Month: March 2022

It’s cool how 2 of my 3 horses are currently on the Injured Reserve list right now. Granted, when I bought Gemma she was on the IR list already, and Presto did his *whatever the fuck* in a stall 3.5 hours away, so I’m not taking blame for either of them. Ok maybe I should have raised Presto to be less of a general nuisance by like… shackling all his legs together on a regular basis or something.

Also both of the IR list horses have looked sound for their entire rest periods. Presto somehow managed to be 3/5 lame before his MRI, and then it was like as soon as he felt the money (ALL THE MONEY, FFS) leave my bank account, he was like “ah yes that feels much better” and has yet to take so much as a lame step at Michelle’s. I think this horse is trying his absolute best to take as many years off my life as possible. He is succeeding.

Originally they recommended 3 months of rest after his MRI, then a re-check. It’s been not quite 2 months, and I’m kinda just looking at him like hmm… now what. Since, ya know, he’s looked quite freaking sound as he’s pranced and reared and bucked around his little paddock for the past month (also doing his best to take as many years as possible off Michelle’s life). At this point there’s no rush though, even if he was ready to go back to work I don’t really want to add another one to my plate here right now, and Megan is in Ocala for another month, so… may as well wait a few more weeks for his re-check appointment. He did get some body work done though.

Luckily Gemma has been a more well-behaved patient. Leave it to the OTTB chestnut mare to be less chaotic and easier to deal with than the bay warmblood gelding. I can tell she’s absolutely bored out of her mind in her little paddock, but she’s still been very polite and on her best behavior. Every couple weeks or so she’ll have a minute or two where she just stands there and bucks in place, then she’s back to napping. It’s kind of amusing, honestly.

I can tell she’s just dying to get out in the pasture though, especially to have some GRASS. She loves to graze and dives headfirst into it any time I take her out. Plus she’s really plateau’d with her weight gain and I think the only thing that’s going to help at this point is some actual pasture. She just doesn’t eat hay very well or very enthusiastically. I think being able to actually graze would make a big difference.

Luckily her re-check appointment is tomorrow, so I’m hoping we get some good news and that she can be cleared for more/bigger turnout. Other than being a little footsore behind every once in a while (since we pulled the hind shoes) she’s continued to look great since the day she got here – always looks sound and she’s never had any heat or swelling in her RF, so hopefully that bodes well.

It would be really nice if, by April, none of my horses were on the IR list at all. Surely that isn’t too much to ask? SURELY? We’ll find out soon I suppose. Cross all your crossables for Gemma’s appointment tomorrow, I will accept all the good juju.

About a month ago I ordered a full genetic panel to be run for Gemma… we pulled out some mane hairs, filled out the form, sent in the sample, and proceeded to wait. I’m of the opinion that it’s always a good idea to get the most holistic view possible of any horse you’re going to use for breeding, and indeed all the WTW mares have had full genetic profiles run. The most crucial thing to know is whether or not they’re carriers for Fragile Foal Syndrome (originally thought to be limited to warmbloods but has recently popped up in thoroughbreds as well), but it’s also nice to know their color genetics and if they show any predisposition to other health issues. The more you know about a horse, the better breeding (and care) decisions you can make. And while, as of right now anyway, we’re not planning on breeding Gemma anytime soon, I’m just super curious.

So, let’s get into the results. Gemma’s color panel came back as ee AA.

Since she’s chestnut we already knew she was ee – every chestnut is ee. Chestnut is recessive, therefore in order for a horse to show as red, it cannot possess any E (black), only two e (red). If you want more deep-dive info on this, most commonly called “Extension” or “Black Factor” or “red/black”, there’s a longer explanation here. But basically ee = chestnut, Ee = heterzygous black, EE = homozygous black. Every horse is some combination of such. With a black-based horse, like a bay or a buckskin or a grulla, you have to run the test to see whether or not they have one copy or two copies (Ee or EE). But with a chestnut there’s only one option: ee. They’re red-based, not black-based. A bay/black horse can carry one copy of the red gene, since it’s recessive, but a chestnut horse can only possibly have two copies of red.

