Month: December 2021

Everybody likes to kind of make fun of the Spotify Wrapped thing (myself included) but I will also admit that I really like it. I especially love seeing other people’s, because I’ve always thought that the music people listen to when they’re alone can tell you a lot about a person… more than what they actually choose to show to the world, a lot of the time. Seeing the songs and artists and genres that people connect with the most is really interesting to me, so I love it when people post theirs. It’s fascinating. (also, I learned that I have massively underestimated how many Taylor Swift fans are out there, including people I never would have guessed)

Although I don’t like that it only uses January through October for it’s data. Come on man, I want to see how the holiday/winter/end of the year vibes factor in for everyone. Granted maybe I’m glad it stopped there because for the past couple months I’ve basically been doing nothing but binging Loveless and Billie Eilish’s latest album, or have had like the same 10-15 songs on repeat (especially Gasoline, How Do You Know It’s Not Armadillo Shells?, Happier Than Ever, and Just Like You… it’s a whole-ass mood), so at this point Spotify would probably be like “bro, you ok?” and my musical aura would definitely be “broody AF”. Probably best if we just, uh… ignore that.

But I did kind of chuckle watching my little Wrapped video. Spotify’s got a sense of humor.

Seeing those little prompts immediately made my brain jump into equestrian mode and look at it from that point of view. To be honest, the reason why a lot of these songs/artists have been listened to so much by me is because of something horse-related. I’m very much still my 16yo self that uses music to set a mood or to cope with feelings (because I’m not sure that I ever developed real coping skills, so I bury things deep and let music deal with them). And, well, my life revolves around the horses, so it makes sense that my music tends to do that too. Even my playlists are telling… I have a playlist for conditioning rides, a playlist for horse shows, and tend to use my “Liked Songs” as a reflection for however I’m feeling about life in general at the moment (which is largely controlled by – you guessed it – horses). It changes a lot.

My horse show playlist is the crowd pleaser… it’s mostly a collection of fun, upbeat music that puts me in a good mood while driving to a show. It’s the songs most people know, that you can play while you hang out at your stalls or at the trailer (I mean, unless there’s kids around, then… whoops). I don’t think it’s really a good overall reflection of the music I listen to on a regular basis or when I’m alone, but it’s got a purpose and it works well for that.

But if I look through my top 100 most listened to songs of the year (or… Jan through Oct, anyway) I see a lot of songs that were added because of horses or some horse-related event. Sometimes because of the general feeling of the song, other times because of specific lines and lyrics. And some of them, well… they just plain fit the conditions.

High, by Young Rising Sons. Is there anything that better describes what it’s like to own horses? Highs and lows, man, highs and lows.

Just let it go enjoy the ride
Without the low there ain’t a high

‘Cause all we need is love
But love means sacrifice
But it’s sure worth the prize
If you get it right

abcdefu, by Gayle. Ok I have to be honest, this is what I imagine SafeSport says to every single perv and perv accomplice that gets banned. Bye pervs (we’ll keep your dogs and horses though)!

A-B-C-D-E, F-U
And your mom and your sister and your job
And your broke-ass car and that shit you call art
Fuck you and your friends that I’ll never see again
Everybody but your dog, you can all fuck off

meet me at our spot (I prefer the Loveless cover to the original). Because what is riding if not escapism?

Meet me at our spot
They can’t find us there

Caught a vibe
Baby, are you coming for the ride 

Carry On, by Young Rising Sons. (someone tell them they’re writing songs for equestrians) But like, is there anything that describes the horse and human relationship more than this?

And all you need to know is I’ll be there
When no one is, no one is, yeah darling
I’ll be there
And I’ll tell you

Oh my love, don’t you worry
When the world gets cold, I’ll hold your heart when it’s heavy

and last but not least

She’s Out of Her Mind, by Blink 182. Every poor horse husband, horse boyfriend, horse parent, horse wife, horse spouse out there could probably belt this one at the top of their lungs.

