Since Presto got kicked off the East Coast Tour (ok that’s not what happened, but it’s also not NOT what happened…) October was slotted to be just a nice relaxing reset time for the both of us. And in many respects, that’s what it has been. In other respects, it’s been a bit balls to the wall. I last checked in a couple weeks ago, and we’ve had no trouble filling our time since then, so let’s get you all caught up. I have A LOT of pictures of various activities, so buckle up.
First and foremost, Presto has made a few more off-property trips. With our trainer away at Morven and Maryland, we’ve had no lessons or training rides, but I still wanted to do something that felt productive without putting a lot of pressure on Presto. I think we both needed to remember that this is supposed to be fun, so fun is what we’ve had.
On his trip to Majestic a couple weeks ago, I was literally the only person on the property. I wasn’t anticipating that, I’ve never been there when it was totally dead, so I ended up having to desperately call a friend last minute to come be my groundperson so I could actually ride (props to Emily for saving the day… bonus that she’s actually a TD so I literally had my own personal TD babysitter). While I was waiting for Emily to get there I walked Presto around all over the place, letting him sniff everything and just play around. He’s nothing if not a curious creature, and he’s hella nosy. He wants to touch everything, so why not let him.
When Emily got there I got on and popped him over a few little jumps, the water, the ditches, etc, and let him open up his gallop a bit up and down the hill. He felt a little behind the leg and looky at first, but once I let him gallop he absolutely LIT UP and was like WHEEEEE THIS IS FUN and tada, just like that I had my bold, cocky cross country horse back. It was a relief to feel him click back in. We mostly stuck to little jumps and just kept it simple and easy.
And then the next day, because I’m nothing if not a silly goose, I flew to Seattle for a Sleep Token concert. I was up at 3:45 on Tuesday to drive to Tampa to catch a 5.5 hour flight to Seattle. There I met up with my equally insane friend (aka internet wife and concert buddy) who had flown in from NC. We did some touristy sightseeing for a few hours in the afternoon (which included 5 miles of walking with my heavy-ass backpack while wearing my platform Doc Martens), stopped off at the hotel to get ready, and then headed to the concert venue in Tacoma around 6. We were back at the hotel by midnight and up before 5am to head back to the airport for a 5 hour flight home. In the middle seat. With an open-mouthed perpetual heavy breather sat to my right. I felt every minute of my 42 years old on the way home.
And listen, did I get like 5 hours sleep in those two days combined and confuse the heck out of my body by jumping back and forth 3 time zones in 24 hours? Not important. YOLO, my dudes. Sleep Token was an absolute 10/10, incredible show, and 100% worth it. Would do again. Plus I got to dress up like some kind of fairy witch and it wasn’t even weird at all, I fit right in.
Then it was back to normal life, which was mostly a lot of work because taking off two days put me a little behind. I still got the horses ridden though, and Presto has been feeling great. Other than being a bit lazy (which is better than tension I suppose) he’s just been really stellar. Rideable, happy, and feeling strong and confirmed in his work.
He’s also been doing a lot of hacking out, and continues to feel happier about it each time. He’d been so tense and on edge about being out there alone, but now he’s kind of back to his normal ambling self, and wanting to touch literally everything. I’m not joking, one day he wanted to sniff and touch every single line and reflector on the road. It was a long hack.
But I think taking the pressure off of him for a while and letting him just have some time to breathe has been good. There’s no agenda really.
I do think that he genuinely enjoys going for lessons and doing things, but not having an agenda for a while has been good too. We’re never bored anyway, he makes sure of that. We spent most of that week hacking and flatting, with one little jump day in there where we mostly worked on adjustability down a line of poles, with some cavaletti and one real jump thrown in.
The following Saturday was the giant annual Horsey Yard Sale at Tack Shack of Ocala, and once again Hillary and I nabbed a vendor space. It was just as packed as last time – we joined the line to get in at 6:20 and finally were in there setting up at 7:30. We sold a lot of stuff though and made some money, which was the point. Do we still have enough stuff left to start our own consignment store? Potentially. But ya know, reductions were made.
AND, at one point while we were sitting there chatting, we were talking about concerts. Hillary was like “we should go see Billie Eilish” to which I had an immediate yes because she’s been on my top 5 bucket list for years. Hillary got on her phone and was like “she’s playing Orlando on the 14th”.
Mind you, it was currently the 11th.
