Month: July 2022

I think it’s safe to say that we have well-established the fact that Quinlee is cute, right? Like… she’s a little Glamour Shot machine, with all her posing and her gorgeous face and all that oozing charisma.

But, that said, she’s still a foal. And foals do some very strange things sometimes, especially when they’re still figuring out how to coordinate all those legs.

Not to mention the growth spurts, where your butt ends up in a different stratosphere than the rest of your body. Hard times, being a baby horse.

Turns out that even Quinlee, who is one of the most photogenic foals that has ever starred in the Foal Friday series, isn’t immune to the awkward shots. And this week… well… it was an awkward one.

Gotta admit though, even with all of her awkwards, she’s still a pretty qute little quesadilla. Hopefully next week she’s back to her usual photogenic self!

I will admit that in the days after I ordered my Arion, I was wondering if I was massively crazy. First and foremost because any saddle purchase is always a big one, and for me this was by far the biggest one I’ve ever made. It was my very first brand spankin new saddle. And while I had a good feeling about the company and the rep, the fact remained that Arion is newer compared to the stalwarts we’re all used to (Devoucoux, CWD, Voltaire, County, etc) and I rode in one for a grand total of like 15 minutes before I took the plunge. I was sweating maaaaaybe a little bit.

A lot of factors drew me to pick Arion. The price (a bit lower than comparable brands), how the saddle felt to ride in, the turnaround time (they quoted only 5 weeks compared to 14-18 from others), etc. I liked the rep I spoke to in Kentucky, and I thought it was a bit serendipitous that the Florida rep is actually a good friend of one of my good friends. I tend to have a deep-seated mistrust of a lot of saddle reps at this point due to various experiences over the years, so having someone that I liked and felt like I could trust was a big selling point as well. I decided to go with my gut, placed my order with Arion, and proceeded to wait.

Luckily I didn’t have to wait long. Only 4 weeks later, this beautiful hunk of buffalo showed up at the farm. Four weeks from order submission to arrival from France is pretty damn impressive for a custom saddle. Full disclosure, I did have some initial disappointment because I ordered it with blue on the cantle and obviously there is no blue. They did offer to make it right though, either with a new saddle or with an accessory of my choice. The rest of the saddle was perfect, so in the end I decided the blue wasn’t a dealbreaker and I opted to get a girth instead of a whole new saddle. Slightly sad it doesn’t have the blue on it, but… meh. I needed a new girth, so it’s fine. I did appreciate that they were immediately responsive, apologetic, and willing to fix it.

As for the important part – it felt great from the very first ride. The buffalo is GRIPPY (I hemmed and hawed about that upgrade but am 900% glad I did it), the balance is impeccable, and I feel very secure in it. Henry’s saddle is a Devoucoux Chiberta, and I had been riding in Hillary’s Voltaire Lexington, and in my opinion the Arion rides kind of in between both of those.

In the Devoucoux I felt secure, but also like I was always struggling a bit to keep my leg from getting too far out in front of me. In the Voltaire I liked it a lot for flatting because I felt very balanced, but when jumping I felt like it pitched me a little forward and made me want to pinch with my knee sometimes. I have neither of these issues in the Arion. I just am where I need to be, and there’s no struggling. I can move where I need to, but it wants to help me stay where I’m supposed to be. I honestly like it even more now that I’ve done more things in it. I hack in it, flat in it, jump in it, go XC in it, and from horse to horse the overall balance and ride remains really good. So far I have no complaints about that at all, I think it’s an exceptional saddle, particularly for cross country. Hillary made the mistake of riding in my saddle “just to see”, not expecting to like it as much as her Voltaire, but turns out that was a big whoops because now she wants an Arion too. It has that effect on people.

I opted for the pro panel since I needed it to fit two young horses that are still growing and changing. Luckily Presto and Gemma are similar in shape so I can get by with one saddle for both of them at the moment, and the pro panel is a pretty good fit. I did opt for the shoulder relief option in the panel and could tell an immediate difference with Gemma. As they both grow and develop I may end up having to re-panel it later, but for now it’s working out well. Happy backs and free shoulders.

