Month: April 2025

So. I guess I owe you guys an update. 😅 I swore I’d done one on here like a week and a half ago but scrolling has proven that to be false. I post stuff on Patreon or our fb group and then my brain checks the box and I forget to ever mention it on the regular blog entirely. This is what one would call a Whoopsy on my part. Anyway, let’s catch up (once again). This is gonna have to be a bit of an abridged version, because it’s been like 3 weeks and ain’t nobody got time for that.

First and foremost, all of my horse-baby making juice has arrived! I ordered a dose of Cashmere frozen a few months ago and then a dose of Nice de Prissey in Spy Coast’s Valentine’s Day sale (bc duh what else would you buy for Valentine’s Day). Cashmere is the Plan A for this year, but if we’re unsuccessful with that I felt like Nice de Prissey is a solid back-up choice. I’ve officially got both doses in our tank here at the farm now, so as soon as the mare is ready to go (probably still a few more weeks), we’ve got the swim team lined up and ready for duty.

We’ve bred a few mares already so far this year (four? I think we’ve bred four?) but only one is far enough along for her black dot check yet. And, drumroll please…

We’re off to a good start, with Fey officially in foal to Future Guilty Pleasure (that one will be for sale!). We’ve got more to check this week and next, and a lot more still left to breed, so keep your fingers crossed and send us some good “black dot” juju.

In also-exciting news, look who has decided he’d like to rejoin the roster.

I’ve been struggling with some on/off foot lameness with him basically all winter but knock on wood he seems to be feeling better now. Just in time for the hot weather that he doesn’t really tolerate. Way to go, Henny. He seems delighted to be back to some kind of work though, probably because it means he gets more cookies. I’d love it if he’d stay sound enough for me to ride him at least a few times a week so I can work on more of the flatwork stuff that I also work on in my lessons with Presto. I need polish and finesse, y’all.

There’s also Rubes, who is coming along nicely on the flat and will start jumping a little bit soon. He went on another off property adventure and was a little bit better than last time, but he really struggles to keep a lid on it when he thinks something fun is happening. I’m not yet convinced that eventing will be for him, but we’ll keep plugging away at the off property adventures and see how that evolves.

At home he’s been really fantastic and his flat work is coming along nicely. He’s nailed down the leg yield, is getting pretty good at the stretchy trot, and can do some shoulder in. He tries super hard but it’ll take time to keep building the strength.

As far as Presto goes, he continues to sail along in his program.

We keep asking for more and making the jumping stuff more technical, as we push the limits of both his and my comfort zones. Most of the time it goes great. Sometimes one or both of us make a mistake. Such is the way of life when you do hard things, and everything about this sport is hard.

I’ve been feeling a bit stuck and frustrated as far as my own progress compared to Presto’s… I can see why well-funded amateurs competing at the mid to upper levels tend to have multiple competition horses. How the actual eff do you get to be super proficient at this when you only have one horse doing that kind of stuff? It’s so difficult to keep the skill level up to where it needs to be to compete at that level when you’re jumping like once a week and cross country schooling once a month. I feel like this is the real limiting factor to most amateurs, much more than talent or desire. Saddle time spent working on particular skills is a hard thing to come by. I need to win the lottery. Or even just find like… 40k sitting on my doorstep, no strings attached. Or a second semi-talented, already-going-at-some-level horse standing in the paddock with a bow on it. All scenarios seem equally likely.

My nihilistic brain really wants to fall into a spiral about it because I’m 42 this year and feel like my window for actually being good at any of this is passing me by. I have to try to redirect those thoughts. I’m so delighted to be doing any of this at any level, much less in a place like this and on a horse this nice. Like, what an absolute fuckin dream. Still tho… who doesn’t want to be better at what they devote 100% of their life to? It’s natural, I think. One can be incredibly grateful for what they’ve made and still dream of more. It’s what keeps us working as hard as we do and sacrificing as much as we do.

