Author: Amanda C

Most of you fellow OTTB enthusiasts know that the Retired Racehorse Project Makeover show was last week. A few bloggers were there with their horses, and it was fun to follow along and watch the videos and live stream. The Makeover is totally a bucket list item to me, and looks super fun. I reaaaaally want to try my hand at it someday, if ever there is room in my life for another OTTB. It’s pretty amazing to see one big week-long showcase of all the different things they can do, and with less than a year of retraining at that.

It seems like there’s always some kind of drama following this show (maybe something to be expected when you get so many different disciplines and green horses together?) and unfortunately this year was no different. My goodness, the drama around the barrel racing. Wow. Did anyone else see that unfold on social media?

For those who aren’t familiar, the Makeover is a show, but really it’s a training competition. It’s all judged and scored, and even the more simple timed events (like showjumpers and barrel racing) have flatwork tests where the quality of the training that has gone into the horse is judged. For barrel racing, its a relatively simple horsemanship test, the results of which are rolled together with timed runs to come up with a final score. No event at the Makeover is immune from a judged portion, because, remember, this is really a training competition. They’re trying to encourage people to prioritize a solid foundation over rushed training that leaves a lot of holes.

So anyway, the girl who ended up with the two fastest times on the actual barrel runs had a lower horsemanship score, which brought them down a few spots in the rankings. A lot of barrel racers WERE NOT HAPPY about that. They argued that barrels was a timed event, plain and simple, and the fastest horse should be the winner. Period. They shouted that it was rigged, and that horsemanship and judged flatwork had no place in barrel racing.

Which… wow… there’s a comment to stop you in your tracks. I think if ever you find yourself arguing that horsemanship and a solid foundation have no place in your sport, whatever that sport may be, you might want to re-evaluate what you’re doing here. Effing yikes.

A lot of people seemed to have a hard time understanding that nothing about the Makeover judging is typical of standard showing. The cross country is scored, the showjumpers do flatwork and gymnastics and optimum time rounds, etc etc. Because, again, it’s a training competition, not a regular show. It’s pretty abundantly clear in the rules, which outline all of this and are available online to anyone. Even I knew the format and I’ve never done the Makeover. Reading remains a difficult task for some, I suppose.

But anyway, Fallon Taylor won the barrel racing, which seemed to just add fuel to the “IT’S RIGGED” fire, and then Fallon also won the grand 10k prize for Most Wanted Thoroughbred, and lord I thought some folks’ heads were gonna explode. Which, to be fair, I was kinda sad about her winning the overall too (I voted for Rosie!) but it’s good publicity for the OTTB in western events, so whatever. Either way… woooow the drama. It’s a damn shame, IMO, because the Makeover is just so freaking cool. If you can watch those freestyles without a tear coming to your eye, you’re not human. The Makeover isn’t perfect, they’ve got kinks to work out for sure, but still… it’s insanely cool. OTTB’s are awesome.

One of the big highlights of the Makeover was of course the winner of the Little Orphan Annex Memorial award, funded by fellow bloggers in honor of Hillary’s mare Annie. This award went to the highest placed chestnut mare, which ended up being a super badass little creature named Great Reward – winner of the polo division!

Hillary and I were both thrilled to see her win it, she was really fun to watch and definitely embodied that spicy chestnut mare spirit that Annie had. Thanks to everyone who contributed and helped make this happen, it was a truly special way to remember such an awesome mare.

Anytime I move my horses I always get a little worried about the whole thing. It’s that whole “brace yourself for the possible disaster” feeling that horse owners are too familiar with in general. Because we all know how adaptable horses are and how impeccably they handle change, right?

I was less worried about Presto, he’s a more adaptable, roll-with-it type of horse in general. Much less anxious than his older brother, who I don’t think has done a single dressage test in his life without the word tense as a comment at least once. My life is dedicated to keeping Henry as relaxed and happy as possible. Change can really flip a switch in him sometimes, so I just never quite know how he’s going to handle things like this.