I’m in deep with this girl but she’s out of her mind

What songs from your Spotify Wrapped would make it to the equestrian mix?

Let’s dispense with all the preamble, eh? GUESS WHAT CAME???

Some of you may remember that I caved and ordered some Romitelli boots when we were in Ocala a couple months ago. They have a permanent store at WEC, and I guess 3rd time is the charm because I’d been in there twice before to drool over and pet all the boots, but this last trip was when I finally caved and ordered some. To be fair I’ve lost 25lbs this year and none of my other boots fit anymore, so… it was justified. Plus black glitter, need I say more?

While it’s too soon to give a full review (I’ve had them for two days and I’ve ridden in them once, so…) I figured I could at least relay how I felt about my trying/ordering/delivery experience and my initial impressions of the boots. I feel like ordering boots is sort of like ordering saddles – some companies just seem to have a lot more horror stories than others. Luckily this is not one of those stories.

As I said, I bit the bullet and ordered them at the WEC store. I walked in there with an idea of what I wanted, not sure if I’d have to go the custom or semi-custom route, and thought “Ok if the price they give me is under X dollars, I’ll get them”. I like to do that a lot when I shop, as if it leaves it up to fate or something. Just… pretend it makes sense, I know I’m weird. Anyway, I walked in the store and the saleslady (who’s name I wish I could remember but I’m terrible at names) took one look at me and pulled two sizes off the shelf to try. She’s good at her job, both pairs fit, but we agreed that the taller and slimmer pair fit a bit better. Luckily I am a pretty averagely proportioned person, so I wouldn’t have to go the full custom route, I could just order whatever options I wanted in the standard size.

And there were a ridiculous amount of options. Like a whole basket full to the brim of swatches, plus a big binder. It was overwhelming. I went in knowing that I wanted a sparkly black top, though, so it was just a matter of finding the right sparkly black. Which sounds kind of easy but still I was sitting there with like 6 different options after I’d narrowed it down the first time. And then once I’d decided on which sparkly black I liked, I had to decide what shape I wanted the top to be and how big (I went for the standard bow top) and then if I wanted any other detailing (I’m a sucker for a bit of brogue), and then what type of leather (I went for the regular, which is softer), and toe shape (traditional). It was really tempting to be a bit more “creative”, but I wanted these to be show boots that were a little bit fun but still classic enough to where I wouldn’t get tired of them in a couple years and they could still go with any outfit.

When I ordered she said it had been taking the factory in Italy about 5-6 weeks to get them to the US, then add another week or so to get them shipped to me in Texas. In my head I was like “yeah right, so maybe 10-12 weeks”. I don’t have a lot of faith in timelines right now and let’s face it, horse stuff has never been particularly stellar at on-time delivery even when there aren’t supply chain shortages and shipping delays. So I basically just forgot about them for a while, and then after Thanksgiving I got an email from UPS saying I had a package on the way. That was 8 weeks – not bad! Faster than I was prepared for, anyway.

Naturally as soon as I got the shipping notification I started to second guess everything. What if they didn’t fit? I was especially concerned about that part, because normally I wear a 39 but the boots I liked in the store were a 38… the website calls those 7-7.5 and I wear an 8-8.5, all of my boots before have been 39, so what if we had somehow messed that up and my feet didn’t even fit in them? I was just crossing my fingers and hoping they would fit as well as the ones I’d tried on in the store.

Luckily when they arrived and I pulled them out of the box, they were perfect, at least looks-wise. Everything I had envisioned, for sure. They looked a little small and slim to my eye though, so I was nervous. I tried them on with shorts and no socks the first time, and to my complete relief my feet settled right in and I was able to zip them up with only a moderate amount of effort. Tight in the calf, yes, as they’re supposed to be, and needed to drop a bit for sure, but… they fit just like brand new boots should! Maybe even better than the ones I’d tried on in the store.

