As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, Presto is officially entered in the 2021 US Event Horse Futurity. And as I also mentioned, while he’s not entered with the intention of winning, he’s definitely entered with the intention of representing. Especially his home farm and namesake (ok, suffix-sake?) Willow Tree Warmbloods. By the time I’m done everyone will know where Like Magic WTW came from. I’m proud of what my friend Michelle has built so far with her breeding program, and I’m also proud to be a part of it. So, one of the first orders of business is acquiring a few WTW-branded pieces for Presto’s wardrobe. If you’re gonna represent, you gotta have swag, and since this is a serious professional endeavor, he needs some serious professional swag.

Well ok back up one step… the actual first order of business was acquiring him a pro rider for his planned summer on the East Coast. I talked about that in the last post too but it hadn’t been totally ironed out yet at that point. Now they have – discussions have been had and loose plans (because horses) have been made and right now the plan is that he’ll go to Will Faudree in the summer. There were two big draws about Will – 1) he and Michelle actually grew up in the same town and knew each other when they were kids, so it’s like one big Texas-themed team here. 2) he already has a horse exactly like Presto- Mama’s Magic Way. Like after talking to Will about him in the past it’s creepy how similar those two horses are when it comes to how they think and act, so I thought it might be an advantage to have someone who already understands how this horse ticks. The exact timeline is a little up the air due to the Olympics and/or 5*’s, but that can be figured out later.

Anyway, let’s return to the swag. Despite the fact that I myself have a lot of WTW logo attire (jackets, tech shirts, polo shirts, hats, decals, etc) the only thing Presto has is a scrim sheet that I ordered a couple years ago when Triple Crown had a 35% off sale during Black Friday.

Otherwise though he is without any WTW swag, something we certainly have to remedy before the Futurity starts.

The most obvious things of course are a saddle pad and a bonnet. My first thought for saddle pad was a Mattes, especially since there’s a 25% off Hufglocken code. They’re pricier, but they’re definitely professional and elegant looking. It would be a show pad, of course, so white, and jump shape makes more sense since 2/3 of the phases are jumping.

And that’s as far as I got. Because if there’s one thing the Hufglocken Mattes configurator has, it’s options. Too many options. I become completely crippled with indecision. I built about 9 million (okay maybe it was closer to 7 or 8, whatever) different options, could not choose a clear favorite, got entirely overwhelmed, and ran away.

There are cheaper options too though. Option one, I could buy him a white Premier Equine merino wool jump pad. Or, for about the same price as the one Mattes pad I could buy him both a jump and dressage Premier Equine merino wool pad. I hopped on their website to do just that and SON-OF-A-B pretty much all of their merino wool pads are entirely sold out. Still are, weeks later. Womp womp.

Of course, I DO already have white PE jump and dressage merino wool pads. They’re Henry’s show pads. I could just commandeer them, get the WTW logo embroidered on them, and be done with it. Granted, I wouldn’t want to show Henry in said WTW pads, so he’d then be show-pad-less, but ya know… CLEARLY that isn’t much of an issue right now. That would certainly be the cheapest option. I’m still waffling.

For bonnets there WAS one thing I decided pretty easily – I want one of those mesh and faux leather ones. They look super sleek and professional and I think it would look awesome with the WTW logo embroidered on it. But then I got stuck in the same way I got stuck at Hufglocken. What colors do I do? Navy and white is the simplest, for sure. Could also do a black bonnet with navy trim and white piping, to be even more subtle on the horse’s head. Or we could bring Presto’s green into it and do a navy bonnet with green trim and white piping. Or a navy bonnet with navy trim and white and green piping.

Companies should not offer custom things to people like me. We’re shit at making decisions. I need other people’s input, because I’m stuck. Halp?

Other than a bonnet and saddle pads, what else do y’all think he needs? I really really really really really am DYING to get him a Kentucky show rug and have that embroidered, and even had it in my cart a few times during Black Friday, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger. I really want one for both Presto and Henry because I’m obsessed with them, but omg they’re so expensive. Even when they were on sale during BF. I just COULDN’T do it. Now I have regrets, because they’re pretty and I want them. I’ve been looking around at some knockoffs – there are some with that same faux sheepskin neck that could also be used as a cooler, which would maybe be more practical, if less luxe. I dunno. I’m waffling on that too.

Thoughts, opinions, input? I know, I’m crazy. Presto needs to look sharp for his first real “public appearance” though, and custom stuff can take a while, so now is the time!