Author: Amanda C

Hey hey hey, show season is in full swing (in Florida, at least) so it’s that time of year where we have lots of show recaps. I have plenty of pics from this one thanks to both Xpress Foto and my friend Michelle, therefore we’ve got another two-parter blog recap. Starting with dressage and SJ naturally, because those were the first two phases and also because what kind of blogger would I be if I didn’t give you a little cliffhanger drama by saving the best phase (XC of course) for part 2? It’s coming tomorrow though, don’t worry.

If you’re thinking that it’s been a while since you heard anything about Rocking Horse, you’d be correct. We haven’t shown there since 2023. We always had good shows there, but then had a pretty disastrous schooling day later in 2023 where he wouldn’t go near a ditch and pretty much just spun like a top the whole time. It was before we figured out his ulcer issues (one of the catalyst events that made me go looking for the problem, actually) and it made me hesitant to return last season since we’d just finally gotten his stomach ironed out. I’m officially out of semi-legitimate excuses this year though, so it was time to rip off the bandaid. I had to branch out from constantly ping-ponging back and forth between Florida Horse Park and Majestic Oaks, and despite the fact that we’ve run what feels like eleventy thousand Modifieds by now, we hadn’t actually done one at Rocking Horse yet.

They offered a Thursday One-Day option for Open Modified at this show, so naturally I took it. Rocking Horse is like an hour and a half drive, so if I only have to haul the horse and trailer that far once, I’d much prefer it. But of course taking a weekday one-day option once again lands me in the division with all the pros. At least the shows are quieter on those days? It’s a worthwhile trade, all things considered.

My ride times were absolute perfection when it comes to a one day show. Dressage at 10:10, SJ at 12:30, XC at 1:10. I was able to feed all the horses in the daylight and get Presto on the trailer by 7:30. I’d gone over the afternoon before to pick up my packet and walk my courses, so I was able to get there, find a place to park, and take my time grooming and tacking up.

My ride times conflicted pretty perfectly with my coach’s ride rimes, so in my last couple of lessons leading up to the show she was pretty specific with me on what I should do in warmup and what kind of feeling we were aiming for. I greatly appreciated that, because whether I have eyes on the ground or not, it gives me so much confidence having a very clear plan in advance on exactly what we’re doing and why, and be able to just go execute it on my own. To me, being able to go and do things well without always having a helping hand is a very vital part of what I’m trying to get out of my riding education. I don’t always want or need someone standing there telling me what to do, I want to think and do for myself, and learn why I’m doing whatever it is. That’s actual education vs just following instructions, and that’s what I’m really after.

I followed the warmup instructions I’d gotten the day before, and whattya know, it all not only made sense, but it worked. Rocket science, y’all.

It wasn’t the most stand-out test we’ve ever had, in that parts of it just lacked a little bit of energy and crispness. My judge was Peter Gray, who you may remember I had a lesson with last year, but I haven’t ridden in front of him since then. I do know a few things about Peter though and what he likes to see, and made sure to fulfill those things as best I could. There were no real mistakes, and I had no complaints. Not our most pizazzy, top notch work, but it was good. Peter agreed, and we got a 28.3.

All of the places where I felt like I made small mistakes (like the haunches leading for a couple steps of one leg yield, a slightly early transition, a slightly late transition, losing his haunches a bit in one of the canter lengthenings, etc) perfectly matched up with the comments on the test. That’s always nice too. Nothing worse than thinking you did something great and the comment is the total opposite. It also makes me feel like I’m on the right track with the self-awareness and ability to know/feel when I make those mistakes. That’s step one to learning how not to make them in the first place and get better at test-riding in general.

After dressage Presto got untacked and got hosed off (it was already getting hot), and I got all my stuff ready for stadium. I was able to leave Presto with Michelle and her friend Jules (whoever babysits my horse is always the MVP of the show day, he requires adult supervision) and go watch some jumping rounds. I’d walked it quickly the afternoon before and wanted to see how the turns and lines rode.

After watching some of the Intermediate and Prelim my two main questions were: should I jump fence 1 off the left lead or the right lead (I’d seen both but wasn’t sure that one seemed superior to the other) and was the line from 8 to 9AB better as 7 or 8 (again, I’d seen both work). So I tracked Ellie down when she finished her round and did a little quick fire questions – she said jump 1 off the right, and probably 8 in the last line but to make up my mind one way or the other depending on how we jumped in. Aye aye cap’n, can do (probably).

