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Guess who’s officially a show horse?

Technically all he did in the show ring was trot over some poles. He’s only 3 after all, and for his first show I figured we’d keep it super easy. I had considered entering a dressage test and doing Intro A, but given how distractible he can be (it’s not spooky or malicious, he just genuinely likes to SEE ALL THE THINGS) I opted for the jumper classes instead – that way if he needed to pause in a corner to check something out or drunkenly weave his way down the side of the ring, it would be no problem. This show offers jumper classes from poles up to 3’6″, which is really nice. All we had to do was get from one pole to the next, didn’t matter how. I thought that was a better idea than having to follow a specific pattern with a dressage test, or at least a bit less pressure. Plus I thought the poles might help distract him and keep his brain occupied if he started getting a little overwhelmed with all the things to look at. I entered HC (not for ribbons/placings/points) and tada, there he was, in his very first Table II, 2(b) and Table II, 2(c) classes!

Really though, the point of entering the show was two-fold. 1) see what he thought of all the sights/sounds/spectacles of horse showing while also having to be ridden. He’s been to plenty of shows in his life, but always at the end of a lead rope. He’s never really been asked to go to work or have to focus a lot, and that ups the ante a bit for sure. 2) I wanted him to start getting the experience of the warmup (y’all know what I mean by that!), standing beside the ring waiting his turn, and going into the ring by himself to go to work. The main building blocks of horse show life have nothing to do with the actual showing part, really. In order to get the best from him when we’re in the show ring, first he has to learn how to handle everything outside of it.

Before I get into the details I have to pause for a second and give major props to the facility, Scissortail Hill, for putting on a very covid-safe horse show. They had mask requirements (on at all times when not mounted), guidelines regarding how many could be in an area at a time, spaced all the parking out, only allowed one groundperson/spectator per rider, had designated pathways to the office, plexiglass, staggered groups to keep people from having to congregate, etc. It’s a small local show, they certainly are not required by anyone to do any of that, but they did it and they pulled it off really well. It felt very safe and socially distanced without impacting the actual show at all. Props to Scissortail. This is the first horse show I’ve been to since all this started and I felt super safe about the experience.

Hillary was kind enough to come be my +1, which thank goodness, because it’s always a heck of a lot easier to have a helper, especially when you have a young/green one. Plus she got video and pictures, which is the only reason why I have any content for this post. She da real MVP. I left her at the trailer with Presto while I went and got my packet, and I came back to a clean horse with a trimmed bridle path and freshly banged tail. I literally pulled him out of his pasture, knocked the worst of the dirt off, and tossed him in the trailer, and it had looked like it. She made him look significantly more presentable.

I lunged him for a couple minutes before I got on, but he seemed relatively chill, so I opted to just go ahead and swing aboard. He was definitely very interested in seeing everything at first, and there was plenty to look at. Trailers, horses, cars, the busy road that borders the front of the property, cross country jumps, the trail course, the horses in the warmup and the various arenas… lots to see, that was for sure. He was pretty calm about taking it all in though. He only neighed a couple times, and was happy to just stand and observe when I asked him to.

We started out trotting around the warmup area for a few minutes. He definitely had his head straight up the air like a giraffe, but he was being fine other than that, so no big deal. At one point a horse outside of the ring started to spin and leap around, and I could feel Presto kinda look at him like “WOW, IS THAT AN OPTION, I DIDN’T KNOW THAT WAS AN OPTION” and I had to tell him “No sorry, that’s definitely not an option, let’s go over here and make some circles instead”. I’m a buzzkill, I know.

Since poles was the first jumper division they had the ring open for schooling for a little while before the division started. I figured it was a great opportunity to let him see everything, so once a couple people came out I headed in. Props to Presto, he was super brave about it, marching around the ring with just a few sideways glances at the jumps stacked outside of the rail or the big flapping medic’s tent.

