Month: February 2024

Getting creative now with our show recap post titles, because why not.

I have a lot to catch up on from the past week, but lets start with the horse show, yes? We ran a Training at a one-day schooling HT last Wednesday, in an attempt to knock the rust off and see how Presto is feeling now that he’s post-ulcer treatment. First off, my ride times were positively delectable – 9:30am dressage and 10:30 show jumping, followed by XC. I got there at 8:30 and left at 11:15. What an absolutely delightful morning.

Anyway. I noticed that the judge for my ring was someone that is kind of notorious for never saying anything particularly positive. I think her scores are always pretty fair (if a bit on the stingier side than some others) but I’ve ridden in front of her like 4-5 times and have yet to get a positive comment. Superb. Nothing like an early morning soul-crushing.

I got on to warm up and Presto was a wee bit wild. He really wanted to spook at something but we put him to work pretty quickly so that he had to focus on that instead. He stuck his tongue over the bit at the first part of our warmup – something he’s never done before – so that was a new one. We raised the bit a hole and he didn’t do it again but come on man, no new tricks. Overall he felt decent… he did kind of give me the feeling that if I really went for it in the canter lengthenings I might find myself seated on a kite, so the decision was made to just be conservative and aim for a relaxed obedient test.

And that’s pretty much what we did. I hadn’t ridden that test in like a year, and only ran through parts of it the day before, so part of me was like “boy I hope I remember this test” and the other part of me was like “boy I hope he keeps a lid on the fireworks”. So it was conservatively ridden, but mostly accurate, and he did everything I asked him to do with minimal fuss. I came out of the ring and me and Trainer both were just kinda like “yeah sure, not bad, could have been worse, wasn’t brilliant”. She figured it was high 20’s, I thought it might be around a 30 from that judge. But I guess she was feeling generous because we got a 26.4, with no score lower than 6.5, four 8’s, and a 10 (our first!) for the halt.

I mean there’s still not a single positive comment on there, but I’ll take it. Even the remarks on the back just said “some nice moments”. LOL. I had to laugh. Compliments just aren’t something that judge does, apparently. That’s my best score from her so far though. Either way it put us second in a decent-sized division of mostly pros and a few solid upper level horses. Gonna be honest, I do enjoy starting off near the top after the first phase. Thank you Presto for making the judges like you on the flat.

We had show jumping in pretty short order after that, and no time to really walk the course. We walked over and watched a few rounds just to learn the course, then I went back to the trailer, changed out my tack, had a snack, and soon enough it was time to head back over to showjumping warmup. We didn’t do much in there, just popped over a few jumps and headed over to the ring.

Presto jumped well, but I did not ride well. I was just disorganized and went a little fetal at one point. He had the rail at fence 2 (mostly because I think he was kind of staring off at XC and not paying much attention) and then I just… outright missed a couple times. It wasn’t my cutest effort. And it caught me a little off guard tbh because at this point cantering around a 1m course with him usually feels like something we can do in our sleep. I think I got a bit lackadaisical about it and needed a bit of a “hello, wake up, ride the horse ya dumbass”. I am out of practice y’all. I also realized later that I didn’t take time to visualize riding the course in my head, which I always do, and I think that was part of my issue. Luckily we’d had enough of a gap after dressage for the rail to only drop us from 2nd to 3rd.

Either way, that phase was done, and I went back past my trailer to put on his XC boots and my vest. Then it was over to XC warmup where we had to wait a bit for them to work through some people ahead of me, then we did some forward and back at the gallop, hopped a few jumps, and went to the start box.

The course was pretty straightforward, a fair Training I thought. I think the most complex part was the water – a rolltop with 5 straight or 6 bending strides to a drop into the water (if you rode the 5 straight you dropped down at a bit of an angle) and then turn right in the water and jump a kinda-skinnyish wedge out. The coffin was 2 strides to 2 strides, there was another downbank combo in the woods by the road, and a trakehner towards the end. Fairly standard for the level.