Luckily, by some miracle, they both seem to have settled in pretty seamlessly. To the point where I’m over here kinda like

But really though, they seem super happy and chill. It went MUCH more smoothly than I expected.

Henry is living in the barn with the Trakehners. Last week it was still really hot (a cold front blew through last night and it’s currently only 68 degrees. Did I drive to work with my head out the window like a dog this morning? MAYBE.) so Henry was on night turnout. Two of the trakehners go out during the day, so it worked out well for rotation.  Another of the trakehners, the stallion, handles heat about as well as Henry does, so they both stayed in their stalls with their fans on during the day. That meant Henry wasn’t alone in the barn, which seemed to appease him. At night Henry went out by himself in the pasture facing the barn that also shares a fenceline with Presto’s pasture. That also seemed to satisfy his whole “I want other horses nearby but not so close I actually have to interact with them” thing. He’s got a nice size pasture all to himself, but he can still see everyone. Happy Henny.

He seems to really like his stall as well, it’s nice and big and open and breezy with an attached run. The barn is insulated so it doesn’t get nearly as hot… he was definitely huffing and puffing a bit in the 100 degree afternoons last week but he didn’t look as miserable in the heat as I know he can. The airflow is super in the barn, too, and he can easily see everything around him and watch whatever is going on. He really seems to like that, and I think it’s a big part of what’s keeping him so relaxed. I also like that he has the option of coming in and out with the run, it keeps him moving a bit more.

He’s been pretty good for his rides, too, and I’ve ridden him all around the property by now. There’s a little hacking path in the back pasture, and we put a log out in one of the hillier pastures for him to hop over. And, much to his chagrin, we’ve ridden in the dressage arena some as well. He’s already figured out which direction it is, and if I point him that way his walk immediately gets slower. It’s such a nice ring though, even if he’s not a fan of what it represents. I’ve literally NEVER had a dressage arena of any kind “at home” before, so it’s pretty great and will definitely come in handy. Actually practice a test in a regulation size arena before we have to ride it at a show? Whaaaaaaat? Novel concept.

As for Presto, he is for sure living his best baby horse life. His full time pasture mate is the yearling, JB, who is the perfect sidekick. Presto actually finds him a little annoying, which is HILARIOUS considering that Presto has always been by far the most annoying horse in every herd dynamic he’s ever been in. During the day they’re supervised by retired mare Quinnie, who has no tolerance for their nonsense. She’s the perfect babysitter because she isn’t shy about keeping them in line, but she won’t actually HURT either of them. She’s pretty pissed about her new job though and thinks its absolute bullshit. She wants to go back to the adult pasture, please.

I kind of left Presto to his own devices all week, peeking in on him in the pasture (he still leaves his friends to greet me, so I haven’t been completely traded in yet I guess) a couple evenings but not much else. On Saturday I decided it was time, and I went and got him from the pasture and took him over to the barn. JB and Quinnie stared after him a bit when I walked him out the gate, but everyone was quiet. I brought him in, groomed him, and… that was that.

No dramatics, no screaming, not upset. Normal baby fidgeting, but he wasn’t worried. He just… crosstied like normal, and I groomed him, gave him a cookie, and put him back out. Quick and easy. Uneventful. All my favorite things.

It’s been interesting to see how he interacts with the two very different horses in his pasture. I figured he would devolve into complete baby shenanigans with the yearling, but for now he’s mostly chosen to emulate the older mare and is looking to her for guidance. I mean, he still plays plenty of Bitey Face and runs around with JB, but they haven’t completely devolved into Wild Boys status like I thought they might. For the most part he seems to be taking a lot of his “this is how we act” social cues from Quinnie. It’s pretty fantastic. The best of both worlds, really. He has one to play with and one to show him the way.

