Month: October 2022

It occurs to me now that I could have done this as like a “Mare Monday” thing rather than a Foal Friday but technically it’s still part of our sBs inspection series so… it kind of counts?

Anyway, when we left off last week we’d just seen the yearling fillies, which meant that it was time to move on to the mares. There were 5 total for sBs to look at this time – Peyton, Vee, Grace, Daisy, and then of course at the very last minute I decided to toss Gemma in the line-up.

First up was Peyton, who – true to form – was unimpressed with all of our crap. She has better things to do, like nap and eat. She humored us though, and trotted and cantered around for a few minutes. While she didn’t really show us the best of what she’s capable of, it was still good enough to earn her approval into the mare book. She is in foal to Future Hepsilon.

Next up was Vee, who gave us at least a little bit more enthusiasm. I wish pictures could capture how gorgeous she is, she such a stunning mare in person. The judge thought so too, granting her breeding approval with the second highest score of all the mares, just barely off the high score. Vee is in foal to either Lingo van de Watermolen or Araldik (there were half-doses left of each, so they used both!).

It should come as no surprise that the highest score went to Grace, who you’re all familiar with by now from the blog. She brought the Snorty Prancies and showed herself off well, which worked in her favor and earned her Premium status. Grace isn’t in foal herself but she does have an embryo transfer foal coming next year by the Thoroughbred stallion Sea Lion.

After Grace I snuck Gemma in real quick, and y’all already saw the pics of her from the inspection, except for maybe this one.

She wanted to make sure the judge knew that her zoomies were top notch. Unfortunately “zoomies” are not actually a criteria on the scoresheet. Still, she scored pretty well, with her trot and canter being her highest marks.

Last but not least was Daisy, the Paint mare.

I have to be honest, I always love to see these warmblood registries and their reaction Daisy. She walks up looking like a QH (a nice one, she’s a good looking mare, but it’s obviously not a warmblood or TB like they’re used to seeing) and they always look skeptical, then she starts to move and they’re like “Oh. Oooohhhh. Yeah, ok, we get it.”. She’s a freaky good mover by sporthorse standards. Her foal next year should be interesting too – it’s by the Irish 4* eventing stallion Philanderer.

Daisy too earned high enough scores to get entered into the sBs mare books, so we went 5/5 for breeding approvals for the mares!

We do have two more foals coming next year, but those mares have already been approved by sBs in the past so they didn’t need to be inspected again. Those two are Chanel, in foal to Usandro (where are all the sporthony lovers?), and then an embryo transfer by Utrillo out of Lissa, for a full brother to Percy.

That wraps up the 2022 WTW sBs inspection! Never fear, I do have at least two more posts worth of photos from it so that we can milk a couple more weeks out of this photo set (I can’t be the only one that’s unwilling to let go of Foal Fridays) before we have to quit for the year.

As someone who spent most of their life in Texas, I have severe trust issues when it comes to fall weather. Texas does this thing where it roasts you for 4 months straight, gives you a week or so of semi-pleasant (like, high 80’s) weather to where you’re like YAY FALL and then bam it suckerpunches you with Second Summer that lasts another two months. I’m always relatively distrustful when the temperatures drop the first time.

Florida hasn’t really done any of that though. It hasn’t been intensely hot since August, and every day has started out a bit chilly and ended up just downright glorious (if you’re a lizard like me and enjoy low to mid 80’s, anyway). I mean it hasn’t really rained in like a month, but man. The weather this time of year is hard to beat.

Since it’s been absolutely stunning, I’ve been riding a lot. Okay, I’ve been riding the same amount, but it’s considerably more pleasant for all of us and doesn’t feel nearly as draining. If we were still in Texas I would already have bodyclipped Henry by now, but 1) it’s not nearly as hot, so he’s not getting hot either, 2) he’s not as hairy as he usually is by this time of year. I’m hoping I can wait until next month before I have to clip both him and Presto but we’ll see.

Last week I had another jump lesson with Presto, this time with the jumps all moved into the ring. That was a challenge in and of itself considering the ring is much smaller than the jump field. Not sure if you’ve noticed but this horse is slightly large, and still figuring out how to be rideable. Several jumps were literally only 2-3 strides out of the corner, and basically everything ends up on some kind of related distance. It was good for both of us though. Him because he actually had to stay focused for more than 5 seconds, and me because I was really forced to ride every single step with purpose or the jumps weren’t going to happen. It helped me react faster and be more proactive. Presto was actually really good, it went better than I imagined it would.

