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Yesterday we covered the dressage part of Presto’s first event, now let’s move on to something more fun: showjumping!

I realized when he was warming up that… I haven’t ever actually seen Presto jump a whole course before. I know he did a couple jumper rounds when he was in Ocala but I only got a short clip of that, so I really had no idea what he looked like over a full course of jumps. In the XC video from a month ago he was really still just figuring out his feet a lot, trotting most of the fences and trying to learn which parts go where and when. So I really had no idea what he’s got in the tank or what he jumps like or any of that. When Megan started jumping him in warmup I was like “Oh. Oooohhhhhh. Damn is that mine? Okay yeah this’ll do.”

He’s got hops in there, this kid. When he strings a bunch of jumps together you can definitely tell how green he is, he’s still learning to keep his shape to the base and adjust on the backside (sometimes he succeeds in those things, other times he does not) but considering he’s really just started cantering courses… it’s fun to see what exists in there naturally. These little ones are definitely very easy for him, even when he overjumps.

Once again he was pretty well behaved in warmup, although he definitely was more perked up than he’d been for dressage. Jompies are fun I guess. He’s not wrong. When it was finally his turn to go, he marched down to the ring, right into the in gate, picked up the canter, and off he went. Once again, I don’t think you would have known it was his first show. Did he look green? For sure. Definitely. But he also looked bold and confident, never batting an eye at any of the decor, the photographer, any jump fill, all the stuff outside the ring, etc. If anything he was maybe a little too bold sometimes.

Megan said that originally she had planned on trotting some of the course but he was going along so happily that she decided to just go with it. I joked that Presto didn’t want all the big kids thinking he was a baby that had to trot things. He even went so far as to throw in flying changes in the turns. Well ok then fancybritches.

He did have one rail, at the very last fence. It was a two stride combination where he jumped in a hair bold, and he’s just not that adjustable yet to compress his stride down and make the two fit better. He ticked the rail with a hind foot coming down and it teetered for a second before it fell. Simple green horse mistake, definitely not a big deal. It sure didn’t stop him from being quite proud of himself, either (when is he not?).

It was a big first show day for a little kiddo, but he was still plenty full of energy by the end. Cross country wasn’t until the next day though, so he got a bath and um, like 4 Oatmeal Creme Pies.

It’s really fun to be at the stage where you can start to see some of his quality shining through. I think it’s safe to say that he’s definitely got enough scope in there to suit my needs, and I absolutely LOVE how confident and bold he is about all of it. He never once wavered, wiggled, or even sucked back behind her leg at any fence he was pointed at. Presto’s got a “lemme at em” approach to the jumping, which is much better for me than one that’s more spooky or hesitant. We can work on polishing up all the stuff in between and adding the finesse and helping him learn to keep a lid on his enthusiasm, but it’s a lot harder to instill confidence and bravery where there isn’t any to start with. That part isn’t a problem for him. Bold, bold, bold, for sure, and pretty clever with his feet most of the time.

I am already DYING for the pro photog to post proofs, but they won’t be up for another couple weeks. I know she got a couple of his best jumps and you can bet I’ll be buying those. I did order the pro video too and they’re usually fairly quick, so hopefully soon we’ll have some better quality video than what my fairly crappy cell phone can manage.

Tomorrow we finally get to the best part: XC!

Am I going to milk Presto’s first event for all it’s worth when it comes to recap posts? Hell yeah I am. There was A LOT that happened, and I know y’all want all the details so I’m gonna be as thorough as possible and cover as much as I can. Plus I’m like super ridiculously mega proud of him and I’m a wordy bitch on the best of days, so like… no one should be shocked.

I ended up riding up to the show with Hillary (who had a fantastic weekend with her new superhony Lex, btw, who I may or may not be madly in love with) on Friday, and we got there just after lunch. Megan was already there because she had a dressage test that afternoon on her Prelim mare (the mare’s first Prelim and she won – super nice young horse!) so by the time we unloaded everything and got Lex settled, Megan had finished her test and a schooling ride on another horse, and it was time to get the nugget kid out.

