The biggest mystery is how I’ve managed to miss three weeks of updates. Well, that part isn’t so much a mystery… we still don’t have a farmhand and I’ve been working seasonal shifts at WEC, so I’ve just been spectacularly strapped for time to sit down and write anything substantial. We’ve got a new girl starting here at the farm hopefully next week that will be helping with feeding and mowing, so fingers crossed that’ll lighten my load back up a little bit. It is hot and I am tired.

You know how it is with a 60-acre farm full of almost 30 horses – every day it’s something else on top of the regular chores of feeding/stalls/mowing. Someone’s got a runny nose, someone’s got a cut, someone’s got a fever (on a holiday no less, because obviously), someone broke the fence, the blades fell off the mower, the shredder is literally smoking, we’re one day short of grain, etc etc etc on and on it goes in perpetuity. It wears on you when it’s 7 days a week. I will be delighted for the new girl to take some of it off my plate.

The REAL mystery is who’s causing all this barn chaos. Like who tipped over my drawers? Presto doesn’t know.

Who knocked the fan over, picked up the bag of mints, and flung them all over the place? Presto isn’t sure about that either.

Who pulled my gloves out of my pocket and dropped them in the puddle? We don’t know yet, but Presto is on the case.

Truly a modern day case of Unsolved Mysteries.

One thing we have (finally) officially wrapped up though: breeding season! I mean… we were done breeding no matter what, but we did the last heartbeat check a few days ago, so we’ve confirmed all the pregnancies now. It’s going to be a wild spring, particularly April. Send help.

This will def be the biggest WTW foal crop ever, and we’ve already got a couple of the foals spoken for/reserved. I can’t even make full eye contact with that list yet… none of us will be sleeping.

In horsey news, Rubes has really started to blossom a bit in the past few weeks. At this point my impression is that he’s more of a jumper type, and he really really likes doing exactly the same thing every day. Routine is his jam. He’s been jumping the cavaletti, and I moved a couple jumps into the ring to make an actual line, which he’s cantered down several times now like a bonafide Real Boy.

He’s starting to get it, and he’s quite a good little jumper. He wants to naturally use his body well, it’s mostly just keeping him relaxed in his body and mind. The more he does it though, the better he gets.

Of course, as soon as I was like “we’re on a roll, time to take him on another off-property adventure” his feet decided it was time to do The Florida Summer Thing and just.. fall apart. I’m keeping them as dry as possible, but we barely had much wall to start with and I’m totally losing the war. He was about to lose a shoe so the farrier came and re-did him, but there’s almost nothing to nail into and I think now he might have a hot nail.

So, ya know… jury is still out on that one. I was really really really really really really hoping to avoid having to do glue-ons with any of my creatures this year after the hell that was last summer, but I’m starting to lose my last glimmer of hope that Rubes will be able to avoid them. That wall ain’t looking good.

As for Presto, he’s also a bit of a mystery at the moment, or at least a mixed bag. He had some training rides and was doing great, went to Chatt with Ellie and was “perfect” for the first two phases to lead the Open Prelim…

And then decided to quite literally go for a few spins on XC in a very Interpretive Dance kind of way. Like he started out fantastic, turned into a ballerina in the middle, and finished fantastic. Was superb at every combination, no problem with any of the hard stuff, just… tuned into the Tasmanian Devil in front of some random tables for no particular discernable reason. We’re all scratching our heads a little bit. We’ve got a few hypotheses and some ideas for next steps/things to try, and I had (yet another) chat with my vet, showing her the videos. Back to the drawing board a bit, but hopefully we’re a step closer to figuring it out. We have more data, at least, for whatever that’s worth.

The good news is, it’s not just me that’s the problem. The bad news is, it’s not just me that’s the problem. Horses are nothing if not frustrating. Ellie was super happy with 95% of it, and they said he traveled well and actually was quite a good boy in the barn. We’re close. We’re so close, I feel like. I sure do wish horses could talk.

Presto will spend a little time in Jumperland at WEC over the next couple weeks while we try some things, and then we’ll figure out more plans from there!

Oh – I also did a big closet cleanout and have a shitton of stuff for sale (because see all of the above, which is all expensive AF). Let me know if you’re interested in anything!