Month: May 2021

I was kind of excited to take Henry to the little jumper show this past weekend since we haven’t been out anywhere in forever. Then they posted the schedule, and womp womp, our division wouldn’t go until after 5pm, which didn’t work for me. Very happy for the show that there were so many entrants, but sad for me that I had to scratch. Eventually we’ll make it off property and do something fun. Maybe. Henry doesn’t seem to mind.

My jump field is in need of a mow (that 6″ of rain made the grass quadruple in height overnight and there’s more rain on the way) so I can’t do too much out there right now, but I did set up a couple fences in the arena and hop back and forth over them on Sunday. I thought I would be clever and bring my little blue wannabe liverpool down to give Henry something different to see (I keep my jumps at home quite basic normally since he’s a fairly careless jumper… the fill and new “spooky” jumps at shows tend to work in my favor and perk him up a bit. Don’t want him to get too used to seeing that stuff at home all the time!). He spotted it from a mile away while we were walking into the ring and proceeded to turn into a snorting spooking dragon in a way that was kind of embarrassing for him as a Prelim horse who has jumped many a friggin liverpool in his day. It took me a while to convince him to just trot past it while we were warming up (I wish I’d turned my Pivo on for warmup, it was quite entertaining for those first few minutes) and he kept giving it major stink eye every time I went past it. Naturally though as soon as I pointed him at it and asked him to actually jump over it, he was like “oh yeah I know these, they’re boring, I was never worried jk”.

He’s always like that. He will spook sideways just having to canter past a Starter fence but then pop right over some hideous I/P weldon’s wall like it’s the most basic of crossrails. Passing jumps is scary, jumping them is fine. I don’t follow his logic, but ok I’m not complaining, that’s a lot better than the other way around. We didn’t jump a whole lot since it was humid and gross AF but he seemed to enjoy himself anyway. We’ll see how many rides I can fit in this week in between the rain before I go up to Texas Rose on Friday for Presto’s show.

Speaking of Presto, he’s basically a patience pole champion these days, having spent a lot of time there over the past couple weeks. He learned that pawing your anger out isn’t the right answer, and dancing in circles doesn’t get you anywhere. I mean, those lessons have been repeated to him throughout his entire life but I’m sure no one is surprised that regular refreshers are needed. Patience is NOT his strong suit, and he likes to express his emotions with his feet. This week the lessons are being transferred into the trailer, and then on Friday he heads over to the show. Hopefully he decides to haul quietly this time.

Which, turns out the venue double booked this weekend – a dressage show and a horse trial, which should be… um… interesting. A week after closing date they changed the schedule in the omnibus (without even sending an email to competitors or anything) moving the Training/Prelim/Intermediate dressage to Friday afternoon. People are not happy about the very late and not at all well-communicated change, and I don’t blame them. There are major clusterfuck vibes already happening.

Presto of course is in OBN, so his schedule isn’t really effected much, except usually they run dressage and XC Saturday and then showjump Sunday morning, but this new schedule has him with dressage and SJ on Saturday and then XC Sunday morning. Should be fine. I can’t quite wrap my brain around the complete chaos of a dressage show and a horse trial happening at the same time (what the actual…) but, um, I guess we’ll just deal with it?

My other main objective for this past weekend was finishing his next Futurity vlog, which is the first one about his actual training this spring. I put all the video clips together, sent it to Megan, she recorded the voice over, I stitched it all together, and voila… done. It’s way easier when someone else is doing the talking. I mean, it still takes me 9000 years to make the video but it went a lot faster than the previous ones. It’s been submitted so hopefully they’ll be posting it soon, keep an eye on their facebook page. This next round of vlogs isn’t actually due until the end of this week but since they already have mine they might post it early. It’s always fun hearing the rider/trainer’s thoughts instead of mine, so hopefully y’all like this one!

In between all that I came perilously close to pre-ordering a dinosaur fly sheet for Presto. Does he need one? No. But does he neeeeed one? Clearly. I mean… dinosaurs. Duh.

I’m trying to behave myself though because I have a feeling his summer adventures will be expensive, and while he got good use of his fly sheet in Florida, we don’t really use them much here. That and the UK shipping is not cheap, so… I’ve talked myself out of it. For now anyway.

I’ll be honest though, I freakin’ hate Mother’s Day, and was feeling particularly dumpy yesterday (the BO gave me cake though, that helped. Cake always helps. Write that down.) so I did buy myself one little thing I’ve had my eye on to help cheer myself up.

