Mysteries Abound

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.

zoinks scoobs

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.

a real who dun it

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.

there’s just not much evidence

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.

omg

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.

lookit him

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.

Jumpscare

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…

PC Liz Crawley
whee

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!

The Others

One perk of Presto having a little summer vacay is that it gives me a little more time to focus on the others. Particularly this dude.

He who hath no chill

I’m figuring Rubes out more and more as time goes on, and one thing that has become exceedingly clear is that he thrives on routine. That makes sense, he was a racehorse forever, and racehorse life is all about routine. While he’s learned over time to be more flexible about how his day is structured (he used to get IRATE if he wasn’t worked before 8am), having a really predictable routine when I’m in the tack also seems to soothe him quite a bit. So I’ve been structuring his rides pretty much the same every day, and he’s really starting to focus more, which is helping things “click”. He’s a horse who likes to always know what to expect.

As of right now, that looks like this: we do his normal flatwork, wtc with transitions between and within the gaits, leg yield, a little shoulder or baby haunches in, spiraling in and out, etc. Then we trot some cavaletti until he does so quietly – this could be 1 time or this could be 5-6 times, depending on the day. Once he’s straight and quiet and paying attention, we canter some cavaletti as singles. If he wants to get a little yeehaw about it we go back to trot and wash-rinse-repeat. At this point the focus is really just rhythm and straightness. Once we’ve got all that down pat (which again, could be 2-3 times or might be 6-8 times) we might end with cantering the cavaletti on a bending line or making a shorter approach off the rail.

Some days are better than others (this mostly hinges on what else is happening around him… like the day the internet company decided to set up a huge orange umbrella under the telephone pole right in front of the ring and Rubes was holding his brain together with scotch tape and a prayer) but day over day the improvement is there. He’s very smart and always trying to figure out what I want, but he does need a lot of routine and predictability (at least right now) to help him maintain his focus and his calm.

Tell you what though, I’m really happy with how his canter and his jump are coming along. He is indeed the athlete I thought he was. Once I can wrangle the brain, we’ll be in business.

He did go on another little outing, and was calm enough to where I probably could have gotten on him and ridden him around, but considering that he’s really anticipating ACTION whenever he goes somewhere (obviously we get on the trailer and go to race, ya know?) I felt like it was more important for him to just take a look around, have some grass, take a deep breath, and then get back on the trailer and go home. He still has to figure out that going places doesn’t always mean something exciting is going to happen. Until then, I think it’s more beneficial for him to just hang out. The riding stuff is not and will not be the hard part with this horse, it’s going to be the anxiety. And since I have the benefit of not being in any kind of rush with him, we can just take each day as it comes and do whatever the best thing is for his brain on the day. I think taking that time now, in the beginning, will be better for him in the long run. If I try to get greedy I think I could create a problem where there doesn’t have to be one.

BATMAN is here!

Aside from Rubes I’ve been working with a couple of the 2yo’s a bit. Andy is old news I suppose, I’ve been working with him since he was a weanling, but now that he’s actually 2, things are going to start getting a little more exciting. He ties, he loads, he knows whoa and walk voice commands and the idea of lunging (walk only), he’s ponied, and he’s worn saddle pads and such. This summer he’ll wear a bit for the first time, and a saddle, and start learning about trotting and maybe some ground driving at the walk.

he’s more interested in eating hats

Joining him on those adventures will be Rue, the filly that Michelle retained from the 2023 foal crop. I’m going to start playing with her a bit more and get a feel for her temperament/personality and what she might be suited for, hoping that she can have a bit of a sport career before she joins the broodmare band. She’s a tall girl, with a temperament more like a gelding, so we’ll see how she takes to things.

first order of business was a haircut

As for Presto, he’s been out hacking a few times this week and seems to be feeling good. Tomorrow we’ll start some stretchy w/t/c and start moving him back into work next week. He’s definitely starting to act bored and wild (just what everyone wants – a bored and wild Presto) so I think he’s ready to get back to his normal stuff.

he did make friends with this cow though

In other news we’ve had another mare with a confirmed pregnancy and one with a confirmed heartbeat check in the past week… all we’ve really got left is one mare waiting on her pregnancy scan, which is this weekend. Then we’re done! Once we wrap all that up I’ll post a list of what all we’re expecting next year. It’s quite a few (biggest crop yet?) and a wide variety of horses, so it should be pretty fun in 2026. We’ve already had some inquiries on next years foals, and we’ve only got one left this year (Ivy – the upper level event prospect).

