Gosh you guys. Can we talk about this horse for minute? I am wrapped around his little hoofie.

Now that we’re almost two weeks into his official re-training, I’m loving him more and more. He’s got every quality that makes so many people love Thoroughbreds: he’s intelligent, forward-thinking, willing to work, and has a strong desire to please. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live the first 10 years of your life knowing only one job, one place, one set of rules, one way of doing things, and then suddenly be dropped into an entirely different world. Top to bottom, nothing is the same. I have to give him so much credit for handling it the way he has.

It’s just so cool what these horses can do and how they show up every day wanting to learn how to do whatever it is you’re asking. I bought him hoping he could be an ambassador to the breed, and to the older warhorse in particular, and so far Rubes is exactly that. Granted, he is also a little quirky, but we wouldn’t expect anything less from a horse I love, would we?

Oh, and… he’s hopped over a few little jumps now and omg. He is the cutest.

Ok to be fair he’s jumped twice, maybe 12 cross rails total between both sessions, and after the first one of the day he literally just trots over them like a glorified cavaletti. He’s not that impressed.

But he seems to like and understand the game. We do a lot of poles (so many poles) and he’s really starting to figure out his footwork. Single poles, poles on an angle, skinny poles, raised walk poles, and sets of trot poles. He’s got the 3 trot poles pretty much down pat so the next step will be 5 poles, and then after that we’ll do a set of 5 where 3 of them are raised. We’re working hard on strengthening that hind end and developing the muscles he’ll need so that he can push his body up rather than pull it forward.

Again, we’re taking 10 years of biomechanics and suddenly trying to change it. That’s not a quick and easy feat, and it’ll take time for his body to lay down the different muscling. But brick by brick we do the daily work, and he’s been very willing to figure it out.

Michelle was here earlier this week and was kind enough to snap these photos for me on Tuesday morning when I rode him. He’s definitely a photogenic kind of guy (we all found that out from his first Riding Warehouse x LeMieux photo shoot, did we not?) and looks really at home in his new sporthorse job.

He also is really glad to be back in consistent work. One thing about him is that he thrives on a routine, and he wants/expects to come out and do something every day. Right now I’m aiming for about 5 rides a week, trying to give him the downtime to make sure all his newly-found muscles have some R&R, but also doing enough with him that he feels satisfied mentally. He’s figured out that I ride him after I ride Presto, so he always comes into his stall and waits for me when he sees me bring Presto back out. And if I don’t get Rubes out next, sometimes he gets big mad and has a gallopy little tantrum around his turnout. It’s not the worst problem to have, a horse that wants to come to work so badly, but thoughts and prayers for his shoes every time he does that.

On the Presto side of things, we’ve had a couple jump lessons since I checked in last week. It was cold AF last week (for me, the Floridian who excels at being warm and sticky)… I dunno how you northern people do this for months on end. It was 40 degrees and I couldn’t feel my toes like all damn day. Granted, I have a closet full of clothes meant to keep you cool and very very few items that are meant to keep you warm.

Either way, Presto was jumping great. Granted, he did finally come up and close and personal with the barn’s pig that day, and spent most of his lesson trying to crane his head around to look for it.

Presto really is terrified of that moving boulder. He knew rocks shouldn’t be trusted and this just proves him right (I fear we may never go past a rock without spooking again). Special shoutout to Kathleen tho for getting pics of him and the horribly scary pig (as we both laughed hysterically at all the snorting).

Either way, Presto eventually was able to focus enough to be good for the lesson. Today’s on the other hand… lord. We ended up moving my lesson time forward because a line of storms was set to blow in ahead of a cold front (*cries in why-tho-it’s-finally-75-again*) and Presto was one big spook machine the entire time. It was windy and sprinkly and ominous looking, and he came off the trailer looking for the pig, found the pig, spooked at it, and proceeded to spook at every leaf, bush, jump filler, chair, pole, etc that crossed his path. Do love trying to lesson on this animal as a cold front blows in.

Which isn’t to say that he was bad. He was actually quite good at all the jumps. In between was a little bit of a rodeo, but ya know. Ellie ended up making the exercise harder in an effort to get him to focus, and that worked. That’s the tactic that always works with him… gotta make it hard enough to where he actually has to pay attention. The trials and tribulations of a wicked smart horse with way more ability than his job actually requires.

Last but not least, I hope everyone had a very happy Wrapped Day last week. What a fantastic holiday, even if Spotify did disappoint greatly with a half-ass Wrapped this year. Still, it’s a fun time of unity across the land.

Patreon folks, if you haven’t checked your dashboard lately you have lesson video from last week and a full album of Rubes pics plus a Hack Yak waiting for you! It seems like a lot of people’s notifications are going to spam folders now so make sure you’re checking for new content.