Category: Uncategorized

We have had no shortage of OTTB’s around here lately. We’ve got the long-term ones, like Henry, the broodmares Vee and Peyton, past ones like Gemma, and more recent ones Freya, Argo, Tilly, and Lottie.

Having a few here at the same time that all came off the track within a few months of each other has been an interesting compare and contrast. From the way they act to their aftercare to what they eat to how they’re trained – they’re all very very different, and yet… similar? I think people tend to lump OTTBs in together in one big category, and in my experience with so many of them over the years, I would say that’s both true and false. True because they have similar backgrounds and have had similar jobs and lifestyles, but false because like any other type of horse, they’re all individuals.

And so are the people they end up with. I believe strongly that there is more than one road to Rome, and a lot of different ways that could work to achieve an end goal. If there’s anything we know about horses by now, it’s that there’s no such thing as one right way. If only it was that easy, this horse thing would be a breeze.

There’s kind of a perpetual argument about what is the right or wrong thing to do for a horse coming off the track. Do you put it straight back into work? Do you turn it out for a while? Does it need a slow introduction to restricted solo turnout or can you kick it right out with a herd? Do you need to do lots of groundwork first or can you just swing aboard? How “broke’ are they really?

There are people that will argue to the death about one particular thing being the only right answer, but to me the answer is the always-irritating “it depends”. I think the real skill in being a horseman is assessing the horse and understanding in which scenario you might make which decision. And of course, being open to being wrong and trying something else instead. It’s why I’m always so hesitant to want to give anyone advice. The best I can do is say what’s worked for me and my horses, but that sure doesn’t mean it will work for someone else, their situation, and their own horses.

But there are a few (very few) things that have been helpful across the board to us with all of our collective OTTBs here, so… let’s talk about those things!

Training

Ah yes, let’s start with the fun part first and work our way backwards. I’m not even going to get into super specifics here except for the fact that if you don’t have a ton of experience transitioning one from track to sport life, be willing to enlist assistance. If you have access to trainers that have a lot of experience, use them. Use them a lot. From the very very beginning. Because while you think that you’re not doing anything exciting in those first several months, just trotting in circles or working on steering, what you’re actually doing is re-installing new basics. Really important ones that the horse’s entire sport career will be built upon.

If you don’t have quick and easy access to good in-person help, there are other tools you can use to get you started. Y’all know I’m a big fan of Ride iQ. While I’ve mostly used and talked about features like the dressage test read-throughs (one of the motivating factors behind me scheduling that lesson with Peter Gray!), the conditioning schedule workshops, and the member video reviews (I’ve done a couple of those now, actually, it’s always fun to get a new perspective) there is actually quite a bit of content that could be helpful to someone with a horse that’s recently come off the track. There’s a whole “first 60 days” guided program geared specifically for OTTB’s, in fact, that I found to be a great addition/guidance.

and they’ve got a ton of OTTB resources and rides that are suitable for early-stage OTTB as well as continuing education up the levels. If you want structure and direction, these are a great way to achieve that. You might not have someone physically on the ground in your arena, but having them in your ear is the next best thing. After the basic first 60 days program, if you’re looking for other ideas, I think the 6 Weeks to Show Ready program is a good building block.

Even if you DO have the benefit of regularly scheduled professional oversight/involvement, there’s (IMO anyway) tremendous value in maintaining guidance in between lessons or training rides, or even maybe just hearing a different perspective or trying a different technique.

Another perk of Ride iQ, aside from the guided audio rides, is that they also have a really deep library of podcasts with a wealth of information on a lot of these same topics. OTTBs are a commonly talked-about discussion, and you can hear a lot of different advice and tips from tons of people that have so much experience with horses like this. The Ask an Expert series is fantastic too, with topics from ulcers to feet to nutrition to maintenance and on and on and on.

That app is truly a wealth of knowledge for any horse owner, but particularly for someone who is tip-toeing into new or unfamiliar territory. I’ve been a member since the day it launched, and truly can’t say enough good things about it. If you want to try it out there’s a free two week trial, and then monthly membership is $29 or the annual works out to like $25/mo. That’s like… 1/3 the cost of a single lesson these days. I’m a big fan of not wasting money, but spending it in ways that are wise, and this is one of those things that’s worth it tenfold, especially if you aren’t in a regimented trainer-led program.

