Well, y’all, when I asked to be put in a program, I got PUT in a PROGRAM. Last week Presto had a training ride and I had two lessons, plus our first recognized show since last April. It’s a little bit like drinking from a firehose, but not in a bad way, if that makes sense? Like yes please hit me with all the education, please and thank you.

Since we’ve got a lot of ground to cover in this post, I’ll try to keep it fairly succinct. Patreon folks, y’all have the (very) long, detailed version on your dashboard in the form of a Chores Chat and lots of video, but ain’t no way all of that is getting typed out here. So – a more summarized version of events, here we go!

Last week Presto had a training ride on Monday (dressage), which was superb. He seems to really like Ellie and her patient, quiet but very clear and direct style of riding works well for him. He looked fantastic, had a couple lightbulb moments, and carried it forward to my next ride. Presto has always been very good at retention, so good training rides have a particularly long-lasting impact on him. They are fantastic bang for the buck when it comes to his education.

On Wednesday we hopped around a few XC questions at their farm, probably more for my benefit than for his. I just wanted to do a little brush-up before the show, make sure I remember how to go forward and make sure that he was focused and remembered he’s an event horse. Which… he was NOT focused in the beginning at all, because their XC is at the top of a hill that he’s never crested before, so he found the views quite fascinating. That field backs up to the O’Connors place, which is huge and very interesting according to Presto. We had a drive-by at a brush skinny early on because he legit was staring off at something else, but that seemed to humble him enough to make him pay attention and he was really good after that. We did some turning questions and more skinnies to give him something a little bit harder, thus requiring more of his attention.

On Friday, the day before the show, I ran through my test real quick with Alex, he gave me a few little tweaks that were super helpful, and then we jumped around a small course. Ellie suggested we try jumping him the day before the show to check in with the rideability and re-enforce everything we’ve been working on with getting him deeper to the jumps, pushing off the ground, and making a good shape in the air. I haven’t tried that, I’ve always flatted him the day before as seems to be standard in our world, but I was open to seeing how it went. We didn’t do a whole lot, just enough to be a bit of a reminder for both of us, but he was jumping great. In the last month or so he’s really started to power off the ground and follow through with his jump much better behind. He’s starting to feel like a whole different animal… a grown up boy, if you will.

That takes us all the way to this past weekend, which was our first “real” show back since last spring. Thanks to my broken ankle and then his month-long abscess from hell, it’s literally been almost 8 months since we ran a Modified or a recognized, and in that time he only ran one other full XC course, Training at a schooling show. Mostly I wanted to use this show as a bit of a litmus test to see where we’re really at, heading into season. Was he gonna pull any of his spooky, spinny nonsense? Did I remember how to event? Did Modified look ginormous now? It was an information-gathering journey. I did not expect perfection, I just wanted to have a positive outing.

Originally the forecast had the polar front reaching all the way down to us, which thank the lawd didn’t happen. I would have died. But we did have a cold front blow through essentially during dressage, which made for some stiff 40-something degree breezes blowing right up the horse’s butts. There were some yeehaws happening all over the place. Presto, to his credit, kept himself together. Barely. Like… just baaaaaarely.

Ellie had me doing some rapid-fire trot/canter transitions in warmup to get Presto’s attention and get him in front of my leg. He was tense, for sure, and just waiting for something to happen, but trying to be obedient. When we got in the ring he was…. hmmm…. how to describe it… I guess “on the muscle” is a good description. The tension remained. He squealed for the first few strides of canter, and he made precision a little bit difficult.

There were no big issues, but it definitely was not our best work. Kind of a bummer because last week he’d really started to put some pieces together with the quality of his gaits, and I didn’t get to show that due to the tension. Horses gonna horse, though. We were riding in front of the judge that always likes him, and still managed a 31-something, so it was far from a tragedy. Just… not nearly what it could have been. Granted, it could have also been worse. Either way, whatever. Dressage done and dusted.

We had showjumping a couple hours later, so I walked the course and then sat and watched some of the Prelim go to see how the lines were riding. Aside from the combinations all of the related distances were quite far apart, which makes it a bit of a “choose your own adventure” in a way I never really love. Please give me fewer options, I don’t always make great decisions.

It didn’t help that pretty much every Prelim round that I watched did something differently. Some were good, some were not, but everything rode best if you just kept coming forward (what a surprise y’all) so in the end that was my plan. I met Ellie at warmup again, where she had me start by cantering the crossrail each way just like we start every jump lesson at home by cantering a cavaletti on a circle. The point is to get him into my outside rein, pushing from his inside hind, and staying balanced and rideable in a smaller canter before we really start jumping.

Then we jumped the bigger vertical a couple times, then a big oxer a couple times, and he was super. Like really jumping well. I was succeeding in finding the deeper distance that they’re wanting me to put him to, and he was using using his body in the air and following through with his jump behind.

He went in the ring and was actually quite professional. I commented to Ellie that I wanted to trot him in past the judge’s stand so he could see all the people/stuff/golf carts congregated there, and the gate person oh so kindly let me in early, before the rider ahead of me jumped the last line, so I could do just that. Fist bump to the gate person.

We went in and actually had a really great first 10 jumps. Unfortunately, there were 11 of them. Presto had been really rideable and jumping SUPER up to that point, and I actually managed to find my way to the deeper distances reliably well. The last jump, though… my bad. It was a single oxer on the short side, after a bending line liverpool down to a oxer-vertical two stride. That rode great. Really truly. All I had left to do was turn right and jump the single oxer.

