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!