In less great news, both pairs of my riding boots have suffered catastrophic wounds in the last couple weeks. The heel has completely separated on my black ones, and I’ve worn a quarter size patch through the calf of the brown ones.

sads

I have super glue and a leather patch on the way, so we’re about to be doing some experimenting. Ain’t nobody be affording new boots at the moment.

One other thing: my first podcast episode with OTTB on Tap dropped this week, check it out here if you’re so inclined! And make sure you’re following them on facebook and/or insta for exclusive vlogs, updates, and more podcast episodes (plus just really great OTTB content in general).

The Vibes? Bad.

I went looking for the right meme to start off this post before I realized I didn’t really need one, because this picture just kind of sums it up.

yeah me too bro

I dunno what’s up with the month of June, but it’s swept in here with some bad vibes. Real bad. I dunno if I’m supposed to burn some sage or hire an Etsy witch or what, but my god.

Area Championships went like shit.

Well ok, there were good parts. Which is probably a little more frustrating? Ok maybe not. But uuugggggghhh guys. Sometimes I wonder wtf is wrong with me to revolve my entire life around a sport that only gets harder the more you do it and the higher up the levels you go. Why couldn’t I be obsessed with a sport that involved inanimate objects without thoughts and feelings and bad days of their own? Or like… crochet or knitting or making little felt woodland creatures? Questions I ask myself sometimes.

I have very little media from the show. No one was there with me when I did dressage and there’s only one pro pic I like well enough to buy it but cannot bring myself to spend the money. I actually thought Presto was pretty good for the test. There were no real mistakes, nothing that was a particular whoopsie, it was just one of those where we needed more sparkle in general. Usually for him that ends up getting a 29-31 but this judge was not impressed with us and gave us a 35. Ouch. That’s usually the type of score we get when there is a real mistake or two. To be fair, the judge didn’t like any of us that much and I was still in 2nd after dressage.

XC was 95% the best round we’ve ever had.

Finally, FINALLY it was really forward-thinking and flowing out of stride and I was seeing things coming forward. Presto was absolutely bang-on at the combinations, even angling some of the skinnies and foot perfect through the hardest water combo he’s seen to date.

So what caught us out? The coffin complex that he’s jumped through about eleventy million times. I still have no real clue exactly what happened. We came out of the turn, there was the A element MIM rail, I rode forward to it, and…. he said nope. I’m not sure if it was the fact that there were a ton of people/cars right around there and he was distracted, or what. Genuinely I have no idea. I even have it on video and me and Trainer both are just kinda like I dunno what the excuse is there. I re-presented and he jumped through super, and went on to absolutely ping around the rest of the course like it was a Novice. Genuinely aside from that moment it was by far our best round not just at this level but maybe ever. Sigh. One of those times when you really wish horses could talk.

We had SJ the next day and he warmed up feeling GREAT. Was jumping fantastic, still seemed fresh and happy and ready to go. Went in the ring, picked up the canter, went to fence 1, and he absolutely just reining-horse slid to a stop at the last second and lawn-darted me in spectacular fashion. Like really spectacular fashion. We checked him out nose to tail and couldn’t find anything wrong, but I had my vet out a few days later to give him a really thorough once over just to make sure there wasn’t something small that we were missing. She spent quite a while poking and prodding and jogging him and checking his eyes and his ulcer points and blah blah blah, I mean shit we even went over his feeding program. Absolutely nothing noteworthy to be found. Which is great because obviously you never want to find an issue, but it just leaves us with more questions really.

He got a training ride and then I did a little jump school on him and he was 100% normal for both. Happy, eager, forward. We took him XC schooling on Saturday and jumped a bunch of ditches and stuff to see if that had anything to do with it and he was literally foot perfect.

explain yourself, horse

So, ya know… anyone’s guess is as good as mine. Myself and my team can’t find anything wrong, nor has he had a bad day since then.

To be honest I was pretty upset about it last week. I do not handle disappointment well (one of the reasons why I don’t ever let myself get that excited about anything… why does disappointment feel so soul-crushing to me?) and it was just incredibly defeating. I’ve been absolutely busting my ass all year, scraping together money to take more lessons and riding whatever I can, whenever I can, and applying so much mental focus and physical effort to be just be better. I feel like me and Presto have both improved massively, so to end up smacked in the dirt at the first jump of SJ was just a huge shock, tbh.