Overall both boys seem really genuinely happy with their new situation, which makes me super happy too. It’s quiet, it’s relaxed, and there’s no drama. They also fully switched over to their new food, which they seem to like, and Henry even looks like he’s gained a little weight through all this. Now we just need some rain to green up the pastures!

Just me or does time move more slowly when you’re waiting on a cold front and impeachment proceedings? Okay okay, no politics on here. But for real, this has been a loooooong week, so I’m just gonna hit on some of the highlights.

Young horse FEI classes

Finally, finally, finally! News broke that the USA will have it’s own age-restricted international classes at Morven Park next fall, geared specifically toward 6yo’s (2*) and 7yo’s (3*). The Europeans have tons of these, culminating with the World Champions at Mondial du Lion in France every fall. Some of the best horses in the world have come up through these classes, and so many upper level horses. 53% of this year’s Burghley field competed in young horse international classes. 62% of this year’s Luhmuhlen field. 51% of the last WEG field. They’re very effective stepping stones for the best horses in the world, and to help find and develop the next big superstars. To finally be able to have something like this in the US is absolutely HUGE for our young horse producers, our breeders, and US eventing as a whole. I spoke on the phone with someone who is involved and it sounds like they’re really trying to make this into something big, with other fun and relevant stuff going on at the event as well. I will definitely be there, with bells on, to support in any way I can, even if it’s just to put a butt in a seat.

As for the rest of the USEA calendar updates, I remain extremely frustrated that there is still no Modified anywhere in Area 5, but hey… there are FIVE new CCI1*’s (yeah so the closest one of those is 16 hours away too, but what else is new).

Retired Racehorse Project

Know who did awesome at RRP? Fellow blogger Hillary! She and Dobby were on fire, finishing as the 4th highest scoring amateur in the eventing section and even earning a 10 on cross country at the water. It’s a big deal buying a baby horse off the track and getting it ready for something like this in less than 10 months, and she did it while being responsible for a baby human as well. Proud of you, friend! Dobbins looks fantastic and it’s been fun to have a front row seat to their journey. He’s a really cool horse, can’t wait to see how their story continues.

 

Cold Front 

Yes, when you’re officially on the 124th day of July and have a horse who is relatively heat-intolerant, a cold front is absolutely headline news. Yeah, ok, so it’s just gonna drop the temps down into the 80’s, but I am so freakin excited. Anything is better than triple digits. It’s supposed to get here on Sunday night and I’m pretty sure everyone is counting down the minutes. Now if we could just get a little precipitation to green up the grass and soften the ground (I said a little, Texas, please don’t do that shit you did last year where it rained for like 5 months straight).

Arctic Fox hair color

Okay, this is a non-horsey thing, I admit, but I’m kind of excited about it. Some of you noticed that you can spy a purple ponytail in one of my FEH pictures…

I’m a fan of fun colored hair, but 1) I have naturally dark hair 2) I’m not into all the maintenance that bleaching requires 3) I’m definitely too cheap to get it done professionally these days. I’ve tried several different brands in the past, just putting the color over top of my natural color. Nothing has ever really shown up, or if it did it only lasted one or two washes. I bought Arctic Fox’s Purple Rain color and have been really impressed with it… we’re on week 2 and it’s still purple. Granted, my hair is so dark that any color I put on it really shows up more as a tint than a true vivid color, but I kind of prefer it that way since it’s more subtle for a professional environment. Now I’m kind of obsessed with what to try next… burgundy? Dark blue? A deep emerald green?

October

Yes, it’s October. Finally. I can start to emerge from my summertime fugue of sweat, sadness, and despair. October is very important, because it’s my favorite month of the year, and contains my favorite holiday of the year – Halloween. What’s not to love about October? It starts getting cooler, there are horse shows galore, it’s the time of year where Texas stops sucking so epically, everyone is constantly trying to plow you with candy, it’s socially acceptable to try to scare the crap out of children… it’s fantastic. Except for maybe all the body clipping. I guess nothing can be perfect, not even October.

And last but not least, my new favorite meme.