Last week we went XC schooling, intending to just pop through a few things ahead of Ocala International. The timing wasn’t ideal, but it was what we could make work. And what was initially going to be an easy day ended up being a bit of a hard one, when first I was struggle-bussing really bad (SIGH) and then he was having a hard time understanding a line of extremely angled shoulder brush skinnies and we had to break the exercise apart and then put it back together. Either way, I ended up being on him for a while.

The ground was hard, it was hot, we jumped more than we wanted… just not ideal prep for a horse show two days later. I packed his feet and magnawaved him and he had a day off before the show, but he just didn’t feel as good and fresh as he normally does. He was a little behind my leg and holding tension behind the saddle in dressage, and it resulted in several mistakes and just not his normal standard of work. In showjumping I spent the first half of the course struggling to get him up and out in front of me at all and then I felt like he wasn’t leaving the ground with his normal power. He jumped clear, but it wasn’t like… a great-feeling clear, if that makes sense?

We had cross country the next day and he was feeling much more his normal self, for sure. He’d perked back up, and we decided to just put my dressage bit on (rather than the beval bit) and see if that encouraged him to keep coming into my hand a bit more. It did, and he was being really fantastic, but I picked my way down to nothing and absolutely BURIED him at a huge table and Presto rightfully was like “mom I don’t think I can safely jump from that” and put on the brakes. He was right, if he’d tried to jump it he would have absolutely had to climb over it in a way that would not have been great. 100% my fault.

After that I got him back out in front of my leg, remembered how to ride forward, and the rest of the course was fantastic. It was a big legit Prelim and all the hard stuff felt easy, so I was really happy with him. There were a lot of problems at the combos and he sailed right through them. Just kicking myself for making such a stupid mistake at what is really a “gimme” fence. The frustration ‘(with myself) is real.

It wasn’t the best show by any means but we definitely learned some things (mostly what not to do) so… onward and upward. This is really the extent of the recap you’re gonna get because I don’t have a lot of media, mostly because I was also Press Officer for the show which left my schedule very busy. I don’t even have course walk pics because I just zoomed around it once on a bike. I did end up buying the full XC video but I don’t have it yet.

The extent of the video I have so far:

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Anyway, yeah… last week was BONKERS. On Wednesday I got a FEI course preview from the course designer (benefits of being the press!) and he talked me through all the combinations and had me walk a few of them. That was really fun.

Then Michelle and I popped over to the OBS sale so that our breeding season intern could experience it. I feel like if there’s a thoroughbred sale happening when you’re in Ocala, it’s a must-see, must-do type of thing.

That night I went with a bunch of the show officials to drag bingo at a restaurant in downtown Ocala, and I’m still trying to unpack all of that. It was a really fun time, but wowza, I dunno that I was prepared.

The next morning was the show for me (the prelim HT ran Thurs-Fri) and Kerri my favorite groom met me out there earlier in the morning to braid Presto for me. I don’t want a single person to ever give me shit for not braiding my own horse, because let me tell you what a luxury this was after decades of always doing it myself. I have a janky finger that never healed right after a baby horse broke it, Presto is a turd to braid, and I just don’t freakin want to, ok? There have been multiple times in my life where I have braided more than a dozen horses in a day, so if I want to pay this nice lady to come braid mine while I get all my dressage shit ready, I feel like I’ve earned the right. I do everything else myself. Give me this one thing.

I had to write press releases at the end of every day (Thurs-Sun) covering the FEI divisions, so those days I didn’t end up wrapping up all my work until like 8pm. I got home, got my horse taken care of, shot off interview texts to the leaders, and then got to writing. Michelle was also out of town for those days so I had extra to do at the farm with the mares and foals, plus needed to get stuff plugged into the EN Kentucky form guide and wrap up some things for Ride iQ’s Kentucky stuff over the weekend. Oh and we inseminated a mare on Saturday night, because why not throw that in there.

It was a lot. Not in a bad way, (I fucking love my life here) but in a drinking from a firehose and now I’m tired way.