I wore them yesterday to ride and while they still need to loosen up a teeny bit at the instep, they’re super comfortable already. I can walk around in them and ride in them without a problem. The left calf is still a bit tighter than the right, but I can zip it without too much strain. I think in a few more wears they’ll be absolutely perfect.

As far as my initial impressions when it comes to quality, they remind me most similarly of my Tucci boots. The leather is more rugged than something super thin/soft like Parlanti, and it has more structure than those do so it will likely wear a lot better over time. Clearly they’re still soft enough to break in easily and be comfortable, so I think the leather they chose strikes a good balance. They’ve got all the high end details like a zipper guard at the heel, the little zipper slot at the top to secure the zipper, the elastic gusset, etc. For the price point (under 1k) I’m pretty impressed with them so far. We’ll see how they wear over time.

Once my bank account recovers from all the blows it’s taken lately I definitely want to get a brown pair. Now that I know how well these fit and how easy the process was, I’d happily go back for a repeat experience, plus I’d like to keep these black glittery ones more for lessons/shows/etc, so a brown pair would be perfect for everyday. I couldn’t help but notice that they actually have a brown pair in stock in my size….

I will say that I think being able to go to an actual store with a good/experienced rep and try stuff on and see the options in person makes such a big difference. From measuring myself and looking at the size chart I would not have picked the size I ended up in… what I picked would have fit, sure, but not this well. If you ever find yourself near WEC it’s 100% worth it to go by the store and get fitted in person. Shoot, it’s a cheap/easy flight to Orlando from most places. I’m pretty sure Romitelli does virtual fittings, so that could be an option too. I’m really pleased with my experience with them so far.

It feels great to have some good-fitting and pretty boots again… they make everything better.

The old school bloggers will remember when the Family Tree series of posts went around the blogosphere, and I definitely jumped on board with Henry and then later with Sadie/Presto (he wasn’t even born yet omg). Now that Grace is here, which yes albeit it’s temporary, I figured we could deep dive a little bit more into her heritage as well. Plus, like… look at the title of the blog. You shouldn’t be surprised that I’ll take any semi-legitimate excuse to talk about breeding.

Grace is an Irish Sporthorse registered name as Kilpatrick Grace, and she was bred in Ireland at Kilpatrick Stud in County Kildare. Her sire, A Quidam M, was only 5 years old when she was born in 2010, and Grace was part of his first foal crop. While A Quidam M has not been used heavily for breeding (and his offspring are still fairly young by upper level performance standards) he does already have several competing at the upper levels. The most notable eventer is 4*L horse Global Orchid, with the most notable showjumper so far being Thebestof Dancer who is competing at 1.40m. A Quidam M himself competed through 1.30m showjumping, although passed away in 2020.

Looking at his pedigree is a bit like taking a tour through Europe. A Quidam M was born in the Nederlands, thus registered as a Dutch Warmblood, but his sire Quidam de Revel was a Selle Francais bred in France and his dam Minook was a Holsteiner bred in Germany. If you follow showjumping or eventing breeding even a little bit you’ve probably heard of Quidam de Revel, who was a top competitor as well as a prolific sire. If there’s a jumper with a Q name, it can probably be traced back to him (along with lots of others that don’t have Q names – depends on the particular registry’s naming rules). He also shows up in the pedigree of tons of event horses, no surprise since the QdR’s tend to be quick and bold and love to jump. The list of famous, top level horses with QdR in their pedigree is very long.

A Quidam M’s dam Minook is by Caretino, who was also a top level showjumper and excellent sire. Minook produced several foals, the most successful of which was 1.60m jumper Zaretino M (who was later imported to the US and turned into a hunter). Caretino was a good enough mover to sire some good dressage horses, as well as showjumpers and eventers… not many stallions can say that they’ve had offspring reach the top level in all 3 disciplines, but Caretino is one of them.