She found two tickets for not an insane price, plus a parking pass for the garage. I’d made enough money to cover my ticket within the first hour of the tack sale sooooo I mean… the universe wanted it to happen, right? Who was I to say no? It was basically free (girl math). The seats weren’t the best, but ya know… in the house in a not-great spot is better than not in the house at all.
So anyway, on Tuesday (yes, one week after I flew to Seattle to see Sleep Token) I fed the horses a little early and then we drove down to Orlando.
It was once again an amazing show and I’m delighted I got to see Billie. I’ve seen almost all of my favorites this year now!
It was also by far the loudest concert I’ve ever been to (and mind you, I mostly go to metal shows) because of the sheer VOLUME of the SCREECHING from all the tweens. Like… I probably have hearing loss just from that. It was so incredibly shrill. The concert was a wholesome girlhood experience tho, even if I was definitely one of the oldest people there who wasn’t chaperoning a minor. Details.
We were back home by midnight, so I didn’t even have to lose too much sleep. Bonus.
And then on Thursday our friend group had made plans to go to an Edgar Allen Poe themed dinner theater event. To be fair, that event was the first thing I’d planned for this month, before either of the concerts, but by the time we got to the day I was like “wow I really went for it”. Which is fine. If we’re being honest, Presto wasn’t the only one needing a reset. I go really damn hard at this riding thing all the time, I put a lot of pressure on myself to try to be better and make good decisions, my life revolves entirely around it, and it’s literally 7 days a week. When things go tits-up with the horses (as they do sometimes, because horses) I tend to crash out. Having a little bit more balance, where maybe not every single thing is about the horses, is refreshing sometimes. I do generally need to make more of an effort to do other things every once in a while so I don’t lose myself entirely, and this month has been a good reminder of that.
Anyway, yeah… Poe Dinner Theater.
It was in Gainesville, so just a short drive up from Ocala, and a whole group of horse girls came (my vet, a working student, Emily the TD/Event Organizer, Hillary, Sarah, me). We dressed up a little, had some dinner and some themed-drinks, and listened to a few Poe works. It was fun! And while we were there we made plans to attend a murder mystery dinner next month, so we can keep the non-horsey fun stuff going.
The next morning I took Presto over to Majestic again, hoping to be able to jump around a bit more stuff.
They had a schooling show the next day, so I figured it would be busy with people schooling, and I was correct. Presto had enjoyed two trips to Majestic where it was quiet and he was alone out on XC, so I wanted to see if he had any feelings about being out there “alone” with a bunch of other groups of horses. I figured if the nappiness was gonna come out, it would be in a situation like that.
He started out feeling actually super quiet, but started to perk up a bit as we went. I headed to the water first because it always seems to help him lock in to his task, and we cantered through, then popped some small jumps before and after, and then dropped down all the banks into water. He was feeling pretty good about himself by the time we moved on to the bottom of the field. I popped him over the Novice combo down there, then let him really open up his gallop up the hill. He went for it, charging super boldly up it. He felt keen by then so I pointed him at the Training combo, a rolltop to a down bank to a skinny wedge, and he absolutely ate it up. THAT is my normal boy.
He landed and tried to drag me through the woods at Mach 5, which made me cackle with delight. He was having a blast. We ended the day by popping over the ditches and then through the Training coffin line, which again he just ate up. Easy peasy, ears pricked, having a great time.
I was super happy with him, so we quit there. No napping or spooking. He did stare off in the distance at groups of horses a few times, but always got to his job with no fuss. Except for that one time he was staring at horses, stepped in the ditch, and got mad at ME about it. Perhaps watch where you’re putting your feet, sir, those are your job.
Either way, I’m happy with how he felt… much more like his normal self than the first outing a couple weeks ago.
On Sunday he got body-clipped, which to be honest was a bit overdue. If he’d been showing I would have gotten him done a few weeks ago, but I was kind of hoping to milk it as long as possible. It’s just too warm for how dang hairy he was though, so it was time for a hair cut. Now he’s his beautiful, super super dark fall color.
Oh, and he got his best grade yet from our body clipper (who has also braided him for me some). He didn’t try to knock her off her stool or put the clippers in his mouth at all, and only wanted to squish her a couple times. What stellar behavior for the boy.
Our trainer is back sometime this week so lessons will probably commence again soon, but I think we’ve accomplished what we wanted while she was gone. She said to make it fun for him again and try to bolster his confidence, and I think I’ve done that. It’s also given me some distraction-free time to step back and really ruminate on what I want and what’s most important to me, and how that might look moving forward. There’s a whole lot of stuff still up in the air right now, but ya know what? That’s okay.
breedrideevent.com 