Whoooooopsy, last week got away from me and I only half-drafted this post. Now it’s Sunday and there’s a horse show to recap, but I gotta post this one first to get everyone caught up!

Lesseeeee, where do I even begin? First and foremost – Presto had a birthday. He’s officially an 8 year old now, which is bonkers. That’s like… a real horse. Not a baby horse. A full-fledged, card-carrying adult boy. Naturally, I got him his favorite thing to celebrate: treats and a new giant ball.

Since I last wrote, I think he’s had a couple training rides and I’ve had a few lessons. Ellie flatted him last week and jumped him last weekend (on his birthday!) and then I had a couple dressage lessons and took him to some schooling jumper rounds. The dressage lessons have been focused on practicing the Prelim B test, particularly this part:

I mentioned this series in my last post, which is when we first started working on it. We continued to hammer away at it, working on the timing and positioning and nailing down the accuracy. In the Prelim B test you do that series both directions, so it ends up being a large majority of the test, and it’s a more challenging series of movements than he’s had to do yet. Honestly though, he put it together pretty quickly, and with repetition just got better and better. With Henry I had to be careful not to do the same thing over and over because he would start to anticipate so much, but with Presto he tends to relax into the repetition and is easier to ride him when he knows what to expect.

I had gone home and played with it a bit in between lessons, and mentioned to Ellie that I thought it went better/more fluidly when I sat the trotting parts vs posting, and asked her thoughts. She said that she actually thought I should sit the whole test. Like the whole thing. Like all of it.

I have not spent a ton of time sitting this horse’s trot yet. Up until recently his life’s work has been to go forward and prevent him from getting tight across his back and behind the saddle, so it’s just not been of much focus. And well… he’s a much bigger mover (and much bigger in general) than any other horse I’ve had. I can sit Henry all day long. Presto has been physically more difficult, and I really just haven’t devoted a lot of time to trying. But ya know… that lesson was the day I guess, and she had me sit the whole thing. Even the lengthenings. I was dying, y’all. Thank GOD I’ve been swimming and working a lot on my core, but even then my abs were literally crying by the end. I might have to add some yoga in to my workout days. And like… actually start sitting the trot on this horse for real. The times where it really clicked in and I was sitting into him he had the best feeling, like 3/4 of him was out and up in front of me and he was so incredibly light and rideable. So ya know, add it to the list of things for me to work on.

At the end of that lesson she mentioned that she wasn’t gonna be able to make the scheduled 2pm time for the 1.10m jumper rounds the next day, and proposed that we do the 1.15m at 8am instead.

Heh. “It’s just another hole higher”. HEH. Yeah sure that’s totally fine. This is fine. Why wouldn’t it be? Noooo worrrrieesss hereeeee. I was like ok let’s give it a go but if we get there and it looks huge I’m making you jump him around first (listen, sometimes I am not as brave as y’all seem to think I am). She just kind of chuckled and agreed and said we would be fine. I was not convinced.

And then we got there and jumped around and guess what it was fine. It IS only a hole higher, and they had it set where honestly I think only like half the jumps were truly 1.15m anyway, so it looked pretty friendly and within our wheelhouse.

I made a mistake down the outside bending line in the first round, trying to add where I really just needed to put my leg on, but we came back around and fixed it. Presto was jumping really really well. He’s just really next-leveled himself lately. I was particularly pleased with how rideable he was. If I wanted to add one more, he did so without complaint (even if it wasn’t the best choice) and when I closed my leg, he went forward. He was straight, he was balanced, he was making a good shape in the air, and he was just genuinely a super good boy.

We did two rounds and neither one was perfect, but the second was better than the first, and I went home pleased with our first 1.15m attempt. Mostly because it really didn’t look that big or intimidating, and I didn’t feel like I did the over-defensive riding that I tend to fall into when I’m worried about something. We’re trusting each other more over the bigger stuff as our confidence increases, so it’s clicking and feeling like a more polished team effort.

Which is good, because SPOILER ALERT he was entered in the Prelim at Majestic for the weekend. Anyway, like I said, show recaps coming soon, but not today. (what a tease)

In related newsworthy, er… news… when I whined about washing my white breeches, my friend Lisa (everrythingishard on Instagram) told me to try Dawn Powerwash.

She swore that all you had to do was spray this stuff on and then throw them in the wash. No scrubbing or soaking or extra steps required. That sounded like my kind of washing, because I freaking HATE feeling like I’m out there in the crick with my washboard and my bar soap like it’s 1850. If I have to suffer through late stage capitalism at least give me my modern-day perks, please. I’m a one-step and into the washing machine kind of girl.

Anyway, long story short: she was right. I just sprayed it on really well and chunked these bad boys straight in the washing machine. It didn’t get EVERY SINGLE stain out, but it got the overwhelming majority for sure. Especially considering one of those pairs was still dirty from like… January. Because I waited until all my whites were dirty before I washed any of them. Ya know, as one does.

Now that I don’t have to use actual effort, I can (theoretically) actually wash my whites in a timely manner rather than months later. We shall all rejoice.

Not much else has been going on besides the usual. I did team up with EN for the first in their adult ammy “day in the life” vlog series, wrapped up (mostly anyway) retail season, teched for my vet at a PPE (more side hustles are always welcome), and wasted entirely too much of my life in a Ticketmaster queue for Sleep Token tickets only to find out that floor or pit tickets for the Orlando show STARTED AT $700 and proceeded to laugh my way right on out of that daydream. Which is too bad because I really did want to see Sleep Token (please don’t ask me how many times I’ve played Emergence in the week and a half it’s been released) but good lord.

I also owe y’all a WTW baby update, which will be coming… soonish. After the horse show recaps. I also need to write reviews for a couple things, particularly the Gatusos boots and the Magnawave. Preferences for which things should be first in the queue?