Month: August 2023

Well, we’re kicking it off early this year with hurricane season… Idalia is on her way!

Originally it was projected to go right over top of us, but the last few tracks have all wobbled it a bit to the west. We’re out of the cone now, although we’re gonna be on the side of the storm with the worse wind, rain, and tornado threat.

I spent the past couple days getting everything as prepped and ready as possible, so now we just wait and see how it goes. Tomorrow will be nasty! Hopefully we don’t lose power for any extended period of time, that’s my biggest concern.

I’ll log back in with an update as soon as I can once it passes, just wanted to check in and let you know to expect a bit of radio silence!

While we don’t have any foals coming in 2024 (rather than rushing to breed everyone late, we opted to just wait and start early next year instead), what we do have is a very exciting new addition that will hopefully be contributing to many future Foal Fridays in 2025. Welcome Headleys Chatterbox!

Bred in the UK by Headley Stud, she’s by the 1.60m showjumping stallion Clinton. In addition to being an incredibly good producer, Clinton competed at the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 and finished second in both the Grand Prix and the Nations Cup at CHIO Aachen.

Gossip’s dam, Salsa, was originally from Portugal and evented through the 4* level in the UK.

Gossip herself was competed in the UK by Tiana Coudray, who rode her all the way up through 3* level. She was said to be kind and genuine and loves to jump… which all makes sense given her pedigree!

Gossip arrived here from Wellington this week and has been very smart and even-tempered. She’s settling into the mare herd (although she seems relatively horrified to find herself living the outside lifestyle again… pretty sure she thinks someone has forgotten to bring her in from turnout) and slowly but surely making friends in the group.

One thing is for certain: she’s absolutely stunning. I’m not really into gray but it’s not possible for a good horse to be a bad color, and she’s proof of that. What an absolute looker she is.

We’ll spend the rest of the year getting to know her a bit and debating stallions for her, then she’ll be bred in the spring. Really looking forward to seeing what this one can produce!

My strategy of stalling long enough on this recap for the media to arrive did work, although there’s not as much good media as I was hoping for. Beggars can’t be choosers? Better some than none? Whatever. Let’s discuss Presto’s latest event.

I’m putting all of it into one post because it just didn’t seem like enough to stretch into two. Partly because the XC was mostly the same (womp womp) as the June show so I didn’t bother taking pics of the course. And also because this show was just a little boring and I don’ t have a tremendous amount to say. Well ok, I have plenty to say. But it’ll all fit into one, yes?

First and foremost: it was HOT. REALLY HOT. Florida was drunk off it’s ass last week, trying to impersonate Texas. Hate. Double Hate. Loathe entirely. Especially because our dressage time was at 11:22 and our stadium time was at 1:30. Did not love that for us.

Knowing that

1) the weather was a sack of sweaty dog shit

2) this show was really meant to knock off the rust of the summer vacation, not come out swinging for a win

I kept dressage warmup as minimal and short as possible, not wanting to get Presto too hot or worn out. Unsurprisingly, our test was unremarkable. We had one big bobble in the first canter where I lost his hind end and murdered both a transition and the whole first half of the lengthening, so that one mistake had a big impact on mulitple scores. I also was a little late in a down transition and definitely mrrrrphhheeed some geometry in the second canter (I think my brain was literally sizzling by that point). Presto was a good boy actually, there were just a lot of points left on the table via silly mistakes. We got a 36, which I think might be our worst score yet, but I wasn’t mad… it was just one of those things. You win some you lose some. It seemed to be a bit of a struggle bus day for everyone though, since we were still sitting 3rd after the first phase.

After that we retreated back to the trailer to cool down and rehydrate. Florida Horse Park was AMAZING to allow parking in the covered arena due to the weather, and we had gotten there early enough to snag a great spot on the end. Plenty of shade, but also a nice breeze. It was an actual lifesaver for those of us working out of our trailers.

After a bath and a bucket of water Presto got to hang out in the shade and eat hay for a while until it was time to get on for SJ. I waited to get on until 15mins before my ride time… he doesn’t need a lot of warmup and it was literally baking out there by that point. Presto handles the heat really well, but still, better safe than sorry.

He warmed up quite professionally actually (he hasn’t waved his arms in the air in SJ warmup like a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tubeman in a good while, knock on wood) and we hopped over a few oxers. The lady who was supposed to go first was having some problems, so I offered to go ahead of her and snuck my way right on in there to lead off the division. Fresh ring and getting done sooner? Count me in.