With the original ride times Alex’s Modified horse was supposed to be jumping like 15 minutes after me, so we were hoping he’d have time to at least watch me a jump a few before we went in. In reality though, XC had been running behind, so he was running behind getting to his Modified horse, therefore didn’t make it to warmup. No worries though, Michelle and Jules (MVP’s again) came in and set a couple jumps for me, and I warmed Presto up the way I’ve been taught over the past couple months. He was jumping great.

The thing about Rocking Horse that’s markedly different from other local venues is the size of the ring. It’s pretty small, especially with a full course in there. All the jumps end up being a few strides off the rail, turns come up quick. and there just isn’t much time to fool around. Honestly I much prefer it to a big huge ring. When your only option is to ride forward out of the turn, it makes it easier for me personally. I think we’ve always had good jump rounds at Rocking Horse. I can’t overthink anything or screw up my rhythm when the jumps just keep coming rapid fire.

I was a bit deep to the first jump, but he jumped it great anyway and I landed, put my leg on, and made sure we got back on a forward rhythm quickly. After that, everything came up nicely. It’s been pointed out to me over the past few months that when Presto starts to get behind the leg and lose power, the first clue is that he gets a left drift. It’s his way of giving himself more space at the base so that he doesn’t actually have to rock back and power off the ground. SO, I’ve been working hard on being more aware of that particular “tell” and focusing on keeping him really straight. It’s why he’s all the sudden been jumping so much better through his entire body, but the hind end in particular. Amazing how straightness works, eh? Duh.

Anyway, we had what I think was our best stadium round so far this year. I felt like I had a clear plan, knew what to do in any scenario, was focused, and executed said plan/reacted to things correctly. Competent, I guess would be the word? Perfect, no. But it felt genuinely competent. Modified is looking pretty small now too (I would hope so, good god), which is also nice.

Presto didn’t come anywhere near touching a pole, and we got to put a nice double clear in the books again.

I really don’t think I can overstate how pleased I am with how much his jump has developed over the past few months. I know I say it all the time but like… the difference is nuts.

I saw Ellie in passing and she asked what I scored on the flat. I had no idea. I don’t look at that stuff before the show is over, it’s not my business. But I told her Presto jumped like a little (big) rockstar in stadium and she was really happy with that, and then off I went on my merry way back to my trailer to throw all of our XC stuff on.

Tomorrow: the runny jumpies!

Guys, guess what came?!?!

I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am to have a Magnawave machine of my own. I’ll do an actual review of it at some point soon after I use it more (have I already magnawaved 3 horses and myself? Yes.) but it feels like a gamechanger and I’m psyched.

I got the Semi 10, which is a small, very portable little machine. If you were doing a big barn full of horses every day or running a MW business you’d probably want a bigger model, but for in-barn use on a handful of horses the size of the Semi 10 is really convenient. It’s still plenty powerful, but easy to carry and store.

I got a lot of attachments too, some of which I haven’t used yet. I think the butterfly loop and the XL Wave Wings will probably be the most-used attachments for the horses, but I sat on the MagEnergy Mat and did my back (I have scoliosis so my back is pretty much always tight/sore) and it was great. I haven’t used the MagEnergy Guard (the big black box that horses stand on to do their feet) or the large loop yet. Their time is coming.

I will say, I did feel glad for the 9000 videos and assessments I had to do for training to get my certification, because I was able to hit the ground running with no questions or fumbling around. Fun times. Zappy zaps for errybody.

Other than just that exciting arrival, things have been predictably busy. Presto had two training rides last week, flat and jump, and I had a dressage/poles lesson, a jump lesson, and yesterday we popped around a few XC things ahead of the show this week.

The dressage/poles lesson was really like 900 transitions on a circle, over poles at the trot and canter. After we warmed up we started out cantering around the circle, trotting before the poles, trotting over the poles, and then cantering again after. Then she spread the poles out and we trotted around the circle, cantered before the poles, cantered over the poles, and trotted again after. She made the poles in the middle raised, and it took us a hot minute to figure out all the feet…

but it was a great exercise for working on the timing of the aids, response to the half halt, keeping consistent bend, staying uphill through all the transitions, etc etc. We’re getting down to the nitty gritty detail work and it’s so hard and I love it.

