Whew, I think I’m glad the Olympics are over. That was a lot. I have some thoughts on the whole modern pentathlon debacle (of course I do) but we’ll save that for another day because it encompasses some larger thoughts and concerns that I also have about the equestrian events as a whole. On the bright side though, how fantastic was Sweden in the showjumping final? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a team that deserved a gold medal so much, and I was delighted that they pulled it off. Especially with a little unassuming looking horse like All In. No one would ever pick that one out of a field but man when he jumps it’s just something else entirely. I really don’t like the new format for showjumping though, I gotta say, from a horse perspective. Still, it did produce a great nail-biting finish to round out the equestrian events, so I guess mission accomplished on that front.

Aside from watching the Olympics, I’ve still been managing to keep Henry on a very regular riding schedule. The mild summer and his general lightened workload have made his usual summer vacation pretty unnecessary, he feels fit and fresh and isn’t standing there suffering all day in extreme heat. We’ll take low-mid 90’s over three months straight of 110 weather any freakin time, that’s for sure. Naturally though a couple weeks ago he decided to do a weird thing where his front legs stocked up like tree trunks as did a spot on the right side of his face. This isn’t the first time that’s happened, it used to be a once a year thing every May/June but it’s been a couple years since the last time. We never have been able to figure out if it’s something environmental or something he’s eating, or what. No idea. None of the other horses ever seem to have an issue, he never acts any different, never has a fever, never goes off his feed or anything (as if he would)… just gets swelly and itchy. And you can wrap/poultice/sweat/bute to your hearts content but nothing makes a difference. He has so many allergies and sensitivities that I’m betting it’s something related to that. Delicate flower.

In the past we’ve given him a little dex if it got too bad (like the time the swelling was in his sheath) but I try to avoid dex if at all possible, so I opted to just wait it out as long as it didn’t get worse. And indeed after a few days it did start to get better, and now his legs are totally normal again, he’s just got a little bump left on his nose. Mostly because I think he won’t stop rubbing it no matter how much anti-itch stuff I put on it. It’s not really causing an issue though aside from annoying the both of us, and it means that I have to use a real bridle with the noseband removed rather than his usual sidepull, which he thinks is rude. Otherwise though, it’s fine, and it’s gone down a little bit, so hopefully we’re past all the random elephantitis.

While Henry and I were at home doing some jompies, his brother spent the weekend in Tennessee showing at River Glen. Obviously I couldn’t go but I got a lot of updates and videos and I pre-ordered the All Photos package from the show photographer so I can still give you guys a full update on how the show went. I’m determined to actually wait for the pro photos this time though before I do the recap, so… stay tuned. We’ll circle back to that at some point this week (hopefully…). They already have the proofs up so maybe they’ll be quick to send the download link? One can hope.

I admittedly spent most of the weekend hitting refresh on Startbox and obsessively checking my phone for updates, and somewhere in all my stalking (River Glen did post their courses online, which was great) I saw this in the Novice course at Millbrook and thought it was interesting.

That’s a new one for me, never seen a bank question presented that way before. Looks like it rode just fine though. Millbrook in general looks beautiful, too bad it’s 1800 miles away. Why is all the best stuff so far from Texas (looking at you, Rebecca Farm, almost 2000 miles away).

Speaking of courses, I also saw this on Instagram:

Y’all. Omg. I could get a jump with Henry and Presto’s XC faces on it. Or their derp faces. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much “too much” would that be? I need it.