We trotted around for little while, I popped him over all the jumps that were set as poles, and that was that. We only had about 10 minutes before our division started so I walked him out of the ring and let him stand around on a loose rein checking things out. To his credit, he was really good at that part. Well, unless other horses come close to him, then he wants to climb on top of them and be their BEST FRIEND. Schoolhorses tend to not be the biggest fans of the big dumb warmblood baby trying to forcibly be besties. They ain’t got time for that. Otherwise though, he stood around and observed everything quietly.

By the time we actually got to his classes, he was basically pro at this. He walked in the ring, we waited for the whistle, picked up the trot, and off we went. He understood that the point of the game was to go from pole to pole, and he had started to look for which one was next. The classes were really short, just 5 poles (can we make all showjumping rounds just 5 jumps? I’d be into that.) so it was perfect for his 3yo attention span. He trotted his poles, we went back to walk, exited out the other end of the ring, then walked back up to the ingate and did it again. He was really good.

It was exactly the kind of outing I was after – relaxed, low key, and productive. He settled really quickly and was a good boy about pretty much everything. His only spook of the day was when he was trotting down the rail in warmup and a horse outside of the ring just dropped to the ground out of nowhere to roll. Pretty sure Presto thought he keeled over and died, so we had to stop and investigate. Considering all the commotion, I was pretty proud of him for how he handled everything. I think the poles were definitely the right choice, it was easy enough to not be asking much of him, but enough of a distraction to keep his brain busy. He had no qualms about warmup or about leaving the other horses to go in the ring by himself. Maybe next time we can try an Intro dressage test. We’ll see.

Many thanks again to Hillary for all her assistance, and to Scissortail for putting on a perfect, baby-friendly, covid-safe show! Presto has demanded a cookie raise now that he’s officially a show horse.

Foal inspections got cancelled this year, either in favor of virtual inspections or delayed ones, so the usual opportunity for pretty, more formal foal photos did not come to pass. It seemed criminal to not have them though, so Michelle and friends groomed and braided the foals and did their own little mini photo shoots with the help of @belindaloeppky behind the camera (all pics here are hers!). And I gotta say, they turned out super cute. Totally worth it. There were so many good pictures of the babies that I figured rather than try to pick just a few favorites of each foal and shove them into one post, each foal really deserved their own post with all their best Glamour Shots. One last time to have the spotlight to themselves before they leave the nest, so to speak, and I’ll link to each of them’s very first introductory post too so we can compare and see how far they’ve come. Since Remi is the oldest, I figured we’d start with him! He’s 6 months old now so he’s in a bit of an awkward, butt-high, gangly phase at the moment, but still handsome.

Remi’s Intro Post

Cantering is his favorite

But he can trot when he feels like it.

Oh, and we can’t forget about how he’s always been really really ridiculously good at posing for pictures.

A few last shots with his dam, Peyton. I think she pretty solidly knocked it out of the park for her first foal, what about y’all?

And who could forget Remi’s iconic Sneetch-shaped facial marking, of course.

It’s been fun watching him grow and change and develop into a proper little young horse with a very sweet and kind personality. Can’t wait to see where he goes from here!

Next week: Oakley!

Alright, who had “presidential candidate fly swatters” on their Weird Shit About 2020 bingo card?

I’m living for the memes though. They’re great. We deserve them, after suffering through the first debate. It’s the little things these days. Plus on Tuesday I spent all day battling a migraine, and then my dumb ass forgot that the migraine meds have caffeine in them and took one right before bed. I almost NEVER have caffeine, so I’m super sensitive to it, thus I only slept about 3 hours that night. So, it’s been a long week.

Especially because I’ve spent most of my free time majorly cracking down on cleaning out all my crap in advance of the tiny houses’s arrival (sooon???). I’ve lived in this house for 7+ years and how I’ve managed to accumulate this much crap is just beyond me. The first step was discovery, then sorting, and now actually doing something with all of it. So far I’m at 8 big black garbage bags of things for donation, 4 full trash cans, a huge pile of horse stuff where nothing is really worth more than $10-15 therefore shall be offered for free to the first person to come get it, and then a pile of horse stuff that’s for sale but I refuse to ship anything therefore will sell locally for like 1/3 of what it’s really worth just to get it out of my house. That’s where I’m at mentally. A trip to the post office would sever my last thread of sanity.

