Author: Amanda C

I’d like to think that I’m fairly pragmatic most of the time when it comes to my horses. I generally don’t anthropomorphize them, I understand that they’re horses, and I know that we’re not majikal mystical BFF’s. But there’s one thing I’ve always been a bit of a mush about… greeting me at the gate.

I dunno why exactly, I think it just makes me feel better that they don’t see me coming and go “oh god, it’s HER again” and make for the hills. Granted, I’m sure that Henry knows I’m good for at least 2 cookies, so the fact that he comes up to the gate when he sees me coming is most assuredly because he’s a fattypotamus that wants a treat. Shhh… let’s ignore that. At least when they come to greet me, it makes me think that they don’t totally hate their work or their human.

I’ve really only had one horse that was hard to catch, and the others mostly just stayed where they were until I walked out to get them. A few have always been gate-greeters though, especially Sadie and Henry. Presto is generally a greeter too (unless he’s sleeping, which is a lot) but he’s a baby and most babies are like that. Things are still fresh and new and fun to them, and they never actually have to work. We’ll see how things go as he gets older.

Every once in a while, usually when we’ve had a lot of hard dressage days, Henry will give me a long hard look and then walk a few feet away, making me come to him. I swear that’s the horse version of flipping a human the bird. Not gonna lie, it kinda hurts my feeling (singular) and usually earns him a couple of fun easy hack or trail ride days. Yes, I’m a pushover like that. But 99% of the time, voila, suddenly he’s back to being a gate greeter after he’s had a bit of a mental break.

Am I the only one that places far too much emotional emphasis on the whole greeting the human at the gate thing?

If it’s possible to use the internet to stalk the internet, that’s exactly what happened here.

 

I was really sad when I had to send back the saddle I had on trial. I loved it, the price was right, and it was pretty (well ok except for those green calf blocks, but I could have fixed that). But a lot of good came out of trying that saddle, since I was able to figure out exactly what panel specs Henry needs and exactly what flap specs and sizing I needed. The hunt was on! Shouldn’t be too hard, right?

Ha.

If I had needed the 4P panel, with the built up front, I would have been in business. Or if I needed a regular forward flap instead of the extra forward. Finding our exact mixture of specs was like searching for a needle in the Devoucoux haystack. I immediately added another $500 to my budget, just to open up my options as much as possible, but it wasn’t really the budget that was the problem. It was finding one. I stalked every french saddle site, french classifieds, US high end saddle sites, ebay, instagram, facebook… you name it, every single day I was checking. Facebook yielded the most results by far. Every morning I searched “Devoucoux Chiberta”, sorted the results by date, and shuffled through all the new posts.

And finally, after a couple weeks of stalking the hell out of the internet, a particularly promising one popped up in my facebook results. It had been posted in a UK eventing group just a few hours before. Because of course it’s not in America, why would it possibly be that simple? I asked for a photo of the serial number, and lo and behold, it was exactly what I needed. And waaaaay under budget. Thanks Brexit!

But the tricky thing with buying stuff internationally is that a lot of people don’t want to bother with the hassle. I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t either. Luckily this woman was super nice, took tons more pictures for me, and said she would get me a shipping quote. A couple days later I had paid her via Paypal, the saddle was dropped off at DHL Express, and the Devoucoux was on it’s way home to me. DHL did try to jack up the price from what they had originally quoted her, but she stood her ground and they honored the price. So, for less than I had spent on the first trial saddle, I now have a new Devoucoux in my tack room.

But how does it fit, you ask? This is the fun part of buying something from overseas with no trial. You have to be REALLY sure of what you’re getting. I was confident that a saddle with these specs would fit him, based on our experiences with the brand, and luckily it does. It fits me perfectly, too. Yay for standardization of sizing and fit. It feels just as magical as the others, too, especially when we’re galloping. I just can’t get over how good the balance of this thing is. It makes everything feel much easier.

The saddle is a bit older than I was wanting, a 2012 model, but 1) it’s in great shape, 2) it was cheap. I’m plenty satisfied with the purchase. I’ll probably end up having the billets replaced within the next year or so, but they’re really the only part of the saddle that shows much wear. It’s obviously been well taken care of over the years.

