Is he what dreams are made of or is he an absolute menace to society? The answer is both.
heavy on the menace
On Sunday I took Presto over to Majestic Oaks for a jumper show. I was kind of looking forward to it, because it was going to be his first 3’3″ class – it was time to check our progress. Hillary was also taking Lex, but 1) her classes were a little earlier 2) I really did not want a repeat of his behavior when we went for a lesson with Lex and Presto lost his last shiny little marble. He’s chill and easy alone. He’s completely terrible with friends.
So Hillary left earlier than I did, with Lex in her trailer. I was hoping they just wouldn’t know the other was there. That dream lasted for all of about 30 minutes. And once Presto did figure out that Lex was there, that was the end of us having a fun easy happy day. Much chaos ensued. He spent the next couple hours screaming non-stop, punctuated with periods of flailing his front feet in the air or trying to dig a hole to China.
It was not the most fun I’ve ever had.
extremely accurate portrayal of how we both felt
I did finally get him to settle a bit as we got closer to the start of our division, mostly by letting root around the tack room of my trailer and make a mess of things, but I was on the last bit of my sanity by that point. I had started the day tired, and he used up every available ounce of my brain power and emotional energy with his theatrics.
Luckily once he has a job to focus on, he’s an entirely different animal.
When I finally got on he was LIT, and jigged his way over to warmup. I immediately starting bending him left and right, getting him to move his rib cage and accept my leg without yeehawing away from it. That plugged his brain in, and after a few laps we were able to get to work like normal. He actually warmed up great, and was less worried about the other horses than he was the last time we were in that ring. Once he jumped his first jump he was game on, mind on the job, and he was the wonderful animal I know and love. I do appreciate that part of him – for all his theatrics, he does do his job like a trooper once you give him one.
We did two classes – a 3′ and a 3’3″. The 3′ was fine… I was a bit of a space cadet and cantered right past the last jump. Everyone was like “ahem… there’s another one”. Oh right. Pick up the canter again, jump the last one. My brain was mega-fried by this point after having a horse screaming in my ear and flailing in my face all morning. My response to that is to just go real dead inside, and perhaps I went a little too dead.
Then we had the 3’3″, which was also fine. By this point he had thoroughly worn himself out, so he was getting a bit behind my leg, which my dead brain was a little too slow to fix, which led to a couple awkward distances. What I do appreciate is that Presto really gives no shits where you get him, he’s gonna jump the jump. Also neither of us were intimidated at all by the increase in height. Nothing we’ve jumped yet looks big on this horse, and he’s still mostly just loping over them. It’s a cool feeling, to have not even come anywhere near to approaching his limit. I think we’ve barely even poked a toe into “trying” territory.
Ideally the perfectionist side of me would have loved to do one more class and smooth things out a bit, but we were both out of quarters at that point. We’d done what we came to do, and despite Presto’s naughtiness all morning, I appreciated that once I got on and said “sir, you have a job” he got down to business and said “yes ma’am, let’s do it”. I love this horse both because of and despite his chaos… some days it just tests my resolve more than others.
I think the best moment of the day was when I saw a bit of a bigger distance into the oxer-to-vertical one stride. The Presto of a couple months ago would have been totally incapable of jumping big into that, compacting himself into the one stride, and jumping up and around the vertical – he’d have just punched that rail right out with his hind feet. I think every rail he had last year was coming out of a combination. But even with me jumping in a bit big, he landed, sat himself on his butt, and jumped the vertical fantastic. When I get little peeks of his true ability like that, it’s kind of exciting. It most definitely is in there. The harder it gets, the better he gets.
So really, mission accomplished? It was an annoying day, with all of his screaming and theatrics, and it’s possible that the hearing in my right ear might never be the same…
But we did get to jump around the 3’3″ and it was no big deal, so… we’ll call it a win?
It’s a bit earlier than I normally start this, but the sales this year have been starting earlier too. Welcome to everyone’s favorite online shopping time of year!
Here we go with the usual spiel: some of these sales are already active, others won’t be live until later in the week. I’ve included date info where I can, but if you’re not seeing the sale yet, just try their page again later. What I’m publishing today (Tuesday) is very much just the tip of the iceberg – I’m tracking dozens of different sales that will be releasing their info later in the week. Keep checking back here, new ones will be posted AT THE BOTTOM BY DATE ADDED so they don’t get lost in the mix. Happy Shopping! Buy me something pretty.