I found a taker for my massive collection of horse books, so that’s good – those are leaving this weekend. Once all this smaller stuff is out of the way it’ll be on to the furniture and most of the kitchen appliances, which I’m tempted to set out in the yard and have people come take. I’m super over it at this point, I just want it all to go away with as little effort from me as possible. Evidenced by the fact that I became so ruthless in the process of cleaning out my closets that I now have 11 non-riding or non-barn shirts left to my name. Whatever. That’s enough. At first I was carefully going through everything, thinking about each item, waffling over whether or not to keep it, blah blah blah. But there are 7 closets in this house. SEVEN. That seems excessive for a 1500 sq ft house, no? Yet somehow they were all full of crap. We had 18 blankets. WHY DID WE HAVE 18 BLANKETS, WE LIVE IN TEXAS. This is what happens when you give people 7 closets. I ran out of give-a-shits by closet #3 and pretty much everything went straight into trash or donate after that. Done.

Today’s project is the kitchen. Pray for me, y’all. Anyone want a fancy juicer that the SO swore he wanted for his birthday several years ago and then used like twice? (Not that I can throw stones, my huge pile of horse stuff is it’s own, probably much worse indictment)

Anyway, aside from getting rid of everything that’s not nailed down, it’s possible that perhaps I went ahead and caved and painted my other stirrups too. I was gonna wait a couple months to see how the first ones held up, but the first time I looked down at my feet and saw the sparkle, I was a goner. Plus I suddenly hated how the other ones looked, with their too-bright navy outside branch and weirdly royal bottom. (look, I already told y’all I’m hanging on by a thread these days)

So I brought those home and painted them too, and I don’t regret anything. With the black ones I painted just the outside branch but with these I painted the outside branch and the hideous bright blue bottom, so there’s way more surface area to glitter. Not that anyone will ever see the bottom of the stirrup (uh, unless something has gone terribly wrong, so let’s hope not…) but still. It’s pretty to look at.

Those are spending the week curing, and the other painted ones have assumed regular duty at the barn. So far so good with the paint. Stacie was also kind enough to send me her old stirrup leathers, which I dyed chocolate to match Presto’s saddle, so it’s a complete fully outfitted saddle now!

The saddle continues to work out really well for Presto, I remain pleased with the fit and I find it really comfortable to ride in. I was really worried about that, having been spoiled by French saddles for so long. I honestly can’t tell much difference between it and my Devoucoux, though, the feel is very similar. Can’t beat the Mark Todd for a budget buy! Presto is in the process of filling out again but luckily the saddle fits him a little wide as-is, so I can make adjustments with padding as needed. I check it pretty much weekly, he changes so fast.

It’s like there’s a new horse in the pasture every week. Speaking of, maybe I should ride this thing and like… trim his mane or something before his big bad Pile of Poles show debut this weekend. Or not. I’ll definitely dig out his sparkly navy jumper boots though. Sparkly navy makes everything better.

I feel like, as an equestrian, one of our main pursuits is knowing when to apply pressure and when to take it away. That can be true with anything from loading a horse in a trailer, teaching it something new, deciding if/when to retire them, or even evaluating soundness and fitness. Our lives can often feel like one big game of “do I push with this, or do I back off?”, and I’d even go so far as to say that it’s a big part of what makes a horseman versus a rider. It’s something that we all share in common, amateur or pro, across every discipline. It’s also one of the hardest things to get right, constantly trying to think from the horse’s perspective instead of our own, and something that usually takes a whole lot of mistakes before we start to get it right more often that not. And I still have yet to see anyone who manages to get it right all the time.