The thing you don’t know just by looking at a chestnut is their agouti status – that AA part. Agouti is what’s responsible for making an Ee or EE horse present as bay instead of black. The way agouti works is that it restricts the black pigment to the “points” of the horse’s body – ears, legs, mane, tail, etc as you see on any bay horse. So a true black horse will have an agouti status of aa – totally recessive for agouti and therefore the black is not restricted at all, but rather covers the entire body. A bay horse will either be Aa, heterozygous for agouti, or AA, homozygous for agouti. You can’t tell by looking – there’s no difference between Aa and AA in how the horse appears physically. Since a chestnut doesn’t physically display agouti on their coat at all (since, remember, they don’t have any black and agouti only expresses on black), you have to test in order to know which of those three combinations it carries. Gemma is AA meaning she’s homozygous for agouti, which means that any foal she has will carry at least one copy of agouti. This means that she cannot produce a true black offspring – only some form of bay (or chestnut) – all depending on the stallion she’s crossed with.

For another example, Presto’s sire Mighty Magic is EEAA – homozygous black and homozygous agouti. This means he can ONLY produce bay offspring, since he will always pass an E (black based) and an A (agouti). The caveat to this is if he’s bred to a gray mare or a dilute mare and the mare passes one of those genes – known as modifier genes – on top of the bay… but that’s getting a lot more complicated and off topic so lets not go there today.

Anyway, back to Gemma. I also was interested to see what her test results would be for splash or KIT (also known as Dominant White) genes – the ones responsible for white markings. Given her high jagged front stocking, ermine spots, and flat top on the hind sock, I thought it was possible that she might carry one of the genes responsible for amplifying or adding more white markings. She has some very typical physical characteristics of both, but not ALL the physical characteristics of either. I was actually surprised that all of these tests came back negative – no splash, no KIT.

To give an example of how sneaky these genes can be, WTW broodmare Peyton is actually a carrier of W20, a gene responsible for amplifying white markings. Peyton herself has one teeny tiny sock, but we did see that W20 gene at work on her 2020 foal Remi, the chestnut with 4 high whites and a blaze even though he had two pretty plain bay parents. Sometimes Peyton will pass it, sometimes she won’t, sometimes it’ll be very obvious, sometimes it won’t. Genetics are fun like that. It’s also worth noting that while there are 4 known splash genes and over a dozen known KIT genes, we do also know for sure that there are a lot more out there that just haven’t been identified well enough to develop a test for yet. Probably lots more. So while Gemma doesn’t have any of the known ones, it doesn’t necessarily mean she doesn’t have any.

Moving on past the color stuff and into the health stuff – she’s negative for all the immune diseases, muscle disorders, endocrine disorders, ocular disorders, and hoof & connective tissue disorders, including FFS. All good news. She did pop up as a carrier for RLN (roaring) which has pretty much been the case with every Thoroughbred we’ve tested. None of them have actually been roarers, and neither is Gemma, but they do carry an increased risk – not surprising for the breed. Just something to tuck into the back of my mind when making breeding decisions. She also has one marker (of a possible 8) for Lordosis – not enough to warrant being labeled as a carrier, but something else to keep in mind. I would not cross her with any lines known to carry Lordosis, just to be on the safe side.

For the performance part of things, she has the markers (aka “likely affected” status) for the Endurance gene. Yes, they can test for sprint vs endurance genes! She falls into the “generally has less speed, but greater stamina and endurance” category. She was never really tried at longer distances on the track, her longest races were only one mile (granted, she had her best finish at this distance) but she was more of a come from behind type rather than a first-out-the-gate type, so it does line up in that regard. Maybe we’ll get to find out more about that one in her eventing career.

They also have a test (not quite in the “high confidence” realm of research, but in the “moderate confidence, findings replicated in multiple species”) for curiosity vs vigilance. Basically they define curiosity as an interest in novel objects and a willingness to approach them vs vigilance as the tendency of a horse to examine its surroundings carefully and from a safer distance. I was interested to see what this one would say, because to me she’s a bit of both. Definitely VERY curious, and I would say leans more toward curious than vigilant, but she’s also careful and intelligent about her surroundings. Like for instance, I haven’t tested Presto or Henry but I would be SHOCKED if Presto wasn’t Curious and Henry wasn’t Vigilant – like if that wasn’t the case the test would just be garbage IMO. Gemma though… I could argue both for her. So it’s kind of funny that she indeed came back as having markers for both. That tracks.

