Henry is SO DELIGHTED to be back in regular work.

Knock on wood, he’s been feeling better and better as he gets back up to a full work load. Last week his feet grew out enough to reveal a horizontal crack behind his clip that we suspect was an abscess track – a really big and weird one – which could explain the on/again off again that he did over the winter. Either way, he looks good now, so we’re taking advantage of it.

I started jumping him a little bit last week, obviously being mindful of his fitness or lack thereof. He was just so freakin happy to be pointed at a jump again, if horses were capable of smiling from ear to ear, that would have been him. He acquiesces to the flatwork, he enjoys his long hacks, but he LOVES to jump. Doesn’t matter who is on him, doesn’t matter the format, doesn’t matter what he’s pointed at, he just wants to jump the dang things. His swagger has returned, and so has his sass. Never change Henny, you’re the king for a reason.

Presto also returned to his regular schedule this week after a little break post-Ocala International while I was in Kentucky. I think the little reboot was good for him (aside from the fact that he was wild for the first like… 4 rides back. He was only off work for 5 days…). He got a couple training rides last week, after which we decided to change up his tack setup a bit. He’s been in a beval bit with a running martingale for the past maybe year and half, which really worked great for him for a long time. It’s got a little bit of leverage but not too much. BUT, now that he’s gotten more rideable and we’re at a level where he needs to be taking me a bit more boldly forward, it was feeling like I had more bit than we really needed. Trainer and I agreed that it would be nice if he wanted to come forward into the hand a bit more when he was jumping.

First we just took off the running and put him in his dressage bit, which didn’t quite do the trick. As soon as he figured out the running was gone (which, btw, is set SO LOOSE it doesn’t actually do much, but he’s nothing if not clever) Presto decided he had some games to play. No one liked the games but him.

So for my next lesson Trainer brought out one of her bits, a loose ring eggbutt single joint. Have to admit, I’ve not tried this one before. She thought that it would be a little more stable than a plain loose ring (and be better for turning), and he might like having less tongue pressure with the single joint.

Upon realizing it was a $30 bit and not a $300 bit I thought surely Presto wouldn’t like it, but lo and behold, he felt GREAT. He was staying more steadily into the contact through the half-halt on the way to the jumps, and not wanting to drop behind the contact. I could really ride him more forward into it and he stayed there.

We also put on the SoftTurn martingale that I picked up at Kentucky (Trainer has one too, so she’s familiar with the design and how they work), still adjusted really loose, and I think that’s been a big contributing factor too.

I think it must feel less binding to the horses, because if Presto does come anywhere near feeling pressure from the martingale, he has no reaction to it. With a regular running martingale if he came anywhere near it, he would almost immediately drop behind my leg. With the SoftTurn he doesn’t seem to feel as offended or restricted… which is exactly what it’s designed to do. Go figure.

Since changing the bit and martingale we had a couple of really good jump schools, so fingers crossed we’re on the right track with some equipment changes!

He’s also been getting lots of bodywork, and I feel like I’m really starting to dial in the best ways to use the Magnawave in conjunction with the rest of his program. He does stretches every day (and I started adding in a couple new ones for his SI that the vet showed me) and Magnawave once a week. Rubes and Henry have been enjoying the Magnawave too.

I also got curious about KT Taping, which I’ve used a lot on myself over the years and really enjoyed. I got a book and did a couple online courses to get the idea of the best ways to use it for horses, and I’ve been playing with that some too on Magnawave days. I mean, why not?

In other really exciting news, Fey had a positive heartbeat scan this week! She’s confirmed a little over a month pregnant now, in foal to Future Guilty Pleasure. This one will be for sale, but I’m super excited to see what she produces.

We’ve been breeding mares left and right, waiting for more pregnancy checks and then still have several more mares left to breed, including the one we’re breeding for me. I also have new faces to introduce you to… maybe check back on Friday. 😉