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).