Another resource I’ve been really enjoying for the OTTB side of things is the OTTB on Tap podcast. They’ve had a few episodes that might be particularly helpful when it comes to care, or things to consider, or even how to go about picking the right horse for you in the first place. Definitely recommend giving that a listen, too!

Feed

Ok moving on to the less fun parts… the topic of feed is one of those things you hate to even talk about because it’s guaranteed to start an argument among the masses, but in general: you have to be prepared to feed them as much as they need of whatever they need. If you’re used to easy keeping quarter horses or warmbloods, it may seem like a TB needs to eat a lot in comparison, especially one fresh off the track. You’ll come across one every once in a while that is a very easy keeper, or one that doesn’t do a bit of a regression in their condition as they transition from a race diet to a sport diet (that can be alarming if you aren’t prepared for it) but those are less common. Especially in that first year or so when they first transition to sporthorse life.

It also depends a great deal on the quality of your pasture and forage. Some horses do better on a higher alfalfa diet, some do better on a grass hay diet, some need a lot more fat than others, etc etc. And you’ll see some people say that they feed all of their horses exactly x, y, z things and it works perfectly for all of them… if that’s true, great. But then one will come along and prove you wrong. We all know it. Horses thrive on proving us wrong.

Right now for instance we’ve got one that really only eats alfalfa and requires a lot of it. Another is grass hay only. The others eat a mix. One puts on weight like crazy as soon as the spring grass comes in. One of them eats 3 times as much grain as another one. A couple get extra fat via flaxseed oil. Some get soaked alfalfa cubes, another won’t eat anything that’s remotely soggy. Horses gonna horse. Don’t be afraid to play around as needed to figure out what works best for your horse, and be open-minded to changing things or feeding more than you normally would. Going from a high starch, high calorie, sugar-infused racehorse diet to something typically high fat/fiber and lower starch is going to be an adjustment for their body… keep that in mind.

Feet

A good farrier that has experience with transitioning OTTBs to sporthorses is going to be an absolute lifesaver. Many (not all, but many) racehorses are shod very very differently and with a different hoof balance than sporthorses are. Having a farrier that 1) understands what changes need to be made 2) knows how to make those changes gradually in a way that helps the horse rather than hinders it, is critical.

If you’ve got one with particularly interesting angles or something suspicious, getting farrier view x-rays right from the beginning is never a bad idea. It will show you what’s really going on inside the foot and help your vet and farrier make the right choices to get those feet trending the right direction. I think a common mistake too is to pull the shoes off the horse right away without really considering how fair that is to the horse based on the foot it currently has, your footing, and what you’re expecting it to do. Give it time and the proper support. No hoof, no horse.

Ulcer care

Listen, none of us want to hear it but the reality is that most horses have ulcers. And the more stressful their life is, and the harder they work, the more likely it is that they’ve got them. I mean really, even pasture puffs can have stomachs that you wouldn’t believe. You should expect to treat any new horse for ulcers, but especially an OTTB. They’re going from a high-stress but familiar life, to a different and thus still stressful one. Help them out and set them up for success.

I also think that scoping before treatment is very very very highly recommended if you can at all manage it. We have scoped all of ours, and all of them have had different types of ulcers and/or presentation that changed the necessary treatment (length, dosage, and medication). It’s all fine and good to throw Ulcergard at one for a few weeks and hope you accomplished something, but the truth of the matter is that you have no actual idea unless you look. Those meds are expensive as hell, spend the $300-400 up front to do the scope and actually SEE what you need. At least then you can be certain about the medications you’re buying.

For instance, we’ve had horses on Ulcergard/Gastrogard, Miso, Sucralfate, and Nexium, or some mix of those, and for various amounts of time. I wouldn’t want to be throwing sucralfate at an ulcergard problem, just like I wouldn’t want to be throwing ulcergard at a miso problem. If at all possible, just scope the horse first.

The age old question: to let down or not to let down?

This is another fun one that people like to be 100% dead set on and argue about. Is it best to get the horse off the track and turn it out for a few months, or to transition it straight to work? IMO it’s another one of those “it depends”. I’ve done both. Some really need time and space to mentally decompress or physically unwind. Others will make seriously bad life choices if you take away their daily structure and work routine.

While it’s true that just chucking a horse out in a pasture can heal a lot of physical and mental ailments, it can also be worse for others. To me it’s one of those things you have to use your critical thinking skills with, and then be willing to change your mind depending on how things go.

Which is… kind of the summary of this entire post, isn’t it?