I have two spike browbands already – a brown one with gunmetal spikes and a black one with gunmetal spikes. They live on Presto’s bridles, but I do sometimes borrow the brown one for Henry’s XC bridle. The Bling Bay has lots of different color spikes on offer though, their prices are super reasonable, and ya know which of my bridles doesn’t have it’s own pretty browband? Henry’s La Cense bitless that he wears pretty much every day. That’s a travesty, right? It needs some pizazz. It’s still wearing the plain flat boring browband it came with.

I waffled a bit between the darker blue spikes and the rainbow #2 spikes, but in the end I just had to do the rainbow ones. It’ll bring me joy on a day to day basis I think. How could it not? It’s supposed to ship today and they’re based here locally so hopefully I’ll have it within the next couple days.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for! The first two babies are now officially co-habitating, and their introduction to each other was every bit as entertaining as I had imagined.

Sometimes mares and foals are a little slow to integrate at first. The mares can be a little overprotective, and the foals can be a bit shy. I kind of had a feeling that wouldn’t really be the case with these two though (at least not Pippa) and it definitely wasn’t. They spotted each other right off the bat and were very much interested right from the start.

It took almost no time at all for Pippa’s curiosity and boldness to get the better of her, and unsurprisingly it was her who made the first move and initiated first contact. She left her dam and marched up to get a closer look at Patrick.

At first Lark wasn’t too sure about this little hellion trying to corrupt her sweet little Patrick. You can pretty much hear her yelling “PEYTON! Come get your little demon kid!” and Peyton yelling back “I GAVE UP ON HER A LONG TIME AGO, DEAL WITH IT!”. Which is true, Peyton cannot control Pippa whatsoever and has mostly given up trying. She’s a helicopter mom no more, but not by her own choice, by Pippa’s.

With no assistance from Peyton it didn’t take Lark very long to give up either, and ta-da, just like that… Pippa and Patrick had their first nose touch!

Which, true to form, Pippa quickly turned into their first gallop. I’m not sure how much of a willing participant Patrick really was, but he, uh… humored her.

Pippa, having such a high % thoroughbred and bred to event, really loves to gallop. It’s her jam. Patrick on the other hand, bred to jump the big sticks, is more of a bouncing kind of guy. He’s like a little rubber ball all the time, and given the choice, that’s definitely his favorite activity.

He tried to get Pippa to try out some bouncing instead of just galloping laps all the time, but I think it backfired on him a little bit.

Poor Patticakes. He learned a lot about fillies this week. Mostly that they’re scary and cannot be trusted.

I mean, I think we all felt a little sorry for Patrick in advance with this one. Pippa is an absolute spitfire, scared of nothing and no one, and very much likes to have things her way. Patrick is pretty bold and smart too, but there’s just no match for a filly like Pippa. She runs that pasture, for sure. Her way is THE way.

That’s not to say that Patrick was a total shrinking violet or a pushover either, though. He held his own at least some of the time and definitely isn’t scared of Pippa despite the fact that she can be… a lot.

Ok maybe he’s a teeny bit scared of her though. Honestly that’s for the best. Safe choice.

When he gets too tired of playing Gallop (ok being chased, Pippa flat out chases him for entertainment) he pretty wisely retreats back to Lark. Pippa is bold but she’s not stupid, and she knows better than to try to cause too much trouble right there while Lark is within reach. Lark is his safe zone when he needs a time out.

Really for the most part they seem pretty well-matched. Pippa is the clear boss, for sure, which… I think she’s going to be the boss of this whole crop. Maybe Ollie’s full sibling could give her a run for her money when it comes to sheer chaos and anarchy, but I don’t think it’s possible to out-alpha Pippa. She’s a born boss mare and she isn’t shy about making that clear. Patrick seems to like her though, and they’re having a lot of fun chasing each other around and playing.

Most of all it’s really fun to see babies out there playing together again, and I’m more than ready to keep adding more to the baby herd. Just wait til there’s 6!

Another week, another big dramafest on horsey social media. We’re on a roll lately.