Presto’s trailering issue that popped up after Ocala seems to be pretty much resolved now after all the groundwork they’ve done, she said he rode up to the show really well and he arrived in good shape. He was pretty relaxed in his stall too, other than some neighing when one of his neighbors left. Still, I think we all thought he would need a lunge or something before she got on to school, because baby 4yo at his first show. He looked pretty chill though by the time she’d tacked up so she opted to just get on and see what she had, and what do you know, he marched right out of the barn, across the road, up the hill to the schooling rings, and went right to work like that stuff happens to him every day.

Since he was so settled she didn’t have to stay on him very long, and he was happy to stand there on a loose rein at the end for a few minutes while we chatted. Then he went back to the barn, got a bath (still hates those, no change on that front) and got to graze for a while before going back to his stall for dinner. All in all, a really good schooling day for him, definitely far less dramatic than I was expecting – in that I was expecting dramatics for sure and there were zero to be had. Texas Rose is such a big, expansive facility with a lot to see in every direction, a lot of horses (there were two shows happening there at the same time, so literally hundreds of horses). There’s road noise, golf carts, loud children, dogs, bikes, scooters, water trucks, trailers constantly coming and going… you name it. It’s A LOT to throw at a young horse, for sure, and even Henry takes a while to settle in there sometimes. Presto was interested in all of it but wasn’t reactive to any of it.

On Saturday his dressage wasn’t until 11, so he just hung out and stuffed his face with hay (kid can pack away some hay, where does it all go?). I debated getting him out and taking him for a walk or letting him hang out by the rings but he seemed so quiet and content in his stall, I didn’t want to disturb his zen. Megan tacked up and got right on him again, and he walked up towards the now much busier rings. They run 4 dressage rings at once and have one big arena for warmup, all of which are at the top of a hill. He had more pep in his step headed up there this time for sure, but once again he settled right into warmup really quickly. Once he has something to do he’s pretty much golden. There was a little gawking while he was in warmup but for the most part Megan kept his feet moving and just kept him focused on what she was asking. He got his first set of shoes a couple weeks ago and I have to say, you can tell a difference. He’s moving more confidently across the ground and has a little more elevation to his gaits. He has good feet but it was definitely time to put some shoes on him.

For the four dressage arenas at Texas Rose, they have two that are each in their own arenas, and then two that are together in one larger arena. Presto’s was one of the ones in the larger arena, so his dressage ring was right next to another dressage ring. I couldn’t decide if this was to his advantage or not. On one hand, he wouldn’t be alone. On the other hand… he wouldn’t be alone. He still gets distracted pretty easily (4 years old = 4 second attention span). Plus he’d never been in that ring yet, has only been in an actual white board dressage court once before, and definitely never seen a judge’s booth or any of that stuff. Would he lose his shit when he had to go in there? I wasn’t sure.

He went in and Megan immediately put him to work, trotting around the ring. He didn’t even hesitate, he marched right on in, past the letters, around past the judge’s booth, no big deal. Didn’t even bat an eye. Like he does this every day. It felt like the judge took forever to ring the bell for them to start, but once she did Megan turned a circle and made her entrance. Presto’s first time entering the ring at A!

And y’all… he was so good. Did he want to gawk at the horse in the ring next to him a couple times? Yes. Did he immediately put his head back down and refocus when Megan closed her fingers and her leg? Also yes. He didn’t get wound up, he wasn’t tense or anticipating, he was actually quite obedient. He even managed to score a couple 8’s, one for a canter circle (can’t remember where the other one was, I didn’t bring the test home).

