Month: May 2025

Me, as I sat down to draft this post: “oh good, I can get something up on here towards the beginning of the week and then later this week I can try to get another Foal Friday posted”.

Then I realized it’s Thursday. Somebody needs to start keeping better track of time, and surely it can’t be me.

This week Presto and I have been gearing up for our last show of the season and thinking ahead to what his summer is going to look like. Right now it looks like his vacation month is going to be June, since my trainer will be gone to Luhmuhlen and then on family vacation after that. There are no more shows here until August, so giving them June off makes the most sense really. Weather-wise July is worse, but we talked about maybe trying to go do some of the jumper shows at WEC. I think that would GREATLY benefit both me and Presto, so now I’m just trying to figure out how to budget to afford it. Even just hauling in and doing a few of the Open classes a week is like… almost double what a recognized event costs me. It’s been somewhere around 12 years since I did a rated h/j show, I’d almost forgotten how pricey they are.

If I can find a way, though, that would be the ideal plan. I definitely need the jumping practice (understatement of the century), and it would be good for Presto to go to a new-to-him venue, especially one like WEC that has a lot of atmosphere. And – bonus – the summer series at WEC is doing all of the classes inside, so it’s air conditioned. I mean… the haul-in parking is outside so you’re still roasting on asphalt until you get to the ring, but at least you’re less likely to pass out while you’re actually riding?

I’ve also been considering the idea of half-leasing Henry. I went as far as posting something on my personal Facebook and Insta about it, but at this point I’m not willing to actually try to advertise a half-lease in earnest. Mostly because I’m pretty protective of this horse and particular about who I’d be willing to let lease him, so I definitely don’t want just a bunch of randos messaging me or showing up to try him. I can’t cope. He absolutely cannot leave my care, so it would have to be someone local that wanted a fun and experienced horse to ride 3 days a week, but if by chance the right person were to come along I think he’d be delighted to have the job. If you know someone that could fit the bill, spread the word.

He’s been doing really well back in work, and yesterday I put the jumps up to 1meter just to see how he felt. He was like “finally, someone on this farm figured out how to raise a damn jump cup.”. Honestly, he’s the best.

Rubes has been doing really well too, but I don’t have any current media of him. I’ve been letting my friend Lija ride him since her horse is out for a little while, but I’ll probably take the ride back in June while Presto is on vacation. I really need to start focusing on Rubes more if we have any remote chance of making it to RRP.

I had my fitter out last week to look at Rubes again now that he’s been in consistent work for a few months. I knew that Presto’s saddles def weren’t going to work for him, but it was a matter of whether we could shim them to fit, or if Rubes needed something of his own. The answer is solidly the latter. Rubes has more curve to his back, a higher wither, and isn’t as wide as Presto. So Arion is making me a loaner to use on him for the year, and then after that we can re-evaluate. It’ll be great for Rubes to have something specifically for him rather than having to wear all of his brothers’ various hand-me-downs. He also got a new Arion figure 8 in cob size, which fits him waaaay better. Bougie boy.

With summer almost here we are also at the very end of breeding season. We’ve got several pregnant mares, some still waiting on their pregnancy scan, and a few left to breed in the next week or two. After that we’ll be done. I feel like it’s been breeding season for 35 years so I think we’re all very ready to wrap it up. Fingers crossed for good news on the remaining pregnancy scans!

I’ll try my best to get something up tomorrow for Foal Friday. Toby sold this week, so now the only remaining 2025 foal left available is Ivy (who is developing SO nicely – she’s got such a great temperament). We’ve gotta find the perfect person for her so we can officially close out the class of 2025!

Hellloooo out there. It feels like I have lived an entire lifetime since we last caught up. Where to begin?

Presto has been feeling great since Majestic. He had a couple days off after the show and some light hacking days before a training ride and then a dressage lesson and a jump lesson. We’re working on pieces of the Prelim A test, which we haven’t ridden yet (would you believe that all 3 of his Prelims so far have been the same test under the same judge?). The A test is quite different, with simple changes of lead and some shallow counter canter loops. Parts of it are easier for him, and other parts of it are harder for him, but he’s the type of horse where the more you practice the test pattern the better he gets (as opposed to Henry, who just got anticipatory and tense) so we’re chipping away at it.