Luca has already checked in with me twice to make sure I’m happy and everything is going well, and to ask for my feedback on the saddle. So far I’ve had nothing but good things to tell him. I do appreciate that their reps don’t just take your money and disappear. He even came by last week when he was in town to check up on us in person and make sure me and the horses are happy with the saddle. I get the feeling like if I did have a problem, they’d do whatever they could to fix it… which is important, because it’s certainly not the feeling I get (or the experience I’ve had) from other brands. Everyone I’ve talked to and dealt with has been great, and from what I have seen they seem dedicated to good customer service and happy riders.

A little bit about Arion in general, for those who haven’t seen much of this brand yet and have been asking me…

They’re a French-made saddle company, relatively new to the scene but have been around for enough years to have started making an impact. They have a lot of h/j riders in particular, and really started pushing more into the US eventing and dressage markets in the last year or so. What I think is of particular interest about this brand is that in addition to their full custom line, they also have a more affordable semi-custom line called the Atlas. Those are similar design, also made from buffalo, but start at only $3500. Super attractive price point for a French-made buffalo saddle (fun fact, Emily Hamel rides in the Atlas line), and could be a good option for a lot of people.

Arion has got all your standard options – close contact, xc, and dressage models, sizing and specs out the wahoo, customization, etc. I will also be 100% honest and say that on the most extremely superficial level, the fact that all their brand’s stuff is navy makes me very happy. I cannot even tell you how much I hate the green and yellow of Devoucoux or the the bright red of CWD or the brown and turquoise of Voltaire. Vomit. But my navy Arion saddle cover and saddle pad and shirt? I’m in.

I also know the Texas rep, so if anyone in Texas or Florida wants their info, drop me a message. So far I’m very pleased with my decision and my saddle! I’ll check back in after more time goes by, but at this point I have to say that if you’re looking for a new saddle, Arion is definitely a brand worth checking out.

We’ve officially got our second Ocala lesson in the books now! Yesterday I took Presto over to Steph’s for a dressage lesson – all of 5 minutes away, which has yet to stop blowing my mind. I don’t miss anything about Texas, including the amount of time I always had to spend hauling to literally anything.

Steph of course is willing to come to me like she did last time, but I wanted to take Presto on his own solo off-property adventure. He was a little stuck and herd bound and nappy on his last couple adventures with friends (better the second time, but still) so I wanted to load him up and take him somewhere alone. He actually was super good about it – loaded right up, stood tied to the trailer while I threw tack on him, and walked down to the arena with no real issues. He neighed a couple times and was a little wide-eyed at a few things, but that’s perfectly fine. This horse is really quite well-traveled for his age, he should be pretty good about this stuff by this point. I think he’s better alone than he is with friends.

He did make a few new horse friends as a group was finishing up their jump lesson before us, and after a stop to say hello to them we headed into the dressage arena. I thought he might have a bit of a tantrum when they all finished up and left, and Presto definitely did notice that he’d been abandoned, but I put him to work and he decided against any theatrics. He gave the hairy eyeball to the big arena sprinklers and the rubber mats by the entrance, but after a few serpentines to click him into work mode he decided none of it was really that interesting.

Soon Steph came out with her CeeCoach, we got everything hooked up, and away we went. Right away she said she was pleased with how much better he was starting out than the first time she saw him the week before. I spent that time in between really getting him thinking more forward again, responding quicker to the aids, trying to get him softening more through his ribcage, starting to step under more with the inside hind, etc. Now that he’s stopped getting so mad at me for wanting more contact and weight in the reins (that was a few weeks of some animated discussion) he’s becoming a lot more rideable.

He still isn’t totally convinced that he has to give me 100%, and sometimes I swear he spends more effort insisting that he doesn’t want to do something than he would if he just did it. That’s like… every 5 year old that has ever existed. He’s a naturally more uphill horse but he still finds it easier to plop his weight down into his shoulders and try to curl behind the vertical, rather than shift his weight back, hind end under, and bring his shoulder and poll up. We’re working on that. He’s BIG, work is hard, and he had like 7 months off so he’s still weak. Plus I’m still learning him, and he’s still learning me. It’ll take some time. It’s great to have some eyes on the ground again though, I do feel like we have made a lot of progress even just in the last week and I feel like we’re finally on the same page and the right track. Steph’s helped add some direction, and I’m able to work on those things in between lessons.