Happy Friday and HAPPY OCTOBER everyone. What good things are going on in your world this week?

When it comes to buying horse stuff, I have a few different categories that things fall under. There’s the “Long list”: things I’ll need within 6 months or so, or things I really want but can’t justify unless it’s a really good deal. There’s the “Short list”:  things I actually legitimately need right now. There’s also “Impulse purchases”: things we don’t talk about and I refuse to defend or explain. And I guess technically I do have one other category existing within my Riding Warehouse wishlist… mostly stuff I would buy if someone handed me a big pile of money or a really really generous gift card, but realistically most of it isn’t going to ever happen. Fantasyland.

As an example, that new clipper blade and blade wash that came in the mail yesterday? Definitely short-list. I legit needed that, and needed it ASAP. Horse is approaching yak status. So sensible, that purchase. Look at me being an adult.

The AmazeBrush that I demo’d at Burghley but thought I didn’t really need so didn’t buy at the time, yet have thought about several times since and now realize I could definitely use? Yeah, that got “added to cart” a few days ago. Maybe it falls more into the impulse purchase category, but I could probably manipulate it onto the short list with some excellent equestrian reasoning. Also.. ya know… it was cheap and there was free US shipping. Barely counts.

Lately though, it’s been a bit of a boon for my long list. I had several things on there that were more on the “if I come across a smoking deal” side of things, and it just so happens that several smoking deals have presented themselves. First it was the closeout Mountain Horse Opus boots. I KNOW I KNOW I just got a nice pair of Pioneer’s. But… that’s the problem. Now I have two really nice semi-custom pairs of tall boots (black Tucci and brown Pioneer) that I really don’t want to trash by wearing daily. I want them to last a long time, which is unlikely with the amount of abuse I tend to inflict on my “daily” boots… stall cleaning, baths, mud, lots of walking around, etc. It physically pains me to destroy my nice boots one day at a time. So I reasoned that if a good, hard-wearing pair of boots came along at a really good price, I’d pick them up.

And then Equizone clearanced their MH Opus.

$150 for a nice, pretty pair of brown boots that I can wear around the barn without guilt and completely destroy without feeling like such a garbage human? Sign me the eff up. And they’re Mountain Horse, so they should be able to withstand some abuse. And my calf size came in Tall (not a thing with the Sovereigns)! Score.

A few days after that I got the email from Dover offering 30% off a blanket purchase. The boys are fully stocked on turnout apparel, but I had been wanting to buy Henry a very lightweight cotton sheet for those in between temps. I loathe Dover, but they do get me a couple times a year with coupons. So I popped into the store on Sunday, figuring I’d just see if they had anything in his size. They did, and it was $20 with my coupon, so… sold.

And then I happened to peek in on Insta, where I saw a new story from The Tried Equestrian, who had just posted an Equifit bellyband for less than half of what it costs new. I actually HAVE had a bellyband on my list of things I need to buy soon, because Henry gets rubs from just my leg/boots in the winter and I’m tired of fighting it. I just… haven’t been excited about shelling out $140 for one. But for $59, I’m in.

I’ve managed to take care of most of my long list, completely by happenstance, in the past couple weeks. The stars are aligning for some reason, and I’m not going to question it.

I also got the shipping notification for that Hufglocken order I’d kind of forgotten about, with the navy shimmable Mattes sheepskin half pad. That’ll be Presto’s. I still need to get white versions of Henry’s Premier Equine sheepskin pads, because turns out I love those things more and more every day and will definitely be sticking with them. Which in turn means that I have a lot of other saddle pads to sell (among a ton of other things, because downsizing to tiny house). Ugh. Selling things is my least favorite. Kind of thinking I should just haul it all to a tack swap or send it to consignment. What have y’all done (and liked) in the past when you have lots of random shit to get rid of?

