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Things are relatively quiet around here, which I suppose is the case with just about everyone at the moment. I’m still riding Henry about 4 days a week, which for him is a pretty relaxed work load. Some days we do dressage in the arena, some days we jump or do pole work, some days we do canter sets in the field (which are mostly him spending the first few minutes leaping around all over the place), some days we do bareback flat work, and some days… I get more creative.

Last week after a few relatively sedate and boring days, I made up a little mini-XC course for him. All of the pastures here join together, so I opened a few gates to let us pass in and out a few different pastures, kicked any rocks and sticks out of our projected path, and put a couple jumps in the dressage arena. I already have a little baby log (like a foot tall) out in one of the farther back pastures, and some coops/barrels in a middle pasture. By opening the gates and linking them all up, I was hoping we could string together enough jumps to make Henry feel like he was having fun. They were all small, the biggest being 2’9″, but it gave us a little bit of that XC feel.

We started at the little log, went down to the little natural ditch (it barely counts as a ditch, more of a little dip for runoff, but Henry always jumps over it like it’s a ditch, so…), then out of the far pasture into the middle one, where we jumped a skinny coop to a barrel bending line, then looped back to the other skinny coop, out of that pasture into the dressage arena pasture, where we jumped a barrel and looped around to a stadium fence, before galloping back out to the far pasture to jump the ditch to the tiny log again. I had Henry in his sidepull that day, so it was a yee-hawin’ good time. For him anyway. He was jigging afterwards, like he really did just run XC. Close enough I guess? It seemed to make him happy, so we’ll call it a success.

It was quite hot the rest of the week so we kept the other “work” a little more basic.

Tuesday was Presto’s really good “redemption” ride, which I already talked about, although I did ride him on Saturday too (ride #8!). We’ll talk about that separately. Mostly he just spent his week galloping around the pasture like a lunatic and playing with his ball. Or rather, teaching me to play with his ball. He kept tossing it over the fence and watching me retrieve it and toss it back. It happened 4 times in a row before I realized he was legit playing fetch with me, except I was the one fetching. Who’s the idiot now?

I did order some breeches from Luxe EQ last week, which came in the mail. This is my first pair of Cavalleria Toscana and boy are they comfortable. Those damn Italians, I dunno how they’re so consistently superior at making riding clothes. They’re super stretchy and a really pretty green. I may or may not have worn them basically all weekend.

Getting those in the mail appeased some of my sadness about packages. The Mattes pad I ordered for Presto way back in January left Australia almost a month ago and hasn’t been heard from since. Either it’s just sitting somewhere in California in a pile with a million other packages, or a man on a very tiny boat is rowing it across the Pacific… I’m not sure which. And the pretty new La Cense bitless that I ordered is stuck in the country of manufacture at the moment, with nothing really moving outside of their borders, so, no idea when that will come. But I did get some good news last week – the navy Brockamp bareback pad that I’ve been waiting a couple months to be back in stock did ship last week and will be here this week. I was concerned I might not ever see that, since 1) they’re made in Italy, then distributed out of Germany 2) they have a very limited number sent to the US distributor every year anyway. But my navy one did arrive in the latest batch (which may end up being the only batch for the US this year), and it’ll be here hopefully on Wednesday.

I also decided to try something different for Presto’s crazy thick mane – a dog rake.

I don’t really pull manes anymore, but Presto’s is so thick he really has enough to have one whole mane on each side. A few people on my facebook were discussing a thinning rake, and I figured… for $12 on Amazon, might as well give it a shot. There was a slight learning curve to figuring out the best method of attack, but it did seem to help. I’m gonna do a little bit at a time over this week and then shorten his mane… we’ll see how it turns out in the end. But I think we thinned it a good bit on the first go and it’s quick and painless.

What has everyone else been up to? Staying sane I hope!

Today would have been cross country day at LRK3DE, if not for the coronapocalypse, and it’s got me feeling a little nostalgic.

My very first trip to Kentucky was in 2000. I was in high school, had grown up in the h/j world, and found myself starting to contemplate what the heck I was gonna do with my life after graduation. One of the options on the table was being a working student, and in those days working student programs really only existed with eventers. May as well go see what the sport was about, eh? Rolex was the first event I ever attended, my first introduction to the sport. And while those were the days before phone cameras or DSLR’s (I’m pretty sure I took these with a disposable) I did manage to get a few pictures.

Bonus points to anyone who recognizes some of these combinations! There are some big ones here.

In a lot of ways this was a catalyst event that changed the course of my life. And it’s kind of crazy how everything still looks so similar, even all this time later.

On that same trip we went to several big thoroughbred stud farms, getting to see the likes of Seattle Slew, Rahy, Wild Again, and many more. We even stopped at Churchill Downs and got to see the Derby horses working in the morning – I picked Wheelaway.

While I’m bummed that there’s no LRK3DE this year, hopefully everything will be back to normal by 2021! Here’s to 20 years of being an eventing fan.

 

The dynamic between Remi and Oakley has settled down a bit since last week. She still terrorizes him, for sure, but I think she’s also realized he can be fun sometimes. She is definitely the annoying and more clever/manipulative little sister, but deep down she likes him. Their friendship has settled in a bit, and they play, explore, and nap together.

Oakley remains a more bold, in-your-face, no-holds-barred character, and Remi is the sweet plucky gullible one.

Remi is also still a mama’s boy, and what a good mama Peyton has turned out to be.

Not only did she create a pretty fantastic colt, she also isn’t hesitant to discipline him and teach him how to behave properly, so the kid has got some really good manners. Peyton is definitely more of a “hands on” mom. Oakley on the other hand? Well… she’s more of the rebel child and has no shortage of personality or guts. Her mom Daisy is the “yeah sure, go for it, kid” type. And go for it, she does.

