Month: September 2022

Ok so I missed my Monday recap post but it was for a reason you hopefully find acceptable – yesterday was sBs inspection day!

Michelle drove in on Saturday with another load of mares, and yesterday morning the Belgian judge and his entourage came over to look at the mares and babies. Since there wasn’t an inspection last year we had 10 horses to do this time between mares, yearlings, and the foal from this year. Luckily a private inspection is a fairly relaxed affair, so we were able to get through them all by lunch time.

I did opt to go ahead and present Gemma to them, because they were here so why not. I hadn’t really planned on doing a mare inspection for her yet but it was just way too easy of an opportunity. I pulled her out, hosed off her legs, pulled her bell boots, and in she went. Some of the other mares were running around in the front pasture so she stood a bit like an Arabian, and didn’t show her walk to it’s full potential, but she was still approved, and with scores of 8.5 for her trot and 9 for her canter. Not bad for a Thoroughbred with a warmblood registry! Now that’s done, so if we do decide to breed her next year (I have no idea what the plan is at this point) at least we don’t have to worry about getting her to an inspection when she’s pregnant.

Let’s see… working backwards, what else has been happening…

My weekend mornings were pretty full with Pratoni. XC day was bonkers but in a way that made for good sport (the Slide was iconic and the course was kind to the horses, so that’s a success in my book). I ended up tossing breeding info out for people most of the weekend but not writing anything else myself, although now that it’s over I need to go back through my data with the scores and see what kind of story there might be.

Admittedly my eyeballs are a bit broken from staring at spreadsheets all day every day last week, between the Pratoni data and the PFI data. Kind of a big weekend for Breed.Ride.Compete. … it was nice getting shoutouts on EN and on the PFI live stream. Now we get a bit of a break from that part of things before Maryland 5*, but we’ve got a lot of pedigree reports to complete in the meantime, so no rest for the weary around here. It’s ok, that’s the kind of busy I don’t mind.

BTW my standout “one to watch” from Pratoni was Duke of Champions, for the Italian team. My type of horse. He’s got the same sire (Duke of Hearts xx) as Cornelia Dorr’s newly minted Burghley horse, Daytona Beach 8, who is also a favorite of mine. I’ve liked DoH for years so it’s fun to see some of his offspring starting to show up at the top level.

I feel like I cursed both Team France and Vassily de Lassos by picking them publicly on the EN Staff Predictions article so I’ll just be over here keeping my bad juju to myself next time.

Noodle and I also had another jump lesson this past weekend. We’re putting together more courses, and working on his rideability and adjustability. He’s getting better and better, and he’s been jumping well too. He’s a bit cocky sometimes, but he does find this stuff to be pretty easy. I’m having to adjust my ride a lot (this is definitely not Henry and they aren’t even remotely the same ride) which is a learning curve, but I gotta hand it to the kid, he’s a total good dude about stuff like that.

He’s just so game and down for anything. And he does not give a shit about any kind of rider mistake, he can and will jump from anywhere you get him without so much as ruffling a feather. It’s still a lot of horse to try to package together, but he’s really fun. I’m glad that he keeps his Fuckery out of his work life.

I also really like how we’re focusing on these rideability and adjustability exercises now, early on, and while the jumps are still small. Taking the time to get all these basics more firmly cemented now, I feel like will pay dividends later on.

Mostly we’re still solidly in the partnership building phase… I’m learning how to trust and support him (he doesn’t really need my help the way Henry did, but he does need a lot of support) and he’s learning to be a more rideable noodle. It’s a fun time, although I do feel like my learning curve is steeper than his. He would probably agree.

Anyone else up at 4am to watch the live action from Pratoni? No? Just me. That’s fair. Honestly I was awake anyway, and I spent so long (like… 3 days) making the breeding data spreadsheet for it that I now feel like I absolutely must watch. Not such a hardship though, I do love these big Championship events. If you want to follow along here’s the link to watch (it’s a paid subscription service but it does offer a free trial month, so you can sign up and then cancel after).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BreedRideCompete (@breedridecompete)

We’ve also got the breeding data spreadsheet up on the BRC webstore. This might be the best one yet, I feel like we learn a little bit more with each one, and this time I went down some seriously wild rabbit holes to get some missing data. Like… WhatsApping people in the Netherlands and Australia. It’s fine.

