Things are definitely starting to crank up around here with season right around the corner. I am equal parts excited about it, because there’s just so much to do here between January and April, but also dreading it because the population of Ocala just explodes, traffic is worse, schooling venues are way more congested/busy, etc. Pros and cons of winter season in eventing mecca.

I started putting together an excel sheet of all the shows between January and April and it’s just kind of mindblowing. I still haven’t put in any of the actual h/j circuit shows (just the various jumper schooling rounds shows) or hunter paces or anything like that and it’s already up to 58 things. It will soon beginneth.

Now that Presto is back in full swing it feels like we’re ramping up, too. Last week we got another jump lesson, another dressage lesson, an XC school, and ran a XC round at a schooling show.

Mostly things feel rusty. Maybe me moreso than him. I hadn’t jumped a full course in months and… it kinda felt like it. I get annoyed and frustrated with myself but the truth is that this stuff is really hard to maintain at “peak” if you aren’t consistently and constantly practicing it. Presto was really good though, and he’s jumping with more power off the ground, which is nice to feel.

Our dressage lesson was all about the lateral work. The last lesson was very canter-centric but this one was all trotting, and all shoulder-in, haunches-in, leg yield, and being able to go quickly and correctly between the three. His leg yields at Modified level have gotten quite solid but at Prelim they come up quicker and are steeper, so we’re upping the ante on those. Shoulder-in I feel like we’ve usually got pretty solid… sometimes he gets a little stuck in the base of his neck but it’s gotten fairly easy.

Haunches-in has been more of a struggle. At first for him, because he is naturally kind of a wide-behind, weaker-behind type of horse, and he never quite gives 100% effort. Now he’s definitely getting it, and it’s getting much easier for him, but I do have a bit of a hard time feeling it on him. Henry was such a compact horse that you could feel every part of him quite easily. Presto is so long and so big and things take much less of a full body effort from him that feeling subtle differences with his hind end are much more difficult. So me having someone on the ground to say “yes that’s it” is helping me log that feeling in my memory as being the correct one. As with all programming though, it’s a process.

We’ll talk about all the XC stuff from last week in another post, this one is getting long already.

In other adventures, Argo got his feet done by my farrier for the second time.

He’s really insistent that he only grows toe, but we’re slowly but surely getting those angles up so he can have a chance to grow some heel. It’ll take some time. He does have quite good hoof quality though and has done totally fine being barefoot behind. No excess wear, no tenderness.

Argo also got a visit from the bodyworker again and she said he felt much better than when she did him a few weeks ago. I’ve been maintaining a good stretching routine with him both on the ground and undersaddle, and his body is beginning to lose some of that tightness. Again it won’t be overnight, considering he spent 5 years racing his way into the tightness, but I’m pleased with any kind of consistent progress. I only rode him a few times last week but he’s continued to show incremental improvement from ride to ride. A bit more supple and a bit more forward and a bit more straight. He’s been hacking a lot too, because I’d really like to get him out foxhunting at some point this season so we’re starting to take the steps to get him ready for that.

@breed.ride.event

Argo is the best boy 💙 #ottb #thoroughbred #exracehorse #ottbsoftiktok #ottblove #equestrianlife #horseriding

♬ original sound – @.homa_best

Last week Strax also got to spend his first couple days working as a tack shop dog. He thinks it’s kind of boring, but he went along with it. He’s looking great post-neuter and says he’d prefer a job with a little more action, please. He also isn’t sure why he got yelled at for barking at every kid that rode by on a scooter.

I had a new article hit EN last week, if you haven’t seen it here’s a link. It’s about blood percentage in the event horse and why the traditional way of calculating it (via pedigree) is potentially wildly inaccurate. I’ve actually had a fun time writing this series of articles in conjunction with Etalon… one more article to go (I’ve got the interview for that one on Friday).

Speaking of Etalon, our Patreon group had a private Q&A webinar with the founder last week too! It was the first time we’ve done anything quite like that but I thought it went really well. It was educational and fun and everyone had really good questions. If you weren’t able to attend live, the replay is on your Patreon dashboard. I’m gonna look at other potential Q&A/webinar type opportunities so if anyone has suggestions or desired topics, let me know!