Month: September 2020

Y’all. My truck. She is not ok.

You may remember a few weeks ago when I got into a minor fender bender and my truck was towed away to a body shop. Two weeks went by before they called me and said she was ready to come pick up. I was very excited. My little rented Nissan Altima is great and all, but… it’s not my truck. I love my truck, she is my dearest, my beloved, and we’ve been besties for almost five years. I drive a lot, I spend a lot of time in my truck, and she’s certainly towed my trailer aaaaaall over creation by now. She’s the first truck I’ve ever owned, and while she’s not fancy in the slightest, she’s rolled right along with everything I’ve ever asked of her, ever faithful. I say all this just so you know exactly how I feel about my truck.

Anyway, so on Friday they called me to come pick her up. I was so relieved to have her back. I paid my deductible, they brought her out front all clean and shiny, I hopped in, and away we went. Reunited and it felt so good. The body shop isn’t far from my house, a few miles, just a short jaunt up the highway. As I was on the ramp getting onto the highway, my oil temp light came on. I thought hmmm that’s odd, what the heck. I had already decided to pull over and call the body shop back, once I could safely get off the highway. By the time I merged into traffic, I noticed the heat gauge creeping up at an alarming rate. Then the check engine light came on. All in very rapid succession, maybe a minute. Um. WHAT THE FUCK. I took the first exit I could, and as I was limping down the exit ramp to pull over the engine started to sputter, and I noticed the temperature gauge was now all the way at the top. I slid over immediately into the first parking lot I could, snapped a picture of the dash real quick, turned it off, and called the body shop.

They were only about 10 minutes before closing, but luckily the manager answered. I explained what had happened, and he apologized and asked me to bring the truck back. Um. Don’t think I’ll be driving anywhere like this, thanks though. When I explained a bit more forcefully that it was super hot and the engine was SPUTTERING, he said okay tell me where you are and I’ll drive your rental car back to you and arrange for us to tow it back in. It was a stroke of originally annoying luck that they still had my rental. Since they had waited until 45mins AFTER the rental car place closed to tell me my truck was ready, I couldn’t go drop it off, I’d had to leave it at the body shop for the rental company to come pick up on Monday (which would accrue 3 more days of rental fees). But thank goodness for that in retrospect, because otherwise I’d have had no vehicle.

Anyway… so the guy shows up in my rental 5 minutes later, very apologetic, and I show him the picture of all the dash warning lights and explain the sequence of events. He says “hmm… that’s weird, we ran the diagnostics and nothing showed up” enough times to make me see red. See, in the time I’d been waiting for him to show up, I had called my mechanic SO (he works at the Bentley/Rolls Royce/Aston Martin/Lotus/Maserati dealership) to tell him what happened, and the very first question he asked me was “Did they road test it?”. IE, did they drive the truck around the block a couple times after repairs were complete to verify all was well. This is standard procedure at any repair shop worth their salt with any mechanic who gives a shit about checking their work. SO was out at happy hour at the time with a bunch of other mechanic friends, and as they all heard what had happened I was met with a loud chorus of “Daaaaaaamn, THEY DIDN’T ROAD TEST IT!”. So as we’re standing in the parking lot next to my disabled truck and manager said for the second time that they ran the diagnostics and it didn’t return any codes, I asked if they road tested it. He paused, looking a bit panicked, and repeated the same line about the diagnostics for a third time. Uh huh. Got it. Figured not.

I quietly packaged my rage, stuffed it deep down inside, took the rental car keys from him, and drove away without another word. Mostly because if any words had been allowed to come out of my mouth, they would not have been very polite.

When SO got home we talked through what happened in detail and his guess was that either the coolant hose came loose or had a major leak, bad enough to where in the very short distance between the dealership and me getting on the highway, all the coolant had leaked out. Which of course caused it to overheat, which in turn caused the sputtering as the engine was starting to take a hit. His concern is that once the sputtering starts, there’s almost always some kind of resulting engine damage. Even though I got pulled over and turned the truck off as fast as I could get out of traffic, maybe went all of 50′ with the sputtering, that’s still bad. Really really bad. Especially for a high mileage vehicle that has to tow things reliably. There is a good chance my engine is fucked. I am equal parts devastation and rage.