The end result is that we’ve got a ton of data that the results site doesn’t, and some that isn’t in any of the main databases either, so there’s that. I find it endlessly fun to sort and filter everything in different ways. Cheap thrills, y’all.

I should also have an article coming out sometime today on Eventing Nation on some of the familial connections of the horses at Pratoni – keep an eye out for that. If you missed my article from earlier this week about the incredible depth of the mare families of the Burghley top 10, you can read that one here. I hope I’m not boring anyone to death with the breeding stuff but for real there are some tidbits that are just so fascinating.

I’ve got a busy day today getting live stream data ready for PF, so I can’t linger, but what a great week/weekend to watch some good eventing!

Oh, hey, hello there. Turns out I got totally buried under all the stuff I had to do for Pratoni and am just now finding my way out (temporarily anyway). Here I am, once again, later than promised.

This is what happens when you go on multiple quests to find missing data from various horses’ pedigrees. I was successful with most of them, at least. Just that one pesky Dutch horse… we’ll see if the current conversation I’m having on WhatsApp with a breeder in the Netherlands actually yields any results. At least I tried.

Anyway, as I was saying on Monday, we had some visitors here over the weekend! Our friends Julie and Kate were in Ocala to try some horses, and so naturally they were required to come over and play. Kate hasn’t been jumping much, so before she was set to go try horses on Saturday, they came over and she rode Henry. He is the ultimate confidence builder, this is his dream job, and Kate rode him great. He got about 9000 cookies (so ya know, basically a normal day for him).

It had been a long day of traveling for them, and they still had to get a hotel and all that stuff, so we quit with that and made plans for them to come back the next morning so we could ride more. Both Julie and Kate really wanted to ride Lex (I mean he’s adorable, who wouldn’t) and I wanted to see what they both thought of Presto. I have yet to successfully come up with a way to accurately describe what he feels like to ride (to me anyway) so I just keep shoving my friends on him and being like HERE, FEEL THE NOODLE.

Since Julie hasn’t really ridden in forever (like almost a friggin YEAR?) she chose Henry instead of Gemma (yep, that makes sense), Kate grabbed Lex, and I got Presto. We each got on and warmed up a bit, and then the horse trading began.

I thought Kate was going to try to stuff Lex into the back of their SUV and take him home. He’s a really good little pony dude, I think everyone who rides him loves him. I mean he’s so cute, how could you not?

Then we started playing musical horses. Or, rather, I got on Henry and sat and watched both of them take turns with Presto and Lex. Julie is a very tiny human so she was particularly interested to see what Lex was like to ride, thinking he’s very much her type. She was right. Also, major props to her for getting on two young horses and riding them so well when she hasn’t ridden in so long. I don’t think I could have done that.

Meanwhile Kate got on Presto and immediately you could see all of her good basics and riding skill coming back to the surface. He’s similar to the type of horse she was used to, and she had him figured out pretty quickly.

Then we made Julie get on Presto (ok there was like zero arm-twisting for that to happen), which I really wanted to see since she’s the most dressagey of us. She got along with him really well too and liked him a lot. I value her opinion so that was definitely nice to hear. Although now she’s yet another person asking me if I’m going to dabble in some actual USDF dressage now that I have one that’s so good on the flat. Y’all are killing me.

Also massive props to the noodle for being a good kiddo about our game of musical riders and just going along with it, and for being a good boy for all three of us. Signs of maturity?

Then Kate went to try the most stunning gentleman of a horse (related to Presto, actually, they both have Heraldik xx) and fell in love with him. Productive weekend in Ocala, I’d say.

On Sunday I hauled Presto over to Steph’s for another jump lesson. He’s continued to be super good for the last few weeks, very minimal Fuckery in general (aside from continuously pulling his shoes) which I still feel very suspicious about but also I’m not going to question this particular gift from the gods.

It’s kind of funny – Presto has very obviously figured out what Steph’s place is all about. We go there, we warm up, we talk to Steph, we do jompies, we go home. It’s not exciting anymore. He’s gotten to the point where after we warm up he parks himself in the shade while we talk, and falls asleep. Like, pony club kicking is not enough to wake him up to get him back out on the rail, I have to smack him to convince him that he does indeed have to come alive again. It’s a very school horse type of maneuver from a horse who is never actually hot or tired. He’s just learned what the deal is now and is not in any particular hurry to expend extra energy. I can respect that. Another sign of maturity?

