Mmmmk I’m a little late on my weekly update post but how frickin cute is Rubes in his new custom halter from Dark Jewel Designs?

The noseband is silver and gray and blue crystals and it really adds a nice little touch of bling. I got the nameplate put on at Tack Shack, because I thought he needed to be officially official. 10/10 love it.

He thanked me by getting bitten/stung by something in his turnout, and having the most epic meltdown about it that could only be stopped with a healthy dose of dex. It took me a while to even figure out what the heck was going on, because at first it started out as frantic pacing that turned into wildly kicking and biting at himself. If I didn’t know him I would have probably thought he was colicking, but he’s had a few bug-related mini-tantrums similar to that before. There wasn’t a mark to be found on him at the time, but he seemed like he was about to jump out of his own skin. Nothing would settle him down until the dex, and then about an hour later this bad boy appeared.

Add it to the list of weird shit that happens to Rubes. My best guess is that during one of his morning naps/rolls (he goes for many between like 7am and 10am) he either rolled on or just got stung by something. This is Florida, it could have been a lot of things. He really reacted to it strongly though, whatever it was. It’s a little weird that it took so long for that giant bump to appear, and then it was totally gone by dinner time.

That was a fun little dramafest, but I did feel really bad for him. He’s already got a major aversion to bugs (even just flies) so for something to get him that good just seems mean. I’ve taken to turning him out in his fly sheet in the morning, no matter how hot it is, so at least he has something covering him when he’s doing all his napping and rolling, and then taking it off mid-late morning so he doesn’t entirely suffocate. Let’s hope he’s a little less high maintenance in the winter? (ha. hahaha. he’s a horse, so probably not.)

Not to be outdone, the next day Presto broke out of his stall in the middle of the night and wreaked absolute havoc in the broodmare barn. Trash can turned over, stuff everywhere, and he got into one of the grain bins. Want to see me have a menty b at 4:30am? That’s the way! I was absolutely terrified he was gonna colic or founder. He got banamine and a bit of starvation (he was SO MAD) and I stared at him like the creepiest helicopter parent all day long, but luckily he seems to have escaped that particular mayhem unscathed. After much sleuthing I think he only ate maximum 12lbs of grain, which is still entirely too much, but not as bad as it certainly could have been. His extra stall reinforcement methods have since been reinforced even more.

I debated not taking him to the POP show the next day at all, but since he seemed fine I figured we’d just go and take one phase at a time and see how it went. It was hot hot and our ride times were in the afternoon, so I decided before I even got on for dressage that he wasn’t gonna run the full XC, no matter what. I didn’t really want to risk overheating him or anything like that.

When I got on for dressage warmup there was a Gypsy Vanner in the ring with the most fabulous feathers that Presto could NOT stop staring at. It did occur to me in that moment that he’s never really seen a spectacularly hairy-legged horse before. It cantered at Presto at one point and Presto spooked big time. To be fair… it was a lot of fluffy flying feather. The rings were running a bit early so I just cut my warmup short and went in the ring, where he proceeded to try to stare at the Gypsy Vanner the entire time. He wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t our best work. A score of 32.5 is about what that test deserved.

After that I had a couple hours til SJ, which was just long and hot enough to regret all my life choices. If I didn’t really need the showjump practice I would have gone home, but… I do need it. Presto doesn’t really, but I do. He was set up in the shade with his bougie-ass battery powered fan and his full hay bag, so he had no complaints about the day. I on the other hand trudged up to the ring to try to watch some rounds, since I hadn’t been able to walk the course. These schooling shows go from the lower divisions to the higher divisions, and they hadn’t yet added all the jumps in that my course would have. I watched the rest of the lines though, just to get an idea for striding. The only one that wasn’t set up yet was the first line of my course, and I was like well… I’ll figure it out. Or I’ll just ask someone how many. Or I’ll just ride it and see what happens. I was too hot to care that much about it. Back to the trailer I went.

SJ ended up running behind, so we had to wait in the shade near the ring for a bit while that wrapped up. I was the first one to go in the Modified, so once the Training people started to dwindle I did an as-abbreviated-as-possible warmup. At this point for him that consists of trotting both ways, doing some haunches in and shoulder in, cantering both ways lengthening and shortening, and doing a lead change. It was maybe 5 minutes. Then I popped him over a smaller oxer, then a vertical, then a bigger oxer, then a bigger vertical. Good enough for me… into the ring we go.

I was happy with how the course went. We did have a rail at a square oxer, he ticked the front rail with a hind foot because I think I just let him get a taaaaaad strung out through the corner. It wasn’t a bad jump by any means though, so… just a bit of a cheap rail. The rest was good though, and I was really happy with how rideable he was. It was… boring, dare I say? We like boring jump rounds.

After that I decided to just throw his boots/my vest on and go jump the first few jumps of the XC, just to get him out of the box. I told the starter that I would pull up and retire after that. Presto felt totally fine, but it was just too hot to run him 5+ minutes around when I was still a little worried about his grain-indulgence the day before. Better safe than sorry.

All in all, it was a fairly unremarkable and boring show. Nothing great. Nothing terrible. Just knocking off some rust, which is exactly what these schooling shows are great for.

I’m not sure what will be next on the docket for him. We were supposed to have another lesson yesterday but on Wednesday he decided to rip a shoe off and took a wee bit too much wall with it, so even after putting the shoe back on yesterday morning he was a touch foot sore. Hopefully he’ll be better in a few days!

So much drama from these horses around here though, my goodness. If we could all just… tone it down for a bit… that would be great.