farm is a lot of work, there is so much to be said for having your day bookended by horses. First thing in the morning, feed the horses. Last thing before bed, check on the horses. I am still a pony-loving kid on the inside, so I thought it was awesome.

But, everything already got pushed back a month thanks to covid, so it’s time to get the ball rolling again. The SO started his new job on Monday THANK GOODNESS, so the timing was pretty perfect on that. He’s a mechanic at a luxury dealership (Bentley, Maserati, Lotus, Rolls Royce, and Aston Martin – and apparently they get paid more hourly for working on the Maserati’s for some reason? who knew.) pretty close by. He was originally a mechanic by trade but got burnt out on the business a while ago and went a different route. He was hesitant to go back, but the money is good and so far he seems to like this particular dealership. It definitely looks and feels like a high end shop, and they prefer quality of work vs just pushing things through as fast as possible. Plus it’s naturally a solo job, they all have their own tools, are spread out, and they’re cleaning things/wearing masks and gloves, so his risk of exposure is quite low.

I’m still working from home for as long as my company will possibly let me… I know they plan to start bringing certain groups/people back in starting June 1 but I don’t know yet where I’ll fall within that plan. I’m thinking of trying to see if they’ll let me work from home at least a couple days a week permanently. My company has been very against that in the past, but I think we’ve proven it’s totally do-able. Productivity has actually increased, if you look at the metrics. We’ll see. It would make things a lot easier for me, especially in the summer when it’s too hot to ride in the afternoon.

I did miss Grem though. I hadn’t really realized how much I love that cat until now. And the corgi, of course, who is really starting to struggle with his DM (I don’t think I ever talked about that, but yeah he’s got DM). I’m not sure how much longer he’ll be with us, so it’s nice to get more time with him now. Plus there’s also a new cat in the house since I was last living here, the black cat that SO got during Black Friday. I’m a total stranger to him, but he seems to be warming up to me.

Naturally, as Texas likes to do in the spring, it rained absolute buckets on Tuesday. Like 5″. With some tornadoes peppered in for good measure. One passed pretty close to the farm but luckily no damage was done, just lots and lots and lots of rain. And there’s supposed to be more rain coming this weekend. Figures, since I’m now pretty much recovered from my tumble and ready to get back to my regular riding schedule. Presto is going on 3 weeks now since his last ride and his Pest level has been steadily increasing along with his boredom. He needs to get back to his “job”. And Henry is looking an awful lot like the retired broodmare, physique wise. His dad bod is legit.

Which is mostly fine I guess. Yes USEF/USEA is starting horse shows again on June 1 but that’s not happening for me. The summer is way too hot for Henry, and at this point we haven’t shown since last July anyway. Plus I’m just… not convinced that starting horse shows again is the right move just yet. The smaller one day shows where everyone can work out of their trailer? Yeah, sure, that’s doable. But multi-day horse shows with shared bathrooms and stabling and travel and hotels and restaurants? I don’t think that’s a good idea yet. Especially not in places that are starting to see a rise in covid cases again (which is a lot of places right now). If some very local shows happen I’m not opposed to taking Presto for the day, but otherwise I just can’t see us doing anything until at least the fall. And I’m totally fine with that. It just needs to not rain buckets so I can get more rides on that punkass baby horse.

Speaking of which, since we have had a big gap in his schedule, I decided to forego Presto’s training vlog this month and do a combined April/May edition at the beginning of next month. The idea of making the vlog was too much for my concussed head at the beginning of this month, and honestly there wasn’t a ton to cover anyway. Hopefully we can get a little bit done in the second half of this month and be a little more interesting.

Today I’ll finish tallying up the results of the Baby Bets contest to publish with tomorrow’s Foal Friday post! May the odds be ever in your favor.

Since I went timbeerrrr out of the tack room and broke my helmet a couple weeks ago, it obviously meant that I needed a replacement. The one I broke was the navy Traumavoid, and they do have a replacement policy, but due to the age of the helmet it would have only been 25% discount. Plus I would have had to send the helmet in, which adds some cost. I was willing to do that, but first I wanted to see what other MIPS options were out there, especially with all the sales and discounts happening right now. When I bought the Traumavoid it was the only MIPS helmet on the market, so it was an easy choice. Now there are many.