For jumping we switched him to a french link beval bit (so ya know, basically just gave me a hair of leverage compared to his plain loose ring) and I really like him in that bit. It’s just enough to get his attention a little more quickly.

I also have to do a quick PSA for this new shirt I got from Amazon. It’s advertised as a “golf shirt” but perfect for riding too since it’s a nice thin breathable material and a flattering cut – really impressed with it for $26. Just wish they had more colors/patterns! Love the navy and white stars though.

This week is already a bit busy (what else is new these days) plus tomorrow I’m gonna head over to the OBS yearling sale to watch some of the farm’s thoroughbred colts go through. We got the book last week and it’s massive – over 600 horses! I’m obviously not going to be shopping or anything, but when you have a chance to see this many Thoroughbreds at once, it’s an educational opportunity. Gotta go see what catches my eye! It’s called research, ya know…

I’m bummed that I couldn’t make it up to Maryland for the 5*/YEH Champs this year, but hope everyone that’s going has a blast. I’ll be watching at home! I did buy Kentucky tickets this morning as soon as they went on sale though, so that’s totally happening again in April. Anyone else quick on the draw for Kentucky tix this morning?

Continuing on in our sBs recap (am I stretching this out? you bet. it means we get to keep Foal Friday for as long as possible.), this week it’s the girls’ turn! We had two yearling fillies for sBs to look at – Teddy the sportpony and Pippa the eventer.

We brought them out together since it was easier and saved time. They looked at Teddy first, who is a little roly poly pony at the moment. She does not miss a meal and you can tell.

They looked at her conformation, watched her walk and trot in hand, and then she went over to wait while Pippa stepped up.

While Teddy is definitely butthigh at the moment, otherwise I think you’d have a hard time guessing her age. Pippa on the otherhand… she is very much a YEARLING.

She’s 81% Thoroughbred, although at the moment she looks maybe 81% giraffe. She’ll grow into herself eventually, it’s just gonna be a bit gangly for a while. Pippa and Teddy really could not be more of an “odd couple” pairing. Funnily enough though, Pippa is super quiet and chill and rarely into shenanigans, whereas Teddy… well she is a pony after all.

That theme continued when we turned them loose for the judge to see their free gaits. Teddy immediately stuck her little tail up in the air pranced around like she knew everyone came to see her. Pippa was like “but why are we running?”. Pippa just has zero chaos factor, bless her.

Teddy put on quite a show, with Pippa just kind of following her around.

Pippa did eventually make a few fancy laps of the paddock, and boy… I gotta say, I had yet to see her really move but that girl is something else. Her step is massive, she covers a crazy amount of ground.

Once she grows into herself she’s going to be a gorgeous mare. Dying to see her really gallop!

No surprise that Teddy earned Premium (all that strut really worked out) and Pippa juuuust barely missed it. She’s just so darn growthy right now, that’s not a surprise. They were both registered and branded, so they’re now officially official!

Overall a good showing for the girls!

Next week… the mares.

Trying to catch up on some projects so no “real” post today, but I did want to drop in a couple little items worth mentioning.

Slightly related to yesterday’s post, after XC schooling Presto on Sunday I was feeling a bit sore in my hips and lower back, so I pinged Laura at Hidden Heights Fitness. She turned it into the topic of one of her weekly videos! I did as she suggested and it definitely helped, so figured I’d pass it along. I’m really enjoying her weekly series on facebook.

I also finally (after like… I dunno… 3 or 4 years of people asking) got around to making an Amazon storefront. I went back through 5 years of orders and put things on there that I like and have used or worn on a regular basis, or things from DIY’s that I’ve done on the blog, or stuff I’ve reviewed on the blog. It’s a pretty wide range, everything from saddle dyeing stuff, breeches, sunshirts, those seamless Lulu knockoff shirts, my trailer camera system, my exercise bike, trailer equipment, the scale I use to weigh feed/hay, clipping stuff, the dye I used for my breeches, etc etc. It’s random AF. Which… seems pretty accurate.

BreedRideCompete opened again earlier this week for pedigree reports, but (again) they sold out before I got a chance to post about it here. I know some people have been waiting a while to try to snag one… if so, shoot me a message!