Grace’s dam is Kilpatrick Cavalier Clover, from the classic Irish combination of Cavalier Royale and Clover Hill. Cavalier Clover competed a bit herself in showjumping as a young horse in Ireland with Darragh Kenny, winning some 1.10m classes. She had her first foal in 2003 when she was a 4yo, a colt by Condios that was exported to Brazil as a showjumper and kept as a breeding stallion (he was the high seller at an elite sporthorse auction as a 4 year old).

After some time in the show ring she went back to the breeding shed and in 2008 produced a filly, Kilpatrick Duchess, by Kings Master. Kilpatrick Duchess has already proven herself to be quite a good producer… you may have heard of her oldest offspring, Cooley Moonshine (by Cobra), who has so far competed through 4* level with Liz Halliday-Sharp. Duchess’ next offspring, Global Theodora (by Albaran xx) has so far competed through 3* level eventing in Ireland with Brian Morrison (who also rides the previously mentioned Global Orchid – small world). Kilpatrick Cavalier Clover had another foal in 2009, and then her next foal was Grace, born in 2010. After that she was sold and produced two more offspring for another breeder.

Kilpatrick Cavalier Clover’s sire is the legendary Cavalier Royale, a Holsteiner stallion who was not approved for breeding in his home country of Germany but found fantastic success as a sire in Ireland. His record for producing top level eventers and showjumpers is matched only by his later success as a damsire – Cavalier Royale mares have proven time and again to be exceptional producers. You can’t throw a rock at a 5* event without hitting a horse with Cavalier Royale in the pedigree.

Kilpatrick Cavalier Clover’s damsire is Clover Hill, the only traditional Irish-bred horse in Grace’s pedigree. Clover Hill was by the thoroughbred stallion Golden Beaker xx, out of a mare by the Irish Draught stallion Tara. Clover Hill was one of the most successful traditionally-bred Irish stallions of all time, siring top level showjumpers and some eventers. He’s been particularly successful as a grandsire (both as a sire of sires and a sire of dams), with progeny at the highest levels of both showjumping and eventing.

That’s the, um… short version of Grace’s family tree. Maybe now you can see why we were so eager to add her to the broodmare band!

Grace has officially been here for over a week now! And it’s been a pretty busy week…

The farrier came on Monday, the barn owners left for Florida on Wednesday, the vet came on Friday to do teeth, I went through and cleaned out all my trunks/bins/trailer/tack room to get stuff ready to take to the new consignment shop nearby (gotta make room for the Black Friday purchases that have started to arrive), fired up the Cricut to crank out some WTW stuff, I’ve ridden Grace 5 times now, Hillary has come out to ride Henry a few times, and yesterday we went out to a horse show to cheer on some friends. According to my tracker I’ve walked 26 miles in 5 days, with 13 of those being on Saturday and Sunday. It’s been busy. And, of course, not without drama.

I was out in the barn on Thursday poking around and glanced out in the field to see Grace literally standing there on 3 legs. Like… waving a front one around as if it was broken. That’s cool, I didn’t need those extra 5 years on my lifespan anyway. I ran out and found that she had sprung a shoe, twisting it just enough in the process to where the clip was embedded in her white line. I got her into the barn and set about trying to remove the shoe, which… was not easy. It took me a while, with a lot of sweating and cursing. Only two of the eight nails had come loose and the rest of the shoe was EXTREMELY SECURE so getting it off was not a simple task, especially while trying very hard not to damage her foot or take any wall with it. I finally got it off though, and immediately cleaned and flushed out the spot where the clip had gone in, wrapped it with some animalintex, put a boot on it, and texted the farrier. Then marched inside and ordered more/better farrier tools, because – and I cannot stress this enough – EFF THAT SHIT.