It’s something I spend a lot of time thinking about. I try not to think about it so much that I become paralyzed into indecision, but I also want to be flexible and willing to re-think and re-evaluate constantly. Horses aren’t machines, after all. I especially feel the weight of that responsibility with having such a young horse. They change and evolve so fast, and the things you do in the beginning can carry weight for the rest of their lives. Admittedly, I tend to err on the side of “When in doubt, back off”. For me it’s the bigger sin to push when I shouldn’t as opposed to not pushing when I should. There are probably those out there who would disagree, but that’s just been my own experience and preference.

While I’m especially mindful of this with Presto, I think about it a lot with Henry too, albeit more from a performance perspective than a training perspective. The very last thing I want to do is ask too much of him, or use him up. Having a happy, healthy, sound Henry is my #1 priority, more than any riding goal or horse show or level achievement.

I’ve also never forgotten what he is, as a horse. An ideal eventing specimen, he is not. He’s built downhill, naturally travels a bit croup high, has crooked legs, a jumping style that really uses his whole body, a middling amount of scope, and his gallop is not exactly the most efficient thing in the world. He also has a respiratory condition that means his fitness needs to be maintained at a higher level than most horses at his same level would require. Those things all make his job harder. Yet despite them all, he’s managed to be a successful event horse – mostly because he loves the game and his heart is 110% in it (well, the cross country at least, he could do without the other two phases). But to find that success, he has to work extra hard to make up for his natural deficits, putting more wear and tear on his body than another more naturally suited, more talented, better-built horse might. None of these facts have ever escaped me, especially as we started to make the trek up the levels to Training and then Prelim.

He’s got 4 successful Prelim XC runs under his girth now. No XC jumping penalties at any of his 4 starts at the level. It’s something that makes me immensely proud of him, and if you just looked at it on paper you’d probably be like “Rock on, this horse seems suited to the level”. But what I can’t ignore, as someone who sits on him every day and is responsible for his well-being and care, is how much competing at that level takes out of him. The conditioning work in particular that is required to keep him at Prelim – it’s a lot for his body. It’s too much.

I really came to terms with that fact starting last fall. Then covid hit, and all the pressures were taken away, and his conditioning schedule has stayed much more scaled back, and I couldn’t deny it. Physically he feels better. Cutting a chunk of that fitness work out of his weekly schedule suits him much better. He still needs to be conditioned and fit enough to be a healthy and sound riding horse, of course, but there’s a difference between more basic conditioning and the serious stuff. The writing has been on the wall for a while now – I don’t think I would have a sound horse for more than a couple more years if I tried to keep campaigning him at the upper levels.

It’s a reality that maybe should bother me, but it doesn’t. Not at all. The horse owes me nothing. He’s far exceeded anything he was ever meant to accomplish, and he’s already taught me so much and given me so much confidence, and he still has so much more left in him. He feels better now than he has maybe ever, and he hasn’t had any maintenance of any kind (no chiro, no acupuncture, no massage, no injections, no magnawave, no ulcer meds, etc etc) in a year or more. Trainer solidified my thoughts last Sunday, when, while we were warming up, she watched him trot and said “this might be the best I’ve ever seen him look” and the thought I’ve been having all year finally spilled out – “I don’t think he’s meant to be a Prelim horse”. We discussed it briefly, agreed that he can school bigger questions and lesson over bigger fences, but as a show horse he’s best at Training or below, at least if I want him to last. The difference between Training and Prelim is a big one, especially the fitness work and the speed, and it’s just not worth it to try to push it when it really toes the edge of his natural capability.

What it really comes down to is that I don’t want to have to be writing a post in a couple years about his retirement. I want Henry to be his happiest self, hopping around cross country at whatever level until he’s old and gray. And hey, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he could have a long career at Prelim and I’m taking my foot off the gas pedal for no reason. I don’t think I’m wrong though. I feel it in my gut, and I can’t ignore it. I’d rather back off before there’s a problem, when he’s still feeling great and capable of doing so many other things for hopefully a long time. I owe him that much.

So while you won’t be seeing anymore P’s on Henry’s record, he’s far from finished. Scaled back, perhaps, but certainly not out of the game.