It’s been show recap central around here for a while, and while the blog has been covering the things that already happened, life has still been trucking along in the meantime. Plus I’ve been mum about some stuff publicly on purpose while I waited to see how they went (Patreon folks y’all had the tea, so a lot of this might not be news to you at this point). Anyway… let’s catch up on what’s been going on around these parts.

First and foremost: Argo sold. He sold a while ago actually, we’ve just been waiting on a shipper. West Texas isn’t the most common route, especially this time of year when every truck in Ocala is pointed north. His PPE went really well, much better than you’d expect for an 8yo that raced for 5 years of his life without any real breaks. They did a fair amount of x-rays and there was nothing particularly noteworthy on any of them. The only weird thing came in his bloodwork, with some elevated liver values. We ended up doing repeat and additional bloodwork over the next couple weeks and determined that he does indeed have a functional liver, and will indeed be fine. It did manage to give me some mild panic though in the meantime.

Selling horses is just stressful as hell. I bought and sold some in my 20’s and I have kind of forgotten how horrible it is, even when the people involved are really nice. It’s just anxiety central. I hate everything about it. And I never even actually advertised him and had to deal with all that part of it. But now he’s just been sitting here for basically a month waiting to get on a truck, and every day I’m like “please don’t do anything stupid to maim yourself”. He’s such a sweet dude and I’ve enjoyed having him, but I’ll still breathe a sigh of relief when he gets on the trailer and heads to his new people.

When he first sold I was holding out hope that I’d find something else pretty quickly and be able to pick back up on the journey to RRP for this year. But lord there was nothing. Just nothing that I liked that was also in my price range. The double edged sword of things like RRP is that it’s raised the value of these horses coming directly off the track, which is a great thing. The downside is that now a lot of them are out of my budget. Gone are the days when $2500 was a lot for one fresh off the track. The only horses I saw that I really liked were priced at 6k and 8k respectively, still on the track. They were nice horses, so people can price them at whatever they want, but it did put them solidly out of my reach.

I scoured every single TB group on facebook. Every track resource. I even started stalking cheap claiming horses at the Tampa meet and messaging their trainers/owners. Still nothing. Nothing nothing nothing. And if anything did happen to pop up, you’d better be on it within literally minutes, because the resellers nab the cute and less expensive ones super fast. They know what they’re doing.

If I’d just been looking for a horse, there would have been a few of interest that would have worked. But I figured since I had a little bit more to spend this time (thanks Argo!) and I remembered now how much I hate selling horses, plus I’d be starting so late in the year for RRP, ideally I was looking for something that I’d want to keep rather than just take to RRP and then sell. If I found something that excited me, great. If not, I was fine with calling RRP a loss for this year and waiting til the fall to find something for next year.

Which is good, because I was looking for like 6 weeks. My window for realistically making RRP this year came and went, which is fine. I basically gave up, but kept looking at all the groups once or twice a day just to see if anything came up that was interesting.

And then I was at the POP show with Hillary on Sunday… which was her OTTB mare Tilly’s horse trial debut by the way. Tilly just came off the track in December and she went to the big scary busy Florida Horse Park last weekend and got a 36 on the flat and marched around both jumping phases like an actual pro. Big props to Hillary and Tilly, I think she’s got a really nice one and she’s done a great job in just a few months time. She’s working her butt off to make sure the basics are installed thoroughly and correctly from the very beginning, and I think it shows.

Anyway… Hillary was in warmup and I popped open my facebook to do a little mindless scroll. I hadn’t really been on it yet that morning because I’d gotten up early to get all the farm chores done in order to make it to the show in time to catch Hillary’s dressage. So I open it up and the very first thing at the top of my feed was an ad in one of the OTTB groups for a gray mare. I am not a lover of gray, I’d prefer it NOT be gray honestly, but her pics looked potentially cute so I clicked on the pedigree. Low and behold, she was by a Tiznow son out of a Macho Uno x Royal Academy mare.

That got my attention. I love Tiznow (he’s Argo’s damsire, but most commonly known in the sporthorse world as being the sire of 5* horse Phelps), Macho Unos are known for being good jumpers, and Royal Academy (another 5* connection – he’s the second sire of Twilightslastgleam and Ferro Point, second damsire of SAP Talisman) is my favorite source of Nijinsky.

