July 2024 – Page 2

I sat here for several minutes trying to think of a good opening line for this post and literally the only thing my decrepit brain spat out was “what up party people”. I’ll do us all a favor and not use that. Now that I write for a living I seem to use every crumb of creativity for that and have nothing but plastic wrappers left over by the time I make it here.

Maybe let’s start off with a Lottie pic instead.

That’s better, yes?

But also kind of teaser for nothing, because I don’t have a lot of updates on Lottie. She’s still on her post-track vacay, and I just bring her in to groom her and hand graze and explore. She might tell you she’s having her Best Summer Ever.

With last week’s update I told y’all about my first lesson with Ellie O’Neal, and Presto and I have our second one with her today, a jump lesson this time. I really hope I don’t die, we haven’t really jumped since International, like 2.5 months ago. What could possibly go wrong. I’m ready to rip off the bandaid though so we can start getting back in the groove and gain some momentum again. I feel like all I do is tread water.

Speaking of, I started swimming again! I joined the local (ok, local-ish since I do live in the middle of nowhere) Gold’s Gym last week and did my first swim over the weekend. I love love love swimming and used to swim a lot, but haven’t in like… 10 years? When I quit triathlon and went hard back into the horse thing, I stopped swimming. Lately I was really feeling like I missed it though, and it’s my favorite way to stay in shape, so hopefully I can keep it up. My goal is 3 swims a week. We’ll see what happens. More fitness never hurts?

I’ve also been riding this dude.

This is Wally, a thoroughbred owned by my friend Emily. She’s out of town for a couple weeks and asked me to ride him while she’s gone. He’s got major Henry vibes and is kind of like riding a younger, sportier Henry. He’s a super cool dude and more saddle time is always a good thing, even though if given the choice I think Wally would have just preferred a vacation.

In other news, last week I officially signed on to be a FLAIR ambassador! I love FLAIR strips and have been using them since the Henry days, so I definitely jumped at this opportunity. We have to attend webinars about how they work and all the details behind them, which I’m weirdly really looking forward to. Nerd stuff about nerd horse things that I like… twist my arm why don’t you?

Anyway, if you are also a FLAIR strip lover, I do have a coupon code with them now: you can shop their online website and use code AmandaFLAIR10 for a discount on everything except custom strips. I ordered a few packs (white and blue, the purple is backordered for another month or so, sadly) so Presto is stocked up and ready to roll whenever the hell we actually get back to showing. If you’ve never used FLAIR strips but are curious, I do have a (very) few samples… would prefer to not have to ship them so if you’re in the Ocala area and want to give one a try, let me know. Or if you write me a really convincing email maybe I could be persuaded to go to the post office. Really convincing. Lay it on thick. I hate the post office.

Also it’s fourth of July week, one of my least favorite holidays. Maybe my least favorite. I dunno, it’s neck and neck with New Years because of the whole fireworks situation. BoomBoom holidays. UGH. I hate fireworks even more than I hate the post office. Loathe entirely. I’ve got a plan for the horses but it will be a lot of me wandering around the farm for most of the night checking on everyone and getting angrier by the boom. The rednecks sure do love to blow shit up. I hate it.

I suppose one perk of the holiday is that Riding Warehouse is running their Bargain Bin sale again. Is that actually a perk? I dunno, up for interpretation (my wallet is in the background screaming “dear god no”). Those bargain bins always get me somehow. I have yet to sit down and rifle through it, because 1) I need the proper time to dedicate to the quest, 2) I know the fate that awaits me. Someone go dig around and tell me what I need.