Not sure what that says about me, really.

Anyway, we’re headed back to Rocking Horse this week, where we haven’t been in like a year and a half. Last time we went there was for an open schooling day, right before we figured out Presto had those nasty ulcers on the roof of his stomach, and it was NOT a good or productive day. He wouldn’t go near a ditch or down bank. So… fingers crossed he’s not harboring any worries or resentment about that day. Only one way to find out. I do think he’s gonna be a bit spooky no matter what, since he hasn’t been there in a while. He schooled really well yesterday though and felt plenty confident, so fingers crossed we can carry the good vibes forward.

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The changes in him are getting more and more evident, I think. He feels stronger and more mature. Granted, he’s still and probably always will be a very cheeky horse that loves to spook for sport, so I would never in my life say he’s predictable. Just more trained. Most days.

I also had some content shoots to do last week, particularly one for Riding Warehouse x LeMieux spring collection.

Y’all know matchy matchy isn’t really my own personal style (unless it’s black) but we always manage to have fun with these shoots. Michelle is in town right now and took the pics for us, and she got some really cute ones for sure. I gotta admit, the pink grew on me a bit by the end, too. Not a pink girl in general, but it was working for Tully.

Presto’s outfit was Dusk and Mimosa, a color combo more typically in my wheelhouse. He slayed, I think.

I’m also doing some content/testing for Gatusos horse boots, a brand I hadn’t seen before but is REALLY interesting. I’ll have a review coming soon for those as well.

On the nerdier side of things, I got the breeding data finished and sent over to the Aiken GrandPrix of Eventing Showcase for this weekend, so if anyone is watching the live stream hopefully the hosts will use their data sheets! It’s a little bit of a smaller field than usual but there’s a lot of quality and depth, and many of the horses are aiming for Kentucky in April so it’ll be a fun preview.

On a similar vein, this week Eventing Nation launched their very first podcast episode. It’s been a long time coming and there are some really cool plans on the horizon, so make sure you’re following! Sally did a great job on the first episode, co-hosting with Will Faudree.

When they were first planning this episode and posted publicly asking for questions for Will, I thought I was being funny by submitting a bunch of marginally unhinged questions about Mason (Mama’s Magic Way). Y’all know I stan Mason big time. But anyway she actually asked him all my insane questions and now I fear that I’m forever immortalized in EN history as a Supreme Stalker Deluxe. Will did say I could have Mason’s autograph tho.

Worth it.

Last week was a bit of a relaxed one around here, by our standards.

My trainer was out of town, so we had the week at home to ourselves with no lessons or training rides. I figured it was a good opportunity for a little mid-season semi-break-ish/refresh, so Presto did a lot of hacking and long and low stretchy flat days (and a dressage day and pole day just to remember we are indeed a semi-trained animal). I’m not sure how much Presto really enjoys staying home and not going on adventures, but it’s good for his stomach to have a little break from all the trailering he does all the time.

The break also happened to fall over the boys’ scheduled annual dental appointment, which worked out well. The dentist thought Henry looked fine to wait another 6 months (a win for a horse with previous dental issues), Presto got done and looked pretty routine with nothing remarkable, and Rubes… well… it was her first time seeing him and let’s just say I wish I’d had her come sooner. His mouth was a situation. Ramps and hooks galore, lesions all over the back of his mouth from his teeth, and his whole jaw was just completely locked.

I chose to tackle all his aftercare in the order that I did (stomach, feet, chiro, joints, massage, teeth) partly because all of my horses get their teeth done at the beginning of the year anyway and partly because he wasn’t showing any signs of a major mouth issue. He eats great, is an easy keeper, doesn’t drop food, and has shown no particular issue with the bit or had any overt sensitivity near his jaw/tmj. Like… sure he’s a tight and tense animal but he’s an OTTB and there’s a whole lot of potential reasons for that (including stuff all the other aftercare has addressed). So I prioritized things as I saw them and started knocking them off one by one. Naturally, though, horses specialize in making us second guess ourselves in hindsight. Should have started with his mouth.