We have to practice the A test because that’s the one they’re running for our last show for the spring season (so much for spring, it’s 95 here already) – which is Area 3 Championships. I strongly debated whether or not to enter the regular HT vs Champs. Both are running XC like midday for Prelim so there wasn’t a real advantage of one vs the other as far as heat goes. In the end I totally got peer pressured into entering Champs, both by the Patreon group and by the show organizer (who is a friend. and also a Patreon member, coincidentally). Bullies, I tell you, the lot of them. Truthfully I’m pretty sure I’ve never actually entered an Area Championship before despite being qualified lots of times on both Henry and Presto, and this year it’s convenient enough so why the f not.

Well, I almost didn’t enter because I have to braid for Champs. Gah the horrors. I might have to beg Kerri.

In our jump lessons we’ve worked more to solidify the fancy new lifting-yet-still-taking-me-forward half halt that we’ve found in his new bit and running martingale setup. I can actually land and push him forward and then do a little lifting half-halt into the corner, push him forward, and do another one out of the corner, and it’s kind of miraculous how well that works when he actually stays in my hand and isn’t either arguing about it or dropping behind the contact.

The more I got to thinking about the single joint bit and how much he seems to like jumping in it, the more convinced I was that I needed to try it on the flat too. Sometimes he does this thing with his tongue, and after thinking about it with the new context we have regarding how much he likes the new jump bit, I was like… I wonder if he just doesn’t really like the contact all the way across his tongue. So I flatted him in his jump bit and it did seem better. I ended up going and buying him the simplest single joint loose ring I could find (I wanted one that wasn’t too fat, since he doesn’t have a ton of room in his mouth for that) and he seems to LOVE it. Something about the shape and size of that bit in particular seems to just sit really perfectly in his mouth. It’s got a very slight curve to it to alleviate tongue pressure and seems to be just the ticket. I can’t even remember the last time I rode a horse in a single-jointed snaffle, and a lot of bit people will tell you they’re less comfortable for the horse because of the “nutcracker” effect of just one joint, but no one tell Presto that. The weird tongue thing is gone.

In Henny news, he is currently the most delighted animal because this past weekend he got to bop around some XC with my friend Lija. Florida Horse Park had an open schooling day and I like to share the Henny love, so Lija took him out and jumped a nice mix of novice and training fences. He’s just so happy out there in his element, galloping around and jumping stuff. It was the perfect Henny day. And I guess I just have gotten used to the constant underlying element of chaos that is Presto, because it was such a serene, calm, and quiet affair. Henny just… is. Presto NEVER just is. Bless him.

We’ve also bred several mares in the last couple weeks and confirmed some pregnancies for 2026, so breeding season is really chugging right along. We should have a really interesting mix of foals coming next year, from ponies to eventers to show jumpers. It’s nowhere near the end yet though, there’s still plenty mares left waiting to for their pregnancy checks, and some left to breed.

We only have two foals left from the 2025 crop that haven’t been sold yet, so if you can be tempted by a bebe horse, now is the time. Yes we do payments. 😉

Aside from all the normal horsey stuff, I did a very rare thing and took a little mini 24-hour vacay away from anything horse related and went to a music festival.

Ok, it was just one day of a four day festival, but listen I am 41 years old and I think 4 days would literally kill me. Anyway, my friend Lisa flew down from NC and we headed out to Daytona Beach for Welcome to Rockville. Two of my favorite bands were playing on Sunday (Bad Omens and Motionless in White) plus Korn was headlining, so it seemed worth the trip.

My top priority for the entire adventure was to get as close as possible to the rail for Bad Omens. They’re my absolute favorite band, and I saw them a couple years ago at the House of Blues in Orlando and it was the best concert I’d ever been to. I mainly stuck to the back of the crowd that time though, and this time I wanted to be close enough to have my soul vibrated by the bass and feel the heat blast from the pyrotechnics.

We started pushing our way to the front while the band before them was still playing (it was Mudvayne. I do not like Mudvayne. I endured three whole Mudvayne songs directly in front of a speaker, if that tells you anything about my dedication.) and by the time all was said and done we were positioned on the left side only 4 rows of people back from the rail. PERFECT spot. We were so close.