New exercises had been set since our last lesson and let’s just say it’s a course of a thousand canters. It’s got a circle of death, lines set on different striding, a million different options…. the ability to change and shape the canter are crucial to getting any of it right. Cool, cool. That’s fine. Just on a giant baby horse over here who’s still building strength and sometimes thinks my ideas are just suggestions. Really though, this kind of stuff is what he needs. Doing all of these gymnasticy-type exercises over the past couple months has made a huge difference in both his rideability and the way he’s using his body off the ground and in the air. It forces him to be a bit more responsible for himself, and he’s definitely figuring things out.

I’m learning how to create all the different canters, and he’s learning how to use himself better and how to think faster. The way he’s coming off the ground feels a lot different, a lot better, and he’s really starting to jump well from the close distance as well. I think he ultimately will be a really rideable horse, once he’s older and stronger and more seasoned. We just gotta keep doing the work now and laying down the groundwork for later. I’m really happy with his progress. I mean, his rider really needs to learn to keep her fucking hands down, but… baby steps.

It’s already Monday again. That keeps happening at rapid speed. It’s to the point where I always have to go back through my phone’s pictures to see what happened and when, because hell if I know.

I feel like I’ve spent the last 900 years doing spreadsheets but really it’s been like 3 days. Last week I was researching the Burghley finishers to get a wrap-up article done for EN (I think it’s being published today maybe?), knocking out a couple pedigree reports (I got to do one for Hunky Hanoverian‘s Hugo, which was fun!) and now I’m deep deep deep into the rabbit hole getting the WEG spreadsheet ready. I’ve committed to several EN articles for WEG, plus we’re going to have the super detailed deep-dive spreadsheet available on the BRC webstore, so I’m doing that thing where I check every fact 500 times, fall into a rabbit hole looking up something adjacent or trying to confirm something, and before I know it I’m somehow spending 30 minutes on each horse. I have problems. But I will tell you that I find so many mistakes in the various pedigree databases, or missing information (I’ve filled in giant chunks of missing pedigree info on two 5* horses just yesterday alone), or really interesting little tidbits, so a lot of times the rabbit holes are worthwhile. Just, uh… perhaps not the most financially wise way to spend my time since I’m certainly not making money by the hour. I can’t help it.

I also spent a little time sprucing up the BRC website a bit, because we are providing live stream data for PF next week and they’re hopefully going to give us some little blurbs and pop our logo up sometimes. I didn’t want it to be quite as paltry looking just in case someone googles.

At this point if I’m not behind a computer I’m on a horse. Or feeding horses. Or cleaning stalls. Or, ya know, meeting the farrier so he can put Presto’s shoes back on, since apparently that’s his new favorite pastime.

He pulled a shoe on Friday, and the farrier came out at 7:30 on Saturday morning to put it back on. After he left I rode Presto out in the field and I shit you not:

He pulled the OTHER one. Seriously it had been like 30 minutes since the farrier left. Poor guy came back AGAIN the next morning and put a new shoe on. Presto is now living in bell boots, which would perhaps be more effective if he didn’t keep insisting on wearing them like this.

All I’ve really done is put toys on his feet, he finds it quite fun.

Other than those particular shenanigans, he’s continued to be really good. Is he maturing? Is he lulling me into a false sense of security so he can stir up some epic Fuckery? I’m still not sure.

The other horses have been good too. I mean Henry is always good, because King. Gemma hasn’t been BAD per se, although we didn’t get her a new bottle of Regumate when the last one ran out because I wasn’t convinced it was really doing anything. Turns out I was massively fucking wrong, because about a week ago she came into a heat so incredibly raging that I swear you could smell her from 30 feet away. She was squirting so constantly that she got me in the mouth (IN THE MOUTH. IN. THE. MOUTH.) when I was picking her feet. I stood up and immediately texted Hillary to tell her we needed to get more Regumate.

Lucky we seem to be done with that particular heat cycle, and the Regumate will be here soon, so… chalk that up to a lesson learned on my part. To her credit Gemma wasn’t all that different under saddle during that time, maybe just a tad spicier and less relaxed over her topline. The squirting though. Gods.

We also had some visitors over the weekend, and Presto had a lesson, but I have too many pics to put them all here so we’ll talk about that tomorrow!