Riding Warehouse – sale starting 11/25 up to 30% off – build your cart now so it’s ready to go on Friday!
Ride iQ – 30% off either the monthly or annual membership (applies to the first payment – this takes $74 off the annual membership!) with code TGIF30 through 11/28. If you’re looking for a great gift for someone, this is my 5-star pick! I can’t even tell you how life-changing this app is.
Nunn Finer – through 11/22 get 50% off the clearance section (discount in cart), more deals later in the week
The Tack Hack – extra 25% off clearance, 30% off sitewide (some exclusions) through 11/28 with code BLACKFRIDAY22. 20% off English Riding Supply products on 11/24 and 11/25.
Anatomeq – 20% off polos, 15% off the Fit blanket, BOGO 25% off saddle pads and apparel. Additional 10% off AirGuard brush boots and Outlet items with code EXTRA10.
Punk Ponies – Use code BLACKFRIDAY22 for 30% off full price Open Front Boots, Bell Boots, Gloves, Bags & Luggage, and Stirrups (excludes Safer Stirrups).
Equinavia – 20% off sitewide and up to 70% off sale items
Ecogold – 15% off anything blackwide code BLKFRI15
Le Fash – 10% off orders up to $250 wide code 10OFF, 15% off orders $250-599 with code 15OFF, 20% off orders over $600 with code 20OFF, and an extra 30% off clearance with code 30OFF.
Finish Line Horse Products – get a free 30 day supply of U-7 Gastric Aid with the purchase of a 32 ox Easy Rider. Use code easygiving2022 for free shipping.
Tried Equestrian – 20% off sitewide (excluding saddles) with code BLACK20
Struck Breeches – orders under $100 get a $10 Gift Card, $100- $250 get a $25 Gift Card. Buy 50 Series breeches, get a $50 Gift Card, buy 55 Series breeches, get a $55 Gift Card, buy 60 Series get a $60 Gift Card, buy 80 Series get an $80 Gift Card, and purchases Over $400 get a $100 Gift Card. First 50 orders will receive a FREE Struck toque!
When we left off last week, some particular noodle had been an absolute wretch for our jump lesson on Wednesday.
def wasn’t me
On Friday (aside from being a bit on his toes because it was BRISK out there for Florida) he brought his best kiddo behavior. Well I mean did he jig off the trailer and into the barn? Maybe. Was he a moving target while I tried to put his bridle on? Yes. Did we snort the whole way out to the ring? Indeed. Did a horse get loose and come galloping out towards the ring while I was walking and did I just choose to jump off and hold my spinning noodle until that horse was caught rather than potentially add another loose horse to the mix? Yes. But I mean once the lesson started, he was all business.
“you guys ruin everything fun” – Presto, probably
It’s been a hot minute since I had a dressage lesson (ok months, it’s been months… jumping took priority) so it was definitely needed. I feel like he’s made a lot of progress as far as getting more adjustable in his gaits (Steph agreed), more consistently into the outside rein (Steph agreed) and his canter has gotten stronger (Steph agreed). But ya know, good professional eyes on the ground with the flatwork are so important, because I can take the homework I’m given and plug away at it pretty well, but I’m not always the best at pushing on to the next step.
So what we did a lot in this lesson was push the boundaries and ask him for more. More trot, starting to play with the medium and get him lifting his front end up more/coming through his knee and shoulder. This is hard for him, he’s lazier in front than he is behind., but he did give us some solid efforts.
We also worked on being able to move his shoulders a bit more, which is kind of a constant with him since he loves to get stuck in the base of his neck/shoulders. And then when we moved to canter she was like ok this definitely looks way stronger/better but now he needs to do it more on his own with less help from you. Turns out I’m helping him every single step, which of course I know that but also at no point did my brain go “maybe it’s time you stop holding his hand and ask him to do more of this on his own”.