I have yet to hear from the body shop again, so I’ll be calling today and asking for an update. In the meantime my insurance stopped covering my rental as of last Friday. As far as they’re concerned, everything was completed then. The body shop WILL be covering the rental and any subsequent repairs, at the very damn least, whether they know it yet or not. I’m mad. I’m so mad. Just driving the damn truck around the damn block after they had “fixed” it would have prevented all of this.

Once I had calmed down enough to see straight, I went back and dug through all the paperwork my insurance had sent me from the claim. I went line by line, looking at what all they had done. You know what they did? Replaced the bumper and the grill. That’s. It. Absolutely nothing internal was noted, even though the truck had to be TOWED IN THERE because it had two MAJOR LEAKS with fluid absolutely POURING out the bottom of it in multiple places. Which they knew for sure, because it was noted on the original intake paperwork. So how the heck did only the bumper and grill get replaced? How did no one even think to drive it around the block? Really?

I also noticed that where they noted the “mileage in” (how many miles the truck had when they brought it in) and the “mileage out” (how many miles it had on it when they completed repair and returned it to me) was exactly the same. So yes, unequivocally and without doubt, provable right there in black and white, it definitely was not road tested. SO said that’s especially bad when there have been known leaks, because you need the pressure from the running working engine pumping things through to be absolutely sure that the leaks are fixed. You can’t tell that from running a diagnostic or just turning the vehicle on. Kinda looks like they just reattached a hose or two, put a new bumper on, and called me to come get it. In what fucking world is that sufficient, given the circumstances?

This is going to get messy. Really messy. I can already feel it. SO says that unless they show that they did some kind of actual engine repair, he would want me to get a new truck, because he wouldn’t feel comfortable with it being a tow vehicle again. I’m trying not to absolutely lose my internal shit, so I’m waiting to see what they have to say for themselves and what they actually do here. They better fix this, they better fix it right, and they better pay for it all, INCLUDING THE EXTRA RENTAL FEES, otherwise I swear to christ…

While Henry has been busy chucking his shoes into the next county and having Owie Footies, Presto has been coming in clutch. After his XC adventure I gave him the week off, since that was a lot and he IS just 3 1/2 (as of tomorrow anyway) but he remains happy and eager to do things, soaking it all up like a large, hyperactive, giraffe-shaped sponge.

He’s somewhere around 30 rides now (I’ve stopped counting, but he’s either at 29 or 30, pretty sure) and admittedly I’ve done it at a glacial pace. Over the last six months, if we’re being specific. Not the typical way to get the first 30 days on a horse, but it’s seemed to have worked fine for him. I wanted to go slow to allow his body ample time to adjust, particularly because he IS so gawky, and I’m pleased to see the slow but steady progress. He’s getting a little strength in his topline, his balance has improved immensely, and he’s still happy and fresh mentally. He still wants to come in and do stuff, and still meets me at the gate. I’ve given him the odd week or two off here and there, and dialed the pressure up sometimes versus dialed it way back other times, just based on the horse I have in front of me that day. I try to react to what he’s telling me and tailor his “program” to suit, rather than have a rigid specific plan in mind for him.

The real perk of all this slow, pressure-free time is that I’ve learned so much about him mentally. His instincts, his reactions, how he thinks, how he learns… it’s obviously really good information to have before you really start doing anything hard. I obviously already knew a lot about his brain in general from… raising him… but riding adds a whole different dynamic. He rides and thinks very much like a thoroughbred (which I am thrilled about) – he’s forward-thinking, he’s sensitive, he wants to please, he’s smart, he needs finesse not force, and he’s a bit goofy and hard to focus. That’s my type. We’re learning each other.

I also feel like he’s right on the brink of that one last big physical transformation from baby to horse. The yearly growth spurt that he always does in late spring/early summer is waning, and he’s beginning to put on a little bit of mass. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he is still all legs and super narrow (and sunbleached to all hell), but his neck and hindquarters are starting to fill in a bit. His rides consist mostly of walking, which I think helps too. Slow, steady, miles, trying to build the foundation that he’ll need later when the “work” part starts. I feel like in a few months we’ll have a very different, very adult-looking Presto, and it’s pretty exciting. We’re close. So close.