Presto tackled it with his standard vigor. Ok, perhaps there was too much vigor at the down bank to the water. I got him there on a little bit of a gap and rather than pat the ground (ain’t nobody got time for that, he says) he went COWABUNGAAAAA and leaped into the water like a deranged hippopotamus. Don’t worry, I bought the photo series. It’s iconic. Just me out here flying the newest airline, Air BongoBoi.

When we landed I was entirely on the buckle of my (very long) reins, and we were like almost in the middle of the water. It was a relatively absurd effort on his part, but he seemed most delighted. He definitely tested my rein-gathering skills as I had to quickly swing a right to head to the skinny.

Otherwise it was pretty uneventful. My eye needs to tune back in to the cross country pace and distance… it’s been too long since we last jumped at speed and I kept getting him a bit deep. He didn’t care but it sure annoyed the shit out of me. I’m kind of sad there’s no pic or video of him jumping the open oxer though, he galloped down to that one beautifully and really pinged off the ground there. To his credit, he feels great. Definitely my happy boy again.

We finished 14 seconds under time for a double clear, which moved us back up the leaderboard to take the win. I was admittedly disappointed in my own performance… I felt like I rode a bit crap, honestly. Presto gets the credit for that particular blue ribbon. But clearly he’s back to business, we confirmed that part. Now I need to get myself back up to par!

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First and foremost with the fun stuff: RRP announced acceptances for the 2024 Thoroughbred Makeover last week – Argo and I are officially “in”!.

Granted, I think pretty much everyone gets in. Still though, it’s the official beginning of the journey, so that part is fun and exciting. Of course, Argo got his SI injected last Tuesday and then had a few days off, then a light ride on Friday, then I was gone all day Saturday taking pics at FHP, then it rained buckets for 36 hours straight, so… he’s not done much in the past week. That’s fine though, having a little break here and there is good for them I think. Someone remind me I said that when I’m getting on three wild horses today. Patreon members, if you need your Argo fix you’ve got his latest training vlog up on your dashboard.

Henry has also had some time off, because he was quite certain he broke his whole leg. In reality he got some deep scrapes on the outside of a hind pastern (my guess is maybe he got his foot stuck in the fence when he was rolling or something) and – being the absolute stoic boy that he is – was incredibly lame. It was fairly dramatic and pathetic. But he’s had a week off too, letting those close up and heal. We’ll see how he’s feeling today.

But those two taking some time off meant that, for the first time in a long time, I was down to just one horse to ride for most of the past week (and this, friends, is also why it’s totally justifiable to own several horses).

The highlight of Presto’s week was getting to go to jumper rounds on Wednesday. Here in Ocala there’s a Jumper Rounds series hosted by some eventing barns from January through April. They rotate through which farm is hosting (there are three hosts this year) – one each week – and they have set heights at set times on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. You show up during your height’s time slot, you jump a round or two, you pay by the round, and then you load up and go home. It’s probably my favorite thing about season. Yet somehow, despite going to several Jumper Rounds days last year, we never made it to Overlook Farm. Last year we seemed to mostly hit Will Coleman’s and Clayton Frederick’s (that’s just how it worked out timing wise) but this year so far we’ve only been to two, and both at new to us places – the failed one at KEP where we never made it out of warmup because of Ulcer Boy, and now this one at Sara Kozumplik’s.

Originally we were planning on going over to Majestic that day for their jumper rounds (there were three schooling jumper shows on the same day within 20 minutes… bless Ocala) but last time we went there they ended up running almost 3 hours behind. Awesome for them because they had so many entries, but we didn’t really want to risk that happening again because we all had other stuff to do that day. The weekly Jumper Rounds series at the eventing barns are more lightly attended, and we all seem more efficient at getting ourselves to the gate/in the ring more quickly than the shows where a lot of h/j people are there. No shade. I think we all just want to go home.