Oh, btw, has anyone seen how freaking batshit and unprofessional Helite (the air vest company) is on their TikTok, especially in the comments? It’s popcorn-worthy but also super cringe, as if they gave the controls to a 15yo with an attitude problem. Not a good look. Entertaining, though.

After I posted that little review showdown a couple months ago with all my gloves, it really stuck in my craw that I didn’t think I’d really found a truly exceptional pair of summer gloves yet. My Sweet Iron Co ones were definitely the closest, but… the quest did not feel sufficiently completed. So it’s possible that I may have acquired some new ones over the summer in an attempt to find Mr. Right (and Mr. Left…. ha see what I did there? God I’m so sorry, it’s 5am.).

The first ones I ordered were the Roeckl Moyo, which they advertise as their ultimate summer glove. The back is a very very light mesh, with the standard Roeckl material on the palm. I tossed these into an Epplejeck order so I got the Europe price plus they were on sale so I only paid $25 for them.

These are definitely lightweight and breathable, there’s no arguing about that. However… they just aren’t very well made. I knew that the mesh was going to be delicate due to how thin it is, so I’m very careful putting them on – I don’t tug on them, and am very gentle with the mesh. Despite that, it tore a little bit near the cuff on wear number 3. The palm material is also a bit stiff and almost crunchy feeling, like something I would expect from a cheap knockoff. And while we’re at it please tell me who decided to put white detailing on a black glove? These are just meh for me. Yes they’re definitely cool and have good airflow, and they dry pretty quickly, but… the execution and materials are lacking. If I’d paid the typical US retail price of $50 I would be annoyed.

While I was waiting for those to show up from the Netherlands I picked up some Cavalleria Toscana mesh gloves from the Luxe EQ trailer when it was here at WEC.

When I spotted these from afar (I have glove-dar… for some people it’s saddle pads, for me it’s gloves) they looked super lightweight so I tried them on without even really taking note of the brand. And then I loved how they felt – really stretchy and cut slim to the hand – and was scared to turn the tag over to see the price, fearing it would be like $100. They’re $59, so not cheap, but not nearly as bad as I had feared… pretty much the going rate for a lot of glove brands these days. I like that they’re cut a bit shorter at the wrist so that they don’t touch my watch, and they’re super super stretchy and lightweight. I was worried that the silicone grips on the palms would wear off quickly but its been a couple months and so far so good. They’re comfy and dry pretty quickly and can go in the wash, so… bonus. These are almost always the ones I reach for every day because they’re just so comfortable and light. More colors please, Cavalleria Toscana.

And then I was in Tack Shack a couple weeks ago browsing the glove wall (as one does) while the SO tried on breeches. What did I spy with my little eye? NAVY GLITTER.

These are the Roeckl Lorraine, which come in black and white and navy, with a glitter stripe on the back of the hand. The back is a really lightweight spandex type material, and the palm is the same as on the Roeckl Mayo. I wish they had a little gusset or something at the wrist so they were easier to pull on/off, but I have big hands. The color is pretty, they get an A+ for look. I still don’t love that palm material but these at least seem like they’ll definitely hold up better than the Mayo. They aren’t my everyday favorites but they are the prettiest… I will definitely show in these.

And then last week I was at WEC (god, here we go again, this never ends well) in I Love My Horse, which has proven to be an extremely dangerous store for me. I wasn’t actually looking for anything but I just so happened to notice that they now had the MacWet sport mesh gloves in navy. Shit.

To be fair I didn’t get these to be specifically summer gloves, I got them to be XC gloves (and also to be fair, I didn’t buy them, SO bought them for me) because I’ve heard such good things about how grippy they are when they’re wet. I live in Florida now so… that’s actually a legit concern. The back of them is a nice mesh though, so despite being a more substantial glove than the others, they don’t seem that hot. I haven’t had them long but so far I’ve worn them XC schooling on a very very moist and sweaty day, and in the rain, and I do think these will be my new go-to XC gloves or rain gloves. They’re nice, dry well, and are only around $50.

So, ya know… I’m pretty happy with 3 of the 4 latest acquisitions. A good pair of comfy everyday gloves with the CT, a pretty pair of lightweight show gloves with the Roeckl, and some nice grippy XC/rain gloves. That’s not a bad summertime collection.