The more time I spend riding Presto, the more I really like him. He’s definitely different than my other two, but I think he’s really fun. Not always particularly easy (I feel like I’m in pretty good shape right now and my core/thighs were screaming by the end of the lesson) and he’s got an army of orangutans in his brain, but he’s smart, and he does have moments of WOW where you can feel how nice he’s going to be. They’re short and fleeting right now, but they’re in there. It makes him exciting, I think. He’s just my type of horse in pretty much every way. Which, uh… I guess that’s a good thing, considering the substantial amount of time and money I’ve got into him at this point.

After we were done I untacked, put him back in the trailer, and we were home again by lunch time. Granted he did scream the whole way home because he was convinced he’d fallen in love with one of the lesson ponies and didn’t understand why she couldn’t come with him. He’d forgotten about her by the time I unloaded him though, so I guess the orangutans reached the limit of their short term memory.

Also, MVP award to the exceptionally kind lady who sat through my entire lesson and took like 7 minutes worth of video clips for me even though she’d never met me before in her life. Patrons got the whole video with all of Steph’s commentary, but I pulled some GIF’s for here on the blog too.

All in all it was a great outing for him. I thought he handled everything better than I expected, we got some positive feedback, and some stuff to take home and work on until next time. It’s definitely nice to feel like we’re finally getting back in the swing of things, too. For the first time in a long time I find myself actually interested in looking at what shows are on the calendar, and starting to consider which horse might be able to do what. It’s been a few years since I felt any kind of motivation like that. Being here in Ocala where it’s possible to do so much more, and there are so many more options for things to do… that’s a big part of it.

Although Quinlee is the only foal this year, she hasn’t been lacking for company. Inca has been pretty tolerant of other horses interacting with her baby (ok, in all honesty I think Inca is like “you want her? take her!”) so Michelle has been able to put Inca and Q out in the field with the yearling fillies. Both Pippa and Teddy are still young enough to be nice to the baby, and close enough in size to not put her in any danger when they get to playing. The three of them have become pretty good friends, and now they’re the official Girl Squad.

They spend a lot of time together, these three, doing everything from shenanigans to gossiping to just contemplating baby horse life. Sometimes they stand around just looking like they’re having serious baby horse chats.

At least until the baby side of Q wins over and before you know it she’s gotten distracted and started gnawing on the fence.

And while Inca doesn’t do a lot of reprimanding or chaperoning, their field neighbors some of the other mares, and ya know who’s ALWAYS up for playing Fun Police?

And while Quinlee definitely loves her horse friends, she’s also really into her human friends too. Like… it can be hard to get pictures of her sometimes because she sees a human coming and makes a beeline for them.

Especially when said human brings a squad with them too, plus fun things to play with, eat, or drink. All of Q’s favorite things.

Which is why so many of her pictures end up coming out like this…

She was born a social butterfly and apparently that particular quality is here to stay. Especially now that she’s got her very own posse of fillies. Lord help whatever colts are born next year, can you imagine having a whole crew of big sisters like these?

The last couple weeks have been super busy. The day before Hillary drove down, my friend Megan (of Luxe EQ) got here and spent one night here at my place before moving over to her airbnb. She was in town for a week getting one of her mobile shops set up for the summer circuit at WEC (if you’ll be at WEC this summer go check out the store – it’s right next to FarmVet in the outside vendor area near Emma’s Patisserie), so it was good to have time to hang out with her and Hillary both at the same time. Megan left last week to go back to Michigan, and Hillary and I continued on doing all the things. As it fit in between my regular work hours, anyway.

