Y’all will be shocked to hear (insert heavy sarcasm) that things have been busy around here the past couple weeks! We’ve officially got all the 2023 foals on the ground now, which is exciting. You’ll meet the newest addition formally on Foal Friday (sorry to make you wait, but thems the rules). That means we’ve got 5 babies now, with the oldest being 2.5 months. Which means there’s a lot of foal training to be done too.

Michelle had to head back home to Texas, so Hillary and I have taken over everything with the babies and the farm. The childrens are fun but they are also time-consuming at this stage. We’re settling into a groove though, and everyone has been behaving themselves pretty well. We’re also officially all sold out of 2023 foals – all 4 of the available ones (Rue is being retained) are under contract! They’re in-demand, and that’s always exciting.

We also officially got Fay’s paperwork done for her sBs registration, and her microchip put in. She isn’t the biggest fan of vets or needles so I thought she might be displeased about the microchip, but I distracted her with cookies and she didn’t even notice. The perks of a highly food motivated animal.

Henry, meanwhile, got himself a pony friend.

At least for now. Nunez (who was just purchased by none other than blogger Holly!) is hanging out for a month or two before he goes to the boarding barn for training, and I kinda wanted to see how Henry got along with him for turnout. Henry generally dislikes everyone and is the top grumpiest dog, but he’s always seemed extremely tolerant of Nunez in particular. Sure enough these two are thick as thieves now, like two peas in a misshapen pod. Now I dunno what I’m gonna do when Henry’s pony leaves.

Presto, in the meantime, seems to have enjoyed his little mini-vacay. He’s been quite full of himself, destroying his fly sheet and two pairs of boots (my brand new Arion ones and his Majyk Equipe ice boots, for anyone that wants to cry along with me). This horse is kind of the actual worse when he’s had nothing to occupy his brain. He looks great though, and he’s clipped and fresh and ready for a few more shows before he gets to his real summer vacay in a couple months. He’s looking great with his cute little dapples, too.

We’ve got a couple lessons this week and then we’re gonna try our hand at the Modified at Majestic this weekend.

I did also make some time to watch at least half of the Badminton cross country which saw some real highs (Tom Crisp literally swimming in the water after he fell off was one of the best displays of a good attitude that I’ve ever seen) and some real lows (Ollie, come on man). For what is I think the first time ever I did get my Eventing Nation staff pick correct for the winner at least. I love Lordships Grafallo quite a lot, what a cool horse.

I’ve also reopened the pedigree reports for BRC, so if anyone has been waiting for a while, now’s your chance! I’ve also got a couple spots left for breeding consultations. If you’ve already purchased either of these things, we’re also running a giveaway drawing for a BRC swag package (shirt, vest or jacket, hat, and saddle pad!). To enter all you need to do is make a short and simple “review” type post about your report or consultation, either on your facebook or instagram. The post needs to be public and please tag Breed.Ride.Compete so I can see it! If you share the post to facebook groups (like the OTTB groups, the MLE group, Ride iQ group, wherever you feel is relevant!) you get one additional entry for each place you share it. Just send me all your shares so I can get them entered.

I’ll also work this week on calculating the winner of this year’s Baby Bets contest… I’ll have that ready to announce by Friday!