The last test is for height, also known as LCORL, which she’s heterozygous for. This is very typical for a TB or a more moderately sized warmblood – meaning that they carry one copy of the gene for increased height and have a 50% chance of passing this to any offspring. So basically, I should expect her to produce to her height (16h) or larger, barring any extenuating circumstances or environmental influence of course.

All good information to know! None of it really changes the list of stallions I had picked for her, but it does give me more things to consider.

Even though I had to leave Ocala to come back home last week (am I super salty about the fact that it’s currently 44 with 9000mph wind here, but it’s a lovely 75 in Ocala? Yes. YES I FREAKING AM.) Megan’s group all arrived last week, so now WTW East is officially up and running, hosting it’s first ever group of sporthorses and seasonal boarders. Patreon members, I posted a full length video tour for you last night (check your dashboard) but I also wanted to share some photos here as well so everyone could see how the farm is looking. I’ve been getting updates about how everything is going now that everyone is settled in, and it’s fun to see some sporthorses giving life to the place.

Not to say that there isn’t normally life at the farm… it’s got a fully-established racehorse mare/foal/young horse boarding business in place and there are plenty of horses on the property, but ya know… an eventing operation is just different from baby horse boarding. Different infrastructure, different routines, different kind of horses, etc etc. The front part of the property has been dedicated to them, with all the young horses and broodmares moved to the back 2/3 so that everything stays totally separate and there’s no intermingling of horses.

The finishing touches are pretty much all completed now, things like crossties and tack hooks, the jumps and cavaletti are being put to use, and there’s a dressage arena marked out. The front cinderblock barn is also full of horses for the first time that I’ve seen. The former racehorse operation really only used this barn to prep the youngsters that were going to the big sales or for foaling out mares (there are two double-size foaling stalls) so as a sporthorse person it’s fun to see it come to life in a new way that’s a little more in line with my own version of “normal”. I mean, I know the seasonals are only here for a little while, but it’s a glimpse into what it could look like for me once my own horses and stuff are out there, and that’s exciting.

The tack room is also complete, all the racks are up and everything is organized the way they want it. This space turned out really pretty I think, Michelle did a great job with the paint and the decorations. Looks fancy! There wasn’t a tack room in this barn originally, this room used to be an office, but this space is perfect and transformed really nicely.

I think the very most exciting thing though – and a very big deal – is that the arena got finished! They had a very short timeline to get this done, especially considering the extremely high demand for arena builders in the Ocala area right now. When I was there they were on the last little bit of base, and now it’s finished, they’re just watering and working it to finish prepping it for the horses. Hopefully they get some rain this week, that’s what it really needs. It’s not a HUGE space, but I think it’s a very good useable size, especially since it’s out in the front field where you can also ride on the grass. It makes for a nice flexible area that you can do a lot with, I think.

It’s hard not to get excited about things when you see the farm being used exactly the way you had envisioned. It was definitely a major time crunch to get things ready in time for these guys to arrive, but everybody really worked their butts off to make it happen, and it shows. Now I just have major FOMO because everybody is there having fun without me. Soon. Soon…

A few people have asked what we’re doing with the t!ny h0use, and we’ve decided it would make more sense to sell it rather than try to take it with us. We already have a place to live on the farm there, and don’t really have any infrastructure in place to be able to easily put the t!ny somewhere. We’d have to build things, which would be a project on top of about a hundred others, and given everything else that we have to consider with this move it just makes more sense to take something off our plate. We LOVE the t!ny and don’t really want to part with it, but it’s definitely the more practical thing to do. If you know anyone who might be interested, let me know, I would love to see her go to a good home!

You may or may not have noticed that I’m having a bit of a black glitter moment. I’ve possibly accrued just a few black glitter items at this point, including but not limited to:

There also may or may not be a show coat, horse boots, saddle pad, bridle, etc… all black glitter. I can’t quite explain my attraction to it… it’s dark which I like but it’s a little fun, thus I suppose it appeals to me greatly. It’s already been decided that Presto will run XC in black sparkles – he’s emo, so it works. It pleases me greatly to see just how much black glitter stuff is out there on the market with equestrian items right now. I need moar.

