Exciting news guys! It went almost a week without raining!

Of course, as I type this it’s currently pouring outside. But ya know… it wasn’t swampy there for a minute. And a couple days the humidity even stayed below 60%. It was like a little mini-autumn preview. Short-lived, yes, but appreciated. And a reminder that this summer thing ain’t gonna last forever.

The other thing that signals an impending changing of the seasons: horse show entries. Starting with the schooling shows, knocking off the rust, but the first fall recognized officially opened for entries this week. It do be coming! I feel like August is always a surprise… at the beginning of August you’re like whew middle of summer, and then by the end of August you’re like omg only a month til OCTOBER. At least that’s how my brain works. It’s kind of a surprise every time. Also, AECs are next week. Like, what? Already? (we qualified at M again this year but I just don’t think I’ll ever be convinced to spend a week of my time and a lot of money to haul far away for a horse show in August)

We had another lesson this week with Ellie, which went well. She thinks Presto looks stronger every time she sees him. I do go home and work on all my homework (which she always gives me, it’s delightful to me) studiously every week, so progress is rewarding. He does feel good, albeit this week he decided to be a very distracted version of himself, staring off into the distance at literally anything that caught his eye. That typically means he’s gotten bored of what he’s doing. So sorry if I’m holding you back, my dude. Get used to it.

After the lesson we chatted about a rough plan for the fall and what it might look like. Granted, it’s a horse, so. Will it actually go to plan? Probably not. But I’ve got an entry in for the M/T division at the POP show next weekend, and then we’ll prob do an M CT at the Majestic schooling show a couple weeks after that. I’d really like Ellie or Alex to do some training rides on him a little bit, I always just feel like he learns so much from a good ride. After those two schooling shows we can look closer at what’s next and how we want to structure the recognized shows this fall.

In Rubes news, the bug situation has improved a bit since it’s been less swampy. He still takes violent exception to the gigantic horseflies that come out for a couple hours around dusk, so he’s been coming in after dinner, but he’s settled back into daytime turnout at least. The last couple days he’s been able to go sans fly sheet, but that’s kind of a day to day decision. Poor dude. Plopping a lifelong Northerner into Florida in the middle of summer really isn’t the best.

Henry has remained his trusty emotional support animal, although Henry has also gotten a bit less interested in him as time has gone on.

I did give up and put front shoes back on Henry this week. His feet just weren’t having it, I couldn’t turn him out at all without boots on, and the boots cause problems of their own with our coarse sand. It wasn’t improving after two cycles despite my best efforts, so… I quit. Back into shoes. Plus like, he really needs to be able to be ridden some, his topline is just entirely gone and it’s not doing him any favors in general. I don’t love my farrier bill that’s two full sets, one half set, and a trim every 5 weeks, but it is what it is. Horses are good at being expensive.

This weekend I’m gonna take Presto over for a gallop, since it’s really time to buckle down a bit more on his fitness if we’re really going back to this horse show bidness. Can’t wait to have a super fit Presto when that first cold front of the season finally hits (whenever that may be). Yee-freakin-haw.