Presto was again really good – he’s just matured so much this year. He’s being pretty rideable, and he’s always looking for the next jump. We started out with a single oxer, then around to a 6 stride line, vertical to oxer. Then around to a vertical-to-vertical one stride with a bending line to an oxer on the end. I saw a bit of a big one to the oxer and Presto, bless him so much, was like YESSSS MAAAAM, YEEEEHAAAWWWWW.

Then we had a liverpool to oxer bending line up the middle… I let him drift a little too wide here which ended up putting us down the line at more like 8 3/4 instead of 8, but lord he patted the ground at the oxer and jumped up and around it like the best kind of freak. Smart kid. After that we just had the two stride on the outside and we were done… blissfully short course to match the weather (thank you oh merciful SJ gods). Our clear round kept us in 3rd! I swear he’s jumping better the bigger they get.

On Sunday my XC time was right before noon (again, UGH) but it wasn’t quite as stiflingly hot. Still hot, but not as scorch-your-brain-cells hot. When we got there someone had just come off in the Prelim division and it resulted in a decently long hold, so everything got shifted back about 25 minutes. That was fine, it gave Presto more time to hang out under the shade of the tree that we’d found to park under.

Again we kept warmup as short and simple as possible. He was FEELING HIMSELF though, he knew what phase was left and he was very happy to be back to the runny jompies. He literally started leaping and squealing like a dolphin when we were galloping to the right, which made both me and my trainer die laughing. He was delighted to be there.

I think we hopped over a total of like 4 jumps (we usually do a little one, a bigger one, a skinny, and then something on an angle), made sure I could open and collect the gallop and turn some circles, and then we went to wait in the shade. You gotta love Ocala, I was after Karl Slezak and before Jon Holling… I like seeing their nice young horses!

As mentioned earlier, this course was very similar to the June show. The only differences were:

• 6ab, the coop moved to the rim of the crater and the skinny brush was 4 strides after it.
• 8ab, the table in was the same but we had a corner 5 strides to the right (on a pretty decent angle)
• 11ab, the rolltop moved from the edge of the water to IN the water
• 15ab, the b was skinny barrels to the left out of the water

Otherwise is was pretty identical. I was kind of bummed, honestly. I was hoping for something different from what he’d already seen, and more technical. I feel like this course was fairly soft. Served the purpose for knocking the rust off though, especially since he hadn’t run any XC in 2.5 months.

And really… he just loped around the course. Was not impressed, was not deterred, I pointed him at things and he jumped them. Bing, bang, boom. I got him to a couple tight spots but he gave the least of shits and jumped them great anyway, which honestly gives me a lot of confidence in him. He’s really figuring it out, and learning how to use his body properly to still jump safe even when things don’t go right. That’s a really important part of his education.

I was particularly pleased with how he jumped through the first water – that was the highlight of the course for me.

Earlier in the spring he took a bit of a minute trying to figure out jumps in the water, but I sure do think he’s got it now! That’s the boldest he’s jumped anything in the water yet, and he didn’t leap into the edge of the water (that’s the second show in a row now where he’s not done it… maybe he’s learning?).

I just coasted around, so we added a couple seconds of time to our score, but it didn’t end up mattering, we still finished third.

While he felt overall unchallenged and unimpressed, those are probably good things at this point. Modified doesn’t look big anymore to either of us, and he’s figured out that he needs to be quick about looking for the next one, so he’s not surprised by anything he’s seeing anymore at this point. Consider the rust knocked off!

Which is good, because we’ve got a penciled in plan for the fall season that will start off with a trip back to Stable View, and hopefully this time we’ll actually get to compete (no jumping out of trailers, Presto).

Those of you in the Patreon group already know this, but a couple weeks ago Bobby lost his long-time partner and super OTTB, Halo.

If you’ve been reader here from the early days, you probably remember Halo featuring pretty prominently in Henry’s early days of eventing. Back then Bobby and I boarded at the same barn outside of Austin, rode with the same trainer, and Halo was kind of Henry’s “big brother” who showed him the ropes of this event horse stuff.