Y’all know about alignment charts? You’ve probably seen them as memes, I think we all have by now, and that’s probably how most of us know of the concept.

I didn’t know until later that it’s a thing from role-playing games and it’s like A Thing and there are even Buzzfeed quizzes about it, so… must be legit right?

Anyway, it occurred to me the other day that Presto is definitely in the Chaotic category. Usually solidly in Chaotic Good, described as: “A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but he’s kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use for laws and regulations.”. Although sometimes dipping into Neutral (when he’s being a cantankerous child) or even once in a while into Evil (if you’re asking his far-too-submissive 2yo pasture mate JB). Always 100% in the chaotic category though, that much is certain. Rules and regulations are not his bag.

I was musing over all of this on Sunday after I rode him, because he’s just so distractible he can’t even help himself. A great example: I had forgotten put on my gloves before I mounted, so, as I often do with Henry, I asked Presto to just walk off around the arena while I pulled them on. OMG. He could not handle that level of personal responsibility. He bee-lined for a pile of poop, reaching down to sniff it. I finally got him booted away from that and he wandered drunkenly down the long side, with me trying to semi-steer and semi-pull my gloves on, while accomplishing neither. Presto stopped suddenly at one of the letters that was leaning over and tried to grab it. I again booted him on and he zig-zagged his way around the short side, again stopping abruptly at a letter to try to nudge it over. At that point I’d still only managed to put one glove on so I halted him, facing him toward the wall of the arena, and tried to pull the other one on.

And I almost succeeded before, once his 3 second attention span was up, he tried to walk right over the wall of the arena. Very narrowly managed to pull him away before it happened.

Looking at the Pivo footage later, it took us 2 minutes to make that first lap around the ring with me trying to put my gloves on and him weaving around and investigating everything. I had to laugh at it, because it’s just so very typically Presto. He can’t help himself.

And for as much handling and groundwork as he’s had, he’s certainly not the most perfectly behaved animal. He knows about personal space, he’s known about it for years, the rules on that front have never changed. But it’s like he just can’t help himself from being like “HI WHAT YOU DOING?” and then you remind him to remove himself from your space and he’s like “Oh right, whoops…” two seconds later: “HI WHAT YOU DOING?”. He’s never rude or pushy about it, he just genuinely forgets himself and your silly rules. Like the labrador puppy that can’t contain his enthusiasm and curiosity. Riding him isn’t much different.

I also entered him in his first ridden show this weekend, and knowing all these things about him shaped my strategy as far as what to enter. It’s at the small venue close to us where I take Henry to do jumper classes sometimes, and where Presto did his in-hand trail class a while ago. They’ve limited entries due to covid protocol so I think it’s the perfect opportunity to dip his hoof into the show horse thing. Originally I was thinking of doing the most basic w-t dressage test, but when I thought about this venue and how his brain works, I didn’t think that was the best idea for his first time. Their dressage ring is in the middle of EVERYTHING, with lots going on around it, and usually a little pop up tent for the judges and big flower pots at all the letters. I think that would be a lot of outside stimulus with only some w-t work and a couple circles to attempt to keep his focus.

So instead we entered “Pile of Poles” jumper classes. The jumper ring has a lot around it too, but 1) knowing how his brain works, I think it’ll be less overwhelming to him 2) I think it’ll be easier to keep his brain occupied by trotting a course of poles rather than having to follow a more precise flatwork pattern. If I need to circle or do a transition or leg yield or stop and pat him, no big deal. Poles require more of his attention and focus, and a jumper class gives me more leeway with how I ride him. So we entered two poles classes HC, since all I’m really there for is to get him in the ring and ride around. We’ll see how it goes. I plan on getting there early so he can have a little lunge first and stand around taking in the atmosphere before I get on him. Maybe after his poles classes I can take him over to the dressage arena and let him check it out in a less formal way.

He’s starting to fill out again, as he does every fall, and he’s losing the gross sun-bleached look really quickly, thank goodness. Maybe we’ll make a show horse out of this ADHD giramoose yet.