Her jog video was not the best quality but she seemed to move pretty evenly. I messaged the seller to ask the price, thinking she’d for sure be out of my price range (the gray ones almost always are, I find it hilarious that grays tend to sell for more considering that I’d much prefer a horse not be gray), but low and behold… she was within the threshold. I think it helps that she was based in Oklahoma, not exactly a hub area. I called to talk to the listing agent about her, made an offer, the owner made a counter offer, and like 5 minutes later I bought myself another horse on PayPal. Totally normal Sunday morning activity.

So now we wait for her to get here. The process of finding her a ride has not been super quick, which is a good thing really because on Monday I fell off of Presto and broke my ankle.

Ha. Haaaaaa.

It’s as if he felt me send in that Prelim entry for Majestic Oaks a few days prior and was like nah, let’s waste more of mom’s money and decimate her dreams. His favorite pastime. Luckily it’s a fairly small and simple break, nothing crazy. I can’t put any weight on it for at least 10 days, and then after that I’ll probably be in a boot of some kind for a little while. But hopefully I won’t be out of the saddle for too long. Probably just long enough to miss the last shows before the summer break here in Ocala, which is just about right for Presto. He does have impeccable timing. Love that for me.

Megan was going to come back to FL to coach me for my Prelim debut so when I texted her and asked if she wanted to ride him instead she was like “well turns out I just broke my ribs…”. We’re all down for the count. Oh well. Whatcha gonna do. The green numbers will have to wait. I’m mostly just glad it wasn’t worse, because I felt the pop when I hit the ground and was really worried I’d torn some kind of soft tissue. That would have been a lot worse and taken a lot longer to heal. I’ll take a minorly broken ankle.

In the meantime hopefully the mare gets here soon and in one piece, and she can enjoy a bit of a vacation until I’m back on two feet again. She raced about a month ago so some time off will probably do her good, and give us some time to get to know each other. I’ll do a full post about her and her history/pedigree later, once I’ve had more time to get it all together. In the meantime… yep, basically now you’re all caught up on the major stuff. 😅

Ask and ye shall receive! Although you’ll probably be disappointed, because I am certainly not anything close to a style icon. There were a few *chef’s kiss* pieces that were really pulling their weight though, and they deserve some kudos.

First Jog

I hope you guys aren’t expecting some kind of fancy fashionista type content when it comes to my jog outfits. For as much as I value and appreciate nice riding clothes, I’ve always been cheap AF when it comes to regular clothes. And while I did have to go shopping for this particular occasion (I tried real hard to come up with something I could wear out of the clothes I already have, and I was able to use a few pieces, but my closet in general is sparse), my budget was low. I was looking for a pair of pants that could do double duty for both jogs, and a couple tops. That’s it. And I had to go to the mall. THE FREAKIN MALL.

Anyway.

The first order of business was finding the pants, and the ones I went specifically in search of actually materialized directly in my line of sight the moment I stepped into Dillard’s. What are the odds? The shopping gods were really doing me a solid there. I was looking for the Spanx faux leather leggings that have been a popular jog outfit staple for lots of people over the years, and I ended up trying on the regular ones and the shinier patent ones. Mostly because the patent ones were on sale. Naturally though, I didn’t like how shiny they were, but I did like the regular ones. They were comfy, they were flattering, and they would go with a lot of different things. Sold.

Also, listen, I’m gonna need y’all to pretend you don’t see the absolute disaster situation that was happening in my bedroom when I took these pics. I was trying my outfits on literally the day before while I was packing, sending pics to my friends to ask if they were acceptable. I had no intention of these photos ever seeing a public space. Alas, here we are, so whatever you’re thinking just… shhhhhh. I know.

The sparkly silver flame sweater was an absolute banger of a find, snagged at Forever 21 off of their clearance rack for $10 (it’s a couple bucks more online, but still cheap!). No joke. I love that sweater, too. I mean, is it itchy as hell? Sure is. But I thought it really went with the whole Presto vibe. I’m sure I’ll wear it again in the winter (with a shirt under it to stop the itchies).

As for the shoes, long-time readers have actually seen them before. I mentioned them in a post in 2020 when I got them, saying “I originally wasn’t gonna post these since they’re a non-horse item, but I’m so in love with them that I’m thinking I might need to do a 3Day JUST so I can jog up in these bad boys.“.

Well what do you know, the glitter combat boots DID eventually make it to a jog, 3.5 years later. They were like $25 from Walmart and I still love them just as much as when I found them. I only wear them for special occasions, but they’re magnificent.