In my head I know that when we choose to do hard things and push ourselves and step outside of our comfort zone, failure is an inevitable part of the process. The best horses and riders in the world still have bad shows or end up in the dirt. I also know, very familiarly, that horses aren’t robots and they have bad days too. Knowing all of that doesn’t make it any less devastating in the moment. My biggest fear is fucking up my horse and it really felt like that’s exactly what I had done. It took me several days to pull myself back from the ledge. But at the end of the day you can either be defeated by failure or you can be motivated by failure, and I dunno about y’all but I’m not a fucking quitter. We’re gonna choose to learn from it, put it behind us (I’m trying to, I swear), and move forward.

That was the very long-winded way of saying that Presto’s summer vacay got delayed a week and actually started this past Sunday. So he’ll get a week off and then very light hacking, then gear back up for some summer stuff. A think a little refresh and reboot will do us both some good (even if he claims he’s terribly dreadfully bored already).

Ruby boy!

In the meantime, Rubes is starting to buckle down a bit and I’m eyeballing some off-property outings for him. Or I was anyway, until he did this.

who needs a hoof wall anyway?

By some absolute miracle we managed to get a shoe back on there, but I mean there’s like… almost no wall left. Love that for me considering summer (the season that absolutely murders horse feet in Florida) has barely even begun. I can already tell that me and my farrier are gonna have just a peachy keen time. We’ll see tomorrow if Rubes is sound and then go from there.

In more “the vibes are bad” news (I told you they’re BAD) – there will be no bebe horse for me next year. I was very excited to breed a super nice big TB mare to Cashmere, but it looks like she probably has a bit of an infection that needs to be taken care of. So… I dunno. I already feel like I’m majorly behind the 8-ball as far as “pre-loading” the next horse in my string. Presto is 8, after all, so even a foal born next year wouldn’t be rideable until he’s 13. Now we’d be looking at 14, best case scenario.

Ideally a 10 year age gap between horses would be considerably better (like Henry and Presto, which is perfect), but buying a 2 year old is certainly not in my budget at the moment and probably never will be. I have no solution to this particular conundrum at this time, and for now my Cashmere frozen semen will just sit sadly unused in my storage tank. Also really disappointing and depressing, at least to me, because I was really looking forward to starting the process again with another homebred (the toxic voice in my head went “that’s what you get for getting excited“… ugggghhh).

2am breeding vibes

We did get another mare bred for the WTW program last week though. She gets negative points for ovulating at 1:30am, that’s just the worst timing possible for humans that like to get any modicum of sleep. She better be pregnant. We’ve got another one or two to breed but for the most part breeding season is winding down, and I’m ready for it to be over. It’s getting HOT here and as of right now we don’t have any other barn help besides me, so the farm and it’s 30ish horses are my 24/7 responsibility for the foreseeable future. Having one less thing on my plate would be lovely.

One fun thing at the end of this massive post of shit news: to lift my spirits I took Henry for just a XC round at the POP schooling show this weekend, and it was legit the most fun. He might be 18 but he’s still got it (for about 4 minutes, anyway).

most magnificent gramps
Bless you, Henny boy, for at least making me feel like I’m not a total failure at literally everything

Hopefully everyone else is having a better start to the summer than I am. And uh… if you know of any good ways to fix the vibes, I’m all ears.

Atmosphere

Me, as I sat down to draft this post: “oh good, I can get something up on here towards the beginning of the week and then later this week I can try to get another Foal Friday posted”.

Then I realized it’s Thursday. Somebody needs to start keeping better track of time, and surely it can’t be me.

what day is it, who am i, where are we, who knows?

This week Presto and I have been gearing up for our last show of the season and thinking ahead to what his summer is going to look like. Right now it looks like his vacation month is going to be June, since my trainer will be gone to Luhmuhlen and then on family vacation after that. There are no more shows here until August, so giving them June off makes the most sense really. Weather-wise July is worse, but we talked about maybe trying to go do some of the jumper shows at WEC. I think that would GREATLY benefit both me and Presto, so now I’m just trying to figure out how to budget to afford it. Even just hauling in and doing a few of the Open classes a week is like… almost double what a recognized event costs me. It’s been somewhere around 12 years since I did a rated h/j show, I’d almost forgotten how pricey they are.