His only “bad” score was a 5.5 for his free walk, which was fair. He hasn’t quite figured out how to stretch down and swing through the free walk yet and was a little short and tense at the beginning. Give him a break, he’s only been in actual training for a few months. He had a few moments that the judge noted as “fussy”, generally when he wanted to stick his head up and look at the other horse (“HI FRENN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I’M PRESTO!”), or when he lost his hind end a little bit a few times (it’s a long way from his brain to his feet). Overall though it was a very solid test, much much better than I expected him to put in on his first try. When Megan halted and gave him the reins he just stood there for a good 10 seconds – I wish I’d kept videoing – like “whoa that was a lot, oh man whew, I was good boy for SO LONG”. It was cute.

He scored a 31.8 and got some really nice comments about his quality. Hard not to be thrilled with that on a very first attempt! Once the free walk clicks in and with a little more focus, he’ll easily be in the 20’s. I was really impressed, Megan has gotten a lot accomplished in such a short period of time. And mega props to Presto for being such a good kid about it. He WAY exceeded my expectations. It’s really amazing to see how much he’s matured mentally in the time he’s been away in a program. This was definitely 110% the right decision for him and I think it really shows just how much all this exposure and quality training he’s been getting has already started building the foundation that will better set him up for success in the future. I’m just floored by how far he’s come already and how good he looks. It’s a testament to Megan and her program, for sure.

After his test he got hosed off and had a little graze before he went back to his stall to wait for showjumping… which was 5 more hours away. Omg. I forgot how the days can really drag at the recognized shows for BN. But we’ll cover that phase tomorrow!

That was a big and busy weekend. Presto of course did his first event, and I have a lot to share about that (guys, we officially have ourselves an event horse!) but I also need more time to put together that recap, so for today you get the other big news that definitely cannot wait until Foal Friday: Stormie had her baby – Ollie has a sister! And omg, she was worth the wait. Say hello to Pheodora WTW aka Teddy.

We’re pretty sure she’s grulla (and the friend who has been breeding grullas for 30+ years says she’s a classic grulla foal), but hair is being sent off to test to make sure. She’s definitely got dun factor, that much is certain, and NO GRAY GENE!!!! Michelle actually got what she asked for, what are the odds? Well ok,12.5% was the odds for grulla with no gray and then half that for it being a filly and her odds for grulla filly were 6.25%… time to buy a lottery ticket? Maybe this makes up for both of Chanel’s foals being colts.

I think she hit the absolute jackpot with this one. Teddy is very sweet and cuddly and basically wants to just sit in your lap and be petted. She’s very into people, for sure, so there are a lot of nose pics. Which is fine, because it’s a really friggin cute nose.

I’m pretty sure Michelle has met her soulmate in baby horse form and safe to say she may possibly have a favorite of the 2021 crop. Stormie really outdid herself on this one, and gave her some perfect markings to boot.

When Teddy’s not being cuddly she’s pretty darn spunky, so I think she’ll be happy to get out into a bigger turnout this week so she can fully master her legs and her speed. Time will tell if she’s quite as spunky or mischievous as Ollie was.

It’s fun to see another Usandro foal on US soil, too – I think this is his 4th now? His offspring in France continue to do really well so I think we’re all eagerly waiting on these guys to start to grow up and hit the show ring. Of course, Teddy won’t be for sale, she’ll be retained for the breeding program, but hopefully we’ll be able to get her paired up with a rider so she can compete too. So far she looks to have the best qualities from both parents so I think she might end up being a pretty fancy little sportpony.

Still waiting on Ginger (who has looked ready to foal for like a week now) plus Obi is getting ready to join Peyton and Patrick in their field, so we’ll see what else we’ve got to share by Friday. For now, hopefully this gets your week started off right!

Alright, I teased this kiddo to you guys last week but it’s time for his official introduction! Michelle was really excited when Chanel started shaping up like she was going to foal on May 4th. Star Wars day is fun after all (I mean I’m not into Star Wars but most people are and they say it’s fun so let’s go with that) and she was ready to go with the perfect P name: Padawan. But then Chanel foaled on May 3rd and kinda… put a bit of a wrench in that plan. I reasoned that she must still be on European time, therefore she thought it was the 4th, so it still counts. Close enough, anyway? By that point Michelle already loved the name Padawan, so… too late to be undone. The barn name options were between Obi and Jedi – she tried out both for a few days to see which one fit more. Obi it is!