The one that had really caught my eye was the Charles Owen My PS. Charles Owen and Champion are my two favorite, most trusted helmet brands (I have the Champion SNELL skull cap for XC), so trying the new MIPS options from those two was my first preference. I liked that the My PS had a slightly wider, lower brim… since I was looking to replace my “daily driver” helmet, having a little more sun protection for summer was appealing. The My PS does come in an even bigger, wider brim version too, which was admittedly a bit much for me (it’s massive). I wanted just a little extra, not A LOT. It also comes in navy, which is important. I had a 15% off code for Riding Warehouse which made it about the same as what I would have spent on the Traumavoid, so I decided to bite the bullet and try the CO. Worst case scenario it didn’t fit, and RW has free returns so if it didn’t work out I could just send it back and go to plan B – the Traumavoid replacement.

But, yay, it does fit, and it’s pretty comfortable. I haven’t had a non-skull cap Charles Owen in quite a while (maybe since my AYR8 10+ years ago?) and I’m impressed with some of the improvements. My biggest complaint about them for years was the non-removeable liners, so it’s great to see them adopt that. I wouldn’t have bought the helmet without it, because Texas = head sweat. The navy is a pretty shade too, nice and dark and not too purpley (my only complaint about the Traumavoid smooth navy was the slightly purpley shade – it didn’t match my other navy stuff very well).

I also got one of the new Equetech XC shirts that Riding Warehouse is carrying now. I got to provide input on which shirt colors/patterns they should stock, and was happy to see some of my ideas in their inventory line-up. They’re a nice relatively lightweight athletic type shirt, I can see myself wearing it a lot. The XC shirts are meant to go under a vest of course, hence the sleeve patterns, but I think they’re cute on their own too. Free round of applause for anyone who can guess which color/pattern I got. 😉

There have been a few other acquisitions lately, most by necessity. I pre-ordered a couple more face masks from Dreamers and Schemers.

And honestly it looks like face masks are going to be a part of life for a while. They are not a requirement here, but it’s such an easy and simple way to help do your part that I’ll be wearing one in public for the forseeable future. And my company is going to require them once we start coming back into the office, so I’d like to be able to stash some in different places (car, work, purse, etc), plus have extras to rotate through so I can wash them and never be without. If I can buy them from an equestrian small business, even better.

I also spent several days going back and forth on what bit to try next for Presto. From all my experimenting I’m relatively convinced that he doesn’t like tongue pressure, and after talking to reps from Bombers, Neue Schule, and an online bit store, they all agreed based on the description and video. I think part of it is that he’s a fussy mouthed baby who hasn’t figured it out yet, but I also think there’s some discomfort there too. Trying to put his tongue over the bit is a classic tongue pressure evasion. Maybe I’m wrong and I bought him two bits for nothing, but I’d rather explore every avenue than just plow through and tell him to get over it. Having a horse be comfortable and happy in the mouth is obviously really important. I found a UK shop that has really good prices, so I got him a Bombers Happy Tongue and a Trust Innosense. Both have tongue relief but otherwise are quite a bit different, so hopefully he’ll like one of them. Naturally the Bombers is backordered for like ever, because ‘rona.

 

Speaking of ‘rona problems, remember my Hufglocken Mattes pad that was in shipping purgatory? I ordered it forever ago (December? January?) for Presto and it shipped from Hufglocken’s location in Australia on March 25. It had been sitting at the airport in Sydney waiting to catch a flight since March 31. That’s how backed up stuff is! It finally got a flight on May 7th, after over 5 weeks sitting there at the airport waiting. Totally bonkers. Now it’s sitting in LA waiting to clear customs. We’ll see how long that takes. I’m glad I ordered it well before I could ever possibly need it.

I also did order one slightly less necessary thing… I dunno if anyone has seen The HORSElet yet, but it’s basically an outlet site for PS of Sweden. Mostly it’s past season colors for saddle pads, clothes, polos, etc, and that’s not really my thing so I’ve barely looked at the site, but for some reason yesterday I clicked on the New button. Remember the big deal with me trying to find just the right quarter sheet last fall? I ended up not getting anything, because I couldn’t find what I wanted in my price range, and then Henry ended up hurting himself anyway. But then voila, yesterday I saw the PS of Sweden quarter sheet (which had been one of the top 3 on my list originally) at 60% off. Only $58! I nabbed one for next season, because I doubt I’ll find the style I like for that cheap again anytime soon. We’ll see how long it takes to get here, with the ‘rona. Luckily I won’t need it for like… 6 months anyway. 

May 12th has been a relatively historic day for me, full of little landmark moments. Like 13 years ago, when Sadie was born.

A lot of things have changed in my world because of her, in ways I never could have predicted. Not just because I ended up here with one of her foals, but also because of the connections I’ve made and the things I’ve learned along the way. Horses have a way of doing that, I’ve noticed. Absolutely nothing went according to my plan, but I think everything went the way it was supposed to.