Basically the dentist described it as the mouth being the first in a line of dominos, and that when the mouth is locked in place like his was, the rest of the horse has a hard time moving as it should, too. That horses with mouths like his are often “a chiropractic nightmare”. She rattled off a laundry list of issues that can be caused by that, and it was like ticking boxes. Yup yup yup. Him to a T. She went on to say that he had zero anterior posterior movement of his mandible and that would have prevented him from being able to properly lift his back, and that he likely had headaches and sensitivity/pain in his TMJ pretty much constantly. Awesome. I feel terrible for not having done the teeth sooner.

She worked on him for quite a while, saying she’d do what she could all at once but that this was going to take time to fix entirely. She asked if I had any kind of PEMF (I was like “funny you should say that, my MagnaWave gets here next week!” She was DELIGHTED to hear that.) and suggested a few days off with bute, then riding him as long and low as I can get him to go for a while as he starts to loosen back up. She’ll come back in 6 months to keep working on it.

I got back on him for the first time yesterday and… yeah. He definitely feels better. The tension is notably reduced, his ability to properly bend left and right was immediately better, and he’s seeking the long and low more readily. His head doesn’t feel like he’s just sticking it in one place and holding it there, I have more options for moving him around. It will take time to totally iron everything out through his body but there is a significant noticeable change in how he feels under tack.

So that was… an experience. An expensive experience, but a fruitful one. I’m going to have him chiro’d again soon, and when the Magnawave gets here he’s gonna be the PEMF king.

In other Rubes news, we officially got our acceptance to the 2025 RRP Makeover! I was waiting for the acceptance emails to go out before I launch his The Bleu Team initiative (more to come on that) so now I’ve got some work to do to get all that stuff ready to go. I’m hoping it’ll be something fun for all the Ruby Bleu fans.

Also – last week Henry turned 18. EIGHTEEN. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

I’m so not ready to accept the fact that he’s a full fledged senior. Old enough to buy his own cigarettes, or vote (really could have used him in the last election tho tbh).

He had a fun birthday week though, getting to pony some of the coming 2yo’s around the farm. Aka wield his authority with no mercy, and exert his superiority over the youth. His absolute favorite things.

It’s also hard to believe those kiddos are almost 2. Since we didn’t have any foals last year they’re our youngest currently on the farm. NOT FOR LONG, THO! As of tomorrow our first mare of 2025 will be at 320 days, which means we’re only a few weeks away from the kickoff of Foaling Season. I am equal parts super ready (because baby horses, duh) and definitely not at all ready (because foaling season is scary AF and no one gets any sleep).

We did get some WiFi cameras up and working in the barn though, thanks in large part to my brother. I am delighted to have the cameras in there, it should make foal watch much easier than it was last time.

We’ll also be able to give Patreon members access to the cameras so they can check in whenever they want, or help foal watch (there’s no such thing as too many eyes on the cameras). That’ll be a first!

I’ve chosen to keep the Baby Bets contest limited to Patreon this year as well, since it’s just a lot easier for me to keep track of things there vs when it’s public and I end up with DM’s on multiple platforms, emails, comments here, etc. There are seven (SEVEN!!!!!!!) foals coming this year and I’ve already got a lot on my plate, so it makes sense to at least try to set myself up for success by making it as simple as possible. The contest IS, however, open to all membership tiers, so if you’re a member, please check your dashboard!

Once again I feel as if I’m speaking to the void, with everyone viewing and no one commenting (does no one like show recaps anymore?), but I shall deliver on the fun part today anyway. Good news: media abounds. Although I did forget my helmet camera entirely. Whoops.

Since I had an early dressage time on Thursday and it was a one day show, I went over to the Horse Park on Wednesday afternoon to pick up my packet and walk XC. I wanted to get an initial impression of it (and find my way, sometimes meandering aimlessly) on my own, and then figure out if there was anything I felt like I needed to walk with Ellie. Really, we’ve run Modified at the Horse Park several times by now, and an early season course won’t be as technical.

Overall I thought the course was pretty friendly. Definitely questions we’ve done before, and a few big/max jumps but it wasn’t anything crazy. What you’d expect for an early season course, really. There were two things I didn’t like:

1. That stupid new trakehner. My horse has been here enough times to know there’s never been a trakehner there, and it’s randomly plopped in the middle of a giant field with the water (aka distraction) on one side and warmup (aka another distraction) straight ahead. I figured if there was a place for him to do his little prop and spin maneuver, it would be there for sure. My guess was he’d clock the trakehner from far away, dismiss it because it’s little and innocuous, focus on something else, and then be surprised by the trakehner at the last second.
2. The location of a few jumps was right next to or off of fencelines with jumps/equipment, which are also historically famous things for him to spook at. Particularly 2 and 3, and then 6A. Lots happening off to the side on the approaches to those.

