I do. Me. The answer is me. Ya girl out here feeling like a piece of stale beef jerky today. Why, might you ask? Because I finally – finally – had a lesson yesterday! Granted, I have zero media from said lesson so here’s a pic of Presto staring at the wall, contemplating life, after doing about a million walk-canter and canter-walk transitions the other day.

It was our first lesson at the O’Neal’s, we started off with just a flat lesson with Ellie. Presto spent the first 20 minutes gawking at himself in the mirrors “WHO IS THAT STUNNING ANIMAL” or spooking at the mirrors “WHY IS IT FOLLOWING ME” and trying to decide whether or not the very tall hedge at the end of the ring was harboring dragons (aka birds). But we did get some decent work done in there, even if I legit felt like I was gonna pass out by the end. I never remember that hydration thing until like halfway through summer.

Anyway, we’re on the schedule to go back next week to jump, which I already warned her would probably be a little exciting, considering he’s jumped like… once in the past 2.5 months. Yeehaw.

In other news, I rode Henry last week for the first time since he got his shoes pulled. Nothing fancy, just a hack around the neighborhood. Considering he’s been wearing front shoes for over a decade, the transition hasn’t been too bad. He’s obviously a little tender on the firmer ground, like asphalt, but pretty good in the grass.

He did almost straight up murder me when some donkeys ran up towards us as we were walking past another farm. He couldn’t decide which direction to spook in, so he just kind of chose all of them. After that he powerwalked home, which I’m 99% sure is because he thought he was funny.

That seemed to unlock Henry’s cheeky side again, because he’s been playing jokes on me ever since. First he took off his fly mask and threw it over the far side of the fence. Then he shat direction on top of the ledge between his stall and his turnout, after I’d told him to stop using his stall as a toilet and go shit outside. And then he did this.

Not only did he shit in the water bucket, he also sat on it and broke it. He’s on a roll.

Which, I asked in a poll on my Instagram stories which horse everyone thought had done the bucket poop, and most people said Presto. Poor AngelBaby, unfairly accused.

Presto is actually by far the neatest stall horse on the farm. He has one shit corner in his pasture and one shit corner in his stall. He pees before he comes in. He’s been spending the afternoons inside because of the heat, and he knows he’s going back out after dinner, so he’ll literally hold his pee until he goes back out. He might break a bucket (and has indeed broken many) but he would never shit in it first. That type of move is pure Henry.

We’ve got one more mare to do a pregnancy check on and then next-week-ish I’ll be able to post an announcement on who’s expecting what in 2025! We should hopefully have plenty of Foal Friday fodder for a while next year.