We had to wait an hour and half in a shoulder to shoulder crowd, and it was very sweaty and stagnant, and no one smelled great (god it was HOT), but it was totally worth it. Once again Bad Omens put on an amazing show, and this time I got roasted by fire and then doused with confetti at the end. Since we were covered in sweat, the confetti just ended up plastered to us like paper mâché. And since we were right in front of a huge speaker there was so much bass it was like an hour long Theraplate session, so clearly it counts as health and wellness. What more do you need? I am healed.

There were so many people crowdsurfing that we ended up having to shuffle quite a few of them over the top of us, and the girl next to me would just duck every time she saw one coming, so my upper body got a hell of a workout trying to hold up some big dudes with very little help. If you’re gonna be at the front of a metal show at a festival with 70,000ish people you really gotta be prepared to be 1) pushed around and 2) put your hands up for crowdsurfers. Luckily everyone was very polite as far as space goes and we didn’t get pushed like AT ALL, but come on. Hands up or move further back, because dropping someone on top of us sure ain’t great either.

Look at this view they got from the drone. I had no idea how many people were actually there until I saw this, it was impossible to see from where we were at the front. (also A+ to the drone operator because what an incredible shot when that thing flips over)

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Seriously though, it was a fantastic time. That confetti coming down on all of us will be a core memory forever. Motionless in White was REALLY good too, I’d like to see them again at an actual concert venue. Korn was okay. The crowd for them was very different and not so much my vibe but we did stay long enough for me to hear my favorite Korn song (Falling Away From Me).

Totally worth the day trip, we had a ton of fun. AND we were still in bed around midnight. You can’t beat that.

Hope everyone is having a great week, and if you’re starting to keep your eye on Memorial Day sales, don’t forget to check out Riding Warehouse!

This is it, the final new foal of the WTW 2025 class! And in a “T” naming year, with a dam named Headleys Chatterbox aka Gossip, what other possible name was there besides The Tea? We think it fits her.

Her barn name is Ivy, and she’s looking like she’s going to be a little carbon copy of her mother. Which definitely isn’t a bad thing at all, because Gossip competed through the 3* level in the UK before being imported. Ivy’s sire is Weston Justice, who competed through 4* level in the UK and has produced multiple 4* and 5* offspring. With parents like that and 78% blood, you could say this one is bred to event, for sure!

Gossip did make us work for it a little bit though. She was a maiden, and you never really know how maidens are going to handle the whole birthing process. Sometimes they get worried, sometimes they just don’t push (looking at Vee with her first one), and in Gossip’s case… sometimes they just don’t lay down. She stood there and pushed Ivy out like a giraffe.

It took three of us to get Ivy safely out and guided down to the floor gently (which is harder than it sounds, picture trying to hold/carry a slippery dolphin) but other than that, all went well. Gossip has been a great mom so far, and Ivy sure is ridiculously cute.

Although she’s an interesting black/bay ombre right now, Ivy will definitely gray out – the hyperpigmentation is a dead giveaway on that front. My guess is she’ll gray out really slowly though, as her dam has done, and go through the very pretty steel gray phase. She has very very few gray hairs in her coat right now, as opposed to our other gray foal this year, Lily, who was born with solid gray around her eyes and a gray nose.

And if there’s any doubt that Ivy is bred to be a serious event horse, well… she’d just like to put that to bed right now.

This girl loves to gallop, and has been jumping stuff in her pasture since day 2. Maybe she’s born with it….

It was a one day show so why not make it a one and done recap? No cliffhangers of suspense this time!

My ride times for this show were fabulous – dressage at 8:15, SJ at 9:44, XC at 10:36. Less than 2.5 hours from start to finish is my idea of a horse show day. Originally the forecast was really shit, it was supposed to storm all day, but the closer we got to the day-of, the further the storms got pushed back, and we actually made it through the whole day before anything really came through. It was warm and very humid, but no storms, so we got really lucky with that.

I was on my own for this show since Trainer was at Tryon, but I don’t particularly mind that. It’s always nice to have boots-on-the-ground assistance, but I also feel like we prepare well enough for me to be capable of being an independent thinker on the day, and it doesn’t stress me out. We do a lot of “if this, do that” in my lessons, which serves us well for unassisted horse shows. Presto started warmup feeling a little bit against my hand and tense, but I knew what to do to improve it, and felt like he ended warmup a lot better than he started.

