While I definitely miss seeing Presto’s goofy face and ridiculous antics every day, I have to admit that when the winter storm hit I was kind of relieved not to have another horse in the barn to worry about. Especially him, because he makes a freakin mess in his stall when he’s stuck inside, and usually something in the barn ends up broken. He seems to have weathered the storm just fine up there… I ended up Priming him a blanket liner, and all reports were that he was definitely a bit stir crazy, but otherwise eating and drinking fine. They luckily did not lose power or water.

While it was a relief that I had one less horse here to deal with, on the other hand it’s kind of a bummer that it cut into our already short training timeline with Megan (who, unrelatedly, made the Emerging Athletes list again this year!). He’d only been up there for a few days when this whole mess first started, and of course it lasted way longer than it was forecasted to. Annoying, but what can you do? None of us can control the weather.

Megan was on top of it though, and got in as much work with him as she could. He’s had some groundwork sessions and a few rides, and she’s given him a good report card. She says he’s talented and she enjoys working with him, and she seems to understand and enjoy his monkey personality. On Sunday she sent me some video of her riding him and y’all. I am shook.

I think I had to scoop my jaw up off the floor.

She said what she’s really been working on is getting him more supple through his body, especially his rib cage, which tracks 100% with what I was feeling too. She’s a more correct and stronger rider than I am, so I think she’s able to “explain” it to him much more clearly than I could. He’s still kinda wobbly and loses track of his hind legs sometimes, because ya know… he’s a baby… but for such a short amount a time I think she’s done a great job at starting to help him put things together. Especially at the canter, which I was struggling with.

I especially like how quick she is to reward him for any little try – a nice little release and touch on his neck, which you can see him responding to. A few times when he gets a little frustrated or confused she just keeps quietly asking, and rewards him the second he starts to figure out the right answer. It’s very positive and very quiet, which is what he needs and what I want to see. So far I’m super impressed, honestly.

As hard as it was to cut the cord and send him off, I think it was the right choice. He seems to be thriving, and seeing her ride him and make him look so fancy and legit brings me just as much joy as if I were riding him myself. Probably even more so, because I feel like the quality of the education he’s getting is better. I keep looking at some of these clips going “This is MY horse??? This is that goofy little beanpole that smooshes balls? IT CAN’T BE!”. Seeing him with a pro in the saddle, you can really start to see his quality and the horse he will eventually be.

Now I find myself wanting to figure out a way to keep him with Megan for longer. I think this is a good match, and I’d really like to see what she could accomplish with him given more time. A good early foundation would serve him so much better in the long run. I just have to figure out how to swing it financially. We’ll see. Might have to get creative. Is there a market on the internet for pics of gross dirty farm girl feet? I could totes sell those…