So I walked just those parts with Ellie really quickly before the jumping phases, and she gave me her thoughts on how to best approach things with Sir Sometimes Spooksalot. Basically, keep the stick in my left hand, keep him bent slightly left, and really send him out in front of my leg right from the start. He’s also just not really the type of horse where you can put your knuckles down in his mane and just let him cruise between the jumps. I have to constantly be moving him around and occupying his mind to keep him focused on what he’s doing rather than whatever demons he thinks he sees in the distance.

Ellie came over to meet me at warmup and we started out cantering politely over a little table, then opened up and sent him galloping over a bigger table and then a skinny. The jumps were pointing towards the treeline, so she had me landing and really sending him forward towards the trees, getting the “go on towards the spooky thing” programming installed right from the start. I got a bit deep to the skinny a couple times so she had me send him forward through the turn, then give him 2 strides where I just kinda sat chilly and let him reset, then straighten, close my leg, and send him forward again. That worked exceptionally well, since the turn itself works as a little half halt.

He came out of the box great, and pinged right over the first jump. I closed my leg and said “let’s get on with this thing” and opened him up to fence 2. Ellie said to not be afraid to “dare him” a little bit in the beginning, that it was more important that he be thinking bold and forward than have me too preoccupied with getting the perfect distance and have him end up underpowered or drop behind my leg. So I put on my bad bitch galloping pants at two and he pinged over it like a little (ok big) champ.

I kept him bent slightly to the left and busy all the way to 3, which included passing a truck and a flatbed that were on the treeline. To his credit, he didn’t even look at it. We jumped 3, and he was immediately so locked on to 4 that he did a little stumble through the footing change (there was a small depression/sandy spot there) and popped me out of my right stirrup. I was already too close to 4AB to go fishing for it, so I just jumped through the combo without it. He was superb. Clicked into heat-seeking missile mode, for sure.

Then we hopped over the log table, which again came up nicely out of a forward stride, then slowed down and rebalanced for the crater question. Here’s where I wish I had remembered my helmet camera so you could see the terrain. We jumped the skinny and had a couple strides on level ground before going down the steep hill, hanging a left and going back uphill, then over the corner. Again he was really super here and it rode great.

From there we had a little gallop over to the MIM table, which Presto has jumped so many times at T and M here at the Horse Park, but he always gives it lots of space just to be sure. This thing does tend to ride spookier than you’d anticipate, not sure if it’s the dimension or the plants or what. Either way, he jumped it fine, just… expressively. Like did we have to be 10′ in the air, probably not. Alas, there we are.

Then we looped back to the right towards the coffin. My only concern here was the potential for distraction as we made the turn, since we passed very close to 4B. He came right back though, and he was focused. I made the turn like we’d practiced in warmup, packaging him but keeping him forward through the turn, giving him a couple strides to himself to balance and half-halt as we came through the turn, then leg back on and forward to the MIM rail at A. I have to say, for as many times as we’ve jumped through this coffin by now, I think that may have been his best yet. Yet again I wish I’d had my helmet cam, he pinged through like it was an easy gymnastic (and jumped the shit out of the brush at C, because he still doesn’t brush through brush).

After that was a little gallop back out into the field toward the first water, but first: the trakehner. And man, I called it. Like I predicted the exact playbook of how it went down. He clocked the jump from far away, dismissed it as a little log and put his eye up towards warmup, and then like 4-5 strides out he went WHOA WHAT THE and did a little mini hesitation. As soon as I closed my leg he surged forward again and jumped it, but he was definitely surprised to see a giant hole in the ground where there has never been one before. That’s why we gotta pay attention, son.

Making it past that was a relief, not gonna lie. I’m always leery of the smallest, simplest jumps on the course with this horse. The rest was big or technical enough to keep his attention.

We turned right and headed toward the first water, which was the house with 5-6 slightly bending strides to a skinny. Y’all remember when he kinda struggled to understand jumps in the water? He’s got them down pat now.