On Sunday I tacked him up and rode him out to the back for a walk hack. We have a few little hills out there that make it a perfect mini-fitness center. I like to get him out there and do some laps in a really forward marching walk, to help build up that topline and strengthen his hind end. He was not blessed with a naturally super strong back or loin connection, so I need to be mindful of that and work to improve it. Presto is still pretty adamant that walking down hills is really stupid, and sometimes when he gets bored of walking he likes to randomly break to trot just to see if I’ll let him (I don’t, because clearly my one job in life is to ruin all his fun).

I admittedly haven’t done a training vlog update for him in a while, mostly because I was spending so much time making them and not getting enough response/interest for it to seem justifiable. Maybe we’ll just go longer in between them. I dunno. Sometime over the winter he’ll probably get a month or two off before we come back and start to dial things up for his 4yo year. We’ll see what his brain and body are telling me as we go along, as far as when and how long. I’d like to get him out to hilltop with the hunt (there’s usually a nice quiet mostly w/t group on the bigger hunt days) a time or two before his break, but we’ll see what happens. I’m trying not to have any set in stone plans or expectations at this point.

I remain pleased with how his new saddle is working out, I’ve been watching his back really carefully and he’s shown zero discomfort and seems to move quite well in it. I hit the saddle with a little Belvoir after our ride on Sunday, but it’s looking really good. I’m not having any issues with dye leech or discoloration, and I’m pleased with the lederbalsam finish. Do have a fiery hatred for swapping my leathers and irons back and forth between the boys’ saddles though. I’m strongly considering trying to search for another pair of secondhand FreeJump stirrups as well, instead of just leathers (I’ve got the leathers situation covered), because we all know it would just be a matter of time before I chucked a saddle in a trailer to go somewhere and forgot to move the stirrups over, and ended up with a stirrupless saddle. WE ALL KNOW THAT WOULD HAPPEN. But also I love the FreeJumps so much that all other stirrups are pretty much dead to me now, so… what’s a girl to do. I’m gonna keep my eyes peeled for a deal, that’s what I’m gonna do. If you see some FreeJump Pro’s for a smokin’ deal, let me know.

Okay I don’t really drink, aside from a cider or cocktail a few times a year, but if I did drink, now would be a good time.

Things have been a little… stressful for me lately. A lot of us have probably felt that way this year, I’m sure. The past month or so especially has particularly felt like one thing after the other, so I wasn’t all that surprised a couple weeks ago when I felt Henry taking some random off steps. The next day there were more of them and they were easy to see. Because of course. Of. Course.

It was minor, and felt and looked decidedly FOOT, so I decided to just give him a week or two, put some Magic Cushion in there, and try not to obsess over it. Because honestly, I just can’t drive myself crazy with that right now, I’ve got too many other things already occupying my crazy. You know how when you feel your horse take one off step and then spend the next couple days spiraling into a process of overthinking that includes everything from “it’s a bruise” to “he’s broken his coffin bone” to “clearly he’s snapped his collateral ligament” and before you know it you’ve mapped the horse’s retirement in your head? No? Um yeah no, me neither. Definitely never done that. Definitely not lots of times. Ahem.

Anyway. I groomed him, and I kept the Oatmeal Cream Pies coming, but otherwise I just left it alone and refused to think too hard about it. I figured if it wasn’t better after a couple weeks and the Magic Cushion, then we’d involve the vet and leap into the pit of despair. In the meantime Henry had his teeth done anyway, and it rained a good bit, so it wasn’t too hard to just give him some time and put it on the back burner for a little while.

Saturday was the day of reckoning. I jogged him in hand and he looked good, but I can always feel things more easily than I see them with him, so I decided to go ahead and swing a leg over and see how he felt. But, naturally, as I was grooming him I discovered that he had pulled a shoe. Come on man. Luckily it was a back one, otherwise we probably would NOT have been sound (especially because the barn owner said that during the couple of colder days we’d had during the week, Henry decided to display both his speed and his acrobatics in turnout, culminating in a baseball-type slide that landed him on his ass) or rideable. The hind isn’t so bad though, so I figured we’d kill two birds with one stone and go for a walk hack in his pasture to look for his shoe. Good news – he felt normal. I didn’t feel any weird steps, not even on slight changes of terrain. Bad news – man I could NOT find that stupid shoe. Turns out that was because Henry had managed to fling it over the fence into the other pasture. And not just a little ways into their pasture, but like… 30 feet into their pasture. Kind of impressive honestly.