And with that, the saddle hunt comes to an end. Thank goodness. I was getting tired of stalking the internet. But considering how much Grem loves the box and wrapping, it kind of made the whole thing worth it.

So… anyone who is friends with me on facebook or follows me on Insta already knows this, but I came home from Willow Tree with a new furkid. Because I am a total sucker. She was the runt in the litter of barn cats, and she is teeeeeeny tiny, but she’s so sweet and loves people.

She was not barn cat material, but she fits right in at our house.

Her name at Willow Tree was Tiny Nugget, but let’s be honest, she looks just like a Gremlin. Huge ears and mohawk and everything. Therefore she’s now known as Gremlin aka Gremy, and the dogs are all rightfully terrified of her.

Poor SO didn’t actually know that I was bringing her home until I texted and asked if he wanted to go to Petco with us or if we should just stop on our way home, to which he replied “Uhhh… what?”. I highly recommend this method of pet acquisition, by the way. It’s much easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, especially if you’re asking for forgiveness while holding a really adorable kitten.

At first he wasn’t so sure of her (neither of us typically like cats at all) but she quickly wormed her way into his affections. Yesterday she sat on his shoulder while he washed dishes and folded laundry. It’s hard not to love a tiny gremlin. She’s very people-oriented and follows us around everywhere, so I’m hoping she’s one of those cats that is a little more dog-like. Time will tell.

Other than the barn kittens, there was one more pretty adorable new addition at Willow Tree. Say hello to Murphy, the little bitty teeny tiny QH foal.

He’s easily half the size of Liam and Presto (he was a bit premature, plus QH instead of warmblood), but 100% sass and spunk. I don’t know anything about QH’s really, but he’s a grandson of Frenchman’s Guy, so apparently he’ll make a good barrel racer? I dunno. All I know is that he’s ridiculously adorable, is really quick with his teeth (little turd), and currently fits in a goat halter.

And that pretty much sums up the weekend at Willow Tree. Lots of Presto with a dash of Murphy and a healthy dose of kitten. And some pretty gorgeous double rainbows that provided a nice photo op.

We’ll see how Ms. Grem settles into her new life as an indoor cat with a bunch of dog brothers, but I think she’ll do just fine. It’s probably more of an adjustment for her humans, the professed “not cat people”, to get used to having a cat around. So far, so good?

Well that was a heck of a proper weekend.

I took off work on Friday, got a rental car (because that’s 625 miles I don’t really want to put on my truck), started up my German audio lessons on Audible, and made the 5hr trip up to Willow Tree. It’s been about a month and a half since I’d seen Presto, so my first stop when I got there was at the barn to say hi to him. Naturally, he was asleep and had no interest in getting up.

So we left the boys to their napping and started planning out details for the sBs inspection that Willow Tree is hosting this fall. Mostly layout, set-up, and small details. Then we played with the barn cats (that’s a story…), Presto got some in-hand lessons (mostly learning what clucking means, and how to walk next to the human instead of lagging behind at a 2mph walk which is a huge pet peeve of mine), then we pigged out on Mexican food. That is how you Friday.

On Saturday I slept in all the way til 6:15 (late for me!) then slowly got dressed and made my way outside. Presto and Liam were much more active in the cool early morning breeze, so I just sat and watched them for a while. It really is a privilege to see that boy enjoying himself and being a normal baby. He’s even caught up height-wise… Liam sticked at 13.2 up front and 13.3 behind, and Presto is 13.1 1/2 up front and 13.2 1/2 behind. Really really close now, height-wise. Of course, Liam is literally about twice as wide, but that’s to be expected from their breeding. Liam is going to be a big, wide, powerful chunk of a horse, whereas Presto is going to be much leaner and lighter across the ground. The difference in type is pretty stark.

We spent the morning doing a photo shoot with one of the 3yo’s, then in the afternoon Presto got some more lessons… first with his feet (he’s had his feet handled and he’s been trimmed but he’s not very good about it) and then with tying/grooming/patience. The first Feet lesson didn’t go so well… when we got to the hinds he kicked me TWICE, earning a much longer and more intense lesson. Once he was clear on the fact that kicking is Very Bad, he was actually quite good. He’s great about tying and grooming, and even had a fair amount of patience. For a 4 month old, anyway.