If I can find a way, though, that would be the ideal plan. I definitely need the jumping practice (understatement of the century), and it would be good for Presto to go to a new-to-him venue, especially one like WEC that has a lot of atmosphere. And – bonus – the summer series at WEC is doing all of the classes inside, so it’s air conditioned. I mean… the haul-in parking is outside so you’re still roasting on asphalt until you get to the ring, but at least you’re less likely to pass out while you’re actually riding?

horse people are insane

I’ve also been considering the idea of half-leasing Henry. I went as far as posting something on my personal Facebook and Insta about it, but at this point I’m not willing to actually try to advertise a half-lease in earnest. Mostly because I’m pretty protective of this horse and particular about who I’d be willing to let lease him, so I definitely don’t want just a bunch of randos messaging me or showing up to try him. I can’t cope. He absolutely cannot leave my care, so it would have to be someone local that wanted a fun and experienced horse to ride 3 days a week, but if by chance the right person were to come along I think he’d be delighted to have the job. If you know someone that could fit the bill, spread the word.

the king

He’s been doing really well back in work, and yesterday I put the jumps up to 1meter just to see how he felt. He was like “finally, someone on this farm figured out how to raise a damn jump cup.”. Honestly, he’s the best.

Rubes has been doing really well too, but I don’t have any current media of him. I’ve been letting my friend Lija ride him since her horse is out for a little while, but I’ll probably take the ride back in June while Presto is on vacation. I really need to start focusing on Rubes more if we have any remote chance of making it to RRP.

there do be a few Arions up in this tack room

I had my fitter out last week to look at Rubes again now that he’s been in consistent work for a few months. I knew that Presto’s saddles def weren’t going to work for him, but it was a matter of whether we could shim them to fit, or if Rubes needed something of his own. The answer is solidly the latter. Rubes has more curve to his back, a higher wither, and isn’t as wide as Presto. So Arion is making me a loaner to use on him for the year, and then after that we can re-evaluate. It’ll be great for Rubes to have something specifically for him rather than having to wear all of his brothers’ various hand-me-downs. He also got a new Arion figure 8 in cob size, which fits him waaaay better. Bougie boy.

With summer almost here we are also at the very end of breeding season. We’ve got several pregnant mares, some still waiting on their pregnancy scan, and a few left to breed in the next week or two. After that we’ll be done. I feel like it’s been breeding season for 35 years so I think we’re all very ready to wrap it up. Fingers crossed for good news on the remaining pregnancy scans!

Chanel in foal to Ustinov off of what was indeed the shittiest frozen semen I’ve ever seen. But it worked!

I’ll try my best to get something up tomorrow for Foal Friday. Toby sold this week, so now the only remaining 2025 foal left available is Ivy (who is developing SO nicely – she’s got such a great temperament). We’ve gotta find the perfect person for her so we can officially close out the class of 2025!

Rockin’

Hellloooo out there. It feels like I have lived an entire lifetime since we last caught up. Where to begin?

with this noodle, obvi

Presto has been feeling great since Majestic. He had a couple days off after the show and some light hacking days before a training ride and then a dressage lesson and a jump lesson. We’re working on pieces of the Prelim A test, which we haven’t ridden yet (would you believe that all 3 of his Prelims so far have been the same test under the same judge?). The A test is quite different, with simple changes of lead and some shallow counter canter loops. Parts of it are easier for him, and other parts of it are harder for him, but he’s the type of horse where the more you practice the test pattern the better he gets (as opposed to Henry, who just got anticipatory and tense) so we’re chipping away at it.

We have to practice the A test because that’s the one they’re running for our last show for the spring season (so much for spring, it’s 95 here already) – which is Area 3 Championships. I strongly debated whether or not to enter the regular HT vs Champs. Both are running XC like midday for Prelim so there wasn’t a real advantage of one vs the other as far as heat goes. In the end I totally got peer pressured into entering Champs, both by the Patreon group and by the show organizer (who is a friend. and also a Patreon member, coincidentally). Bullies, I tell you, the lot of them. Truthfully I’m pretty sure I’ve never actually entered an Area Championship before despite being qualified lots of times on both Henry and Presto, and this year it’s convenient enough so why the f not.

Well, I almost didn’t enter because I have to braid for Champs. Gah the horrors. I might have to beg Kerri.

ping

In our jump lessons we’ve worked more to solidify the fancy new lifting-yet-still-taking-me-forward half halt that we’ve found in his new bit and running martingale setup. I can actually land and push him forward and then do a little lifting half-halt into the corner, push him forward, and do another one out of the corner, and it’s kind of miraculous how well that works when he actually stays in my hand and isn’t either arguing about it or dropping behind the contact.