Since he’d felt good at the walk on Saturday, I took him into the dressage ring on Sunday to test the trot. I’m still operating as if he’d made himself footsore or had a bruise, and the dressage ring is the softest, flattest space we’ve got on the property, but also I figured if he was still sore anywhere then I’d feel it for sure in the corners. I only rode him for about 15 minutes, but he felt normal. Well… wild. Like after we had trotted once, he was certain it was time to gallop. There may have been some jigging and cantering in place. And spooking. God, lots of spooking. At trenches. At bushes. At birds. At the letters in the dressage ring. That’s the best indicator that he’s back to feeling good… he’s full of dumb beans.

We’ll get the hind shoe put back on this week, and then slowly start back up towards a normal workload. Hopefully I’m right and he was just footsore. The heat is finally starting to ease up a bit, so it would be nice to start doing more stuff with him. Maybe if I promise to take him XC schooling he’ll cooperate, considering the scathing death glare he gave me last week when I brought Presto home from Pine Hill. It’s like he KNEW. He knew exactly where we had been and what we’d done. I’m such a traitor.

But ya know, in order to do anything like that I’d need my truck back from the shop, and that is a whole ‘nother very infuriating, very tragic story in and of itself…

Most Foal Friday posts tend to be pretty action-packed. That’s usually when the foals are at their cutest, after all, and foal antics definitely make for some fun viewing. But the babies also have their quiet and peaceful moments too, and I know that we as equestrians often savor those moments just as much. There are few feelings better than standing outside at the end of a long day, taking a moment to just be still as the sun starts to sink and the air starts to cool, watching the horses graze or having them come over for a wither scratch and head rub. Those moments are maybe less exciting than the playful ones, but feed our soul just as much if not more. So for this week we’re taking a break from our regular, more exuberant pictures to take a glimpse into those quieter, more peaceful moments.

And because it’s just not possible for everything to be completely peaceful and quiet, I wonder where Ollie’s personality came from…

Happy Friday, everyone!

If you don’t want to hear about what a good baby Presto is, you should turn back now. You’ve been warned.

On Monday my trainer was having an XC schooling day at Pine Hill again. I really wanted to take Presto but my truck is still in the shop, thus I am without a tow vehicle. Hillary (da real MVP) stepped in and said she’d really like to take Luna too, and offered to come pick me up. Heck yes. Baby horse brigade.

Her rig is pretty big and getting in and out of gates and turning around can be a PITA, so we opted to just drop the ramp and load Presto on the road – it was early morning and it’s a pretty quiet road anyway, so there was no traffic, and it took us all of 30 seconds to toss all my stuff in the tack room and put Presto in the trailer. Bless him, he thought it was fun.

We’d made it almost all the way there when we heard a POP and realized we had a blowout. Great. We were having a bit of a hard time loosening a couple of the lug nuts but luckily a nice guy stopped and helped (which made me think about how having an impact wrench or breaker bar – mechanic SO votes for a breaker bar since you don’t have to worry about keeping it charged – in my trailer might not be a bad idea). Luckily it didn’t take very long before we were back on our way, so we arrived, got tacked up, and were only a little late.

I stuck Presto on the lunge line first, just to see what I had… last time he came to Pine Hill by himself and there were just a few horses on the property so I wasn’t sure if adding a buddy and more horses/chaos would spin him up or not. The answer is not. Like I could barely get him to canter. So after a few minutes with no excitement I called it good and got on.

The plan for this visit was pretty much the same as last time – just hack around with the group, go in the water, etc. I was hoping that this time I could trot around a bit, but we had no grand plans or expectations. Since we’d been a little late the group had already started jumping when we got out there, so in the beginning we mostly just stood and watched. Eventually they moved over to the little baby starter bank, and I thought Presto could do that. The holy trinity of cross county is ditches, banks, and water, all of which can be introduced to them right from the start in their simplest and smallest forms. This particular bank was a very small little step up and down that’s on the starter course, and he’s done banks plenty of times on the lunge line. We joined the line of horses walking down it, and at the last second I was like “maybe a down bank wasn’t the brightest idea for his first mounted XC obstacle…” but Presto didn’t even blink. He walked to the edge, peered at the bank, and stepped right down with zero fanfare. The line turned around and we all hopped back up it, which he found equally as simple. Well ok then.

