I feel like this is very important for everyone to see. Rhett is the Captain of Chaos, the Master of Menace, the Dealer of Doom. At least if you ask the ball, anyway.
Hillary is going to have a really good time trying to stay on top of this one. Somebody get the popcorn ready!
Happy Friday everyone.
Also, unrelated to foals but very related to Friday, if you haven’t yet checked out the Riding Warehouse Bargain Bin deals for their Fourth of July sale, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND. There are Kastel and San Soleil sunshirts as cheap as $20, Anique as cheap as $25, show shirts for $25, $5 fly masks, $5 Dreamers and Schemers socks, $25 breeches, $50 horse blankets, etc etc. You have to dig a little bit but it’s worth it!
Well this post should have been a show recap but SOMEONE decided to something STUPID and HURT HIMSELF before the show even started. Horses, man.
Presto and Lex have the cutest side by side butts
We left for Aiken early on Thursday, arriving around 1pm. It was an uneventful drive, and a fairly easy one. Long enough to make me question how I used to stay sane while driving that far for literally EVERYTHING in Texas, but ya know… it wasn’t that bad. We hit some rain off and on but nothing too heavy, so it mostly just helped keep things cool.
We were stabling and staying offsite at a friends farm, but we went straight to Stable View so we could ride around and let the boys see the sights. This was a new facility for both of them. It was a little cool and drizzly, which was a-ok with me, and Presto was really super for his flat ride. We rode in the covered and in one of the outdoor warmups and he was just really focused and felt great.
spoiler alert
Hillary was showing in the Training on Friday and Saturday, and I was supposed to show in the Modified on Saturday and Sunday. I was hoping that some of the other horses with us would be staying at the farm on Friday so Presto wouldn’t have to come to the show, but no such luck. I couldn’t leave him there alone, so onto the trailer he went as a tag-along.
When Hillary got on to do her dressage I got on Presto and went for a hack and then came back to the warmup rings and did another flat ride. He was nappy AF when I first got on him, just being a real premium toolbag about leaving Lex, but by the time I got to the rings for his flat ride, he was super. He neighed a couple times but otherwise was really fantastic. Like… the make-the-5-star-rider-stop-coaching-to-watch-him kind of fantastic. I mean, did someone else see all the screaming and spinning that happened before that and ask if he was recently gelded? Maybe. Ignore that.
We went back to the trailers and hung out for a bit, then Hillary had to get on Lex for show jumping. Rather than leave Presto in Hillary’s trailer by himself, I put him on Steph’s trailer so that he would have two friends with him. Seemed like the better bet.
While it probably WAS the better bet, it was not sufficient. This mofo tried to jump over the chest bar and out of the trailer.
FML
As you can imagine, that didn’t go well. He got hung up halfway and eventually flopped his way out, but not before he sliced up 3 out of 4 legs and banged the absolute shit out of his stifle. Luckily the show vet was very close and in less than 10 minutes Presto was getting stitches.
He had abrasions on his chin, stomach, and both stifles, a deep laceration that cut an L shaped flap of skin on one front knee, and then a jagged and gnarly cut on the inside of the other front. Somehow, by pure fucking luck and miracles, he managed to miss anything important. None of the lacerations were that close to joints, there was no tendon or ligament damage, and he somehow jogged up pretty darn sound the next morning.
bad bad decisions were made, mom
Still, he gave me an actual stroke. Are we even keeping track of how many years this horse has shaved off my life by this point?
Naturally, we had to scratch. I was disappointed to not be able to run him, of course, especially because I think he would have been extremely competitive. The courses and footing were fantastic, the XC looked well within his wheelhouse, and he’d felt so good for our pre-rides. Mostly though I’m just super incredibly fucking relieved that he didn’t damage himself worse. That could have easily been really really really really really bad.
Someone remind me: why did we choose horses as a hobby, exactly?
Anyway, needless to say his summer vacation got an early start. He’s also been an absolutely terrible patient for his wraps and stitches. Shocking. I’m doing my best to keep them clean and in one piece but he’s not making it easy (because when does he ever). Fingers crossed we can get through this without any complications.