This time it was Dani Waldman née Goldstein (either revered or loathed for her trademark feathery hairstyle, which caused a lot of drama in and of itself for various reasons that I’m so tired of hearing about) when she casually mentioned in a comment that her horses never get turned out. The backlash was quick and furious, leading her to make a longer “statement”:

Hi guys! Wow…I certainly and inadvertently sparked a controversial topic today…first off, I love my horses, often more than I love myself! Secondly, no one is going to win this battle as we simply cannot ask the horses their opinion. Thirdly, cyber-hate only encourages us to stop listening to each other—and that doesn’t do anyone any good…(and telling me to be ashamed of myself is downright heartbreaking). Lastly, this is clearly a very debated topic…whether the risk of physical injury outweighs the risk of mental health for our wonderful animals. My decision to limit their uncontrolled movement is a strategic choice, made in consultation with my entire team of vets, farriers, chiropractors, nutritionists, and my own 20+ years of personal experience in the field. I will say, unequivocally, that an injured horse’s mental health suffers far more than one that isn’t turned out, and since our sport is inherently dangerous, limiting any unnecessary movement that could result in injury is paramount in my program. I will soon post a day in the life of my horses at home so you can see an in depth look at the great detail and attention that goes into caring for my horses, including the 3-5 times per day that they are outside of their box hand grazing or moving around for hours at a time!

I have to be honest, I think what surprised me most about this whole thing was that anyone was actually surprised by this at all. Regardless of how you feel about it, it really isn’t that uncommon for a lot of top dressage, hunter, and showjumping horses to get no turnout (or maybe an hour a day in a very small paddock). Especially in Europe. Maybe a lot of people didn’t know that?

Now, is that my ideal? No. I like for my horses to have lots of turnout. Granted, I have that luxury. We have big pastures and plenty of space. Other people aren’t so lucky. I know a lot of horses on the west coast that don’t get much if any turnout, and certainly not in a very large space. The same is true in many places in Europe or other areas where land is at a premium. I totally understand that not everyone keeps horses the same way I do, or has access to the same things, or thinks the same way, or has the same experiences. There are lots of different methods, lots of different types of horses, and people seem to make it work.

I think in everyone’s ideal world horses would live outside 24/7 in a herd that they love and all would be sunshine and rainbows and happiness. This works for a lot of horses in a lot of places, but it doesn’t work for all of them or every climate or every place. I think we can all agree with that much at least. There is no such thing as “never” or “always” with horses. Generally as long as someone’s horse is happy and healthy, I really don’t have the desire to make it my business how their horse is cared for on a daily basis. There are many roads to Rome and not everyone’s looks the same as mine.

I did have a little bit of an issue with her reasoning though, I will say that. I think it’s hypocritical to ask horses to perform at the upper levels of sport, which certainly contains significant risk of injury, but then not turn them out because they might get injured. It seems a bit… selfish? You’re willing to risk the injury to use them for sport but not willing to risk the injury by allowing them to have any turnout? Especially to then say that stall rest from an injury is harder on them mentally – I mean, if that’s your theory then don’t jump them over huge fences and risk injury either. That reasoning falls very flat for me. It’s definitely great that they get time on the walker/treadmill, handgrazing, hacking, etc, that certainly helps so they do get to move around and aren’t just stuck in their stalls all the time. It’s not ideal maybe but a lot of horses live their lives that way, and her horses seem generally well-loved and well cared for otherwise. Granted it’s also a little sad to see her property tour with perfectly nice little paddocks that literally never have horses go out in them, just because she wants their every step to be controlled. She’s certainly not alone in her horsekeeping practices though, that’s for certain.

What are your thoughts? Were you surprised to hear that her horses never get turned out? How did you feel about her reasoning behind it?

Pippa and Patrick had their first turnout together this week, which resulted in A LOT of great pictures, so Foal Friday is already reserved for that. BUT we did have a new addition at WTW on Monday, with the birth of Patrick’s full sibling! Chanel finally released her hostage, a big bay colt, in the middle of the afternoon. He doesn’t have an official name yet so we’ll wait to do his intro post until maybe next week, but I thought everybody could use a little mid-week cuteness and this dude definitely delivers! Nobody’s going to complain about a bonus bebe day, right?

More to come from this kiddo later on! Happy Wednesday.

I think all of us who are involved with horses know that they’re a journey, and sometimes a really really long one. Instant gratification isn’t really a thing, success is hard to come by, and you often have to put in a whole lot of blood sweat and tears long before you ever reap any kind of reward. This is especially true when it comes to breeding.

I mean… let’s think about the whole process here. First you have to have a mare, whether you already have one or have to go pick one out and buy her. Then you have to pick a stallion, which requires you to (hopefully… please god hopefully) do a lot of learning, research, poking around the internet, watching videos, finding offspring, digging through pedigrees, maybe trips overseas, comparing and contrasting, so on and so on. That could take months or years. But let’s fast forward and say ok, you’ve finally picked a stallion. You pay the stud fee. You get the mare bred. Hopefully she’s in foal. If not you try again. Maybe again. Maybe she aborts early in the pregnancy. Maybe you try again. Maybe she gets in foal that year, maybe she doesn’t. Let’s assume she does.