He had a few more feet+ very light rasping+grooming+leading sessions over the weekend, and by the time we were done he was pretty pro at going forward from clucking. He’s really quite smart (sometimes in a too-smart way, just like his mom) and catches on fast/retains things well. You can always see his gears turning.

I bought a fly mask for him but… uh… he was pretty sure that was deadly, and I figured I’d tortured him enough for one weekend, so we’ll circle back around to that later.

Saturday evening it started storming so they all had to stay inside for the night, which worked out great. I could go in there for really short intervals and redo all of his lessons in small doses. He got better and better about everything as the weekend went on. He’s obviously well socialized and has been handled a lot, so just adding some more intense lessons is pretty easy. He’s got a great foundation to build on.

By the time the storms were over and they got to go back out on Sunday morning, they were super full of themselves. That always makes for some good entertainment.

It was a bit of a short trip, but we got a lot done and of course it was great to see him again. He just looks better and better as more time passes, and I’m really happy to see him out there playing and acting like a normal foal. Before you know it it’ll be weaning time!

 

I’ve been using a lot of hair-related products on Henry lately. Y’all might remember his episode of face funk that come on seemingly out of nowhere and left him with a couple of very attractive bald spots on his face. Yay summer. I’m happy to report that, just two weeks later, those are pretty much completely gone. This is the comparison photo from when we started and then one week later.

A WEEK!

Now the hair has filled in a lot more and you really can’t even tell there was ever a bald spot. Pretty damn miraculous, I must say. I was worried that it would just keep spreading, but luckily I was able to stop it in it’s tracks. That hair grew back a whole lot faster than I expected too, thank goodness, because I was having nightmares about all the hair falling off of his face. Seems reasonable.

And exactly what product is responsible for saving us from that?

My favorite (and as I’ve now figured out, summertime must-have) Zephyr’s Garden tea tree spray. I reviewed it last spring (remember that video where Bobby sprayed some in my mouth? It tastes TERRIBLE, do not recommend eating it.) and it proved super useful last summer to keep the leg crud at bay. I’ve been using it for the same purpose this summer, with much success, but man… it really blew me away with how well and how quickly it fixed that facial disaster.

Henry’s also been getting more soap bathsagain now that we’re in prime sweat season. I’ve kind of had my eye out for a new shampoo to try… something that smells really good, leaves them shiny, and is all natural. A lot of those are pretty pricey though, and I just have a hard time spending $25 s pop on a bottle on horse shampoo and conditioner. So when Teddy’s Tack Trunk (aka She Who Never Leads Me Astray) suggested the Espana line, I jumped on it.

I got the “bundle“, which includes the silk shampoo, conditioner, and a detangler/sunscreen spray plus the large size natural sea sponge for $52.50. Each of these things is available separately in the shop as well, with the shampoo and conditioner coming in at $13.95 each, the spray at $14.95, and the sponge at $14.95 (or the small sponge is $7.95, although for bathing I’d def stick with the large), so the bundle makes it about $5 cheaper. Either way, those prices are easier to stomach. Especially because their shipping is super cheap and crazy fast.

My two favorite things about the shampoo are the smell (it’s a really pleasant scent, not too floral and not too medicinal) and the fact that it rinsed out really easily. I hate having to rinse a thousand times to get all the shampoo out. I lathered him up with the sponge, washed his tail, put conditioner in his tail, and then rinsed everything. He was super clean, smelled amazing for days, and was really shiny when he dried. What more can you ask for from shampoo?

I was even more impressed with the conditioner. Normally when I dye his tail I save all the remnants in the conditioner packets (like a crazy packrat) because it’s the best I had found for detangling. Now I don’t have to worry about that, because this stuff is even BETTER.

I basically never brush Henry’s tail unless we’re at a show, so it tends to be pretty tangled. I just slathered the conditioner in there really well, let it sit for a few minutes, rinsed it, let him dry, and when I took the brush to it, the tangles just fell right out. Normally I have to carefully pick through his tail to get it detangled without breaking the hairs, but not so with this stuff. It definitely takes the prize spot in my bathing bucket.

Now Henny is so fresh and so clean-clean… AND he has hair on his face again! If you guys are interested in trying any of the bath products, TTT is going to run a sale on all bath-related stuff through Sunday.  Use coupon code GIVEMEABATH for 10% off!