The more I got to thinking about the single joint bit and how much he seems to like jumping in it, the more convinced I was that I needed to try it on the flat too. Sometimes he does this thing with his tongue, and after thinking about it with the new context we have regarding how much he likes the new jump bit, I was like… I wonder if he just doesn’t really like the contact all the way across his tongue. So I flatted him in his jump bit and it did seem better. I ended up going and buying him the simplest single joint loose ring I could find (I wanted one that wasn’t too fat, since he doesn’t have a ton of room in his mouth for that) and he seems to LOVE it. Something about the shape and size of that bit in particular seems to just sit really perfectly in his mouth. It’s got a very slight curve to it to alleviate tongue pressure and seems to be just the ticket. I can’t even remember the last time I rode a horse in a single-jointed snaffle, and a lot of bit people will tell you they’re less comfortable for the horse because of the “nutcracker” effect of just one joint, but no one tell Presto that. The weird tongue thing is gone.

Hennnnnyyyyy

In Henny news, he is currently the most delighted animal because this past weekend he got to bop around some XC with my friend Lija. Florida Horse Park had an open schooling day and I like to share the Henny love, so Lija took him out and jumped a nice mix of novice and training fences. He’s just so happy out there in his element, galloping around and jumping stuff. It was the perfect Henny day. And I guess I just have gotten used to the constant underlying element of chaos that is Presto, because it was such a serene, calm, and quiet affair. Henny just… is. Presto NEVER just is. Bless him.

hi Sadie!

We’ve also bred several mares in the last couple weeks and confirmed some pregnancies for 2026, so breeding season is really chugging right along. We should have a really interesting mix of foals coming next year, from ponies to eventers to show jumpers. It’s nowhere near the end yet though, there’s still plenty mares left waiting to for their pregnancy checks, and some left to breed.

We only have two foals left from the 2025 crop that haven’t been sold yet, so if you can be tempted by a bebe horse, now is the time. Yes we do payments. 😉

Aside from all the normal horsey stuff, I did a very rare thing and took a little mini 24-hour vacay away from anything horse related and went to a music festival.

Ok, it was just one day of a four day festival, but listen I am 41 years old and I think 4 days would literally kill me. Anyway, my friend Lisa flew down from NC and we headed out to Daytona Beach for Welcome to Rockville. Two of my favorite bands were playing on Sunday (Bad Omens and Motionless in White) plus Korn was headlining, so it seemed worth the trip.

not a horse in sight, how weird

My top priority for the entire adventure was to get as close as possible to the rail for Bad Omens. They’re my absolute favorite band, and I saw them a couple years ago at the House of Blues in Orlando and it was the best concert I’d ever been to. I mainly stuck to the back of the crowd that time though, and this time I wanted to be close enough to have my soul vibrated by the bass and feel the heat blast from the pyrotechnics.

We started pushing our way to the front while the band before them was still playing (it was Mudvayne. I do not like Mudvayne. I endured three whole Mudvayne songs directly in front of a speaker, if that tells you anything about my dedication.) and by the time all was said and done we were positioned on the left side only 4 rows of people back from the rail. PERFECT spot. We were so close.

yaaaaaassss fiiiiirreee

We had to wait an hour and half in a shoulder to shoulder crowd, and it was very sweaty and stagnant, and no one smelled great (god it was HOT), but it was totally worth it. Once again Bad Omens put on an amazing show, and this time I got roasted by fire and then doused with confetti at the end. Since we were covered in sweat, the confetti just ended up plastered to us like paper mâché. And since we were right in front of a huge speaker there was so much bass it was like an hour long Theraplate session, so clearly it counts as health and wellness. What more do you need? I am healed.

There were so many people crowdsurfing that we ended up having to shuffle quite a few of them over the top of us, and the girl next to me would just duck every time she saw one coming, so my upper body got a hell of a workout trying to hold up some big dudes with very little help. If you’re gonna be at the front of a metal show at a festival with 70,000ish people you really gotta be prepared to be 1) pushed around and 2) put your hands up for crowdsurfers. Luckily everyone was very polite as far as space goes and we didn’t get pushed like AT ALL, but come on. Hands up or move further back, because dropping someone on top of us sure ain’t great either.

Look at this view they got from the drone. I had no idea how many people were actually there until I saw this, it was impossible to see from where we were at the front. (also A+ to the drone operator because what an incredible shot when that thing flips over)

Seriously though, it was a fantastic time. That confetti coming down on all of us will be a core memory forever. Motionless in White was REALLY good too, I’d like to see them again at an actual concert venue. Korn was okay. The crowd for them was very different and not so much my vibe but we did stay long enough for me to hear my favorite Korn song (Falling Away From Me).

Totally worth the day trip, we had a ton of fun. AND we were still in bed around midnight. You can’t beat that.

Hope everyone is having a great week, and if you’re starting to keep your eye on Memorial Day sales, don’t forget to check out Riding Warehouse!