Everybody already knows what Presto has been up to, but I figured I’d bring us up to speed on Henry and all the other stuff I’ve mentioned lately.

Current Henry status:

We’re ramping up into “HOT AS ACTUAL HELL” here, with consistent triple digits on the way, so… now is the time when we start ramping down a bit. Although this year I feel like we’ve kind of been in permanent “ramped down” mode. Whatever. The back field is nice and mowed and lovely again, which has been making Henry happy since we’ve been spending more time out there. It’s a nice little peaceful hack, and we’re back in our hill-trotting and slow canter laps routine. That’s his favorite I think. He gets to pretend to be a spooky bucky dolphin and I get to laugh at his ridiculousness.

We had another jumping day this past weekend too (and this time I didn’t whack my shoulder into any tree branches, so that’s an improvement right?). I still feel mega freaking rusty but he’s pretty steady and reliable by now. Maybe a bit over-excited sometimes, but I’ll take it. We’ve also been doing a bareback flatwork ride every week, which I think is good for both of us. Probably mostly me, because I definitely feel it in my core, but Henry seems to enjoy it too.

We both are really liking the Brockamp pad though. It’s very grippy which took me a couple rides to get used to, but the padding is great for both of us and I do feel quite secure with it. I can still very easily feel Henry’s back, much more than with a saddle, but not his spine, and he seems happier to have a little more cushion from my seat bones. It’s definitely a really nice pad, and I’m glad I went ahead and spent a little more money to get exactly what I wanted. With once a week rides, I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth out of it.

Truth be told, this is kind of the extent of the “dressage” we’re doing right now. Since we’re not showing anytime soon I’ve lost a little bit of motivation in that regard. I’m still keeping him strong and fit and running through all the movements we usually do, but it’s about as informal as it gets. I think he’s enjoying having less pressure about it, and I know I definitely am. He’s not a very easy horse in the dressage and it starts to wear on both of us a bit I think.

And as you can also tell from my crappy corner screenshots, the Pivo hasn’t arrived yet. The tracking hasn’t updated in 2 weeks so I dunno where it is. I kind of get the feeling that it might be one of those things where the tracking is totally useless and it just shows up unannounced one day. Which would be fine, I just hope it’s soon. I really want to play with it.

I also still don’t have any resolution to the PSoS/TheHorselet order that had all the crazy import fees. They’ve assured me several times that they’re working on it, but so far nothing has changed. I get the feeling that the blame might be more appropriately placed on UPS for that part of the delay. I do know the package is on hold, so supposedly UPS won’t be shipping it back at least, but otherwise no updates. A couple weeks ago theHorselet sent out an email saying it would all be resolved in 1-4 business days but it’s been… 9 now. I dunno. I DO have confidence that they definitely intend to fix this and that they will ultimately fix it one way or the other, Them sending it as “freight on delivery” was 100% a mistake that they seem to have corrected. I’m not worried about being ripped off. But it’s definitely a little annoying because we’re now almost a month into this whole situation and have made no progress. Luckily I don’t have any actual need for a quarter sheet right now since it’s 105 degrees.

But what DID finally arrive is Quinn’s wheels!

We’re still tweaking the fit a bit but I think it will work for him. IF we can get him to figure out how to use it, anyway. Right now he just goes backwards. Like… fast. Like… all the way across the yard. I did get about 6-7 steps of forward from him yesterday by using cat food as bribery, so we’ll keep working on it. I figured he would be slow on the uptake so I was prepared for a slow process. Love him, but he’s… not the brightest. Hopefully we can help him figure it out, because it’s nice to see him independently mobile again. Even if its backwards.