I also found out (or rather, Mimi told me) that you can actually buy those blue Decathlon gloves that I got in France in the US now. I am absolutely freaking in love with those things (like… I like them more than my Roeckl’s and they’re half the price) so I’m considering stocking up on a couple more pairs. I just wish they made them in more colors! But hey, tada… just like that the long list is no longer empty.

I think I may have talked here before about how downright violent Presto is with his food. He’s polite enough about actually being fed, but as soon as the food is in his bucket and he’s left alone to eat, my god… it is like a demolition derby. He puts his feet in his bucket, he smashes into the bucket with his head, he puts his head under the bucket and tips it upside down. It’s loud AF, and food goes everywhere.

Over the year and a half that he’s been solely in my care, I’ve tried pretty much everything. Pan on the floor, pan in a tire, food dumped on top of hay, several different kinds of buckets and feeders and different ways of tying them all down. Shit, there’s even been duct tape involved. He can break anything, given enough time. I just kind of gave up and resigned myself to buying a lot of buckets and Sand Clear. And then I had oooonnnee last idea.

I saw a lot of very positive reviews for the Cashel Feed Rite feed bag, so I figured… why not. Let’s just try it and see. Best case scenario it works and keeps him from putting his feet in buckets/breaking things constantly, and worst case scenario it would be damn funny to watch him eat with a bucket strapped to his head. So I ordered a black one, it showed up a few days later, and I found myself feeling pretty optimistic. It was a nice bag, with a reinforced mesh bottom and lots of heavy duty stitching. The weak point was, IMO, the strap. It was kind of thin nylon with a plastic snap buckle. I figured if he was going to break anything, it would be the snap (oh how close I was to being right).

So, step 1, I took it out to the barn to let him wear it and understand how it works.

In order to get all the feed out of the bottom of the bag, the horse needs to lower their head to the ground and let the bag rest on the ground. I figured this was the part he’d have a problem with (he is a lot like me in that we tend to just kind of come in like a wrecking ball of chaos with no actual plan) so I wanted to teach him to put it on the ground to get the food. First I had to get him used to it being on his nose/head, which was no big deal. He’ll tolerate a lot of things when there’s food involved.

Once he was okay with just wearing it, I set it the feed bag on the ground, held a treat, and led his nose down to the ground and into the bag to get the treat. We repeated that a few times until he was seeking to put his nose on the ground to get the treat. Then I just put a couple handfuls of food in there, strapped it on, and let him go. He figured it out really quickly.

I sat there and watched him eat, feeling semi-victorious. He pawed half-heartedly a couple times, and walked a circle in the beginning, but otherwise the typical bucket-bashing behavior was gone. I had taken all the fun out of it, by giving him nothing to toss around or make noise with. He settled down and ate the food like a normal freaking horse, for once in his life. I was hopeful that we’d finally found a good solution for him.

But in some ways he is his mother’s child through-and-through, and I should have known that my optimism was misplaced. This is a family of destroyers, after all. Remember that time Sadie sat on Michelle’s truck wheel well and smashed it to shit? Or all the baby trees, freshly planted, that she snapped in half with her ass? A natural talent for breaking things – definitely genetic.

After dinnertime that night (his first full official meal with the feed bag) I got a text from the barn owner saying that he’d broken it. More specifically, he’d ripped the strap completely off one side.

Of course he did. I was 0% surprised by this of course, although I had kind of been hoping to get at least a few weeks out of the damn thing. I thought that first he’d learn how to flip it upside down and dump the feed out, or maybe fling it off his head. Or… ya know… break the plastic buckle, the obvious weak point. But no, he completely removed the strap from one entire side. Top to bottom. Ripped clean off. How? Who even knows. How does Presto do any of these things that he does?

One meal in the feedbag and Presto was right back to bucket life. Of course, at the new place his feed bucket is screwed down, so it’s not as fun and he can’t tip it over. We’ll see how long it takes him to break that one though (which will probably happen with his feet)… we all know it’s just a matter of when, not if. I give up. You win again, Presto.