And last but not least, if you’re a Ride iQ member keep an eye on the Office Hours episode for next week…

I have literally been XC schooling more times in the past two months than in the entire previous two years. Have I mentioned Ocala doesn’t suck? Just checking.

I’ve had some introspective thoughts lately on how my relationship with Presto has been in such a transitionary phase over the last couple months, but that’s a post for another day since it’s gonna be a lot of me rambling about philosophical things. I’ll get there. For today, let’s just talk about our last big adventure – we went to Majestic again on Sunday! Basically if Steph is going schooling somewhere, I’m in. Miles are what we need right now, and we all learn a little bit more about each other with every outing.

With all the lessons and schoolings Presto has had over the summer, he’s getting very easy to take places. He loads well, he doesn’t put up much fuss (maybe just some light screaming) and he comes off the trailer pretty well. I mean is he dead quiet? Definitely not. If this horse was dead quiet I would take his temperature (I have actually done that more than once). But he’s not a deranged feral idiot.

Well ok when I first get on he may or may not be sporting an Arabian tail, and it may or may not take 5 minutes to work it’s way down to normal. It’s not bad though, you just have to really put him to work and get him to focus. Granted he’s been to Majestic several times now so that venue has perhaps lost some of it’s excitement for him. When I unload him there on the day of the horse show and there are horses and trailers galore, it will be a different story. That’s what neck straps are for, amiright?

But he warmed up pretty well, and we popped over a couple Novice and Training warmup jumps, then our little group headed out to the field. Our first area of focus was by the ditches, and we put together an N ramp, a T brush rolltop thingy, and the N half coffin. He jumped the snot out of the T brush (do we need to give the brush an additional 6″ of clearance?) and thought the rest was boring.

Then we went over to the banks, where we jumped down the N combo that we did last time, down bank to a house, then kept going through the trees to jump the BN trakehner (our first trakehner, aw), turned around and jumped back over the N trakehner, then back over the N bank line the other way, house to up bank. He got slightly feral back in the trees because 1: we haven’t really jumped any of the stuff back there yet, so there was *novelty*, 2: there was a man mowing, and 3: it’s closest to the road, which is fairly busy. So ya know… every step I could feel the hamsters coming closer and closer to the edge of their wheel. I had to really leg him up to the BN trakehner because he wasn’t even looking at it until the last second, he was too busy debating whether or not he should pretend to spook at the mower. And then at another point he spooked at a jump we were cantering past and strongly considered running away into the sunset. I feel like this is going to be how every cross country course goes with him for a while… the jumps aren’t the hard part, everything else is because he’s just kind of an excitable chaos machine. You have to ride every single step and constantly keep his brain focused.

That little feral moment did lead to the best part of the whole schooling though, when this award-winning commentary was captured on video. I laughed extremely hard when I heard it.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRuJetQb/

Steph had me jump the N trakehner again and then hang a left to jump a Training bending line. Idea being that if we made it a little harder, he would have to pay more attention. She was correct. Honestly he gets a little easier to ride when there’s more for him to do rather than just cantering a bunch of single fences.

After that we wandered down and jumped the T chevrons around to the T tire jump. I thought he might look at all the shadows under the chevron and didn’t really give a second thought to the tires, but naturally he did the opposite – didn’t think much of the chevron and thought the tires were terrifying. I mean, he jumped them, with encouragement, but he tried very hard to leap sideways through the bush instead. Not totally the right answer, but at least it was still a forward effort? I do like that about him, he always wants to go forward.

Then we jumped the N corner, just to jump a corner since we hadn’t done that yet. At that level they’re still small enough to where it really just jumps like a table, but ya know. Baby steps.

We capped it off with the water, coming up through the N way – house to water to up bank to chevrons – and then cantering around and back through the water, out over the T rolltop. Easy peasy.

He’s funny because throughout the course of one XC schooling it’s really like riding 3 different horses. You get the semi-feral one in the beginning, then a really lovely one, then he starts to get tired (mentally or physically or both) and requires a lot more leg and encouragement. Thanks Presto, always keeping me on my toes.

Overall though – super good boy. With every outing I feel like we definitely learn more about each other and are building on that partnership. It takes time, but it feels like things are definitely going in the right direction!