Then you wait a whole year, give or take, for the foal to even be born. And we all know how that can go south in a hurry. But, for the sake of this story, let’s say mare and foal both survive with no major complications. Now wait 4 more years before said foal really gets going under saddle. Then another 6 or so before it (theoretically, in this scenario) reaches it’s prime.

That’s an 11-12 year investment before one offspring could even possibly reach it’s peak potential. And you know how often things go swimmingly according to plan in horses? LOL NEVAR.

So last week when I was checking out the entry status for Texas Rose and saw “Like Magic WTW” listed there, confirming his entry, I had to screenshot it and send it to Michelle. Is it a baby horse’s first BN? Yup. Is it that exciting? Probably not to pretty much anyone but us. But – fun fact – it’ll be the first WTW horse to do a real official recognized show (under saddle) of any kind. The first WTW foal to finally come of age and step foot in the show ring to do the job that he was so carefully and lovingly bred to do. It’s a big big moment, even if it may seem like extremely small potatoes to anyone else. Especially if you know the full background of all that has come before, what has gone into the program just to get to this point. Let’s recap.

I met Michelle in 2013, when I leased my mare to her. She’d been trying for a couple years to get another mare (her first warmblood broodmare) in foal, and had no luck despite many attempts. And that year, she didn’t have any luck with my mare either, starting so late in the season. The next year it took several attempts, finally culminating in actually shipping the mare to the stallion’s farm and having to figure out some hormone imbalance issues before she finally checked in foal. Nobody even wants to add up the dollar amount just to get that very first WTW pregnancy, but it took about 3 years of effort.

Merlin was born in 2015. During that time another mare was purchased already in foal from another breeder, with that foal also born in 2015 (technically not bred by WTW). That mare had complications and died shortly after foaling, despite some truly heroic and no-holds-barred efforts from the vets, leaving behind an orphan (who luckily made it). No foals were born in 2016. There was a learning curve about repro vets and what to do/not do, who to use/not use, etc. All this time there was also continuing education about bloodlines, breeding, vet work, more trips to Europe, repro classes, etc. New mares were purchased and added to the string. In 2016 the mares were hauled hours away to use a very good repro specialist who used frozen semen, resulting in three pregnancies. In 2017 three foals were born, including Presto. And, uh, well, you know Presto’s early life story. That year was especially brutal, with another foal sadly passing away before weaning due to a bad reaction to medication. In 2018 two more foals were born. Then Merlin, the oldest WTW foal who was living in the Houston area with his new owner, died suddenly and unexpectedly from an acute colic. Horses are hard. Breeding is brutal.

You guys have been part of all the foal crops since. I’ve been so proud to see Michelle’s program grow and improve, see her develop such a keen eye, learn to do her own breeding and lab work, etc. I’ve had a front row seat to witness the creation of a real legit sporthorse breeder. But the truth is that all this work, all this money, all this effort, all these sleepless nights and tears and at times just plain suffering – for a breeder, you’re talking about a decade before you start to see any real returns on any of that. Decades (plural) before you really start to make a name for yourself through the horses you’ve bred. It’s a long long long game, even in the horse world where every damn thing is a long game.

So was it momentous to see that very first WTW name in an entry status, even though it’s just a 4yo entered in BN? You freaking bet. I am so honored to have the first horse from the program out in the show ring, so proud of everything my friend has built and really delighted that she’s let me be such a big part of it. Maybe I’m biased, but I really think that as these horses prove themselves over time, she’ll be one of the best breeders in the country.

There’s a lot of talk about American breeders not producing horses that are up to the quality of Europe (which I strongly disagree with. The quantity of Europe, no. The quality, absolutely yes.) or complaints about how expensive foals are (welcome to America where keeping horses is expensive). The breeders really are the unsung heroes that keep providing us with nice horses yet get little to no recognition and even less support. Thankless doesn’t even really begin to cover it. They do it because they love it, and they love their horses.

If it feels like I’m always over here trying to get on a soapbox about breeding and supporting the US market, it’s because I am. It’s because of all this. It’s because I know how long it really took just to get this one gangly 4yo giraffe kid to his first recognized event, and it certainly wasn’t just the past 3 months of training. Michelle is 10 years invested into this breeding thing now… TEN YEARS since she tried breeding that first mare to that first stallion… and the first horse bearing the WTW suffix is finally gonna hit the show ring. What many would call the beginning of a story has really had a very very long history just to get to this starting point, something that most don’t really know or see. No matter what happens, its a pretty exciting moment for the program, and I’m so proud to finally get my WTW horse out there and represent what my friend has built.