Luckily we’re headed to Kentucky tomorrow and I’m super excited to have a few days of fun in the Bluegrass! It’s my first little vacay since we went in 2023!

We’re on a roll now, y’all! Baby number three for the 2025 season is officially here! Say hello to Tadashi WTW, aka Tad but really we call him Taddles or Tadpole or Taddyboi because I mean LOOK AT HOW FRICKIN CUTE HE IS.

This handsome dude was born last Friday night at a very reasonable hour (pre 10pm!) and my goodness I think we’re all a little obsessed with him. He’s by the stallion Quality Touch Z, who is from very classic and proven old school jumper lines – by the Selle Francais stallion Quick Star out of a Holsteiner mare by Landgraf. Quality Touch has produced showjumpers up to the 1.60m level and event horses through 4*L level, and he himself jumped through 1.50m. A more quintessential jumping pedigree does not exist. Add that on top of a TB mare and you’ve got a proven recipe for a big time horse, which was the thinking behind the creation of this guy. His dam is Vee, a very correct and big-boned Thoroughbred mare by the Australian sire Lonhro out of a Broken Vow mare. She raced until she was 8 and retired sound.

This dude is absolutely bred to the nines to run and jump, and so far he’s done exactly that. His gallop is huge and incredibly well-balanced, and his favorite thing to do in turnout is jump over the little sandy runoff area in the middle of his paddock.

His two little diagonal white feet are freakin adorable, as are his giant ears (y’all know I love some big ears, all the best jumpers have them!).

I gotta say though, I think Taddles’ best feature is his temperament. They truly don’t come out of the womb any better than this. He’s friendly but not pushy, he’s smart, he’s brave, and he’s always just a happy little guy.

So far all 3 foals for this season have wildly different temperaments. I love Leo’s fire and cheekiness (I find him quite hilarious) but this kiddo is more of the “born broke” and easy-going type that I suspect will make him very easy to have in the barn and train when he gets older. He’s 100% an athlete through and through, but also has a fantastic brain. Best of both worlds.

I’m excited to see how he keeps developing as his super long legs unfold more and he gets more filled out over the next few weeks. I think Vee knocked this one out of the park though, I gotta say. It makes me sad that we sell all the colts, but this is supposed to be a business after all. Whoever snags him will be really lucky!

It’s been a busy last few weeks around here but we’ll probably have a little pause in the action for another week or two until our next foal makes it’s appearance. Until then, at least we have plenty of Foal Friday fodder.

Who’s your favorite 2025 foal so far?

Chanel didn’t make us wait long for the next addition to the WTW Class of 2025! Last Friday just before 10pm she laid down and very quickly popped out a very leggy bay/gray filly by Malito de Reve. Say hello to Tigerlily WTW.

Michelle is thrilled, because this is the first filly she’s gotten from Chanel. The first two foals she had in Europe before she went to a sport career and was imported? Both fillies. But since Michelle has had her, she’s had 3 colts. Chanel is a super nice mare and an excellent producer, but she’s getting older, so having a filly from her to add to the WTW broodmare band is definitely exciting!

She’s very leggy and those hocks say that she’s going to end up with some pretty good bone. No surprise, considering her parents! Those legs were a little bit hard for her to untangle on those first few attempts at standing, but fillies always tend to have a little more initial vigor than the colts, so it didn’t take her long to sort them out.

Temperament-wise she’s VERY different from Leo. Like maybe the polar opposite. She’s very much like her mom: careful and self-sufficient. She’s still figuring out that humans have fun things to offer, like butt scritchies.

Some of them tend to start out a bit more shy like this, but once they get more secure the curiosity always wins out. She’s already getting there, and spent yesterday afternoon trying her best to chew on my ponytail. She’ll be a pocket pony soon, I have no doubt.

In the meantime, she sure is stinkin cute with those gray goggles and gray nose. There’s already a lot of gray throughout her coat too; looks like she’s gonna be one that goes gray pretty fast.