The plan was to just pop Presto around a 1m class and see how he was, since this was our first time back in a show environment since ulcer treatment. I had an entirely different horse than I did at the last attempt. He unloaded chill and remained chill the entire time. No spooking, no antics, just my normal boy. Well ok he did spook a little bit in the ring at the GIANT potted plants at one end, but it was fairly minor and honestly he’s right, they’re creepy. I rolled in around 1pm and was rolling back out again before 2pm. Chef’s kiss. Really pleased with how he was in the brand new environment, it was a good litmus test for making sure he’s back to feeling like himself again.

On Saturday I headed out to Florida Horse Park to take pics and video of some sale horses for a client. Naturally Florida decided to cry all weekend – and when I say all weekend I mean ALL WEEKEND. It started raining around 5am on Saturday and didn’t stop until the wee hours of Monday morning. Everything is incredibly saturated at the moment. Saturday wasn’t too bad, mostly misty rain in the morning and then got heavier as the day went on. I managed to get some pictures without my camera getting too wet, including some of friends and their horses since I was standing there with a camera anyway.

That was my first time taking riding pics with that camera, I just got it about a month ago. The timing is different from the camera I was using before, so I’m gonna have to hone that in a little bit.

This was also the first recognized show where FHP required pinney numbers in all three phases. I know a few people whined about it (including some pros that I found incredibly disappointing in their comments), and sure it does detract a bit from your pretty outfit or whatever, BUT. I gotta say, at a show running over 600 horses through on a minimum number of volunteers, being able to actually see people’s numbers all the time seems like a big quality of life improvement. No yelling across the warmup, no frantically squinting at bridle numbers trying to find someone or figure out who they are. And on more than one occasion while standing next to warmup I heard someone call out “Heads up number ____” and prevented more than one potential crash. It might be annoying to wear a pinney for all three phases but I’m 100% certain that 1) if the UK can do it, so can we. 2) if it improves the experience for staff and volunteers, lets do it 3) if it helps make the warmup ring a little safer, that’s an added bonus.

Plus, like… think of it as a reason to get yourself a fancy new pinney or two to coordinate with your jackets. I was glad to see everyone comply and that the whining was largely kept to a minimum (and mostly limited to male professionals… go figure).

Anyway… dismounting from that particular soap box.

Yesterday I spent scheduling some social media posts for clients this week, updating websites, editing show photos, and putting together the breeding data for the Grand Prix of Eventing in Aiken in a couple weeks. Basically I was trying to get a little bit ahead of the game, because this week’s schedule is nuts. Tomorrow I’ve got the YEH symposium in the morning and a lesson in the afternoon and possibly a farm visit from a supplement company. Wednesday is the schooling HT at Majestic. Thursday the farrier will be here, I’ve got to get the dressage arena set up, and then I’m working at WEC, and then on Friday Peter Gray is coming for lessons! Oh and then XC schooling on Saturday. I feel like I’m forgetting something but god I hope not.

I hope everyone else has a good (or at least warm and dry) week wherever you are!

Y’all, I continue to believe that Gastrogard is a miracle in a tube. A really really overly expensive little tube, but ya know. At least it works?

Last Friday Presto went for his first XC school post-ulcer treatment. He was quiet, calm, well-behaved, and didn’t so much as blink or hesitate at anything. There were no shenanigans. There was no tomfoolery. He did snort pretty hard at the big blue ramp when we trotted past it in warmup (we’ve jumped that thing before, bro) but otherwise like… extremely low on Fuckery.

We hopped over some warmup jumps, and he was definitely forward-thinking and go-ey, but not being rude. I pointed him at the ditches and as soon as he locked on, he took me right to them. We popped over the small one, then the medium one, then the big one… no shits given. I just basically grabbed mane. He jumped the medium one on an angle, and then we came through the Novice half coffin and the Training coffin. Still – he took me right through, if anything he was more on the side of overly enthusiastic. Didn’t even so much as peek. Absolutely no sign of the hesitation or spookiness he was having pre-treatment.

