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!