As for Presto, he wore his dressage bridle for the first jog, which is this (minus the bonnet):

It’s actually a complete Frankenbridle. The crown, cheeks, and throatlatch are Henry’s old Eponia dressage bridle. The noseband was custom made for me by Dark Jewel Designs, to go with the gorgeous light blue plaited browband that I got from her last year. It’s a black leather crank, no flash, with black glitter padding and gunmetal glitter piping. I love that it’s sparkly but not garish.

The bridle’s coordinating light blue browband didn’t match my jog outfit or my shad, so I borrowed a sparkly silver crystal browband from Hillary instead. My reins are the Correct Connect 1″ Sure Grip reins, which I really like for dressage. His dressage bit is a Herm Sprenger WH Ultra Sensogan Loose Ring (did I have a slight panic moment an hour before dressage and text one of the stewards to make sure it was FEI legal? Surely did.).

I would not put this level of flash on a horse’s head if they weren’t steady in the connection, but that’s one of Presto’s strengths so I figure we can show it off.

Dressage

For this phase I was outfitted largely by Luxe EQ (the mobile store I work for in the winter when it’s here at WEC). Specifically, the shad, the breeches, and the gloves are from there. First and foremost, lets talk about the real showstopper – the shad.

If you’ve never been to For Horses’ website to play around in their Custom Lab configurator, you’re missing out on a good time. Short coats, tail coats, all kinds of colors and collars and pipings and buttons… it’s fun. My coat is the Jenni, in dark deal with black collar and points and silver glitter piping at the collar, points, and around the tails. I am obsessed with her.

Big huge thank you and credit to Luxe EQ owner Megan as well as For Horses on the shad… they really did me a huge huge solid, getting it to me in just a couple weeks – A COUPLE WEEKS – from Italy. When I have more time I’ll get it tailored a little bit… I ordered a medium to account for my shoulder width and it needs to be taken in a bit at the waist and in the arms, but the fit was pretty darn good, considering it’s a stock size!

It truly is a dream coat, and I was so excited to be able to rock something like this at my first FEI. I got several compliments, and I love how the color looks on Presto. I wanted something a little bit different from the normal navy or black, since I am fortunate enough at this point to have a horse that’s pretty good on the flat. I can stand out a bit and have it be in a good way rather than a bad way. But I also didn’t want something super garish, or that leaned into the realm of tacky. Originally I was hoping to find something in a dark purple, but when I saw the little sample fabric square for the dark teal, I knew that was it. The online configurator is great, but if you ever find yourself near the Luxe EQ store, I highly recommend going in and looking at their big sample book thingy. Putting all the stuff together in person really helps you visualize all the options and how they’ll look. It was hella fun.

I opted for black collar/points with silver glitter piping specifically to go with my show helmet, a glossy black Harry’s Horse that has silver glitter up the middle. I’m obsessed with that helmet but it’s become really hard to find. I thought the coat details would look sharp with the helmet, and they did. THEY DID.

And the real icing on the cake was one I’d completely forgotten about – my Stockbubble stock tie. It wasn’t until I was putting the shad in my coat bag that I realized it, but my stock tie is a white fabric with silver glitter, and double piping in black and silver. I mean come on. The coordination factor was just *chef’s kiss*.

The breeches are what have become my favorite go-to whites: the Struck 2.0. These just fit me really well, are comfy, not see-through, and wash well, so I’ve stuck to them. Every time I venture out to try to find something cheaper I absolutely loathe them, so Struck it is. The inside of the fabric is tan so they’re so much more opaque than anything else I’ve found.

The gloves are my Cavalleria Toscana mesh grip gloves that I wear every day… they’re so lightweight and comfortable I just find myself always reaching for them. The boots are my trusty Romitelli’s with the black glitter top that I’ve had for a while now. You can’t see it in these pics but my belt was my favorite African beaded Zinj belt with blue/silver moons and stars that I always wear at shows.

As for Presto’s dressage outfit, he’s wearing my rehabbed Custom Saddlery dressage saddle (that thing has been a super purchase), an Engel sheepskin girth, a Mattes custom pad (white sheen with black piping, a row of rhinestones, and then another row of black piping, with natural sheepskin under the panels… thank goodness I got this before the Hufglocken fallout happened with Mattes), and the same bridle he jogged in. Oh, plus his sparkly mesh If the Bonnet Fits bonnet. True story, Strax got ahold of that bonnet a couple months ago and pulled a lot of the crystal edge off. Luckily Sierra was able to fix it for me and get it back in time!