Then we went to the smaller banks, were he proceeded to be quite professional about hopping up and down them all. Again, very ho-hum, in all the best ways. After that we headed to the water, and again he was like yes obviously I know how to do all of this I am SEASONED. He finished with a little course jumping over the roll into the water, coming around and hopping down the bigger drop into water, and then going back through to jump the rolltop in the water, then cantering out and down the bigger banks on the side of the hill. It was like… perhaps the most boring XC school we’ve had maybe ever.

It was really really encouraging, mostly. It’s like an entirely different horse. I feel like I have my super happy XC boy back. I chatted with my trainer about a plan, and entered him in the Training division for the schooling HT next week. I think it’ll be a good ease back into showing, let him feel really good about himself hopping around there, and hopefully come away ready to continue where we left off. He’s got another week and a half of gastrogard and sucralfate and then we’ll re-scope to see where we’re at and what we do next with regards to the ulcers.

Argo had a chiropractic/acupuncture appointment last week and the vet ended up working on him for quite a while. He’s kind of a funny horse to work on because he’s just so sedate and even-keel that you don’t get a lot of reaction from him, or if you do get one it might be a little delayed. It takes some times to figure out his “tells” in the bodywork. Smooth brain and all that. So she took her time poking and prodding and adjusting her way around, looking for specific problem areas as we talked about him.

She spent a lot of time around his SI, and went straight to that area first with the acupuncture needles. SI pain/wear-and-tear is so common for racehorses, and he does have a little bit of that trademark lack of muscle tone over his loin/slight hunters bump that can indicate SI issues.

She told me to let her know how he felt the next day when I rode him. My main takeaways were that 1) he went in front of my leg more quickly and stayed there without as much effort. He’s a kick ride kind of guy, but I wasn’t having to try so hard. He seemed more comfortable using his booty and moving forward in general. 2) He wasn’t landing as toe-first as he was before, and he tripped zero times. Like zero. It was a marked difference. Stumbling or being a bit stabby can also be signs of SI issues. Our conclusions were that yes, we were probably on the right track by focusing on the SI as the origin of a lot of his tightness.

So my next question to her was: do we continue to try to build up the area over time with exercises, adjust his shoeing, do more frequent body work and acupuncture, etc, or do we go ahead and inject it first in an attempt to provide immediate relief and then work on building it up correctly. She basically said that depends on what I want to do, but if it was hers she’d probably just cut to the chase and inject it, since it’s likely been a source of discomfort for him for quite a while. I agreed – I’d rather go a little bit more invasive/aggressive when trying to fix something that clearly isn’t new, in the hope that he’ll feel more comfortable sooner. So she came out this morning and injected his SI. We’ll see if it makes a difference for him, fingers crossed!

I did pop him around his first little course on Sunday, just 3 single verticals, maybe 18″. He was very ho-hum about it and even did a lead change when I asked. Super good dude.

Let’s see, what else… OH – guess who’s birthday it is?

Henry is 17 today, can you even freakin believe it? I mean, he doesn’t really act it, but… seventeen. He’s just as sassy as he was at 7, don’t worry about that part. He got some birthday cupcakes earlier – no ride today because he scraped his hind pastern yesterday and was quite convinced the whole limb might have to be amputated (he’s not gotten any more stoic through the years). Good job weaseling out of that one, old man.

It’s Tuesday and we meet again. I’m in a hurry today, what a surprise, so let’s get on with the updates.

It was a fairly productive week as far as the horses went… everybody got to go on a field trip! On Tuesday I took Presto over to Sweet Dixie to gallop, thinking it would be calmer there than at some of my other options. I failed to remember that they were running their weekday jumper shows, plus lots of seasonals are there, and it was absolutely COVERED with people. But, ya know… I was already there, so may as well get on with it. The jumper warmup and jumper ring were really crowded, there were two dressage lessons happening over in the dressage courts, and a few groups were out schooling XC. It was a lot.

