Needless to say, Presto recovered just fine from his first Preilm. As in, the next morning he was like HI HELLO WHAT ARE WE DOING TODAY, and was very offended when I gave him the day off. He hates those. When I got back on him to take him for a hack on Monday he was wild.

We had a pretty chill week, as we tend to do after a horse show. It’s nice to take some time to just hack or do stretchy rides or less intense work to help the mind and body reset. We had one training ride and one lesson – Ellie flatted him on Tuesday and I had a dressage lesson on Wednesday. We didn’t do a ton either day, but she thought he felt great on Tuesday. On Wednesday I wanted to focus more on the sitting trot, and subsequently learned that my biomechanics have been wrong for my entire life. That’s neat. Love that for me.

Anyway, I walked away with a big aha moment and stuff to take home to work on, which I’ve done with my typical single-minded obsession. Like did I have a whole new supplemental Pilates-based workout routine made up by that evening to target some of the muscles I need to strengthen? Yes, yes I did. We’re a week into it now and it’s definitely helping, so sometimes it’s beneficial to be entirely unhinged. (why am I like this?)

On Thursday my friend Stacy got to town for her annual visit. She’s also a horse girl, but has picked up a(nother) side hobby of archery. I’ve always thought it was really cool, and played around with it when I was a kid, but haven’t picked up a bow and arrow in like 30 years. She said she was bringing hers with her so we could play with it and see what our horses thought, and I was really looking forward to it. I thought Presto, with his love for all things chaotic and dangerous, would potentially love it.

I was entirely correct, he absolutely ate it up. Since Stacy is the expert, she took over the task of acclimating him to the bow and the arrows, the sound it makes, and actually shooting first next to him and then from above him. He didn’t bat a eye at any of it. Like of course that’s a bow and arrow. Of course it makes a noise when you shoot. Of course you would shoot stabby things from it off the top of me. OF COURSE, THAT MAKES TOTAL SENSE. It took her all of 5 minutes to finish the acclimation process, and then I climbed on and was like fuck it, let’s start shooting and see what he does.

I shot some arrows off of him at the halt and he didn’t even so much as flick an ear, so we moved on to the walk. Again… no shits given. So then I was like well obviously we should try it at the trot, and I looped my reins around his neck, started trotting, and shot the arrow from a trot. The first couple times when I let go of my reins and went to nock the arrow, he sped up a bit. But by the third pass he was like “Oh I get it, you drop the reins and I just stay the same”. Yas, kiddo, you got it. Mounted archery horse extraordinaire.

Then I was emboldened and was like screw it, lets canter.

We were just shooting the arrows into the ground nearby so I wasn’t pulling back and really letting them fly, but y’all it was super fun. Presto was so good, he just kept cantering and was like YEAH I AM ARCHERY HORSE. Like obviously. Of course you are. Prelim event horse one weekend, archery mount the next.

Anyway, it was super fun and I 10/10 recommend it if you’re looking for something to try. I liked it enough that I ordered a cheap little beginners bow and some arrows so we can play around more with it at home with some targets. Seems like it would be fun to do in the summer off season? I’m determine to be able to jump something and shoot a target at the same time.

We also went to some tack shops while Stacy was here, as one does, and I found the new KL Select black with black patent accents breeches that just came out, so those are mine now. What other choice did I have, they’re stunning (that’s what I’m wearing for the archery session, I think I’ve worn them like 3 times in the last 5 days.

In other news, Rubes has been coming along pretty well. I’ve upped the complexity of what I’m asking for in his flatwork, and trying to get more quality from his gaits. He really gets better and better the more I raise the bar. He’s got the leg yields pretty down pat now, is spiraling in and out on circles and changing rein without coming off the contact the majority of the time. We’ve even started some baby shoulder-fore, which he can’t hold for very long yet, but it’s a genuine effort. He’s also starting to offer more stretch and maintain a proper connection more of the time. Bending through his body left and right has been a bit of a challenge for him, but he’s getting better by the day, and as that improves so does everything else. Some days are better than others – he’s an 11yo horse that raced 100 times and is now trying to learn a totally new job, after all – but I’m pleased with the progress. I think it’s time to start jumping him again here in the next couple weeks now that retail season is over and my schedule is less insane.

Otherwise it’s been a lot of business as usual around here. We’re starting to scan more mares, getting ready to breed the first one, and we have two mares that we’re watching on the foaling cameras now. Vee is at day 340 today and Chanel is only a week behind her, so we should have two more babies soon. AND – we’re finally ready to unveil the first foal of the season, as he reached a big milestone yesterday. His story coming later this week on our first FOAL FRIDAY of the year! (Patreon folks, you have some video of him up on your dashboard already and you’ll be getting the Presto Mounted Archery vlog later today)