Alas, he landed on the left lead and instead of being organized and taking a stride or two to set him up properly for the lead change before I turned, I just… pulled on the inside rein, which made Presto kinda mad so he did a little mini-prop, which caused me to lose my right stirrup. I knew only one thing in that moment: I didn’t have enough time to spend dicking around fishing for a stirrup right before the last jump. So I grabbed some mane, told Presto to take the wheel, and went to the jump with one stirrup. To his immense credit, he jumped it, despite the fact that we got there like a hot mess on a half stride. It weren’t cute. I was so close to jumping a really good clear round, y’all, so close. Alas, I dickered it good at the last jump and we added a rail to our score. Boo. I’m mad at myself, because he really was jumping great and I know better than to make a dumb mistake that. Live and learn, I suppose. Hopefully, anyway.

Either way, that brought us to the end of Saturday and the completion of the first two phases. I popped over to XC and walked the course with Alex (well… rode around it in his golf cart, which is why I don’t have course walk pics for you, but here’s a map) real quick before heading out. By that point it was getting colder so I was happy to get home before lunch time, turn Presto back out, and try to warm up a bit.

Granted, if I thought I was cold on Saturday, I was wrong. Sunday… that was cold. My ride time was at 9:44, and when I pulled Presto out at 8:15 it was like 34 degrees. That’s fine. Tooootally fine. I definitely have the clothes for that (spoiler alert, I do not have the clothes for that). Florida has not been Floridaing very well this winter, I gotta say.

Back when they were saying the polar front was gonna make it down here, I did order a little thermal mock turtleneck and some tights, and ended up wearing those under my show clothes. I kept my ski pants and puffer jacket on over top of everything until it was time to tack up, and it was almost tolerable. I couldn’t feel my hands or feet, but who needs those?

While I was frozen in the cold, Presto was, shall we say, invigorated.

Ok he was feral.

Like I think he was trotting above the ground for the first 5 minutes of warmup before he started to become part of the earth again. Once he seemed like he was checking in for duty we got to work moving his canter forward and back and making sure I could put his shoulders and haunches where I wanted them. I jumped a little house, then a bigger house, then the bigger house on an angle, then popped over the skinny brush wedge twice. He was definitely forward-thinking but seemed rideable enough, so I went over to the start box and away we went a few minutes later.

He was overall really good. We popped over the log box and one and then had a long stretch to the coop at 2. Alex said to spend the beginning making sure that he was focused on me, to keep constantly checking in and and moving his canter around to keep him focused. By 3 he had definitely clicked into XC mode, popping over a little house and then the trakehner at 4. On the way to 5 he did have a little small spook… there used to be a keyhole jump down there and I swear he was like “where the f did the keyhole go???” for a hot second before he put his brain back on his own task. The downside of a smart horse, he never forgets anything.

We jumped through the line in the trees, then came back up the hill to the MIM oxer (I told Alex that if he was gonna spook and spin anywhere, it would probably be up that hill where there are lots of unused fences in the treeline… Presto always thinks unused fences are demons.) and I very deliberately insisted that he gallop up into my hand and stay a bit rounder in his overall outline so that he couldn’t really pop his head up and look around too much. He sees things that don’t exist, ya know. He jumped the MIM oxer great, then we were back in the big field and over the step table, which brought us to the coffin.

Alex had said to whoa and rebalance before we turned, get lined up, and then put my leg on and keep coming forward up the hill into the coffin, land and ride positive over the ditch at B, move forward for the first two strides after landing, and jump the corner at C a little more towards the middle. I did exactly that (sometimes I can follow instructions) and Presto was actually taking enough initiative and powering forward on his own that it made the 5 ride a bit short. Better a bit short than a bit long there, though.

Then we had a little downhill combo with a barn to a roll with a drop landing, 90 degree right turn to a log. He was really bold there. Then it was across the field to the weldon’s wall, then over the book jump, and around to a rolltop before the water, an upbank out of the water (loathe entirely but it rode fine), to a skinnyish brush.

He thought about being a little sassy to the brush but once he realized he had work to do he got on with it.

Then it was back downhill over the palisade, down to the big brush table. Speaking of not brushing the brush… my friend was the TD and she said the brush on that one measured 1.25m. I can totally believe that, with how high I was in the air.

After that we had a quick turn back off the fenceline to some angled cabins, which he was exceptionally good about. I didn’t have the best line there and didn’t get him to the A very well, but he did his job and picked his way through it anyway. That’s my boy.

From there we just had two more jumps, both of which he popped over like no big deal. He was still very full of running when we crossed the finish, not breathing hard or sweating at all.

Granted, I was a bit slow and didn’t take the most economical turns, so we had 5 seconds of time. I ran without a watch because I mostly just wanted a good confident run and didn’t want to be distracted by time, so I didn’t much care about that. The time penalties dropped us from 4th to 7th.

I was super pleased with his XC, Presto felt confident and professional and honestly the course felt easy for him and nothing looked particularly huge or hard. I mean, it shouldn’t, it was an early season course at a level we’ve been at for almost two years, but after such a long break it was nice to put that one in the confidence bank and get a good start to season.

There’s some video here: https://www.instagram.com/breedrideevent/reel/DEvB7xYPgHw/#

Most of all I’m really starting to see noticeable improvement in both his jump and his gallop, which is what I care about most. His balance, his power, and his technique have all drastically improved in the past couple months and seeing the videos from this show really highlighted that. I’m happy with his progress and feel like we’re finally back on the right track!