We stocked up on stuff for the horses, got some projects done around the barn, ran a bunch of errands, and of course managed to fit some fun things in there too. I will assume that people are mostly interested in the fun things and skip straight to that. We stopped at Tack Shack to order me a new XC whip… Hillary had accidentally dropped mine at Pine Hill last winter and we realized it too late, so the property owner put it in Lost and Found for us. By the time we got back to Pine Hill to pick it up from Lost and Found, someone had stolen it. Bad bad bad karma on that person. Also, if anyone sees someone in Texas with a navy and gray jockey whip with a silver glitter stripe (it’s pretty ballsy to steal such a unique whip, honestly) that would be mine. Tell them to give it back, it’s seriously bad luck to use a stolen whip and I’m totally sending them bad juju through it. But I did get to go into the back room at Tack Shack, where all the magic happens, and pick out all the colors for a new one from their rack. That’s a fun experience. 10/10 would recommend. There are like 5 different types of glitter alone.

Like I mentioned yesterday, we also went XC schooling again, this time at Sweet Dixie. Hillary took Henry and he seemed very pleased with himself as usual.

She also took a lesson on him with Steph on Sunday when she came out, and Hillary said she had a pretty mind-blowing epiphany from it, so we’ll call that a success. Steph also agreed that Henry is Perfect, which always earns bonus points with me. He is the best creature that has ever existed, and if you can tell that about him then clearly you have good taste in horses.

Hillary did make the mistake of riding in my new Arion saddle (ok it was not a mistake, it was very deliberate) and now she wants one. I’ll talk more about the saddle next week though. It’s really interesting in comparison to Hillary’s Voltaire and my older Devoucoux.

We also took the kiddos on road hacks with Henry – Gemma one day and Presto another day. I take Henry out for road hacks all the time so he’s pretty trustworthy, but obviously I’ve been hesitant to take the young ones very far by themselves. Much better to wait until someone else is here with me and they can go with Henry. Gemma was quite solid, aside from getting upset when some dogs came charging through the woods barking. That’s fair enough. Presto was more skeptical. He is somehow managing to be the bravest and yet spookiest horse all at the same time. He’ll jump anything you point him at, wants to lead the group everywhere, is curious about everything, but then will have a random conniption about a mailbox or a sign or a pile of dirt. And he can go from zero to teleport in half a second with no warning. I find it kind of puzzling considering how much I hacked him out and trail rode him as a 3yo (and ponied him everywhere his whole life) and he was never like that at all. Not even a little. I will say that he’s gotten much better in the past few weeks, and I’ve changed some things up with him, so we’ll see how that keeps progressing. I may end up having him scoped just to cover all my bases… the Presto I know just is not spooky and never has been, so I suspect there’s a reason for it, whether it’s physical or not. He only does it when I ride him out, and not every time, so… who knows what’s going on in that little orangutan-filled brain of his.

We also hit the Saturday Night grand prix at WEC both weekends, and the timing was perfect since those were the two bigger FEI classes. I got to see some stallions jump, including Faustino de Tili (who WTW has 3 foals by now) and Chacco Blue II (who I am now perhaps deeply in love with, my god can that thing jump). My friend Stormy who I evented with in Texas just bought a farm here and she was able to meet up with us this past weekend for the GP, so it was good to see her again too. We had a full table of friends both weekends.

Considering that I was a complete hermit between the last time Hillary left in mid-May and last June when she came to visit, I think I definitely made up for it in the past couple weeks. I had more social interaction in the past two weeks than I’ve had in probably years. It’s good though, I need to meet people here and start getting myself out more and making connections. I’d say we certainly did that. Last night I was so tired I went to bed at 8 and slept all the way til 5:30 this morning. Introvert battery recharge.

Now everyone is gone and I’m alone again for a while, which means everything is my responsibility again and there are considerably fewer fun things happening.

BTW thanks again to everyone for the support with the BRC stuff, despite adding more available spots this time, we sold out of pedigree reports even faster this month – they were all gone less than an hour after I posted. If you missed out this time and want to sign up for email updates, go to our website, hit the contact button, and enter your email address. We will send out an email the day before listings reopen and let you know exactly what time it’ll go live! Patrons of course always get the option to buy before it opens to the public, but the email notifications will let you know what time the listing will be publicly available. We’ll do our best to get through this batch ASAP so we have an idea of when we can open for more!