Presto got a little bit excited about it, but for the most part he was quite civilized. Another clue that we’re on the right track with the ulcer treatment, I think. We did our trot, then our gallop sets, and at the end I trotted him through one of the waters and decided to see how he felt about the ditches. I fully intended to just let him walk up and investigate and then pop over, but as soon as he locked on to the ditch he picked up a trot and hopped happily over it. I turned him around and pointed him at the bigger one and same thing: he took me right across. Good boy.

On Thursday we had a jump lesson, which is where he got to debut the above BootsWithTheFurrrrr.

Side note for those boots: I got them mostly because after his trailer-leaping incident at Stable View Presto now has a scar right along the edge of where open front boots sit. I didn’t really want full furrr ones, because they’re a bitch to keep clean, and I found these QHP ones that just have the furrr around the edges. I like it way better. Plus they come in lots of colors… these purple ones are a near perfect match to my purple Calverro show coat. I’m gonna order some in black to keep for schooling so the purple ones don’t get beat up. (pro tip: you can use code presto for 10% off at Royal Equine… that’s where Argo’s teal brushing boots came from too!)

Anyway, back to the lesson part. We kept it really simple this week, as in we just jumped a vertical back and forth off both leads over and over, raising it as we went. It was nice to get to focus on nitpicky perfection with the rhythm, straightness, and tuning my eye back in a bit. I swear we jumped that thing what felt like 75 times and I managed to find a good one all but twice (both times I tried too hard to micromanage and got there deep and weak). Plus like… the jump ended up not small and I took away two things: 1) height does not deter me on this horse. Nothing really looks that big. 2) he’s still not having to try that hard. Just pinging right over like whatever.

Argie boy is back to work now that he got his shoe back on too (he went full on “my footie is broken” despite having a boot on during the two days that shoe was missing, hims is not the most stoic). We’ve been working more on poles and the quality of his transitions, especially from trot to canter and canter to trot.

It’s interesting having one that raced for as long as he did… all the ones I’ve had before raced for maybe just a year or two max. Having one stay in that job until they’re almost 8, it definitely does things to their musculature that is going to take a bit more time to undo. The strongest parts of his body are his shoulders and the bottom of his neck, which are not things we really want to be using now. He’s used his body in a very different way for his entire life up to this point, and I’m asking him to do something wildly different. He always tries to do what I’m asking, but with some things I have to be happy with 20% or 50% because he’s just not physically capable yet. As long as he tries, we can work with that. It’ll come, it’s just a matter of time and diligence. He’s really been wanting to stretch a lot lately at the trot though, so I’m taking that as a good sign! He tries hard to do the “right” thing most of the time.

On Saturday I took him to Majestic to XC school for the first time… Holly rode Henry (she jumped BN and N stuff, it was adorbs) and Hillary brought Tilly, her younger OTTB. Tilly is a pretty unflappable type, and that perfect stage of 4 years old where they’re still super agreeable and malleable and think everything is fun. I kind of had a feeling that Majestic might blow Argie’s mind a little bit, just because it’s so vast and so open and so busy. To be fair to him, he handled it a lot better than I thought. He got nervous and antsy a few times (mostly when large groups of horses appeared and then disappeared) but every time I asked him to get to work, he did. Like many Thoroughbreds, the best way to deal with anxiety is to keep him occupied. We flatted a bit, went through the water (he loves water), popped up and down some little banks, and finished by cantering a log.

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In other news, we swapped turnouts around a bit, and Henry and Tilly are now pasturemates. He can be a little weird with friends (he’s one of those that either gets murdered or does murders, there’s not a lot of in between) but he seems to get along best with mares. Tilly has zero alpha bones in her body, so it’s mostly like we gave Henry his own baby. So far they’re very good and handling it well, fingers crossed that continues.

We wrapped up January with 15 rides for Argo, 11 for Henry, and 23 for Presto. Two lessons (both jumping) and no shows (except the jumper show where I realized Presto probably had ulcers and aborted the mission in the warmup). Two vet visits (one gastroscopy, one vaccinations/coggins), one visit from the dentist (for Argo) and two visits from the farrier. Thanks white board for keeping track of everything for the recap. Kind of obsessed with that thing now.