Cross Country

We’ve talked about this pretty recently I feel like, and nothing is really new aside from the gloves, so I won’t spend a lot of time here. I put links to save anyone the effort of chasing me down to ask where to get something. And for the Riding Warehouse links I have a discount code there: BREVENT10, and for Royal Equine links my discount code there is presto.

Presto is wearing:

• Arion figure 8 bridle (an absolute angel gifted this to me and I love you forever for it)
• Beval bit
• Arion monoflap saddle
• Dark Jewel spiked browband (I have the gunmetal spikes)
• Free Jump irons
• Engel sheepskin girth (brown for jumping)
• Ecogold XC pad
• Premier Equine carbon tech cross country boots
• Lady Godiva ROM breastplate with a PS of Sweden running attachment
• a FLAIR strip
• rubber bell boots

I’ve got the same boots and breeches, just adding:

• a roller ball spur
• sparkly Samshield Ava shirt from several seasons ago that isn’t made anymore
• Champion Ti22 body protector
• Champion skull cap
• custom Tack Shack jockey whip (black and silver glitter with a little bit of purple and a lightning bolt on the popper)
• XC optimum time watch
• custom pinney holder from a lady that doesn’t make them anymore (sadly)
• Bender golf gloves (you have to buy left and right hand separately, but they’re BOMB) with skull and crossbones

The second jog

This outfit is really hard to see in the screenshots, so I hope you’re ready for another terrible mirror selfie that was never meant to see the light of day. Same disclaimers apply.

The top is a very shiny, super lightweight black and silver sparkle mock neck. I got it at Forever 21 for $4.80 on their mega super duper clearance red tag rack. I can’t even find it online, but it’s super lightweight and comfortable and I love it. Going forward I’ll probably use it as my hot-weather XC shirt since it’s thinner than the Samshield shirt.

The bottoms are the same faux leather leggings as the first jog outfit. The shoes are the black and white star sneakers (now that I went to get the link for y’all I see that they’ve added a lot more styles, including glitter ones. This is bad for me.) that I bought on Amazon last December to be my “casual but cute retail shoes” for working at the store during the winter season. They’ve already been worn a lot but are still in good enough shape and they’re the cutest more-casual type shoes I have.

Then I topped the whole thing off with my oversized faux leather jacket that I also already owned. Because we’re on a damn budget, people.

So technically, if we use girl math, this outfit cost me less than $5. Right? Right.

Showjumping

There’s not much unique about this phase’s attire, it’s mostly just a mishmash of dressage and XC stuff. It’s the same helmet, breeches, boots, bonnet, and gloves as dressage. Same saddle, saddle pad, breastplate, girth, whip, spurs, bridle, and bit as XC.

The only thing that ever really changes for SJ is which coat I wear. I was tempted to go with my teal Penelope one to keep the teal theme, but I just really like the juju that lives in my light blue Laguso coat and felt like I needed all the good juju I could get, so it was the winner.

I do tend to always wear the same show shirt for showjumping under my coat, the Samshield Faustina in black lurex. Sparkly black, ya know? I’m predictable.


And that’s it!

Which… is a lot. Lord. This sport is relatively absurd, isn’t it?

Finally. Blessed FINALLY we were at the final day of our FEI experience. No shade to the horse show itself, but Presto was over it and therefore I was over it and we were both ready to GTFO and go home.

The 1* jogged first on Sunday at 8am, and then our division’s showjumping started at 9:30 (I was second to jump). This might seem like ample time, but the course wasn’t set or open for walking until 8:45, and my coach had to jog her 2* horse right around that same time, so it ended up being a bit of a tight morning, time-wise.

I was up and down in the barn by 5 to give Presto his Ulcergard, and the braider (my new favorite person) showed up pretty soon after. Once he was done getting braided he got his breakfast, and then I got him out and took him for a long handwalk. He looked great though… cold tight legs, didn’t seem particularly body sore or tired or anything. Indeed, he was a bit wild. I jogged him and he looked good, so he went back in his stall for a few minutes while I went to see if the showjumping course was at least posted (it wasn’t) and then went to change into my jog outfit.

For the jog itself, he was once again in old hunter pony mode. Like seriously man. When we practice jogging him up, he comes bounding forward like the pranciest fanciest thing you’ve ever seen. The second he gets to the ACTUAL jog strip he’s like oh no I simply cannot why we do dis.