Here’s what Bobby had to say about Halo and what he meant to him, in his words:

Halo’s sweet soul is the reason I started riding competitively again – I was in a very bad car accident and while recovering, I knew I wanted to ride again. When I was mostly healed, I began my search, fortunately I didn’t have to look far. He got me back into eventing and brought us up through levels I’d never thought I’d do again… because I loved him and trusted him with my whole heart and knew trusted and loved me and that he would take care of me – and that he did, so many times. Halo went on to win the National Eventing Championships in 2015. Halo developed navicular in his later years so I switched him to dressage, as an OTTB, he needs a job. And he LOVED his job. Jenna said it best, I picture him like a school kid skipping off to school with lunch box in hand so excited to go to work. Halo, although not bred or made for dressage, proceeded to take us to the US Dressage Finals our first year – we were not competitive but we had the most special time. Anyone who’s met Halo knows what a special kind sweet gentle soul he is. Further shown by the friends that came to be here with him in his final moments. Halo left this earth literally surrounded by love, my friends, I will never have the words to express what your actions today meant to me. After 16 years together, it’s going to be really hard to picture it without you, Halo. The memories, the joy and the tears, you’ve left a hole in quite a few people’s hearts, but I know you are running around above me pneumonia free and begging for treats from the angels. RIP my sweet my boy, my first heart horse, my first best friend.

When I heard that Halo passed away, I was devastated for Bobby. Although he’s got another heart horse now in his boy Carlson, the first one always holds a special place. There are parallels to our stories in the Halo/Henry capacity, so I can really empathize with what he’s going through.

With a loss like this I knew I wanted to do something to memorialize Halo, but all the usual things just didn’t seem quite right. Either it didn’t fit THEM, or it just wasn’t enough to full encapsulate all that horse was and did for so many people. When I thought about Halo and what he really meant to Bobby, the thing that stuck out to me most was opportunity. That horse took him to his first AEC’s and his first US Dressage Finals. He showed Bobby what it’s like to have dreams come true, and then be able to build even bigger ones in their place.

So, I had an idea: The Halo Project.

What I’d like to do is crowdfund an annual scholarship fund called The Halo Project that gives X amount of money (however much we get, which I think could be a pretty decent chunk) to a rider on an OTTB to go toward the costs of participation at US Dressage Finals, AECs, or TIP Championships. Riders would apply with a short essay and photo, and Bobby/The Board would pick who the money goes to. It would be a way to honor Halo’s memory and the remarkable impact he had on Bobby’s life, while “paying it forward” to help give someone else the same experience.

In talking to my accountant friend, she suggested to try to partner with an existing 501c to do this, to make everything easier and more “above board” with the gub’ment. Plus it would be mutually beneficial, using our platforms to help bring attention the partnering charity. The reach is potentially pretty big, I think.

What I need from you guys is help finding a good match for who to partner with on this. A couple of charities have expressed interest but none have followed up, and I’m hot to trot. We’ve got people waiting to give money to the cause, and we’re ready to rock and roll and get this off the ground. I’d really prefer it to be an OTTB-centric charity since that makes the most sense with what we’re doing. Suggestions and connections strongly appreciated!

I’ve got a show recap to write but I’m stalling in hopes that photos or video will be posted so I have some media. In the meantime there’s still plenty to talk about, including my most adorable little ball of fluff and his first week here with us.

First of all, I love him so much. Like obsessed. I mean look at him.

But aside from just being cute, so far Strax has also been a really good puppy. He would prefer to go to the bathroom outside, and has had zero accidents on my watch (has had a few on SO’s watch tho, because he doesn’t pay quite as close attention to the signals that Strax has to go out). Granted, he’s murdering my sleep patterns because he wants to go out once or twice in the middle of the night and I’m a terrible sleeper anyway, but that’s alright. Worth it. I can sleep later.

He’s a pretty social little guy too, he loves to play with Hillary’s papillon puppy Max, and has even managed to win Mina over. I figured she would tolerate him fine, she’s a pretty submissive dog, but I didn’t think she’d really LOVE him because she’s mega attached and clingy to me.

It did take a few days, but now she plays with him, looks after him, and seems to have adopted him. Strax is Mina’s puppy now. It’s really cute.

It’s also working out well for his training, because he mimics what she does. He’s already mastered “sit” and is about 80% there about coming when you call his name and whistle. The other 20% is the selective hearing he has when he’s found a particularly good stick.

He’s scared of the horses, which I’m totally happy with. He’s a herding breed after all, and I’d really like for him to keep a healthy dose of fear when it comes to them. For now I keep him away from them as much as possible until he’s a little more trained with the recall and aware of his surroundings.

Overall though, he’s a sweet and playful and happy guy, and relatively chill for a puppy. He does love his naps, and true to his breed, he is EXTREMELY food motivated. I can work with that. So far so good!