She also makes us 2 for 2 so far on the gray babies, since Leo will also turn gray from his original chestnut. There’s no chance for gray with the next few babies (not until our last mare, Gossip, who’s due in mid-May) but man, those gray genes are really insistent around here.

It’s poooosssible that Baby number 3 (Vee’s) made their entrance a few hours ago, too, but y’all are gonna have to wait for that one…

I’m gonna go ahead and say this right off the top: I’ve been a PEMF user on and off for a long time and am very familiar with the various therapies available on the market, so this is one of those purchases where I felt pretty good about it beforehand, but about 1000x better about it afterward. For many reasons, several of which were unexpected. Despite being really familiar with the product in advance, there have been surprises along the way too.

First, we may as well talk about the biggest factor right off the bat: the cost. There’s no way around it, any kind of PEMF machine is expensive. For someone like me, who doesn’t have a lot of disposable income left after everything else for the horses, it’s a particularly large purchase. Having some kind of at-home PEMF device for my horses has always been a bit of a pipe dream, and one I couldn’t really justify until recently. The reasons I was finally able to sell myself on it mostly boil down to:

1. I have two horses currently that greatly benefit from regular, preferably weekly, PEMF. At $75-100 per horse per session, actually being able to do weekly sessions on both of them is entirely not within my budget. Monthly would be a best case scenario, and even then it’s definitely not cheap to pay someone else to come and do it. There’s a point at which buying a unit is cheaper, and that point is really only like 2 or more horses or even just weekly treatments for one.
2. It feels a little bit like “do or die” time if you want to purchase a product like this, which will be highly impacted by the upcoming tariffs. Magnawave is an American company, but as with many electronics, a lot of the components that go into making the machines are not manufactured in the US and have to come from overseas. Companies like Magnawave and BEMER have already had to raise their prices this year, and it’s likely that they’ll go up even more.
3. To me a machine like this can be viewed a bit more like an investment. They hold their value on the resale market REALLY WELL (used machines really aren’t that much cheaper than new, trust me I looked), they last a long time if you take care of them properly (and buy from a company with a good warranty and maintenance/repair capability), and – if you wanted – you could monetize your machine by turning into a business. I personally am not going that route, but I could if I wanted.

My first step when looking at adding a PEMF product to my arsenal was to figure out exactly what I wanted. There are many products on the market, from low frequency to higher frequency, and blankets vs PEMF machines with attachments. There are pros and cons to all of these products, but having used a variety of them in the past, I knew that I didn’t want a blanket. It’s just too hot in Florida most of the year for a horse to sit under a PEMF blanket for any period of time without sweating to death. I also wanted to have more control over being able to do specific parts of the horse for longer periods or at varied intensities. While the blankets are very easy to use – put it on the horse and turn it on and that’s it – for me and my horses, I wanted an actual PEMF machine with attachments.

The only real con to that setup is that it does require more knowledge and training in order to use it correctly. That can be a bit intimidating off the bat when shopping for a machine, so I knew I wanted a brand that included a thorough training course with the purchase of the unit. I also looked at other factors like warranty, customer service, support, reviews, etc. In the end I settled on Magnawave, because I thought they were superior in all of my particular criteria. There are other similar brands on the market that are a little cheaper, but for me I felt like the other benefits of Magnawave outweighed any minor price difference. It’s a lot of money to spend, so I wanted to make sure I bought a good brand.

The sales guy that I worked with was really fantastic. For real, if you’re interested in a MW at all or even just have questions, let me know and I can put you in touch directly with him. At no point did he try to upsell me to a bigger unit than I needed (indeed, I got the cheapest one they make), he answered my questions, and he followed up when and how he said he would. I had questions about potentially financing it, and he put me in touch with the people that could give me the numbers for that (I ended up not financing it, so I can’t speak to how well that works, but I did talk to someone about possibly doing that).