And although they’re very different in so many ways, they’re also both still really adorable.

Stormie is officially only 2 weeks away from her “due date” and last year she foaled a little bit early, so maybe by this time next week we’ll have a new pony addition? Lord help us if it’s another filly. Stay tuned…

Way back many years ago there was a bloghop going around where you had to pick a fictional character that was like your horse. I picked April Ludgate for Henry, which I still think is pretty accurate, but after binging all 6 seasons of Schitt’s Creek, I think I actually have to amend my opinion and change it to David Rose. Henry’s definitely got the sarcasm of both April and David, but his flair for the dramatic pushes him over into David territory I think. For example:

When I ask him to do literally anything he doesn’t want to do

When Trainer and I are discussing his weaknesses and things we need to work on

Trainer to Henry in dressage lessons

When we have a rail

When we go out for XC

Every time he saves my ass on XC:

When he morphs into a cracked out dolphin and starts bucking and squealing, and I’m like “HENRY STOP IT” but also I can’t stop laughing

To Presto, every time we pony him

To Presto, when he sees me give Presto a cookie

The general response to “Henry, quit being rude.”

When he spooks at something really stupid and I laugh at him

His thoughts on having to do an entire four minute dressage test

When we go to places with cross country jumps but I make him do dressage instead

Every day when I get on and I’m like “Okay, let’s just have a chill ride…”

When I come out of the tack room AGAIN without a cookie

When I turn him back out and he mugs for one more cookie but I tell him that I don’t have any more

Every time I take a day out of HIS blog to post about some dumb mare and foal and don’t talk about him at all

And last but not least, his general life philosophy

I rest my case. Also, best David compilation video on the internet:

 

Presto has had TWO rides in the past week, bringing us up to a grand total of 7 in the last month and a half. So, ya know…

Just kidding, there’s nothing really serious about it. I ride him when it works out time-wise and weather-wise, but since I have the luxury of not having to do a “first 30 days” or “first 60 days” type of training scenario, I can take time between rides and it’s not a problem. He retains everything just fine even if a week goes by in between, and his body can have more time to adjust to all this new stuff.

Ride #6 was on Sunday, and by the time I got to him it was really hot and sticky outside. That’s fine baby-riding weather though, less likely to incite shenanigans and our rides have only been 10-15 minutes long, so no one would be dying of heat stroke. I did our usual routine of tack up, lead him to the ring, lunge him with lots of transitions for a couple minutes (I’m not trying to make him tired or take the edge off with lunging, I’m trying to focus his brain – hence transitions), then get on. And in the beginning, all was fine.

Then all 3 of the other horses completely disappeared from his line of sight and he Did Not Like That. To be fair, he didn’t get scared or worried or lose his mind. No, he just got mad. He threw a bit of a tantrum where he only wanted to go the direction he wanted to go (towards where the other horses had gone), and at the speed he wanted to go there (real fast). He flipped me the bird like an angry mare. Which, joke is on him, angry mares are my specialty. So, ya know… we discussed it. Not in a mean or domineering way, but basically my theory was if you really think you want to go in that corner then ok, we shall go to that corner and work, and when you decide you’re ready to go where I want you to go like a civilized creature, then you can rest. It didn’t take him long to get the concept, and he decided maybe it was better to just play my game because his corner wasn’t really that fun after all.

While he was temporarily possessed by a demon in the beginning, we ended the ride on a good note, and instead of dismounting in the ring like I usually do, I decided to ride him back through the field and around to the barn. It was his first time hacking back, and as soon as we left the arena he did a little “I’M FREE” head toss/scoot (newsflash, he was not free) and then settled down and walked back like a good boy.

But since he was kind of an angsty teen on Sunday, I didn’t want to wait a week in between rides. If it was going to be a continuing problem I wanted to nip it in the bud sooner rather than later. On Tuesday I got Presto out and repeated our usual program: groom, tack, walk to arena, lunge for a couple minutes with lots of transitions, then get on.

Whatever evil spirit took up residence in his soul on Sunday was completely exorcised, and he was really really good. Not one single naughty moment. We walked for a while, working on some little half turns off the rail, circles, baby leg yields, etc. Then we picked up the trot, doing some circles here and there but mostly working on regulating his tempo and rhythm. The go/whoa/turn is working pretty well now so we can start to focus on the foundation of his gaits a little bit more.

Once we trotted both ways and did some transitions I went ahead and cantered. I cantered him a little bit back on ride 5 – like literally 3/4 of a circle one direction – but this time we cantered a couple big circles each way. Then I brought him back down to trot, crossed the diagonal making a big figure 8, halted, and ta-da, done. Twelve minutes. Good boys have easier lives.

Here’s a one minute condensation of clips if you want more than GIFs. I’ll have more footage on his next vlog. Maybe even some that’s not from my phone propped up on a tripod.

Now that Presto’s not just a super drunken noodle I’m starting to see and feel some of his natural quality. Even at an awkward, growthy age, his natural balance is quite good. He’s not a dressage horse, but for one that’s bred to gallop and jump, it’s definitely not a bad starting point. He covers so much more ground than Henry, and is much lighter in his front end and across the ground. For his second time cantering under saddle, and in a dressage ring no less, I was pretty impressed with how well he was able to keep himself together. Right now the only real criticism I can give him is that he’s pretty busy in the mouth and tries to get his tongue over the bit, but… we’re 7 rides in. He’ll figure it out.

He’s also really started to bloom in the last few weeks, rounding out a bit and physically he just looks so much stronger and more mature. It’s pretty exciting to see him start coming together into a real horse. And, of course, to ride him. I’m not disappointed.