I say this every July 4th and New Years, but I really hate the BoomBoom holidays. Fireworks should be illegal and I will die on that hill. Hate hate double hate loathe entirely. But we made it through yet another BoomBoom holiday relatively unscathed (did my walls vibrate until 4am from the LOUD AF music coming from two farms over that was accentuated with regular BOOMS that sounded like bombs? yes they did.) so I guess we’ll call that a win I guess.

I spent Saturday at WEC helping get the Luxe EQ trailer and cabin (yes we’ve got TWO things this year – a bigger mobile trailer plus a double size cabin that’s full of just Cavalleria Toscana) ready before the circuit starts this week. I dunno that I’m mentally ready for the next three months at WEC but I’m only working a few half days a week so it shouldn’t be too bad. The worst part for me is all the people and how annoying it is to try to park. This year we’re back behind the barns over on the road with all the saddle vendors though, rather than being stuck in the vendor village of cabins. I think it’ll be a lot better over there. Plus it’s right next to the hamburger place, Ralph’s, which is great because the only nearby food for the vendor village was the patisserie… there’s a limit to how many croissants one can consume for lunch.

On Sunday Presto and I headed over to Majestic Oaks for some jumper rounds. I was using this as kind of a litmus test to see how I felt about entering the January USEA show. Truth is, Presto really needs to get back to his job. I can get stuck in Training mode sometimes but he’s happier and better when he’s going and doing on a regular basis. I kind of completely lost track of how close we were to horse shows though and didn’t even go look at the omnibus until after closing date for Majestic. So I figured I’d go do a couple jumper rounds and see how I felt about it, and if all seemed good then I’d enter and pay the late fee. I loathe paying late fees, I get real mad at myself when I have to do that because of my own lack of planning.

But we loaded up on Sunday with the plan of doing a 3’3″ class and a 3’5″ class. They did time slots per height, so 3’3″ was supposed to go at noon and then 3’5″ at 12:30. I got there at 11:30 and they had just finished 2’3″, so uh… it was running a wee bit behind. I was floored at how many people were there, the entire giant parking field was looking almost as full as an event during season. Did not expect that for the end of December. I hope this is not a foreboding of what is to come.

They did their best to move people through the heights but there were just so many rounds in the under 3′ heights. I ended up not getting on til like 2:30. Luckily once we hit 3’3″ the place emptied out pretty quickly, so I was able to squeeze in for both of my rounds without too much more hurry-up-and-wait.

In warmup I just legit could not see a distance. And I don’t mean couldn’t find one, I mean legit just didn’t see shit. I’m not used to that. I might not always be able to make it happen to get to a good one, but I can almost always SEE where I am, at least 5 or 6 strides out. I kept coming out of the corner and just not seeing jack shit. It wasn’t pleasing me the most. Presto didn’t care, bless him, but I was annoyed.

As soon as we got in the ring it came back, thank goodness. I’m very glad I waited it out and stayed for my rounds because they were much-needed but also confidence-building. Not having gone out in public and jumped courses since the end of September, my brain is still clicking itself back into the groove. I didn’t put quite enough bend in the bending lines for the first course, and Presto was a wee bit excited to be there (see below Freak Flag exhibition)

but he was really good. Once they raised the jumps we went back in for the 3’5″ and smoothed it out a bit. Still wasn’t perfect, but I rode it better, and Presto felt really good. He loves his job, I don’t doubt that for one second. It’s also fun to feel how delightedly unimpressed he is at the height… it gives me confidence because I’m not as worried about making a mistake. If and when I do, he is truly non-plussed. Underneath all of his drama and fuckery he really is a kind and genuine dude.

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Also peep his lil lead change – we’ve been working on those! Left to right is pretty much 100%, right to left is harder and usually late behind, but it’s progress. I swear it’s harder for these big long horses.

So now we’re entered for the Majestic USEA in a week and a half… we’re def not at peak form but it’ll be a good opportunity to start to get back in the swing of things.

Mostly I can’t believe it’s 2024 already. Seems absurd, does it not?

My fancy new white board tells us that in the last 3.5 weeks of December (how long I’ve had it) I had two dressage lessons on Presto and two jump lessons, he went XC schooling 3 times., did one XC run at the POP show and then the Majestic jumper show. Argo had 12 rides (well one of those was groundwork, so 11 rides) and Henry had 7. I did quickly notice that in my effort to spread the horses around more, I wasn’t taking any days off of riding for myself, so we’ve rectified that. Rest days are important, my back and my knees are old. One rest day a week for me is the goal. Ideally I’d like to get 5 rides a week on Presto, 4 on Argo, and 3 on Henry, but we’ll see how well my schedule will allow for that over the next few months. I’m still figuring out how to juggle everything effectively, but the white board is helping a lot. I ordered some magnetic labels for her today so that I can more easily put shows and stuff on there. Look at me, being so organized(ish).