Either way, despite his terrible presentation, this time he was quickly accepted. Praise the freakin eventing gods.

He got to go back to his stall while I went and changed into my show clothes. By the time I was dressed I could see that they were done dragging the showjumping ring and the poles were all back in their cups, so Megan and I ran over there in the hopes that they would open the course a bit early for walking. As soon as we got there the course designer gave the thumbs up, so we quickly walked the course and made a plan.

Once we were done walking Megan had to jet back to jog her 2* horse, and I had to jet back to get mine tacked up. Luckily he doesn’t require an extensive warmup so the timing worked out pretty great actually, even if it was a bit tight.

One of the big things we’ve been working on is my base pace and allowing him to keep coming forward (in balance of course) to the jumps. I tend to want to over-manage the canter and sometimes take too much away in the corner, or package it up too much out of the corner. He’s a ginormous horse so it always feels faster and less balanced to me than it actually is. He’s keeping a much better shape across his topline now than he used to, he doesn’t need as much help anymore. Megan wants me to stay up off of him a bit more in the corners and just sink down softly into my tack once I see my distance. It does seem to work better for us at this stage.

We worked on “base pace” in the warmup, and all the jumps came up great. We jumped a few oxers of increasing height and width, and then ended with a tall vertical. The rider that went before me was Caroline Pamucku, so I got to halfway watch her round, which was better than getting to watch none at all. I like to see how the turns and distances are working out. Everything walked pretty standard, but ya know… sometimes it rides differently.

We went in the ring, saluted the judge, and then away we went. I very deliberately got him out in front of my leg immediately, wanting to make sure that if nothing else, I didn’t get accused of having too little pace. I’m tired of making that mistake. Fence 1 came up great, and we made the turn to fence 2. Megan tells you to look at the inside standard of the fence as you’re coming through the turn, and then shift your eye to the takeoff spot once you’ve made the turn. This works really well for me, I don’t end up drifting a smidge past my line and hanging out too long in the corner.

He jumped the absolute shit out of the oxer at 2, then down the line to a skinny vertical at 3. Then it was around the turn again to 4, with 5 strides to 5AB. I got slightly deep to 4 so had to land and step up just a teeny bit to get down to 5A correctly. He was incredibly rideable though, and kept jumping really well no matter what. He’s gotten so much stronger that he’s jumping really well from the deeper distance now because he’s actually pushing off the ground properly.

We made the left turn to 6, which was the start of our S-curve of jumps across the ring. The oxer in the middle looked ginormous and really really square.

This is also the point where I get to admit that I completely forgot that FEI showjumping is bigger than the national equivalent level. Like Modified showjumping is 1.05m, but CCI1* showjumping is 1.10m, which is Prelim height. I didn’t realize that until YESTERDAY. So ya know… um… does explain why I was like “huh, these look a little big”. Yes, you moron. The first one was M height and the rest were P. Duh.

Anyway, I saw a bit of a move up to that oxer and he just FLEW over it. Like grew wings and flew. I think my soul left my body, and I very distinctly remember thinking “glad I put a little sticky spray on my saddle this morning” during the 75 seconds we were in the air.

He jumped the next oxer much the same way.

It’s kind of insane how easy this all still is for him, he’s just starting to make some kind of effort. And the effort makes me think it’s time to start working out more if I plan on actually staying attached to this animal when he finally starts making genuine efforts.

Then it was around to the last line (cutting inside a group of standards – FEI SJ is set at 350mpm rather than 325mpm, so the time ends up tighter. No room for making big loopy turns!) which was a two stride and then 7 bending strides to a vertical. Well it could be 7 direct or 8 with more bend in the line, but that line had been there the day before and direct seemed to be working better, so we went with that.

He jumped all those super too, and with that we had ourselves a double clear round and our very first FEI completion!

I was super pleased with the round and how he jumped, it’s feeling smoother and like the balance is improving. Mostly I was also just glad I didn’t shit the bed and do something entirely stupid, like go off course or fall off. That would have been the pits. I wanted that completion plaque! And we got it!

Sadly, if not for the umbrella incident we would have finished 5th. That stings. That stings a lot. But at the end of the day it’s hard to be disappointed with the weekend, really. He was super in the dressage, we had one of our best XC rounds ever (and it felt easy), and the SJ was also one of our best rounds to date.