I ended up going with the Semi 10 model, which is their smallest and most compact unit. I’m using it on max 4-5ish horses a week, and I’m not looking to have a busy Magnawave business, so getting a bigger unit wasn’t really necessary for me. The small one is still very powerful and effective, but really simple to use and easy to store or carry around. The machine itself is the size of a large lunch box, really. I also wanted to be able to use it on myself and Mina (the dog that got hit by a car last year), so something easy to carry back and forth or have in my house was a big plus.

The Semi 10 comes with two attachments: a large loop and a smaller butterfly loop. Really, those are all you need. However, for my particular horses I really wanted the XL wave wings and the hoof bundle. The XL wave wings because they cover more surface area (hi, Presto has a limited amount of patience) and because the design of it is great for being able to do large areas like the SI and pelvis (Presto’s main spot and Rubes’ main spot, respectively). Seemed worthwhile.

I wanted the hoof bundle because I dunno if y’all remember how many abscesses and hoof bruises and ripped off hoof walls I dealt with last year between all my horses but it was too many. Florida is really tough on feet, especially in the summer. My farrier LOVES using PEMF, he says he definitely notices more and better hoof growth, so I thought the hoof bundle would be worthwhile. Basically the bundle includes the MagEnergy mat (which is great for using on humans and dogs on it’s own) and you put it inside the big hoof box so you can do two feet at the same time. I wanted the mat anyway, so two birds with one stone by getting the hoof bundle.

Now that I’ve been using it for a few months I can say that as far as attachments go, I use the XL wave wings by far the most when it comes to the horses. When you’re doing them regularly as maintenance it’s nice to be able to cover more area in less time. I’ve used the butterfly loop some too, for doing joints or very targeted smaller areas like the poll. I use the mat a lot for myself. If you’re going to spring for one extra attachment for the horses, get the wave wings. If you want to go all out, the hoof bundle is also a thumbs up from me too. With what I’ve got, I feel like I have a full arsenal of attachments to tackle literally anything.

The ordering process was simple and easy, and then it took about 6 weeks from when I ordered to when I got my machine. I used that time in between to complete all of their online courses and certification, which was… considerably more than I expected. Ok to be fair I’m not really sure what I expected, maybe like a 4-8 hour training course equivalent to like one day? But no, their training courses are THOROUGH. You don’t have to do them all, if you only have the Magnawave for personal use (you do have to be certified to be a practitioner and charge people for the service), but I was curious and wanted to learn as much as possible. And, well… the courses didn’t disappoint.

When you buy your machine you get access to their portal, which has tons and tons of info about the machine itself and how to use it. They also have a facebook group just for certified practitioners, and the company holds regular Office Hours live streams. If you want to make it into a business they have a ton of training and support for that too, with everything from how to set up the business to places to order business cards and promo materials. There’s just a ton of stuff at your disposal.

I didn’t need any of that, but I did go full ham on the training course library. In the end I completed 11 training courses, including my official certification for Equine and Small Animal. The training is GREAT though, very very thorough and with a lot of detailed and specific information for not only how PEMF and the machine itself works, but on everything from how to care for your machine to how to tailor treatments for specific issues like laminitis or kissing spine.

There are more than 30 videos available just in the Equine section alone. Trust me, you will NOT lack the knowledge on how to use your Magnawave unless you really just don’t even want to try to learn. The training alone is a huge huge selling point for Magnawave over other brands, IMO. I went from a basic understand of PEMF to feeling like I was mega-educated and knew exactly what to do when my machine arrived. Getting started was a breeze thanks to all that!

As for how it’s actually working… this is where I’m probably the most surprised, tbh. I mean, I used PEMF before and knew it did something, sure. But I’ve never been able to afford to use it really regularly, or had the knowledge to know how to interpret what I’m seeing, or the ability to tailor it to each horse in a targeted way. Holy crap, y’all, it’s an absolute gamechanger.

