Author: Amanda C

Sometimes I’m really good about getting as much media as possible for these show recaps. Other times I’m not. This instance is the latter. Well ok, I did just buy 10 pictures from the show photographer but I’m not sure when those will get here. Didn’t get much media of my own though. Part of it is that it was a one day event, with all 3 of my phases set within a 3 hour time span and everybody else was just as busy. The other part of it is that I was totally not focused on anything but riding, mostly because I wasn’t feeling uber prepared to start with. I didn’t even look up my dressage test until I was at the show on Friday. This show really snuck up on me out of nowhere.

I did a quick stretchy w/t ride on Henry Friday morning at home, then loaded all my stuff and made the 4 hour trek up to Willow Draw. We were one of the first ones there, which was nice, but it did mean that we had several hours to wait before Trainer and the rest of our group arrived. I walked my XC course once while I waited, then we walked it with Trainer when she got there. There were a few big fences on course, but most of the challenge really seemed to lie less in the height and more in the terrain and the approaches to the fences.

A lot of jumps were set in such a way that you really couldn’t get straight to them, at least not from more than 5-6 strides away. Even the first fence was at quite an awkward angle out of the start box, and then there was a Trakehner early on course at fence 3. Between 5 and 6 was a long, steep hill, with a big table at the top, followed by a quick right hand turn to a sunken road to skinny-ish fence. The only one that had me a little worried though was 11, a big (Like boob high. Official measurement.) brush fence. The fence itself was fine, but it was at the end of a little path through the woods, and it was angled in such a way that you better be really darn committed and straight. You had no choice but to jump it on said angle, and if the horse didn’t get their eye on it before you popped out of the woods, a righthand runout would be really easy.

It wasn’t a huge fence to huge fence to huge fence type of course like we’ve seen before, but there were definitely some sneaky, creative little tweaks with placement and terrain that made it trickier than it would appear just from looking at the fences themselves. After we walked the course (and got assaulted by swarms of mosquitoes that may have been big enough to qualify as birds – I’M STILL ITCHY), we did a quick flat school, then tucked the horses in and went to bed.

My dressage was at a very reasonable 9:20am, so I had plenty of time to feed, take Henry for a walk, and braid on Saturday morning. I got on about 25 minutes before my ride time, let him canter on a loose rein for a few minutes, and then started putting him together. I didn’t feel like he was quite as connected or loose in his back as he was at Chatt, but he was being very obedient. The test itself went pretty much the same way – he definitely didn’t feel as loose and relaxed as he has the past couple shows, but he did everything I asked. Except for that second canter-trot transition at X where he threw in a flying change just before we trotted. Oops. That particular movement earned a 4, with the comment “flying change not called for”. Whaaaaat, no bonus points for flair? C’mooooon. I think if I could have done my morning pre-ride like we did at Chatt, it may have helped him relax a bit, but having all 3 phases in one morning meant I had to put my priority on reserving as much of my horse’s energy as possible, especially on a fairly warm day.

Even with that flying change bobble, and with Henry not feeling quite as good as he can, we still got a 32.1 to be sitting in 2nd after dressage. We had a couple 8’s, a lot of 7.5’s, and a couple 6.5’s. Plus that lovely 4 for our “not called for” lead change. The judge liked that I was bold on the lengthenings though. This is the 4th show in a row where we’ve been near the top after dressage, instead of mid-pack or closer to the bottom like we used to be. I much prefer this position, I must say, although I do feel a little more pressure to not do anything too stupid. Like at week 2 of Chatt, where I missed to the up bank and tried to kill us, thereby sacrificing our 3rd place…

Anyway, I didn’t have much time to stew on the dressage, really, because stadium was next. We all went to walk the course after I was done with dressage, and it definitely had me raising my eyebrows a bit. The course was set on a grassy hillside, so terrain was going to be very much a factor in how everything rode. Uphill, downhill, a tree in the way, on the side of a hill – you name it, pretty much every fence had some kind of terrain question involved as well. Because of this they seemed to set the fence height a bit soft.

We walked when it was set for Prelim and it looked more like a beefy Training to me, which honestly had me a bit worried about how they’d look once they went down even more for Training. I generally do NOT ride well when I think the jumps look tiny. At all. I need something that makes me sit up and ride up to it. And Henry seems especially unimpressed and lazy when they’re small and boring. I was also wondering how all these terrain changes were going to work for me, on a naturally downhill horse, wearing a very loosely fitted hackamore. Not gonna lie, I had visions of rails flying everywhere. I put his studs in before stadium, to give us a little extra help on the grass and the hills.