After that we were off to the water. We walked across as a group then we each trotted back and forth by ourselves. While we walked across Presto was relatively certain he wanted to roll, but he forgets about that once he gets a little more speed. He had certainly remembered the water from last time and was much more sure of how to trot through it.

My friend Kathy was on her new OTTB, and we had gone through the water right after her at one point. She was going to jump a log after the water and asked if I wanted to as well. There was a super teeny one that was definitely under a foot tall, pretty much just a big ground rail, and I said “that one”. So she trotted over it, stopped, and turned around to wait for me to follow. I grabbed my neck strap just in case, but Presto literally trotted over it like it was a rail on the ground. I was laughing as I let go of the neck strap and pulled him up, at which moment the OTTB decided he HATED Presto coming near him (fair enough, most horses don’t like Presto very much, it’s like they can sense that he’s a pest) and wheeled around at him. Presto, ever respectful of horse authority, spun away from him as fast as he could, and since I was bent over laughing and had already let go of my neck strap, I was politely deposited over his shoulder in the process. Oops.

I’ve been saying since the first time I sat on this horse that sooner or later he was going to move too fast and I’d go right over his shoulder, and I was 100% right. HA. Luckily it was a very soft landing in a sandy area, and Presto was just standing there looking at me like “well that was a weird way to dismount, human.”. It was hilarious. I led him up to a BN box and used it to get back on, no harm no foul. We trotted back over the log (again literally trotted over) the other way and kept going to trot through the water. Presto was so proud of himself by that point, he cantered the last few steps out of the water like he was having a grand time.

We went around with the group through the woods, with Presto leading in spots. Last time he wanted to be in the lead but wasn’t quite confident enough to go up there on his own while we were in the woods, but this time he took charge. If other horses spook, he’ll get looky too (it’s like he respects his elders and their opinions a little too much sometimes), but he’s quite confident in his own regard. He was more patient about standing still this time too, when other horses left the group to go jump. Last time we had to make a lot of circles, but this time we made very few. He’s figuring it out.

When we came back out in the main field I wanted to pop over the teeny tiny Green As Grass level box, juts to end on a good note and also to make sure he wouldn’t be nappy about leaving the other horses since he’d just spent pretty much the whole ride standing in and traveling along with the group. I thought the little box might get a little bit more out of him than the teeny log by the water had. But he… literally trotted over it.

That made us all laugh. He was good about leaving the group though, he trotted away without resistance.

My trainer missed it and wanted to see it again, but clearly the box was boring. Looking at my other options I was like ok how about the BN faux ditch? It’s two itty bitty logs with some dark mulch in between. Historically some horses take real exception to that thing (it’s like they either don’t even notice it or they think it’s a portal to hell, there’s no in between) but he’s hopped over it before on the lunge line, so I didn’t think he’d be worried but I did think it might be enough to at least get a little bit more than a bored trot step. And omg, he was so cute.

I mean, he was still so unimpressed that he trotted immediately after he landed, but that was his first actual effort. “Ditches”, banks, and water (all in the simplest, littlest way possible)… check, check, and check. He’s basically an event horse now right? 😉

I remain really impressed with his brain. He’s definitely not a deadhead by any means (thank god) but the more we do, the more I can see all the things that I wanted when I bred him. Those were his first “jumps” if you can even call them that, and he had zero hesitation or confusion about it. It’s like this game makes total sense to him… I’m pretty sure I could have just gone around and trotted the whole GAG course without a problem if I’d wanted to. He won’t actually start jumping or XC schooling for real until next year, but it was fun to get a tiny glimpse at what’s waiting in there in it’s rawest form. I also think it’s really good for him to go have these very easy, laid back experiences now, so that a good foundation is in place when it actually comes time to start asking more of him.

Presto is getting this week off as we get some rain and a cold front (god only knows how much galloping and yeehawing is going on out in his pasture today with a 30 degree temperature drop) and yesterday I went out and gave him an oatmeal cream pie and some belly scratches. Tough life for that kid, I tell ya. Next outing – maybe a trail ride in the next couple weeks? We shall see…