Well this week really just snuck right on by me didn’t it. Time is a slippery concept for me it seems… I really had every intention of posting on Wednesday but lol whoops. This is just my life in perpetuum at this point, is it not?

Now I gotta go all the way back to last week in my brain, which was nigh impossible, so I had to scroll through the pictures on my phone instead to remember what the hell even happened.

First and foremost, my dearest smooth brained Argie boy was genuinely naughty for the first time ever. I loaded him up alone and took him over to Trainer’s place to ride, and in retrospect I think I took his generally chill demeanor a bit too much for granted with that one. He tried to be good, but it’s a busy barn with lots going on, and as several horses started coming and going from the ring and the field, he got upset and nappy. If there’s one ding against him it’s that he does naturally want to be a bit nappy, something he’s gotten way better about at home. But I think taking him somewhere different and adding a bunch of horses doing different things all over the place into the mix was a bit much for him at this point.

He had a few explosions of protest, and we worked through it, but that field trip did give me plenty of stuff to continue to work on and reminded me that although he is an absolute Dude, he’s still a horse that has spent his entire almost-8-years only knowing one type of life… it might take him a minute to understand the new rules and realities of this one. I think he just got genuinely worried and overwhelmed. That was my fault.

I took Argo back over there yesterday on the ground and we walked around/grazed/did some groundwork while other horses worked and hacked and came and went. He was much better and more relaxed, so we’ll just keep working on it incrementally until he understands.

Presto has also been on some adventures… last week he went to Sweet Dixie to gallop (and yeehaw, he was a-gallopin’) and this week he went XC schooling again. Florida Horse Park had a free open schooling day, so like… you don’t gotta tempt me with a free good time. Sarah came with me on Henry and both of the boys got to pop around some fun things.

I popped Presto over all the ditches and he was super good about all of them. Wild, and throwing in plenty of random spooks and airs-above-the-ground, but ya know… good when he actually had something in front of him to do. This is kind of classic Presto, when he gets a bit bored or overconfident he starts to make up “fun” things to spice up his life, which are generally only fun for him. He feels really good right now and he’s not doing enough (in his opinion) to make his brain feel engaged. I jumped him through the water combos and then finished with the full coffin, and that FINALLY got him to quit fucking around a bit. Absolute dingus. He needs to go to a horse show so he can get himself together.

Henry was a beast and seemed to be having the time of his life… that horse and his cross country, man. He got to jump a few harder Training combos with Sarah and he was like YES FINALLY I KEEP TELLING YOU GUYS. He literally strutted back to the trailer like the king that he is.

I think those are the most important things that have been happening. Hillary is visiting family so it’s just me holding down the fort here. Freya has been getting worked a bit while she’s gone so that Hillary doesn’t come home to a wild OTTB. Mostly I’m feverishly working on pedigree reports because we sold a bunch in the last couple weeks and I’m trying to make some good headway on them before my next project starts.

Oh – update on the velcro wall. First, it’s still bomb. Second, I have expanded it to my trailer. I used the loop side of the velcro for the crossties, so I still had the full length of corresponding hook side leftover from my roll (a bunch of people have asked me what velcro I got – it’s this stuff). It’s the super heavy duty adhesive so it sticks really well even here in humid Florida. I put a strip up along one wall inside my trailer and then another strip above the door. It’s amazing how much shit you realize you can stick to velcro once you start.

Hopefully this will help me keep my trailer a bit more organized at shows though. One can dream.

The only other semi-interesting thing I can think of that happened was meeting this super cool dude when we went to a local training center to look at a mare for Trainer.

This is Nobals, winner of the 2023 Breeders Cup Turf Sprint. He spends his winters in Ocala in between racing seasons, and he is just the most delightful little animal. He’s won lots of stakes races and $1.5million dollars so far in his career. Super cute and friendly, even if his name is a bit unfortunate (he does indeed have no balls). It was fun to get a tour of the training center and get to see all the horses… there were definitely one or two I’d take home, Nobals being top of the list.

I’ve got a couple more adventures planned for this week, trying to fit in as much as I can before season starts and life becomes completely out of control again. I hope everyone had a good holiday and is getting to enjoy a little bit of a break!