So that’s what we did. We’d get the canter forward, get his back swinging, and then I’d slowly stop helping him as much and ask him to do more on his own, letting my leg hang more passive. To the right it wasn’t too bad, he broke once or twice out of confusion (she stopped holding me up, that’s weird) but to the left, his weaker direction, he def wanted to fall apart more as soon as I wasn’t actively holding it together. There is some homework involving all of that, for sure. Which is good… that’s the whole point.
On Saturday I spent all day jump judging at the classic 3-Day here in town. It was such a cool event, with a whole week of various clinics/demos and lots of educational content from top pros. They did a great job with the course design too, everything looked fantastic, with good challenges but also some softer options for the people that needed them. For personal reasons I’d love it if they moved it to a different venue – then I’d 100% put it on my bucket list.
What did blow my mind, as someone from Texas where people do not drive vehicles onto courses and if you’re jump judging you basically just have to walk your happy ass and your lawn chair out to whatever far reaches of the earth you’ve been assigned to, was that we could just drive out to our jumps and stay in our vehicles. When everybody got in their cars and drove right out onto the course my brain exploded a little, I think I amused all the Florida people. Wait, you mean I don’t have to hike 3 miles and sit in a chair in the sun being miserable/cold/hot/wet/sunburned all day? Not that 8 hours in my car is comfortable but it beats the hell out of a lawn chair. That was like a VIP jump judging experience compared to every other I’ve ever had. It was fun watching everyone with the classic format though, I love that they offered Starter through Training.
Yesterday was disgusting by Florida standards: 48 and drizzly rain all day. Hard pass. Hard hard pass. Today it’s sunny and 70 so… I don’t have to suffer thanks. Our barn group went to brunch instead, and then Hillary and I recorded a podcast (the first of hopefully many) with Steph for our Patreon people. I’m pretty excited about this one, she’s so interesting with her teaching philosophy and how she approaches coaching different people/personalities.
I’m also now full throttle into Black Friday mode, getting the first version of the list ready to post (hopefully tomorrow, but if I can’t make that happen, Wednesday for sure). So many places have started their sales early, so it looks like my list will need to start earlier too. My mission this year is new blankets for Presto, since his lil butt is now hanging quite a ways out the back of his old clothes. Which makes me sad, because they’re great. If you see great deals on any fun prints in an 81/82 (I think, I need to measure him today) , send them my way!
I was kind of hoping today would be a fun lesson recap, since I made it over to Steph’s on Wednesday for a jump lesson. And I mean, it can be a bit of a lesson recap I suppose. “Fun” is not the word I would use though.
In retrospect I’d call this my first clue
Presto is… an interesting animal. What I’ve discovered about him over the past few months is that while he’s actually great when he travels solo, he’s a complete idiot when he goes places with friends. He marries them in the trailer, dedicates his entire being to them, and legit cannot focus on anything else once we arrive at our destination. I know this about him. But that doesn’t mean that he can spend the rest of his life going places and doing things alone. It’s not realistic. We slowly but surely have to start chipping away at that particular issue. So when Hillary set up a lesson for Wednesday morning, I was offered the time right after it, and while there was a whole lot of internal groaning on my part, I took it. Can’t avoid the situation forever, and better to do it in a regular lesson environment vs xc schooling or at a horse show.
When I went to get him before the lesson he came galloping up to me like a lunatic, complete with a sliding stop about 2″ away from the gate. Cool cool. Presto with excess enthusiasm rarely bodes well but sure. We got the horses ready, loaded them up, and off we went. Hillary rode first, so while she was putting her bridle on I took Presto away to the other side of the barn where he wouldn’t be able to see Lex leave. That would create an instant meltdown. He wasn’t pleased when I took him away from his favorite hony, but he wasn’t too bad. After Lex was gone I took him back inside to the crossties, but then all the other horse slowly started leaving, and I knew that if we got to the point where he was the only one left in the barn that would be the spark that ignited a real problem. I can only take on so many problems in one day. So I put his bridle on, figuring I’d just go hack him around the back field for a while and then warm up a bit before our lesson.
He was fine walking out, and for the first few minutes, but then he started trying to make a break for it back toward the ring. Naughtiness ensued. Not constant, but enough to where I had to put him to work or else he was going to keep escalating. So we spent 40 minutes trotting, cantering, going back and forth toward and away from the ring, and doing whatever more complicated flatwork was necessary to keep his attention on me – with random bouts of spinning and napping punctuated throughout. He did finally settle, but by then we were both tired and annoyed.