Honestly though, I think the terrain changes actually worked in our favor. I really had to focus on trying to keep him balanced as we went up and down, but still forward and positive, to the point where the jumps were more of an afterthought amidst all that. I knew that the hackamore wasn’t going to give me much help, so I was forced to use my seat and my body instead. Basically, the technical challenges of the course kind of forced me to… ride better. And let’s be honest, I REALLY needed to put in a decent stadium ride at a show for once.

He still ticked a couple of them hard enough to make me think at least one might have come down, but luck was on our side that day, and though one or two definitely rattled, they all stayed in the cups. Finally, FINALLY, a clear stadium round at a recognized Training. We’ve managed a few clean rounds at schooling shows but never put it together at a recognized. It was starting to feel like a curse! With a double clean round we kept our 32.1 and our second place position headed into XC.

Tomorrow – the fun part!

Ok, fall has not ACTUALLY arrived in Texas, it’s still 90 freakin degrees here. But the horses are getting fuzzy, the evenings are feeling a little bit less sweltering, and I don’t know about y’all but I’m damn ready for some hot chocolate and sweater weather. Aaaaaaany day now, Texas.

Part of my impatience has to do with the flood of fall and winter apparel and equipment ads that are stacking up on social media and in my inbox. I look at those and pine for cozy sweaters and coolers, and then walk outside and get blasted in the face with heat and humidity. That isn’t enough to stop the pining though.

Riding Warehouse sent out an announcement the other day saying that they’re now carrying Carhartt, which made me wonder whatever happened to the old Carhartt jacket I had a billion years ago. When it came to winter barn chores, there was nothing better. So I marched off to Riding Warehouse, as one does on a regular basis if you’re me, to check out what else was new. It wasn’t long before I found myself in knee deep in fall and winter items.

We’ll completely ignore the fact that they carry Eskadron and LeMieux now. I’m not really into the matchy-matchy thing, but even my boring navy and white constitution can be swayed by a deep emerald or burgundy saddle pad. We’ll even keep scrolling past the new addition of Uckele supplements, which I am actually pretty psyched to see because now I don’t have to buy my copper elsewhere. No, friends, we must keep scrolling down the New Items page, all the way down to the one thing that truly symbolizes fall for me. My favorite apparel item on the planet. The ultimate in YAAAAAS PASS THE HOT CHOCOLATE.

Yeah so maybe I have the fashion sense of a teenager, but there just isn’t a cozier item of apparel out there. The real tragedy is that I live in a place where you can only wear hoodies like 3 months a year. But this hunter green Horseware one? Um, yes please. They also have some cute baselayers that would totally work under a vest (my next favorite item of apparel) for riding. The green one might already be in my cart. Stop judging.

There are also a couple new shirt brands that I haven’t seen before – Aubrion and Chestnut Bay. Both have some cute things, although Aubrion is really into orange. Tis the season, I suppose.

My favorite item out of these new brands, though? This friggin adorable walk trot canter sweater. A horse sweater that isn’t cheesy, looks comfy, and has elbow patches? I need this. I will buy this. There is a 100% chance.

For the ponies, I was SUPER EXCITED to see that they’re carrying HUG blankets now. These are my #1 all time favorite, the only blankets EVER that have managed to not give Henry shoulder rubs. I already got one for Presto too. I hope enough people order these so that RW keeps carrying them… there for a while only Horseloverz had them in the 1200 denier, and that was really sad because Horseloverz and I are not friends.

I also noticed in all of my scrolling that there’s a new line of health and grooming products featuring CBD oil. I was wondering if/when this new craze was going to make it over to the equestrian world, and it seems we have arrived. I admit that I’m really curious as to how/if this stuff actually works… anyone tried it yet? It’s not exactly the cheapest.

Aside from the evil temptation that is Riding Warehouse, I also found myself staring wistfully at a few things on PS of Sweden’s website. I was pretty excited to see that they’ve relaunched their quarter sheets, although the design is different from their original model. I loved my old one because it had straps that buckled to the girth, which made it really stable and really easy to take off while I was riding. I have two monoflaps, so that style is especially appealing to me since I don’t like sitting on the material, and I don’t really like putting it over my legs, but I also need to be able to take it off easily. Their new wool quarter sheets and coolers are GORGEOUS, but the design is like a regular traditional quarter sheet. A bit of a bummer. They still look really nice though, so I’m debating between the Back on Track and the PS of Sweden. I like BOT stuff, but I also love wool, so I dunno. We’re still a couple months away from quarter sheet weather anyway.