So naturally when I picked up that Custom Wolfgang Solo dressage saddle for a song, because it’s a bit older and faded:

There was only one possible outcome here. Naturally it was a foregone conclusion that it would get a dye job. I’ve dyed 4 or 5 saddles now and the outcome is always deeply deeply pleasing. It’s a fairly easy project given how much of a difference it makes. So I started gathering my supplies, and had the idea to see if I could find a way to glitterize the piping along the back of the saddle. I fell down a very very deep google rabbit hole before deciding to try Glitterlites – a flexible leather paint that has glitter flake in it. I figured worse case scenario it would suck and I’d just remove it with deglazer. No topcoat is permanent, after all. So I ordered the dye and the Glitterlites (I opted to order from Weaver Leather, since they had everything I needed) and started putting together all the rest of my supplies.

I won’t go over the dyeing steps in detail again here, because I’ve covered that before a couple times in previous blogs. Short version is: I wiped down the saddle very well with just water, then scrubbed it a few good times with deglazer. Once I was satisfied that the topcoat was gone, I applied two thin coats of dye, then got to buffing. I touched up the seat and knee rolls (they had the worst fading) with one more thin coat, did more buffing, then let it dry. I opted not to do a sealant on this one, so after the dye coats were complete I conditioned it heavily with a high-beeswax content conditioner (intentionally keeping the conditioner off the parts I was going to add glitter to). I could have just waited until after the glitter was done to condition it, but I was impatient so ya know.

Anyway… here’s some closer shots of the fading it had before.

And here was the final product.

These are the only kind of craft projects I’m interested in.

Anyway, lets skip back to the glitter application.

So the Glitterlites is really just lots of black glitter inside of a clear topcoat. You just… paint it on. I’m a fairly shit painter – my hands are shaky and I’m impatient with crafting stuff in general – so I opted for set of smaller brushes so that I could just go slowly but also get in all the nooks and crannies. Some sites suggested that you lightly sand the surface of the leather first, but 1) I didn’t have sandpaper 2) I didn’t want to risk accidentally sanding other parts, since sanding a little bit of piping is not that easy. I figured meh – we’ll see it what happens – and jumped right into it with reckless abandon (shocking for me, I know).

Because that glitter is in a clear coat, it does go on looking a little scary. Kind of lumpy and white. I opted to do a decently solid coat on a small piece to start with, let it dry to see how it looked, and then adjusted my application process from there. Honestly though, it wasn’t hard. I ended up doing two coats, and then went in and spot filled some areas after I was done with that to make sure I had full and even coverage. I did the piping around the back of the saddle, the little bit around the pommel, and then the really narrow strip on the back of the cantle (with a teeny little paintbrush). And honestly, it came out even better than I expected.

I think it looks freakin gorgeous, and really similar to the glitter accents that Devoucoux offers on their saddles. I think you’d have to get literally inches away to notice that it isn’t quite as smooth a finish as those… and I don’t think anyone would ever guess it was glitter leather paint.

I’m pretty thrilled with how this one came out. I was perhaps a little more impatient with my buffing step than usual so I might need to go back and do a little more rubbing on the knee blocks, but it’s so freakin pretty. It looks twice as expensive just from $15 worth of supplies, and it’s got whole new sparkly glory to it now. We’ll see how the glitter paint holds up over time… so far so good, even when I accidentally banged a stirrup iron into it. It’s meant to be used on leather, hence why it’s flexible, so hopefully it will last decently well. I figure worst case scenario I have to touch it up sometimes, but we shall see.

The only problem is that now I find myself looking at all my stuff with the “but could I put glitter on it???” eye. Nothing in my tack room is safe from Glitterlites. And while they don’t make it in navy, I did find a custom shoe painter that has mixed their own navy by combining the royal and the black. Hide yo kids, hide yo wives, we bout to be glitterizing errything out here.

It was indeed a very quick trip out to Ocala and back this past weekend. Michelle rolled up to my house just after midnight on Friday morning, and we drove straight through to Ocala getting there just before dark on Friday evening. Aside from me getting weirdly motion sick (I do get motion sickness pretty easily but almost never on the highway like that while I’m in the front seat), not being able to find Dramamine anywhere we stopped, and settling for Benadryl instead, it was a fairly uneventful night. By the time the sun came up I wasn’t really nauseous and dizzy and foggy-headed anymore and didn’t have any other problems after that. So naturally we celebrated by getting Fro-yo for breakfast. Is it really even breakfast if you never slept?