She was a little foot sore that afternoon but by the next day she looked 100%, so even though she was still wearing the boot I took her for a short hack. I try to avoid jumping or doing anything particularly strenuous in the boot, because it does make their footfalls a little uneven, but I’ve never had a problem riding Henry in it, so I figured I’d see how Grace did. She handled it totally fine and felt great, so the next day I took her in the ring and did a little flatwork.

She’s still a bit forward and distracted, being in a new place and back in a more regular work schedule, but she’s getting better and better every ride. You can definitely tell there’s a nice horse in there that has had a lot of good training. She’s already earned herself the nickname Mingo (do I call any horse by it’s actual name? Rarely.) because when she wants a treat she folds up one front leg like a flamingo and just stands like that, staring at you. I find it hilarious so it always works.

Hillary also got to jump Henry a little bit, his favorite thing. I love this horse so much, and seeing other people enjoy him only makes me love him more. He’s just the goodest dude and the most golden of eggs, he brings me joy and makes me laugh every day.

He’s already got Hillary trained with the cookie delivery service, too. He requires two when you go get him, one when you get to the crossties, one when you put on his saddle, one when you put on his bridle, one when you dismount, two when you turn him back out. At minimum. Those are the rules, and he made sure she learned it quickly. Hillary has delivered in full, coming every time armed with a big bag of German Horse Muffins, and not even breaking them in half like I do. When she showed up on Sunday he came up to the gate and waited for her to come get him. Guess she’s got the official Henry seal of approval. He also showed her his very best dolphin impression when we were out hacking. What a gentleman.

On Friday Grace got her teeth done, which she was due for. She’s only here for a few months but I figure if I’m going to be asking her to work for me, it’s only fair that she’s taken care of. She’s not so sure that she likes me all that much, with my horseshoes and my dental work and all my riding, and just wait til I clip her. I’m definitely making the barefoot-and-pregnant broodmare life more attractive to her, I think.

Since she had the dental on Friday I rode her in the hackamore this weekend. Boy does she ever feel Irish in a hackamore… it was about as useful as riding her in a halter. It got the job done well enough though and we got rides in on both weekend days. I’ve been utilizing the little hills in the back on the hacking trail to try to help strengthen her stifles a bit, and she seems to really like riding out there. We also did some flatwork in the jump field just so she could get used to the space (it has trees bordering one side that cows are often lurking in, so it can be a bit spooky) so now she’s been ridden on and seen every inch of the property basically.

For everyone who said she looked big… we sticked her and she’s 16.1. Not particularly tall, just really deep and wide in the heartgirth so she takes up a lot of leg.

After we hacked on Sunday we drove out to Pine Hill for their horse trials to watch some friends go. I feel like the off season is always the best time of year around here, with lots of people moving up a level and young horses making their debut. This show was no different, and everybody had a good day even if it was a bit warm for December.

We’ve already got more riding plans for this week and this weekend, hopefully the weather cooperates and, uh, the farrier gets out here to put Grace’s shoe back on. I’ve also got some fun packages arriving this week that will merit some discussion I think, and I’m hoping to have a post ready tomorrow about Grace’s “family tree”, so maybe I can actually keep things interesting on the blog front.

Hope everybody had a good weekend! How is it already December 6th??? Time flies.

So there I was, scrolling innocently through inflatable Christmas decorations (as one does) when I came across the best one ever.

And I was like… “you know who needs that? Michelle.” aka The Babies. I had visions of all these adorable things they’d do and the cute pictures that would result. I’m here for the pictures, ya know? So I ordered it and sent it to Michelle’s. To help make sure the babies wouldn’t be too afraid of it she opened it up out in their pasture, set out the uninflated “body” for them to sniff, and then started to blow it up.

They thought it was kind of interesting, and stood back a little bit to watch it grow to it’s full height.

And then once it was inflated they immediately came over to check out their new little Christmacorn friend.

