Normally when I do my Monday update posts I kinda just jot down everything that happened in the past week and then go through my phone and throw in whatever random pictures I have. I legit sat here forever this week trying to remember what the actual f happened last week that’s even remotely worth talking about before turning to my phone’s camera roll to help me out. And well… I guess just… not much. Ok that’s not totally true, most of my brainpower and online chit-chat went toward one decidedly large thing but it’s still not 1000% official so I can’t talk about it yet. Soon. Otherwise it was kind of a dull week. Well, it was my birthday week if that counts?

My bday was Thursday, and I didn’t really do much of anything different from usual. I jumped Henry in the morning, since birthday jompies are more fun, but otherwise it was a normal day of work and stuff. I kind of ruined my own day to be honest, because I figured out (after much emailing back and forth) that Presto in fact is NOT qualified for AEC, because under qualifications where it says “Horse and rider must have completed a total of three USEA recognized horse trials during the qualifying period.” what it really means is “Horse and rider must have completed a total of three USEA recognized horse trials AT THE LEVEL OR ONE LEVEL HIGHER during the qualifying period.”. He would have to have 3 Novices or a mixture of Novice and Training completions in order to be fully qualified, and he has a BN and two N’s. So… yeah… he has the placings needed, and the number of horse trials needed, but since one of them was BN it doesn’t count for the qualification. Would be cool if they wrote that out a bit more clearly, because several people have made the same mistake, but… is what it is.

So that was pretty disappointing. Mostly because I was really really really looking forward to spending the week in Kentucky with some of my favorite people. Showcations are my favorite thing and that one in particular was going to be epic. Not being able to go definitely put a damper on everything. I cancelled my flight already and talked to Megan about what Presto’s plan is going to be now (what are we on, Plan C?) which I’ll write about more at some point. But yeah. Boo. Oh well. Just saved myself a shit ton of money I guess?

Last week was just kind of a mixed bag in general. A while back I sold off a bunch of my old shirts and breeches that didn’t fit anymore and ordered a few new things from my favorite Dutch store, Epplejeck. Their stuff takes 2-3 weeks to get here but their prices are so good that it makes it worth it. I’d ordered two shirts, two pair of breeches, and the new Micklem girth for Henry and Presto to share (despite Henry being considerably more stout than Presto, Presto is just so much bigger/deeper through all his parts that they can wear the same size girth).

Of course, when I opened the package only 3 of the 5 items were there, despite the packing slip saying that all 5 were included. SIGH. So now Epplejeck and I are currently going back and forth about the missing items. I had to send them a bunch of pictures and now they’re “consulting with the appropriate group” about it. I feel like it shouldn’t be that hard to verify, the missing items were a pair of breeches and a shirt, so the shipping weight def would have been a couple pounds lighter than it should have been had all the items been in there. But we’ll see what they come back with. Luckily I paid with Paypal so if they tell me I’m SOL I should be able to escalate it. I’m bummed because the missing shirt is the navy sparkly one and the missing breeches are the burgundy ones. And naturally the one shirt that did come was too small (it’s like… borderline child size… so much for that particular size chart) and the girth is kinda meh quality wise. I’m glad I got it from there instead of paying considerably more for it in the US. It’s pretty at least?

I do really like the gray Montar breeches I got though (I’m wearing them in the Henry pic above). I basically got the same ones as the navy pair I used to have, just a different color and smaller size. They could be a little tighter in the waist but I like the style a lot, and the price was excellent. I do really like the Montar breeches, I wish more places in the US carried them. Should do a mini-review of all this stuff I guess.

My birthday wasn’t a total bust, though. There were cupcakes (LOTS OF CUPCAKES, I LOVE CUPCAKES) and some queso. I could exist entirely on chips and queso and cupcakes and be a happy person. Maybe like 300 pounds but I’d be happily fed anyway. The SO and I had previously discussed how I wanted to do DNA testing on Mina to see what breeds (aside from Pit, anyway) it came back with, and he showed up with an Embark test. He wrapped it in my oh so precious unicorn wrapping paper so I guess it counts as a birthday present. We got the swab done and sent off, now we just wait. Anyone have any guesses as to what it’ll say? We should take bets and turn it into a game….

We also got some really nice rain yesterday, which might seem like a dumb thing to mention but y’all don’t even know how weird this summer has been for Texas. I guess all our weather got sent up north because it’s been so incredibly mild compared to usual, and we’ve gotten decent bits of rain. Usually by this point in mid August it’s been 110 degrees for a month straight, the ground is concrete, all the grass has been burnt to a crisp, and walking outside feels like getting whacked in the face with an oven. We’re still hovering in just the low 90’s most days (which sure that’s hot I suppose, but it ain’t anywhere near our normal hot), and we got a beautiful steady rainfall of about a quarter inch yesterday. The grass is still alive. In AUGUST. I can’t even tell you how happy green grass makes me. If every summer was like this I wouldn’t hate it nearly so much.

Without AEC on the calendar I feel like it’s taken the wind out of my sails a bit, with nothing to really look forward to, but hopefully that’ll change soon. There’s potential things at play at least. And how do we feel about the odds of the Maryland 5* actually happening with spectators in October given the current covid situation? I haven’t even dared to get my hopes up yet…