I also like PSoS’s take on the elastic belt. Theirs incorporates their logo into the buckle and has all 3 of the best colors on the elastic – navy, burgundy, and hunter green. It would match basically everything I own. And at $45 it’s definitely cheaper than a Ruespari.

You know what else it would look good with? This sweater that I am really hopelessly unreasonably head over heels in love with. Green AND elbow patches??? Sold.

Has anyone else started to get excited about all the fall/winter items? What stuff is on your wishlist for the season?

 

If you thought the story about the Cat Shit Robot was entertaining, hold on to your britches, because here we go again.

If there’s one thing that has become crystal clear as of late, it’s that facebook and Instagram advertising work REALLY WELL on the SO. Like that night he came home with a bag full of “soups” for the cat, because there was an ad on his Instagram for them and he thought it looked like something Grem would like. Nevermind the fact that he had to go to 3 different stores to actually find those exact ones. He sent me a facebook message last week about a backpack that had popped up in his feed, made to carry a dog around in. Of course, the ad depicted a corgi in said backpack. We have one of those! Surely our corgi needs a backpack too! I told him he was completely insane, and about 30 seconds later he informed me that he bought the black “deluxe” one. Honestly, I expected nothing less.

I will say, the corgi is the absolute worst when it comes to walking.  He loves the IDEA of going places, but he hates actually… walking. Every time we try to go on walks in the neighborhood, he gets about 2 blocks before he just lays down and refuses to move anymore. Usually this means that one of us is stuck carrying him home, because you sure can’t drag 35lbs of corgi anywhere that it doesn’t want to go. We also have tried taking him hiking a few times, which he’s slightly more enthusiastic about, but still… you’ve got maybe 20 minutes before he’s no longer participating. Usually this means that the corgi ends up not getting to go on outings, or that none of the dogs get to go anywhere, because it’s kind of a jerk move to just leave one of them at home. So I guess you can almost make a case for the ridiculous dog backpack (or as I am now calling it – The Doggy Bjorn) in this instance.

As he opened the bag and pulled out the backpack, he ran me through all the different features and options, and all the accessories that you can buy. Apparently for $20 you can get a little custom velcro patch with the dog’s name on it, for $15 you can get some reflective strips, for $13 the dog can have some goggles, or for $30 you can get the dog a special hooded jacket made to fit perfectly inside the backpack. What a world we’re living in, guys. What a time to be alive.

Watching the SO trying to stuff that fat little ball of fluff into the backpack was definitely one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. I laughed so hard that I was crying and hyperventilating, as SO was desperately begging “CAN YOU HELP ME?”. No, brah, no I can’t, because I’m half dead on the floor from lack of oxygen while watching this one man comedy show right here.

Finally he wrangled him into it and hoisted Quinn’s floppy dead weight up onto his back. Cue more fits of laughter from me. I had to sit down again.

Once I had semi-control of myself, it was time to take it for a test drive. SO said that he was hoping to wait until dark, lest the neighbors see exactly what was transpiring. I was like oh hell no, we go now, right at the tail end of rush hour. These people need to know what kind of psychopath they’re living next to.

At first glance I think most people assumed that it was a baby, but there were definitely some very rapid double takes when they realized it was a fuzzy dog head sticking up out of that thing. Quinn, of course, seemed quite pleased with the situation. Finally, the humans understood how to treat him the way he deserves. He was totally content to take in the view from over SO’s shoulder as we walked.

So yes, we now have yet another stupidly expensive (ok it wasn’t THAT bad, but I sure as hell don’t own a bag of any kind – purse or otherwise – that cost that much) pet accessory. Honestly, I feel like we should all just be glad he only bought one. If he buys me my own Doggy Bjorn for Christmas, we’re done.

FEH Championships kind of took over my life there for a hot minute. Or at least the blog, because there has still been a lot of other stuff going on too.