They all got a good look at him, trying to figure out exactly what species this was. I don’t know what I expected them to do exactly, but in my mind it was more… exciting than this. They just sniffed him. Zero theatrics, not even a fun little yeehaw prance around while they summoned the bravery to approach him. NOTHING. I GOT NOTHING. They just kept sniffing him… face and tail especially.

The only semi-exciting part was when he fell over. The babies skittered a few feet backward and then reapproached with concern over Christmacorn’s general welfare.

And that was the beginning and end of the excitement over Christmacorn. They quickly lost interest and wandered away. Little turds! This barely counts as entertainment, I expected better from them.

I was hoping for like half an hour of actual excitement and instead I got 5 minutes of mild intrigue. Next time I guess I’ll have to spring for the 9′ tall inflatable Clydesdale…

You guys know by now that I love pretty much any kind of art with my horses on it. I’ve got paintings (on canvas and on glassware), stickers, crochet, clothing… if you put a Henry or a Presto on it, I’m sold.

I also really love stained glass. The whole reason I got a transom window above the front door in the tiny house was so that I could get a stained glass panel made to hang there (which I have totally failed at because of my crippling indecision about what should be on said panel). I’ve always thought stained glass was really pretty though, and even follow a couple of artists on Instagram.

About a month ago Hillary said that she got my Christmas present and was really excited about it, thinking it’s the best she’s ever done when it comes to gift-giving. Like to the point where she should just retire from buying presents for anyone at all. That’s a bold claim, so I wracked my brain about what the heck she could have possibly gotten me… I feel like I’m kind of hard to shop for really, I’m picky and I’m not a normal person and if I want something I tend to just get it (unless you want to buy me like, a couple new saddles or a truck or whatever… I have plenty of things on the “massively expensive” list). She does know me really well though, so I figured if anyone could nail it, it would be her.

She was so excited about it that she didn’t want to wait for Christmas, and when we decided to go up to Megan’s to drop off Lex/pick up Grace, she was like “OMG I have to bring it so we can get a pic of it with Presto”. At this point I was super confused about WTF it could be. A pic of it with Presto? What? Turns out, this is what:

Y’all, I died. It’s a little stained glass Presto, complete with his epic side eye and everything. I was cackling. It really does look just like him too, even the shape of his face and the emo forelock. It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen and I’m obsessed with it and Hillary was right, she should retire from gift-giving because she’s won.

We presented it to Presto but he wasn’t as impressed with it as I was. He was like “neeeeeh, looks nothing like me”.

I had to order some hooks for it, but once they get here it’ll live on my kitchen window above my sink. It’s just the right size and gets some afternoon sunlight, so I think it’ll be really pretty, and I get to see Noodle’s goofy face all the time. I LOVE IT.

Astute observers of the black friday sale list updates may have noticed that after Thursday night there were way fewer updates than I normally do. That’s because I was busy getting other things.

The acquisition of Grace worked out pretty fortuitously. Hillary was already planning to take Lex up to Megan’s after Thanksgiving to drop him off for a few months training. Michelle needed to take Nalah (Lissa’s Catoki filly, if anyone remembers her… she’ll be 3 soon!) over to Megan’s husband Reed to get her started under saddle. We were able to coordinate things to where Michelle took Nalah and Grace over to Megan’s earlier in the week, and then Hillary and I came up on Friday, dropped off Lex at “camp”, stayed overnight and socialized, and then took Grace home in Hillary’s trailer on Saturday. It’s only 3.5 hours from here to Megan’s, vs 6 hours from here to Michelle’s, plus I got an excuse to see Presto while I was there. Worked out great, and I much appreciate both Michelle and Hillary’s efforts in helping me get Grace here, and Megan for letting her squat in her barn for a few days. Horse friends are the best friends.

We left Megan’s shortly after dawn on Saturday with Grace, and while she was snorty about it all she loaded right up with no funny business and rode home like an absolute champ. I don’t think her head left her hay net the entire ride, and she was quiet as a mouse back there even when we stopped at a strip mall in BackassNowhere for donuts.