I always feel a little better if the jump IN the water comes at the second water or when there’s a jump before it to give us a related distance, but he was super bold and – dare I say – professional through here. Easy peasy.

@breed.ride.event

I dunno what your average 40 year old does with their time, but here I am galloping farm animals over houses in a pond. #horsegirl #equestrian #eventer

♬ original sound – breed.ride.event

After that I very nearly did a booboo and turned a little too early to head through the treeline to the other field and the next jump. I had turned and found the jump and went “well this is def not where I’m supposed to be” and had to kind of weeeaaaave my way back to the left to come through the trees in the right spot. Heh. Whoops. Guess that’s what I get for only walking that part once (I think I turned in the wrong spot when I was walking too. I’m consistent?). It cost me a little time but Presto didn’t even break his rhythm, and he jumped the log oxer really nicely out of stride.

We landed turning and burning for the loooooong gallop to the next fence, the big collapsible table. So much frangible technology at FHP, we love to see it. That table is big but I heard Ellie in my head telling to not be afraid to dare him a little bit, so I kept rolling and what do you know it came up beautifully out of stride and he jumped the ever loving shit out of it. Again, wish there had been a photog there. The way he powered off the ground was chef’s kiss. I think he was having fun, too.

From there we had the second crater combo, the house on the top edge of the crater, then down through it and back up out over the skinny on the top of the crater. He was really easy through here, I barely even had to steer. After that was the skinny brush chevron in the middle of nowhere, which was really just begging you to come at too hard and fast and risk a runout, so I steadied and rebalanced and made sure he was straight. In hindsight I probably steadied and rebalanced considerably sooner than I needed to, and gave him way more straight strides than were necessary. I think I can be a little bolder with things like that and not waste so much time.

Then we had the second water, which he jumped through great, the bending line combo which he popped through looking very unimpressed, and a gallop over the last.

We had 2 time penalties (totally my bad with the errant path and the unnecessarily wide turn) which dropped us from 5th to 10th, but I was super happy with him. The jumps (aside from the trakehner which he swears just appeared out of the ether) all felt really easy, and at no point did he feel like he was contemplating a spook and spin or falling behind my leg. He stayed up in front of me, stayed balanced, and when I put my leg on, he went. At the same time he was also super rideable, which was great, because this was my first time running him XC without the curb strap on his bit. The changes in him are starting to become evident (at least to me?), and it’s exactly what I’ve been wanting to see and feel.

And we were back home for Presto to be rolling happily in his sand pit before 4pm. That’s the kind of horse show experience I can get behind. Long live the local one-day.

It was a hot day (as you can see from the lather on him in the pics) but Presto handled the weather great, his TPR came down fast, and he was cooled down within a couple minutes of standing under the hose. I always run him in FLAIR strips but especially when it’s hot like this, and I also tried Gallagher’s Water to see if it would encourage him to drink more (he did drink, but he was undecided as to how much he liked the GW. Jury is still out.). Either way, considering how frisky he was the next morning, I don’t think his long show day took much out of him, which is also great to see.

Next on the docket: Rocking Horse in a few weeks!

This is only getting broken up into two posts because I have SO MUCH media. Everyone say thank you to Leigh, XpressFoto, and Hillary for carrying the show recap in its entirety.

As I love to do during season, I entered the Thursday one-day division rather than any of the weekend divisions. Is it usually way more competitive because all the pros show their horses on Thursday to have more time for clients on the weekend? Yes. But ya know… I’d still rather be in and out and done and dusted in one day and just not get a ribbon. I’m very good at not getting ribbons, I have years of experience at it. (humble brag)

Anyway, my dressage ride time was quite early – 8:18 as the fourth horse of the day in the ring. Florida Horse Park is about a 45min drive, plus I needed time to park, groom, tack up, and put studs in since we were in a grass ring. Thus I had to leave the farm around 6:15am to make sure I wasn’t rushed. That meant I opted not to braid (let’s be real, I wasn’t gonna braid anyway, this was just an exceptionally convenient excuse). The day before I had spur of the moment decided to clip Presto again, and he got a bath, so… good enough, yes?

Like I mentioned, we were down in the grass ring, separate from the main arena with 3 other dressage rings. The perks of this were that we had our own warmup area, so at no point in time were there more than 4 horses in there. The downside of it was that I own the nosiest, most wants-to-be-in-the-chaos animal on the planet, and he kept staring up at the other rings wondering why he was being punished with quiet, calm, and relative solitude.