In all of my FEH distraction, fall horse show season has totally snuck up on me. Henry and I are entered at Willow Draw this weekend, a place we haven’t shown before. It’s a one day event, which isn’t my favorite, but I’m desperate for a change of scenery and a totally new course. I’ve been riding him every day but I definitely feel a little bit unfocused and underprepared. Oh well, we’re gonna go do the thing anyway. I also sent off my entry for Holly Hill at the end of the month, which I’m really excited about, because I’ve been trying to get back there to run Training for literally two freaking years and it’s just never worked out for some reason or another. Those are the only two recognized shows we’re doing this fall, but I’ll probably try to do some of the Pine Hill schooling shows over the winter too.

Speaking of Pine Hill, on Sunday Hillary and I went down there to volunteer. Oh yeah BTW, in case you haven’t read her blog yet, Hillary moved to Austin. Sucks for her, this place is an eventing wasteland, but it’s good for me because I like Hillary and it’s easy to talk her into fun things. Like getting up at 4:30am and driving 2 hours to Pine Hill to volunteer, while she’s got a baby with her. Baby Bea is ridiculously chill though, and she was the perfect addition to bit check.

I had just gotten back from Tyler with Presto the night before, so I was grumpy as hell at 4:30am, wondering wtf I was actually thinking by volunteering the day after FEH Champs. I literally covered Texas from one end to the other over the weekend. I was especially tired after finishing my morning job of dressage score runner. So much walking. BUT, I did finally get the last pesky little half hour that I needed to earn my Pine Hill hat. See, Pine Hill does a Rewards Program for their volunteers. In addition to earning credits for schoolings or schooling shows, you also earn cool little Pine Hill swag items. I earned my key chain a while ago, but landed just half an hour short of my hat.

And that hat is really important. Why? Because Bobby wants one really badly. You can’t buy any of this swag, you have to earn it, yet Bobby has been trying to finagle himself a black market Pine Hill hat for almost 2 years now. Naturally, since he wants one so bad, I made it a personal goal to earn one and wear it every time I’m around Bobby, so I can taunt him with it. What else are friends for?

With Sunday’s hours I finally earned my hat, and my volunteer hours from this next Pine Hill show in a few weeks (I signed up to scribe and XC jump judge) will earn me my belt. SUCK ON THAT, BOBBY.

Yes, I’m extremely petty. Bobby deserves it.

I also may or may not have talked Michelle into picking up a new broodmare. In my defense, it took no actual arm twisting. I stumbled across the mare on facebook, liked how she looked, and then just about died when I saw the pedigree.

This is Peyton:

This is Peyton’s pedigree:

Aside from all the usual sporty names, one stuck out in particular – her damsire Quest for Fame. He himself was an Epsom Derby winner, but not much of a racehorse sire. However, he sired a buttload of eventers. A little bit of internet stalking (ok a lot) revealed all of these offspring at the upper levels of eventing:

Some videos from the seller showed a nice big mare with correct movement, super balanced canter, an active hind leg, and a particularly smart and tidy hind end over fences. I’ve been looking for a couple years now for a TB mare good enough to join Michelle’s string, and we finally found one. Hopefully she ends up being a good producer of eventing babies!

I think that pretty much catches us back up on what else I’ve been up to. Things are always busy here this time of year!

Ok, I think I’ve managed to drag this out as long as possible. Sorry I’m long-winded, I can’t help it. Day 1 recap of our FEH Champs experience is here, in case you missed it. This post is picking up with day 2.

I woke up stupid early on Saturday and couldn’t fall back asleep, so eventually I just gave up, crawled out of my air mattress cocoon, and got dressed. I tossed Presto his breakfast and then brushed out his tail and got my braiding supplies ready while he ate. Of course he managed to sleep in a pee spot and get one entire side swirly and gross, but thank goodness for brown horses, because I just rubbed it with a damp rag and voila – it was like it never happened. I braided his mane and Michelle got to work on that giant shrubbery of a forelock. When she brushed it out, it literally touched the noseband of his halter. That thing took some wrangling, to say the least.

After he was done with his beautification, I put his scrim sheet on and took him for a walk around the grounds. The sun was just coming up, and it was really foggy and quiet while we walked, which made the whole place feel kind of ethereal. At least until Presto decided to be a horse kite and start spinning and farting for a few circles. Way to ruin the moment, kid.

After his walk, I put Presto away and Michelle and I went down the street to the bakery for breakfast. We were gone for all of half an hour, yet by the time we came back Presto had violently rubbed half of his braids out and broken off a few big chunks of hair. Luckily I was using the Quick Knots so it was easy to unclip them, re-roll the braid, and then resecure everything. After that he could not be trusted alone anymore.