It was cold and rainy by the time we got home and kept raining all afternoon, so she had to spend her first day in her stall, which is situated right between Henry and Quinnie (Presto’s stall!). She mostly ignored them and ate her hay. The good part about the horses having to spend that first day inside is that they all got to meet and settle in together with the stall walls between them, so by the next morning we were able to just go ahead and turn them all out together with little drama. Well… Grace has been living in the desert of West Texas for a while, so she seemed to be having some real Ireland flashbacks out here at first.

She woohoo’d for a while before settling in to eat grass, and largely avoided any kind of direct contact or confrontation with Henry or Quinnie. She seems to want to opt out of drama in general. She’s not super submissive, but she also would rather remove herself from a situation rather than escalate it. She’s smart and has a good sense of self-preservation. Henry kept trying to pester her into drama but she just wouldn’t take the bait.

Later that day it had dried up enough to hack, so Hillary came out to ride Henry and I hopped on Grace. My saddle fits her pretty decently, and her head is the same size as Henry’s so that works out bridle-wise. The only thing that didn’t fit her was my girths, I had to squish her into Henry’s, but luckily the next day my Black Friday girth showed up and that one fits better.

We walked them all over the property – front field, both rings, and then all the way to the back to and around the hacking path. Grace was definitely alert and a little snorty but she’s the kind of horse that still wants to keep going forward even when she’s unsure, which I REALLY like. We trotted a bit once we got out in the back… she’s also quite sensitive and light, definitely rides more like a TB. Which again, I like. That’s my type. She’s VERY wide in the heartgirth though, boy… she’s not very tall but she’s stout through the shoulder and chest and there’s a lot of neck up in front of you, so she rides a lot bigger than she is.

On Monday she got her feet done. She’s been barefoot out there in the West Texas sand, and her feet are pretty good, but my farrier and I both had some concerns about trying to keep her barefoot and in work here where it’s rockier and the soil is more coarse. She’d already started to chip off a little piece of toe so ultimately we opted to put shoes on her fronts. Once again she was perfectly behaved for the farrier and never put a foot out of place the entire time. She gets a lot of gold stars for how easy she is to do things with and how she conducts herself in the barn and on the ground.

I hacked her again yesterday as her first ride with her shoes and she felt great, so now we’ll start moving into a more normal schedule. Michelle was riding her some, but not consistently, so I want to give her body time to acclimate to being a riding horse again before just throwing her into full work. Friday she’s getting her teeth done and that’ll be the last thing she needs before we’re “all systems go”.

Henry definitely has some jealousy issues to work through. I’ve been giving him lots of cookies and attention but he still stood at the gate and shot daggers at me with his eyeballs the entire time I was tacking Grace up yesterday. He’s got issues. He was being a little bit mean to Grace the first couple days too (he can be a MASSIVE asshole in the pasture sometimes until he decides he really likes the horse) but that behavior seems to have settled down. Henry is just extremely territorial about Quinnie and doesn’t want anyone else near her, even though Quinnie is damn well capable of taking care of herself. It’s more of a “she’s my friend, you can’t talk to her” dynamic. He’s a stage 5 clinger. I’ve actually caught him and Grace hanging out a couple times with Quinnie further away though, so I think in a couple more weeks they’ll be the three muskateers. Henry just has to get over his drama.

We’re only a few days in but so far, so good, knock on wood. She seems to have transitioned just fine, she’s eating and drinking well, and she’s behaving herself impeccably. And even having just sat on her a couple times and seeing her more in person, its changed my opinion on stallions for her slightly, or at least re-ordered my top 3 favorites. This is exactly why having rideable broodmares is such a nice bonus, it really gives you a better picture of what they’re like.

At some point next week I’ll do a post all about her pedigree and family, since she’s a pretty interesting one having been imported from Ireland. For now it’s kind of fun having a redhead in the barn for a change!