In other news, I’ve been hired on to the team for the big Educational Three Day that’s happening down here in Ocala in the fall. I’ll talk more about it in another post (and I’m working on the website right now) but if anyone out there – a business owner or otherwise – is interested, what the event needs badly is sponsors. Lots of them. Opportunities start at $750 to sponsor an XC fence, and go up to $10k for the title sponsorship. The plan for this event is really cool – lots of educational opportunities for participants, the classic format competition, clinics, big name riders teaching… it’s a Whole Big Thing. It’s got to raise not an insignificant amount of money in the next 5 weeks in order to stay viable, so if you, your company, or anyone you know might be interesting in sponsoring, let me know and I can send the info packet!
I debated taking this week off from the blog since I’m busy wrapping up a couple projects, starting another, and we’re leaving for Stable View on Wednesday. But every time I disappear for too long people start to assume that I’m dead, and we wouldn’t want that. No worries, not dead.
hims super cute XC face, I cannot handle
Last Thursday we had a jump lesson, our last before we leave. I used the pelham again and Presto was still quite good in it. A couple times he thought he knew better than me (he’s probably right) but he does seem to like it. We’ll see which one we ultimately decide to SJ in at the show, but we’ve got options.
a rare hint of effort
He’s so funny in our lessons, because as soon as we get to Steph’s place he goes into lazy boy mode. At home he’s wild half the time, but there he knows he’s there to work, so he automatically decides he should preserve his energy as much as possible. He’s also convinced that if he follows Steph around she’ll save him from me making him work… he doesn’t realize she’s the source of all his required efforts.
help me, nice lady
Last Friday we finally made it down to the Ocala Oddities Market, which is a monthly market with local artists selling all kinds of just… weird shit. Dolls with crocodile heads? You got it. Skull lamps? You got it. Crystals? omg so many. There was just tons of stuff and I loved it. They also had a band playing emo hits, so like… you don’t have to keep selling me on the Oddities Market, man, I’m already sold.
It was really fun though, and I came home with a few things that were a steal of a deal. We’ll definitely be going back.
like this coffin bookcase, my monster box, a Poe magnet, a circular holographic oijia board for the wall, and a couple t-shirts
I also finally got around to changing up my stirrups. Some of you may remember that a couple years ago I painted them navy with holographic glitter. Since I’m no longer doing navy, it was time for a facelift.
old on the right, new on the left
My XC stuff is black with silver glitter, so that’s what I went with for the first pair. I sanded them a bit, washed them, did the black coat, and then many coats of silver glitter. I got some video of the steps so I can make a little tutorial, that’ll be on Patreon at some point.
For the other pair (I have two sets of FreeJumps, they were both navy with holo glitter before) I decided to change it up and do purple. I have a few hints of purple happening now, in my jump whip and with my purple coat, so… why not.
I did the base coat of purple and then put silver glitter on top, and it made a really pretty dusty lavender color. Which was great, but not the color I was going for. So I sanded it back down, did the base coat again, ordered purple glitter, and did that on the top instead. That kept the stirrup a darker, more true purple. I ended up doing a few good coats of purple glitter and two light sprays of the silver glitter.
The black ones went on my jump saddle… not sure yet how much I’ll use the purple ones or when, but they are definitely pretty. Pleasingly sparkly.
Yesterday we hauled over to Magnolia Sands to pop over a few XC fences before we leave. They normally have lots of skinnies/combos/water questions, and they had a few things this time, but not as much.
wheeee
We popped through a crater combo, some half coffins, a bank to skinny, and an up bank out of the water. This outing for us was mostly to see how the pelham worked for XC. I’m not 100% certain that I’ll have brakes if he truly decides to fuck right off, but he does lay on it less in the gallop stretches than he does the Myler. We’ll try it at Stable View and see.
I’m going to try to make time to go get some pics of the babies so I can have a Foal Friday post drafted and ready to go for this week, but no promises… depends on how much time I have amidst everything else. We’ll see what I can get done!
We already talked about how Andy is 100% named after the character Andy from the show Parks and Rec, because they’re basically the same personality. If you haven’t seen the show you should watch it… I don’t even like TV much but I did like that show. And if you haven’t seen it you won’t understand today’s reference, which is one of Andy’s alter egos: Johnny Karate.