Either way, he warmed up fine. My trainer couldn’t make it that early, which was no big deal. I’d had a lesson the day before and she told me how to warm him up and which buttons to make sure I could push. He was a little sticky in the first two trot-canter transitions to the right (our bugaboo of the week, it seems) but then we got a couple good ones. He was in front of my leg but obedient, and felt pretty good by the time it was our turn.

We went in the ring and it started out pretty well, with an 8 for the first centerline and a 7.5 for the trot lengthening, right off the bat. As we went along tho, Presto started to feel a little… taller. And like his attention was beginning to wander up the hill towards the other dressage rings. He held it together until the second leg yield, during which he decided he should send out an emergency SOS call in the form of a high pitched scream as he tried to crane his head to look up the hill. Still, he halted well, and the free walk was fine up until the last few steps when he decided no horse could possibly endure these horribly serene conditions any longer, upon which he jigged. He never jigs.

And then it was time to canter and do the canter lengthening to the right. And well… yeehaw bitches.

He flipped that freak flag of a tail up in the air like an Arabian and away he went. It wasn’t cute.

I managed to wrangle him around something resembling a circle and then back down to trot within like 5 meters of where I was supposed to (a miracle really) and then had to canter the other way. Luckily I was able to keep the lid on him a bit more in that direction.

Luckily after that all we had left was the trot up centerline, which was quite perky but straight (another 8) and then halt/salute without getting murdered.

So that was… a thing we did. Kinda frustrating because again we were riding in front of the judge that always loves him, so taking those 5’s and 6’s in the middle were an ouch. We got a few 8’s tho to counterbalance, and she was kind enough to see through the yeehaws and give us a 7 on harmony (she thought I handled it well), so we ended up with a 31.

Granted, in a very competitive division like that, anything not in the 20’s leaves you down the leaderboard.

Sigh. A little disappointing because without the Fuckery it would have been a good mark, but that’s horses. Especially horses like this one. If he can’t be part of the chaos he’ll just make his own.

At least he’s cute in his new bridle. And honestly I love all my weird colored jackets because the sea of black and navy is so boring, but I can’t help but love how the black jacket looks on him. The sparkles on the pockets and collar coordinate with my boots and saddle pad and saddle too, so like… sparkle slay, even if black is basic. It’s still my favorite color.

After that we had a long 4 hours until showjumping. Presto hung out at the trailer with his hay, and I watched some Intermediate rounds and got a look at the course. As is standard around here, there was like one actual related distance outside of the combinations. If you don’t like long bending lines and rollbacks, don’t come to Ocala.

Then I popped over to XC to meet Ellie. I’d walked XC the day before and just had a couple questions/points of concern, so she looked at those with me and gave me her advice. Then I popped back over the trailer to get on and head to SJ warmup.

He was really super in warmup. I won it for sure. Every distance came up perfect, he was jumping phenomenal, and didn’t even try to yeet me when some other horses in the ring had a fiesta. I was delighted.

I wish I could tell you that we went in the ring and had the same winning vibe, but we did not.

Well, okay, one of us did. It wasn’t me.

The first few jumps weren’t so bad, but then I had too much time to think (always bad) and decided that pulling was the answer (it never is). We ended up underpowered and I buried him to a few, including both doubles which he then had to try extra hard to get out of cleanly.

Bless him tho, he did. He jumped his little guts out and was just the best boy despite his rider not helping much at all. Redemption from his feral dressage interlude, I suppose. All forgiven.

I managed to figure out how to put my leg on and finished up alright, heading back to the gate feeling a bit embarrassed and calling it “hot garbage”. Ellie perhaps more professionally said “the beginning and the end were good you just got too underpowered in the middle” which I think is just a nice way of being like “yeah the warmest of garbage” but ya know, tomato tomato.

It was a clear round though, bless him, and entirely because of him. One of these days I will learn my lesson about going the fuck forward, but it was not that day.

If you’re forcing me to look on the bright side, I suppose the good takeaways are that 1) he really is jumping better than ever. That’s indisputable at this point I think. 2) Clearly he’s plenty confident, because he can do his job just fine without my assistance. Those are good things.

Tomorrow, the fun part…