Six years ago today, I started this blog. And this has been TRULY unexpected. My plan starting out was to try to post something every other day and see if I could maintain it for at least a few months. I had zero intention of it becoming an actual thing, much less a 5-days-a-week-for-six-years thing that has come to mean a lot to me. And again, this blog has led to so many other things and people and opportunities that were completely unforeseen.

I’ve made a lot of friends (indeed one of my closest friends Hillary is someone I met completely through blogging) and gotten to do some cool things. Granted, I’ve also gotten myself into a little trouble here and there along the way too, but hey what’s life without a little controversy? Sometimes blogging feels like work but the vast majority of the time it still feels like a fun creative outlet, so… guess I’ll keep going.

Two years ago today Presto went to his first horse show. Remember his in-hand trail debut? It was adorbs. Look how little he was.

I’d only had him home for a little over a month at that point, so it was a real test of what kind of horse I had in his most raw form. Some of those things were a little weird to him but he was smart and willing (and maybe a little cheeky), which has held pretty true as he’s gotten older too.

And then one year ago today was the very first time my butt graced Presto’s back. It was his first time wearing a western saddle and after a little bit of groundwork we did a mounting block lesson. As I was leaning across him I figured “ah, what the heck” and just swung a leg over.

We did nothing but stand there, and only for a few minutes, but still it was the moment when I got to be the first one to ever sit on him, and that’s pretty cool. Now a year later he’s 8 rides into his training and starting to look more like a real horse.

I’m not sure that any landmark moments will happen this year (it’s supposed to rain today – boo) but I guess we’ll see. Either way – happy Birthday Sadie! You were the beginning of the May 12th landmark moments.

Ok, first of all:

1. I have verified with my own eyeballs that there are indeed two holes under the tail, so yes for real this time, it’s a filly for sure.
2. Technically she’s Presto’s half sister since they have different sires (although both sires have Heraldik as a grandsire so they’re a little more than half-related if you’re really into math)

Sadie has been looking like she was going to pop for days. This is her fourth foal, and she’s been pretty textbook with her labor/foaling patterns with the previous three, so when things just seemed to drag on and on and on with this one, we started to get a little concerned. She was restless and pacing and clearly uncomfortable for all of Friday (to the point where it looked like she could lay down and pop it out and any second) and Saturday. Her milk test said “any minute now” on Thursday, and we were all a little bit on edge at how long she was taking when there was still no baby by Saturday morning. Usually once her milk is to that stage she foals within 24 hours. But time just kept dragging on, and she just kept looking more and more uncomfortable. Michelle prepared for the possibility of a red bag/dummy foal, with all sorts of supplies on hand including an oxygen tank, and someone was watching Sadie every second.

But finally, finaaaallly just before midnight on Saturday she laid down and started pushing. Michelle said Sadie seemed surprised at how hard she had to push… she kept looking back like “seriously, it’s not out yet???”. Her others have been pretty easy. This one, not so much. And why might that be?

Because she’s a baby elephant! Seriously this kid is freaking massive for a newborn.

Luckily there was no red bag, and aside from requiring more pushing than usual, everything was ok. Baby was in good shape, no special care required. She was in such good shape, in fact, that she was born at 11:45 and was on her feet completely unassisted at 11:57. Super fast, especially considering she’s a monster.

Sadie has definitely been feeling the after effects of such a big baby. So far nothing major, just some lingering pain, so she’s had some banamine. Her milk production was a little bit slow at first, so baby got some plasma yesterday too just as a precaution. Hopefully if all continues to go well they’ll be able to get turned out a little bit today.

Completely unbeknownst to each other Michelle and I had both independently been referring to her as Ellie (as in Ellie-phant). Upper level event rider Alex Green bought both her and Remi, and she seems to like Ellie too so I think it’ll stick as a barn name. Her registered name will be up to Alex, but it has to start with O this year for the sBs registry. She is very much open to name suggestions! It will end with the farm suffix WTW so something relatively short is best, lest it become a mouthful.

Fingers crossed that baby and mama continue to do well and that poor Sadie’s lady bits recover soon.

WTW does also have two mares confirmed in foal already – Peyton to LePrince des Bois (who completed Badminton and Luhmuhlen, had two top 10 finishes at Burghley, and a top 5 at Pau with Kai Ruder before going on to win the European Junior Championships with a young rider)

and Daisy back to Usandro for a full sibling to Oakley.

I should have a winner of the Baby Bets contest this week, as soon as I tally the results (which admittedly I have not started yet, because reasons)!