When we rolled into Ocala that evening we unloaded Patrick and Percy, took a quick look at some of the projects that the barn manager and Michelle’s friend Kelan had been working on, and then I went to bed. Where I proceeded to sleep like the actual dead. I do not do well at missing sleep, my body just cannot.

The next morning I was up at dawn to get a look at everything in the daylight and start making a plan for what needed to be done and when and by whom.

A lot of the barn prep and fencing – the major major stuff – had already been done by the barn manager, so it was mostly a matter of getting horse supplies, stuff for setting up the tack room, a few things to prepare the RV hookups, and some more tools and equipment for the barn manager. We made lists of things we needed, had a quick meeting with the arena builder, and then on the long list of errands – Michelle and I took her truck to Walmart, Lowes, and some horse stores.

After we finished all those errands we stopped by WEC on our way home (have I mentioned how fantastic this location is) so I could stop in and give some breeches back to my friend Megan that owns Luxe EQ. And ya know… since we were right there I wanted to pop into the Romitelli store real quick to see if they had any brown boots in my size. I’m really trying not to trash my nice show boots with the black glitter top, and the Ego7’s that I’ve been riding in every day have massive holes in the front because the tongue under the laces has completely disintegrated on both boots. It’s… not great. I needed new schooling boots bad. I really LOVE my other pair of Romitelli’s, they fit me so well and are fantastic quality. I figured if the Gods of Boots wanted me to have some brown Romitelli’s (I wanted plain chocolate brown, or at least chocolate brown with very few “accents”), then there would be some in the store, and I’d take that as a sign to get them.

So I stroll into the store, ask the nice lady what she has in my size, and she’s only got a few pairs in that size on the shelf. The Gods of Boots were smiling on me though, because it turns out that one of those boxes contained a pair of plain chocolate brown boots. And they’re cheaper in store than they are online. Who am I to argue with fate?

I think I was in the store for all of 6 or 7 minutes… had to be the easiest sale of the day. After that we walked back to the h/j show’s vendor row to see Megan and chatted with her a bit. There was a Grand Prix in a few hours, so we made plans with her to meet back at WEC later for that. We took the truck back to the farm to unload everything and set it where it needed to go for the next day, then headed back over to WEC for the Grand Prix. It was absolutely PACKED – I guess that makes sense as we’re coming into the height of season and given the fact that there was a dressage show and a h/j show going on there at the same time… you had those folks plus all the seasonal eventers. When we got there at 6:30 (the GP started at 7) all the seats and tables were already taken and there were lines way out the door for all the restaurants. It was nuts, but also kind of fun to see such a strong turnout for a fairly standard weekend horse show. There’s no doubt that you’re in horse country amongst your people.

We stood in line for tacos, found a bench where we could at least watch one of the big screens, and Megan busted out of a bottle of champagne. It was certainly not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening after the hustle and bustle of the day.

On Sunday I was down in the barn at dawn again, getting stuff organized and making a list of all our to-do’s, hoping to try to knock out as much as we could that day.

Once I felt confident that everything was accounted for and organized and we all knew what needed to be done for the day, I left Michelle and Kelan working on the tack room (they’re good decor and design people, definitely not my strong suit) while I went to run a few more errands and get a few more things that we had discovered we needed. When I got back I hit the ground running, trying to knock the most important tasks off the list first because Megan (other Megan… Presto’s trainer Megan. There are way too many Megan’s in my life, including myself.) was set to arrive from Pine Top with a couple horses that afternoon. The rest of her crew and clients would arrive on Tuesday.

Once Megan arrived we got her and her groom and her horses settled, then we all headed down to Horse and Hound for dinner (and the other Megan met us there… triple Meganed). It had been a super busy weekend but it was nice to get time to catch up with everyone. I haven’t seen Luxe EQ Megan in forever (like years??) and Presto Megan is always busy with her growing business, I’ve never really had time to talk much to Presto Megan’s new groom, and Michelle and I aren’t often together in person, so having that time to sit and chat and just enjoy each other’s company was a nice bonus. They’re all great people, and it’s hard to find a better place than Ocala.