Our own dear Andy sometimes shows off that side of himself, and perhaps never before as clearly as he did this week when he found a stick. The most magical, coolest ever stick. Or so he thought.
oooo what dis? I found stick!
He tried to pick it up, but um… ya know… he did so when his front feet were over top of it, because his foal proportions make it hard for him to reach all the way to the ground without sticking his feet way out in front.
As you can imagine, the physics of that didn’t work very well.
*thwack*
And that’s when the karate moves came out.
OW, IT BITTED ME
mean stick!
HI-YAH! KARATE CHOP!
Got dat mean stick
And then he high-tailed it away from the scene of the crime before Burt Macklin, FBI could show up and bust him.
they’ll never catch me!!!
Jokes, man. This kid has got some jokes. Remind you of another little colt from Foal Crops Past that we all know and love?
Alright, first thing’s first on this week’s update… people keep saying that I never mention Henry, even though I’ve talked about him on the last few updates. So we’re gonna start with him.
He is fat.
He is sassy.
He feels superior to all other equines.
He might be right
There’s not a whole lot more to say. He’s been hacking a few days a week, nothing major, but just keeping him in some kind of shape (a sphere, his shape is a sphere). I had his hind shoes pulled a couple weeks ago and he’s adjusted pretty well… there’s a little bit of chipping of the wall by the old nail holes, to be expected, but he’s not been footsore or anything like that. He spends most of his time either screaming at me to hurry up with his food, or eating. So ya know, there you have it. Full Henry update.
His “brother” on the other hand, has done his level best to give me an actual stroke.
he’s like “whoops my bad”
Last week he decided that out of his entiiiiiire pasture, the best place to lay down and roll was literally right next to the fence. Which he then got 3 legs stuck in. Luckily I was nearby and saw him, and even more luckily when he realized he was stuck he just laid there and waited for help rather than panicking. Still, do you know how hard it is to try to extract this giant monster horse from a fence? I quickly gave up on trying to get him out and just started pulling fence boards down with my bare hands like She-Ra. Once I got a some down he was able to wiggle his way out and managed to do it without getting so much as a scrape. Thank the gods.
You’d think he would have learned his lesson from that, right?
lols.
what the actual fuck, bro
A couple days later I came out to feed breakfast and find the fence like that. Clearly he did it AGAIN. But this time I wasn’t there to extract him, so he just demolished the fence. Yet again, somehow he’d managed to not hurt himself (Praise Be) but Jesus Effin Christ man.
For some reason he had decided that that spot was his new lounging area rather than the nice sand pit he’d dug near one corner (that was, blissfully, 10′ away from the fence). So I did what any sane person would do and switched Presto and Henry’s turnout. I don’t think Presto likes it as much over there but the sandy lounge pit feature is well away from the fence line therefore my anxiety level is marginally lower. Lord above. Why, horses? Why?
In less stress-inducing news, we had a jump lesson last week and tried a new bit. Presto has a tendency to lay on the Myler a little bit when he’s galloping and Trainer wanted to see what he thought about a short-shanked KK pelham with the world’s squishiest curb chain cover (the Equifit one). To my surprise he quite liked it. We jumped a course of showjumps and then went out to the back of the field and popped over the corner and wedge, then tested out the brakes by going for a gallop and bringing him back a few times. He was responsive and light but still seemed happy to go into my hand (which makes sense, his dressage bit is a KK). We’ll test it out a few more times to see if the trend continues.
I also started the process of getting myself and Presto’s FEI paperwork.
shoutout to FEI for changing their logo for Pride and giving all the bigots a stroke
I have always heard people complain about how annoying/frustrating/confusing the process is, and now I understand why. I think I made it 10 minutes before I quit in a fit of rage. With some help from Trainer I started to figure it out, but then realized that for some reason Presto’s microchip number never got recorded on his sBs papers/passport therefore it was never submitted to USEF either. I have not a clue what the number is. So we’re on hold until later this week when the vet will be out here anyway and can scan him and give me the number. Can’t wait to see what other fun road block pops up after that.
On a more serotonin-filled note, I made a ridiculous video of Rhett that somehow went viral in a way I was largely unprepared for. The comments are so wholesome though… worth it.
breedrideevent.com 