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.

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.

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.

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.

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!