I do the boys once a week unless there’s a specific thing that needs more intense treatment, and there are benefits I hadn’t even predicted. First and foremost is the fact that doing bodywork on them myself means that I constantly have my hands on every part of them and I see how things compare from week to week. I know what spots showed more sensitivity or reactivity, and can also take that knowledge forward into how I ride them. It gives me so much more information.

Aside from that, there’s no doubt that both of them feel better. Rubes is always looser after his sessions, and there have been a couple times where I’ve felt like he was a little stuck in the base of his neck during a ride, Magnawaved it afterward, and could immediately feel an improvement the next day. My dentist was also delighted to know I had a Magnawave, and had me treat Rubes’ poll, TMJ, and jaw after his dental. Presto tends to carry tightness and tension in his lower lumbar and SI, and it’s dramatically reduced with weekly PEMF. I also treat his legs and stand him on the hoof box after events or gallops. He does the most dramatic releases and stretches during his sessions – he absolutely loves it.

As for me, I think I would marry the MagEnergy Mat.

I always lay on it after events or hard workouts, because I have scoliosis and therefore my lower back kind of just always hurts. After shows it tends to be very tight, but there is a noticeable difference in my range of motion after I spend 20 minutes laying on the mat. Hillary has also used it for her shoulder where she had soft tissue repair.

I mean… I knew I would like the Magnawave, that’s why I bought it, but if I’m being 100% honest I love it so much more than I thought I would. Being able to use it regularly makes all the difference in the world, and knowing how and why it works, and how to use it in the best way to fit into my program and for each horse. So far I’ve been very pleased with the Magnawave brand, as well. I really can’t stress enough how much I love this little machine and what a difference it’s already made. My only regret is that I didn’t buy one sooner… even if I’d had to finance it, it would have absolutely been worth it. I’d buy it again in a heartbeat. Worth every cent.

*if you have questions about PEMF or Magnawave feel free to reach out! I really couldn’t get into a ton of technical detail here without this being extremely long, but I’m happy to give you more info if desired.

It’s finally time for the first Foal Friday of 2025!

I’ve been holding out on y’all a little bit, because this dude was actually born February 19th. However, he was a little bit premature and had to spend some time at the clinic, and then had to stay in a stall at home for a while to make extra sure all his bones were done maturing before he put too much stress on them. But he got the all clear from his team of vets after the last set of x-rays, and as of this week he finally gets to go outside! Thus, his official unveiling can finally happen. Say hello to Tau WTW, barn name Leo!

He’s out of Peyton (A Firm Question xx) by the British stallion Future Guilty Pleasure who has so far competed through Intermediate level eventing and recently moved to the stable of Alex Bragg. This stallion has been very popular and so far has been an extremely promising producer. Leo himself was born chestnut and will go gray, is 80% blood, and 100% freakin cute.

Since he was born early he was initially quite small, but he’s already caught up to normal and is now edging closer and closer to being a big chonky boy. Considering how much he loves to sleep and eat, that should be no surprise.

And lest you think that his early start made him weak or sad at any point – nope. This kid has been spunky and full of spirit from the word go (hence how he got his name), and that’s never waivered. The hardest part was keeping him quiet enough through those initial weeks so that he could finish maturing properly.

He came out of the womb guns ablazin, with places to go, things to do, and people to see. Now that he’s finally able to go outside he’s especially delighted with himself. This one doesn’t lack confidence, that’s for sure.

He’s very people-oriented, probably no surprise given how much interaction he’s had from the beginning, but he’s also bold and curious. Sometimes too bold. Especially those first couple weeks that he first got his teeth and thought everybody needed to know about it (RIP my shins).

Either way, he’s absolutely stinkin cute, and now that we’ve been able to see him move it’s also clear that he’s got a lot of quality. Peyton did a great job once again!

While his entrance into the world took a few years off of everyone’s life (especially mine) he’s done exceptionally well and we’re all so pleased with him and his progress. That was… certainly one way to kick off foaling season 2025.

We’re currently watching two more mares, both of which could foal any time now, and we bred our first mare of the season yesterday. We’re in the thick of it now!