Trying to get everything accounted for and completed and ready to go in just a couple days was definitely stressful and a lot, but seeing Megan’s horses standing in the paddock grazing was a nice moment. This property is SO incredibly beautiful, and seeing it slowly but surely get fixed up and rejuvenated, and having other people be able to come and enjoy it… it’s really special. It’s the culmination of a lot of dreams and work for a whole lot of people, and hopefully it’s the beginning of something wonderful. I know that everyone involved cares very deeply about it, and we all believe in the vision. It makes all the difference.

It was tough to get on that plane Monday to come home, feeling like there were still things to do and knowing that I was definitely gonna have major FOMO once the rest of Presto Megan’s crew arrived. We did get the major stuff done though, and everything that was still pending was in very good and capable hands. Plus I got to get a better look at the house and can now start figuring some things out for myself in that regard. So, ya know… time to get home and get cracking. Things are definitely moving along… it’s happening, and it’s starting to feel real.

Texas definitely is not Ocala, that’s for sure. I’m excited to be able to get out there full time and get started on some more projects, there’s so much potential, and capable people to make it all happen. WTW East is going to be magnificent.

I am… a wee bit tired. That was a very quick and busy past few days that managed to somehow simultaneously feel like 2 weeks yet only 10 minutes at the same time.

I have a lot of updates and fun stuff about the Ocala farm and our weekend trip, but my brain can barely string words together at the moment so I’ll get to all that tomorrow. When we last left off here, the weather had taken a cruel turn from 85 to 30 degrees. I ultimately solved my own problem by just driving to Florida (seems like a reasonable solution to me) where it was 85 and sunny and my southerner, lizard-esque body was like “yaaassssssssss humidity and sweat, give it to meeeeee”. Give me a few months and I’m sure I’ll be complaining about it again but boy it felt good after being blasted in the face with freezing cold wind for a couple days.

Since it wasn’t great riding weather I did complete a wee project before I left – I re-dyed and glamorized the dressage saddle. This was my first time experimenting with adding some glitter trim and I am super pleased with how it came out. I’ll do a longer post on the process and what I used and the before & after but here’s a sneak preview of it. Figuring out that I can add glitter to pretty much anything seems like very dangerous information to have. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until something else gets sparkled without it’s consent.

I’ve also been working fast and furious in my free time (lol) to get the breeding information pulled together for some upcoming live streams. I’m delighted to have been asked and always want to gather as much as information as possible, but it does take forever to do it, so I’m trying to get as much done as possible anytime I can (and with drafting the assistance of Hillary). The first one up will be this weekend’s Aiken Showcase, followed the next weekend by Red Hills Horse Trials.

Speaking of Red Hills, they really busted their butts to make the live stream happen and really wanted to keep it free for everyone to view. They were able to enlist Visit Tallahassee to host the live stream on their YouTube channel, and would really appreciate some assistance from the public in the form of support. Here’s a message from them:

We’ve worked really hard to convince everyone that the livestream REALLY matters to eventers everywhere, and if we can get to 1000 subscribers to the YT channel it will really show that the market is there, and they will carry the livestream on their channel – making it easier for everyone to find the content.

It has been pretty important to us to keep it with no paywall, so if anyone else will watch the livestream, can you go ahead and click the subscribe button on their channel?

So if anyone who’s interested would subscribe to the YouTube channel, that would be wonderful! https://www.youtube.com/user/visittally

I think that catches us up on everything that was going on before I left in the middle of the night on Thurs/Fri.

As we got closer and closer to Florida and it got warmer and warmer and prettier and prettier, I tried really hard to feel guilty about leaving poor Hillary in charge of the horses in the cold and yuck back in Texas. I TRIED to feel guilty. I did not really succeed. She probably won’t be readily volunteering to farm sit again anytime soon, I suspect, but she was the real MVP of the weekend.

As soon as I got home last night we recorded the Bobby podcast so that’ll be out this week on the Patreon as well as extensive video of the Ocala property and copies of these breeding spreadsheets as soon as I finish them, in case anyone wants to follow along with the live stream info. As for here on the regular blog, I’ll have plenty of pictures and info for y’all on everything too. And maybe… just maybe… the weather will cooperate and I can actually ride a horse today?