We slowly finished getting him ready and I donned my khakis and Willow Tree Warmbloods/sBs polo. The navy polo with brown helmet, brown gloves, and brown boots was definitely the right choice. We coincidentally matched Martin and it totally looked deliberate.

Around 9am, we went ahead and took him over to the arena. We hung out and chatted with Martin until the horse before us was finished, and then we were in. We waited off to the side while the judges finished their scoresheets, then it was Presto’s turn to step up to the judges. Of course, at this moment, the love of his life (of which he has several), a light gray filly named Elsa, came into view at the bottom of the hill. Presto’s attention span promptly leapt out of his ear and ran off into the field. The super quiet, half asleep baby from the evening before was suddenly very wiggly and distracted.

That whole plan for me keeping his attention while he was standing – LOL. Cute. No one had his attention but Elsa. His naturally cool nature ultimately prevailed, and he knows better than to be truly naughty, but he definitely had some ants in his pants. All of that dramatic posing did make for some cute pictures though.

His walk, which had been nice and marching and swinging the night before when we practiced, was more tense and a bit stilted. I was glad that I had decided to hand the handling job over to Martin, he was great at managing it as best as he possibly could. There’s no doubt I could not have done as good a job as he did.

Our original plan for the trot was to have me up at the first corner of the triangle with a whip, to help encourage him “up” as they powered off on the side going parallel to the judges. Presto was pretty pumped to show off for Elsa though, and gave about 5 steps of trot before breaking into canter. Martin quickly got him back down, although Presto briefly tried to show him the dance of his people in the process.

Martin wasn’t satisfied with that pass, so he kept going for a second lap of the triangle. By this point Presto had settled a bit, and we got some decent trot. Not quite as good as he’s capable of on his best day, but close enough.

If I’d had any remaining emotional reservations about having Martin handle him instead of me, they dissolved pretty much immediately. It was SO the right choice. Not only did he show the horse better than I could have, it was priceless to be able to stand back and actually enjoy the moment, watching my baby horse strut his stuff at FEH Championships. He is the product of a lot of planning, dreaming, time, work, money, blood, sweat, and tears. Even cooler, he is a second generation homebred for me. As an amateur owner, rider, and breeder, I don’t get a lot of moments like this. To be able to share it with Michelle, his “other mother”, who has just as much if not more invested in this colt as I do, was awesome. That’s what we were truly there for, regardless of how he scored.

We had to wait a couple hours for awards and scoresheets, but they posted the results pretty quickly. I was shocked when my friend came up and showed me a picture on her phone that she’d taken of the posted scores. In the yearling colts, Presto was first, with a 79.925 (gah, so close to 80!). Yep, you heard me right.

He. was. FIRST.

WHAT? And out of all the yearlings, he was Reserve Champion. His girlfriend Elsa beat him with an 80.675.

To say I was surprised was an understatement. I was expecting for him to end up on the other end of the spectrum. I definitely never imagined that he would win the colts and end up 2nd overall out of all the yearlings. It was a really nice group of babies. Proud is an understatement. Yeah, it’s just FEH – we’ve still got a loooooooong way to go before he’s a real event horse – but it’s a pretty fun moment in his life, either way, and a great experience for both of us.

I know of four Mighty Magic’s that were entered in FEH Champs, across the three sites, and all four of them won their class. Pretty cool. Plus Presto won some swag, including a nice leather halter that he may or may not grow into someday. It’s pretty, that’s all that counts.

I sent a couple of these pics to Dr. Kari, the vet who spent so many days and nights trying to keep him alive in that very tough first month of Presto’s life. She loved them, said that she tells The Legend of Presto to her vet students all the time, and that she still has a coffee mug on her desk with him on it. We both get a little emotional about him, I think because we still vividly remember the sad little colt on death’s doorstep who spent so long hooked up to bags of fluid and plasma, fighting for his life against pretty insurmountable odds. For her, he’s a success story from a situation in which there rarely is one. I can never thank her enough for all she did for him… she quite literally saved his life, many times over. It’s pretty cool to get to share moments like this with her and have her get just as excited about it as I do. I know Presto has no concept of what he’s had to overcome, but we sure do.

I’m still waiting for pictures from the pro photographer, so you’ll probably be seeing even more of these. I’m not sorry. Also, shout out to my friend Kate, who writes for Eventing Nation and took some of these pics for me in addition to all of the ones from Michelle. Kate did a great write up about the show, if you haven’t read it yet!