He’s bay, like his full brother Patrick, but unlike our beloved Patticakes, Obi won’t gray out. He’ll stay bay, and he’s got 3 white feet and a big nice blaze as icing on the cake. Right off the bat I think he looks a little beefier than Patrick, but we’ll see what he looks like in another week or so. The game of comparing and contrasting the two brothers has already begun.

Michelle was a little bummed I think to get another colt (she really wanted a filly so she could retain it for her breeding program – we don’t keep colts, they’re all for sale automatically) but he sure is a super cute little thing. Fancy and nicely put together and pretty full of himself. He does have the whole “really really ridiculously good looking” thing in common with Patrick.

If those boys keep posing like that all the time these Foal Friday posts are gonna get really long really fast. Who can narrow down which photos to post when they’re THAT cute?

Aside from just standing there looking ri-damn-diculously adorable, he has a lot of things that he already really likes to do. While Patrick is more of a bouncing kind of guy, Obi leans more Pippa’s direction and is a big fan of galloping. A lot. All over the place.

He also was very quick to figure out the pole in his turnout, and showed a lot of intelligence in how he approached it. He popped over it a few times slowly, figuring out his feet, then gradually amped up the speed, the repetitions, and the angles. A lot of foals are either a little hesitant of it for a while, a little overly careful, or so bold that they just go at it 100 miles an hour without putting much thought behind it. Obi, not so much. He’s a thinker, this kid. And a couple times when he got the distance wrong he went right back and did something a little different the next time to fix it. Pretty cool to see from a week old foal, the instincts are fun to see on display.

He’s clever. Really clever.

And while he wasn’t bred to event, apparently he’d like to audition for the part, because he also conquered the “water” (ok fine, the puddle) straight away. He trotted up to it, took a little peek to make sure it was safe, and then marched right on in.

He’s an interesting mix of intelligence, carefulness, and bravery. At least initially. It’ll be neat to see how he evolves over time, especially once he’s introduced to the other foals and goes into a herd dynamic. Hopefully next week they’ll all be able to meet, which I’m sure Chanel will be really happy about. Obi is currently torturing her in any number of ways, like she’s his own personal jungle gym.

I’m especially interested to see how things unfold between him and Pippa. He’s a more dominant, in-your-face personality than Patrick, and he’s pretty big for his britches at the moment. I mean, my money is DEFINITELY on Pippa,… he might be in for a bit of a shock to find out that others won’t tolerate his nonsense quite as graciously as Chanel.

We did have one new addition overnight – Stormie had a filly! It’s too dark to get pics so y’all have to wait til next week. Ginger will be soon to follow I think, she’s 334 days and has some actual white milk that looks pretty close to ready. Hopefully by this time next week we’ll have two new faces!

I was trying to wait to post this video until after the US Event Horse Futurity page shared it, but I also wanted to try something a little different with this one and today is the last day for me to really be able to make that happen. So, y’all get a little advance screening I guess!

Since this is the first Futurity vlog video with Megan doing the talking/training I thought it might be kind of fun to open up a little Q&A opportunity. Part of the goal of the Futurity is spotlighting the young horse trainers and offering an educational opportunity to the public, so it seems on par with their mission. Basically how it’ll work is you guys can submit questions you want to ask her (either about the video, or Presto, or general horse training, young horses, riding… anything you want) and I’ll get answers for you and then write them all up in a post. Hopefully that sounds fun to anyone besides me? I feel like you guys will probably come up with some pretty good questions. Feel free to either drop them in a comment, or you can DM them to me on Insta or message me on facebook. I’ll collect them all, get answers this weekend, and then get it all posted next week!

If y’all like this idea we can do it after every Futurity vlog with Megan (the next one would be July), so let me know what you think!