There were a few places in the test that could have been better – I particularly didn’t really “go for it” in the lengthenings as boldly as I might have on a different day, and that’s what several of the comments were about – but overall it was pretty obedient and consistent. Much better than a few weeks ago at Ocala, and close to the first test we had at Prelim at the last Majestic show. The score was similar to that one too, with a 29.5. Anytime the score starts with a 2 I’m pleased enough, and it left us tied for first after dressage.

I had enough time before SJ to go over the course a few times in my head before I had to tack Presto up again. It was a little twisty, with a couple kind of odd jump placements or lines that were just barely bending and walked a little weird. I wished I’d been a little later in the day or that there had been a division before Prelim so I could watch how it rode, but I was 7th to go for the day. I watched the first person go as I was walking to warmup and it seemed to ride ok for her, so… good enough.

The hardest part of showing without a trainer for me is SJ warmup. People tend to claim jumps these days, which I don’t mind, but it does make it necessary to have someone to set for you. Luckily Hillary and Lija were available, so our warmup went off without a hitch. Presto was jumping great, so we only jumped like 6 fences and then headed over to the ring.

The course was… ok. We just switched to this bit/running combo and I LOVE it, I can actually ride him up into my hand and take a real half halt when needed without him wanting to hide, but I’m still getting used to how that changes my timing and my aids. I was a little late/wishy-washy with a couple of half halts that resulted in getting him there too deep, one of which caused a rail. Totally my bad. Really though the rideability and balance is so much better in this equipment combo, I just have to get used to how it changes the ride I need to give him.

I was pleased with how he jumped though. He’s using his body more, he’s not wanting to drop behind my leg, and I can actually ride him UP so much easier. I just have to… ya know… get my shit together. Per usual.

We had a little bit of an awkwardly long gap before XC, so we went back to the trailer so we could do studs and boots, and I got all my XC gear together (which is really just putting my vest on and re-upping my sticky spray, tbh). I also had a time to go over the course one more time and make sure I knew my plan and could visualize everything in my head. Truth be told I have a perpetual fear of forgetting a jump so I always run through them multiple times by number, just to make sure.

I had walked (well, biked) the course the afternoon before, and texted a couple videos to Trainer to get her advice. I also happened to run into the course designer while I was walking, who is a friend, and he happened to be near 15AB, which is the combo I couldn’t quite figure out the line for. I asked if he could show me his intention there, which was massively helpful.

When I texted Trainer my comments were “do I go the straight/forward/more angled route at 15AB” (listen, I knew she’d say yes but I just needed someone to say it), and that I hated the upbank out of water with no related distance, and that I thought he might be a little looky at fence 3, which was a half roll with a massive hedge behind it. He’s not seen something quite like that before, and fences 1 and 2 headed the opposite direction with 3 turning back towards the big field. Prime territory for a lack of focus.

Her advice was to come out of the box really forward, put him out in front of my leg right from the start, and gallop the first few fences to set the tone. He def left the box a little bit with his head on a swivel, but he was willing to go forward and get out in front of me and 1 and 2 jumped great. At 3 I saw the forward distance from a ways out and was like “well I hope he doesn’t spook at that hedge” but he didn’t, he just jumped the absolute snot out of it.

He landed from that and I asked him to open it up and boy did he. I’m not sure he’s ever been as eager to gallop as he was up that hill. Maybe he’s starting to get it? We jumped through the first combo, a bending line at the top of the hill at 4AB, and I think he was in such gallop mode from the first few that he was a little bit like “oh crap there’s a B!” not in a dishonest way, just in a “whoops I forgot that those happen!”. He was super genuine and happy to jump out of the B, but it did kind of dial him into the fact that maybe he should pay attention and look for the next one.

Then we went up the hill to a table…

and then into the trees to the MIM oxer. That oxer used to look ginormous and now it looks small, so if you’re wondering if I’m getting more deranged over time, the answer is clearly yes.

