As you probably figured out from the Foal Friday post, we weathered the hurricane just fine. It ticked a little more west than originally predicted, which worked in our favor here in Ocala, so we just had about 8 hours of wind and on again/off again rain. We had a few small branches down but otherwise that was it… didn’t lose power or anything. Very lucky, thank goodness, it ended up being a real non-event for us, which I will never complain about.

On Friday Presto had another training ride. I originally asked her to ride him a little bit because I felt like he was REALLY REALLY CLOSE to having some big a-ha moments but I just couldn’t quite be clear enough or have good enough timing with my aids to help him get it. This was her third time on him in the past few weeks, with each ride being very short and to the point – as soon as he shows signs of understanding, we stop, so I don’t think a single ride has been longer than 20 minutes. Presto is SO smart and tries really hard to figure out what you want, and he retains it really really well… Trainer and I both think that he genuinely likes to learn.

On Friday the skies absolutely opened up on them right when she got on though, and generally he is not a fan of getting rained on. He wasn’t the most please but he trucked right on through it anyway, and gave her some really good work. He’s getting so much stronger. And I can get on the next time and replicate the majority of what she showed him, so I think this was definitely the right move for where he’s at at the moment. Trainer rides for the win, it helps the horses so much.

On Saturday we came back over to her place, this time for grid day. There’s always some element of gymnastic work in her courses (bounces especially) but it’s been a real hot minute since we had just an actual grid day. Like… December I think. Feeling the difference in him through the grid now vs what he felt like then was a huge difference. In December he was still kind of having to think and work a lot through the bounce elements and I had to really help him keep the energy and power through the grid line.

This time he really took me through it with his own energy and I played more of a supporting role. He has a lot more power.

After we were done she had me get off and go stand by the oxer so I could get a full eyeball of how big it was, so that I wouldn’t be thinking anything on our courses looks that big. It’s a good tactic, because jumps in lessons always look small from on top of Presto… the perspective gets skewed. Props to the kiddo, he’s really been showing up and trying hard in all of our work lately. I do think he quite enjoys his job, even when it’s hard.

I also managed to watch Burghley cross country on Saturday, which is always a highlight for me. Burghley is my favorite event of the year, and it was extra fun this year since Mason was attending for the first time. As self-appointed President of the Mama’s Magic Way fan club, I was delighted to watch him hop around there like it was easy. What a cool freakin horse.

Also I feel like we gotta give props to Derek di Grazia for his course design there. Burghley has an reputation for making horses hit the ground, and I feel like it was truly awful to watch when CMP was designing. SO many scary horse falls. This year only one horse fell and it was not the fault of the course or the design at all, so it seemed refreshing. There were a lot of 20’s and missed flags,, and a few riders popping off here and there, which is as it should be at 5* level, IMO, but there was no mass carnage. I also liked that they pulled up TWO riders for blood near the end of the course, eliminating one and letting the other one restart after a vet had a look. Those are the right calls. XC still managed to be incredibly influential to the competition, but we didn’t have to watch a bunch of falling horses. They got Burghley right this year, I think.

On Sunday Hillary and I were braiding and grooming for the local KWPN inspection, which was… a day. A couple 3yo stallions who had never been off the farm, some foals (two of which really wanted to murder us), and some others to bathe and braid and groom. My cuticles are destroyed and I’ve got a foal hoof-shaped bruise on my shin, but we survived. I actually really like grooming, just not so much braiding.

Today is a Presto gallop day and then I’ve got an interview this afternoon, and tomorrow I’m off to Orlando for the Bad Omens concert! Busy week around here.