The best thing about this pic is that you can tell how little fun any of us are having
By the time we walked into the ring for our lesson we really had nothing left in the tank, mentally or physically. And well… when we tried to start putting some jump exercises together, it went about as well as you’d imagine. I can say without a doubt that it was the worst jump lesson we’ve had yet. Presto is just a walking temper tantrum of feelings sometimes, and he had all of them that day. By that point he was just mad and told all of us to get fucked.
So ya know… we made an attempt at things. We went through the course a few times until he actually decided to put in some kind (ANY kind) of effort at paying attention and listening, and then we quit with that. There was really no point. He did stop being a turd long enough to make a decent-ish pass through, and some days that’s just the best you’re going to get. He’s not the type of horse you can just keep nagging away at when he’s in that frame of mind. Some days you have to accept any kind of try and let it go at that, because if you pick a fight he will absolutely throw down. If you make it a thing, it will become A Thing. If you make it just a day in the life, then that’s all it’ll be.
we both literally cannot
So ya know, that was… um… a time. Not a fun time. Or a good time. But such is life with horses. I think what we’re going to do for a while is every time Hillary has a lesson, Presto will come along and just go out to hack by himself while she’s having her lesson. He has to be able to go places with friends and not turn into a raging butthole. And clearly we are not at the point where he can handle doing that for lessons, but if he can just go hack out, do some trot sets, and work through his feelings… hopefully that will help him figure out that he still has to mind his own damn business even when a friend is present.
I have another lesson today (a dressage lesson, which I haven’t had a dressage lesson in months… whoops) that he is attending by himself, so hopefully we can actually do something productive this time.
I always have intentions of Monday posts to recap the previous week. Those posts do not always happen these days.
As already mentioned, last week was spent working in the Luxe EQ trailer at WEC. I forgot how mentally exhausting retail is, even when it’s not busy. It takes all of my little introverted brain cells. These November shows at WEC are pretty small – there’s supposed to be double the number of horses in December – and for that I was kind of grateful. I mean, not the best thing for business, but whew. It’s been years since I did this.
I did have fun perusing everything in the trailer though, and trying on like… dozens of things. I discovered that Samshield clothing seems to fit me like a dream (naturally, because it’s effing expensive) and that no matter how hard I try or how badly I want it, Kask helmets don’t fit my head. Which is probably good for my wallet, because I looooved this one:
stunning
On Saturday night I stayed after close and had dinner with some barnmates, and got to snuggle what is now I suppose my emotional support weiner, Olive. She also helped me make a TikTok for the shop, because this is definitely a dog worthy of social media fame.
Hillary got some video of us flatting yesterday
I was still able to ride Presto during those days, by getting up extra early so I could be done with him by 8am and then jet off to WEC. He has been pretty darn good lately, and is filling out a ton. You can tell that 6yo year is just around the corner – he’s a different horse now than he was in May. We’ve got a jump lesson today and then a dressage lesson on Friday, trying to get in all the prep and tune-ups before we hit all the shows in December. I can’t believe we’re already halfway through November. What the actual heck.
This week I’ve been making videos for clients, prepping the breeding data for the live stream of the PetersonSmith Barnstaple Educational 3 Day Event (I hope y’all have heard about this, it’s SO COOL), and getting a couple breeding consultations prepped. Also Megan is at the Goresbridge sale this week and she’s been sending me some of her favorites to get my thoughts on their pedigrees. I have some peak FOMO about Ireland at the moment.
I did get myself these super glittery spur straps though, which def helped me feel better.
One other thing – massive shoutout to Bobby who absolutely SLAYED at Nationals with Carlson. National Champion 2nd Freestyle AA, Reserve Champion 2nd AA, Reserve Champion 3rd AA, and 3rd place 3rd level Freestyle AA. He’s a pain in the ass but he’s my pain in the ass, and I’m so happy to see him doing well with this horse.
I’ll be back later this week with more updates, when I have a little more time. Hope everyone is having a good week!
breedrideevent.com 