Then it was another bending line combo coming out of the trees, back into the big field over the mulch bench thing (that is so wide) before we came to the coffin. The coffin was a MIM rail, one stride to the ditch, bending four to a big corner. It walked very dead-on one to four, and I was determined to actually get the damn four (adding in the coffin at Ocala wasn’t my favorite thing that ever happened). He hopped over the MIM rail, stepped over the ditch with zero fanfare, put his eye up on the corner, and popped right out in 4 like it was the easiest exercise in the world. Once again, the harder it is, the better he is.

Then we turned and went back down the hill over a ramp…

to another hedge down in the bottom, before turning and coming back up to the water. I hated the water the most, if I’m being honest. It was a house set like 3+ strides before the water, then we cantered all the way across to an upbank out of the water before turning left and going a ways out to a mound that had a skinny at the bottom. I wished that the house had been scooted in significantly so that there was actually a related distance to the upbank. When there isn’t one I always feel like they ride like crap, and it did this time too. There were lots of horses scrambling up it. Mine opted to leave a stride out and do a launcher, which also wasn’t my favorite, but ya know… we lived. He popped down the mound and over the skinny like it was cake.

Then it was over to the Palisade, which we’ve jumped many times before and is always a favorite. This time though it had waaaay more decoration than usual and he really peeked down into it at the last second, which made the 3 strides to the brush wedge kinda sketchy. I had to stay in the backseat on a long rein to get out of his way, and Presto did some magic (no pun intended) footwork to shuffle his way out of there cleanly. He was very clever there. The downside of showing at the same venues is that sometimes when something changes, the horses read it in a way you wouldn’t expect. Note to self. I should have been more positive all the way to the base.

After that we turned and went back up the hill again (I feel like we just zig-zagged up and down the hill for the entire course) over a table at 14, then we were to the angled combo at 15AB. Basically the line the designer was really wanting you to go for was a direct route from the right side of A to the left side of B, jumping both elements on opposite angles. That route was a forward, going 4 strides. You could theoretically ride them both center to center as a bending line, but the angle was awkward and it walked on more of a half stride. You just had to try to get your line right and find a forward one to A, then hold your line and keep kicking out to B. No worries. Not like our issue lately has been adding an extra step into combos.

By some miracle tho I did find a nice forward one into the A and committed to either making the 4 or I was gonna die trying. And indeed, he popped through that line in the 4 like it was easy peasy. Again with the hardest questions being where Presto always thrives.

Then we had another bending line combo down in the trees, to a trakehner, to another table, to the last hanging log, and voila – done! There were things I rode well, things I didn’t ride well, some things that were improvements, and some things that still need work. But for his third time out at Prelim, I was happy with how easy it felt for him, like he’s still not really having to try and honestly sometimes he’s barely paying attention. Like I’m still boring him immensely.

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We added like 7 time, which honestly considering how twisty the course was and a couple mistakes I made that interrupted the flow, seemed like not too bad. Only one person made time in either Prelim division, and I had fewer time faults than most. Progress maybe? The rail and the time dropped us from 1st to 3rd, which I’m still plenty pleased with.

Mostly it feels good to have another Prelim in the books, and to have done it on my own, and it didn’t feel/look massive or worrisome or anything like that. It felt like another day at the office, and that’s always a nice boost to the confidence bank for both of us.

Another Friday and we’ve got another new baby to introduce! Say hello to Tobias WTW aka Toby.

This handsome dude is by the French stallion Usandro, who is 3/4 Hanoverian and 1/4 welsh. His dam is our big boned, classic looking TB mare, Blue.

Being that Toby is part pony I think we all expected a foal that was a bit on the smaller side, but I think he’s actually got the longest legs of everyone so far as a newborn.

He definitely seems to take more after his mom in size and type, but he’s also got more suspension (and potentially more hops?) from his sire. The best of both worlds with a cross like this!

The best part about Toby (aside from his magnificent hair) is his temperament. He’s smart and bold but not overly chaotic or in-your-face (apparently some of you aren’t fans of that? Weird.).

He’s available for sale if anyone wants a mega-adorable and amateur-friendly eventer or jumper. My guess is he’ll definitely be horse size, probably in the 15.2+ range. Not too big and super sporty!

Toby makes a great addition to this year’s crop and we can’t wait to introduce him to the other babies. Until then, he’s having a pretty good time with his mom.

Happy Foal Friday! We might already have another new one to introduce you to next week too. 🤐