The part that sucked was managing him for 5 days in stabling. I thought it would be a challenge, and I was right. It’s just so not the situation for him, and clearly I haven’t figured it all out. It mostly left me feeling like I will be in absolutely no hurry to do another FEI any time soon, or travel particularly far to out of town horse shows. Luckily this is Ocala, and I don’t really have to. We’ve got plenty of stuff to do and things to work on to keep us occupied.

I have a whole lot of thoughts and feelings on the whole thing, really. More than I can ever type and a lot of conflicting emotions. Patreon members, we recorded a podcast about it (its on your dashboard) so you could get the full and unfiltered story. The short version is that while I’m glad we did the FEI – it’s a bucket list item checked off, no doubt – it wasn’t really some kind of magical or poignant experience for me. Mostly it was stressful. Really stressful. In ways I hadn’t even considered.

Luckily we’ve got other stuff on the docket now, and it’s local and much more familiar, so… sigh of relief on that front. There are still a couple more shows before Ocala kinda shuts down for summer, so we’ll see if we can continue our plans for the rest of the season (knock on wood… I feel like with horses we’re always knocking on wood…)!

I’m drafting a post about all the outfits involved in this whole adventure, since that seemed to be a popular idea. Coming soon (hopefully tomorrow?)!

Always the best part, let’s be honest.

XC day was… long. The 1* was the lowest level running that day (4*, 3*, 2* were the other divisions) so we got the crappy end of the weather stick and got to run at 3pm when it was 90 degrees. This was the first truly hot weather of the season so I was a little worried how Presto might handle galloping for 6 minutes in it.

To the event’s immense credit, they did a lot to help mitigate the heat risk. They had vet box in the covered, so the horses could get into the shade immediately after they finished, and there were troughs of water constantly refilling that you could dip your cool-down buckets into, along with lots of ice and fans and plenty of people available to help cool horses down. Short of being able to control the weather, that’s about all you can do.

I had walked the course twice the day before, once with Megan and once with Hillary. They had also run a Modified one-day the day before, and they shared a couple combos with the 1*, so I went out and watched how they were riding and which routes seemed to be working best. I went early in the order for the 1*, so I wouldn’t really have the opportunity to watch anyone go in my division.

My initial impression of the course was that I thought it was pretty friendly. I mean, it’s a solid and fair 1*, but the questions are all things we’ve seen before. Granted… we’ve been running Modified for almost a year now, so… one would freakin hope.

Presto was a scene in warmup. By this point in the week his quarter had completely run out. He’d been in a stall for 3 days, he was pretty sure his neighbor was his BFF, and he was having meltdowns every time that horse left (or didn’t actually leave but Presto just thought he left). Like earlier that morning I had to bolt across the show grounds because someone called me and told me he was alternating between double-barreling the wall and sticking his front feet over the top of the wall. He just… really really really didn’t handle the stabling aspect of this adventure, and it rapidly fell apart throughout the day on Saturday as we waited to go. We hit his limit.

And even with giving him Ulcergard every morning, I could tell in warmup that his stomach was bothering him. He is often a scene in XC warmup, but in a jovial yeehaw “let’s have fun” kind of way. This time he was a scene scene. Like rearing and spinning and screaming and he definitely considered trying to run back to the barn a couple times to be with his new BFF (who gave zero fucks about him in return). It was far beyond his normal antics, and with a different tone. I thought he might actually try some of his old napping habit (that we haven’t seen in quite a while from him) out of the start box. He had that feeling to him, if you know what I mean. I have learned now that he gets like that when he’s anxious… I think it’s a tummy thing.

As soon as we left the box I really sent him in front of my leg, trying to get him to focus on his job. I could feel him thinking about going back to warmup, but luckily the first one came up fast and we were over it before he had a chance to think too hard. We landed from that one and I opened him up to a good gallop. That usually gets him clicked in. The beginning of the course was pretty open and flowy, so it gave you a good opportunity to get going, and fence 2 was a big wide gallopy ramp, so it worked out well. He absolutely flew over that, ears perked. Now we were in business.

Fence 3 was the MIM oxer off a pretty short turn approach, but the turn works as the half halt, so you could pretty much just keep coming. He pinged over that great. As we got close to 4, the trakehner in the treeline, I could see the poor girl who had left the box ahead of me off to the side, no longer attached to her horse. I didn’t have any time to process it in the moment, but turns out the horse had fallen. Luckily Presto was too busy jumping the trakehner to give that horse much thought in the moment.

From there we went to the log wagon, which was good, and then to the first real question – a jump in the water, then a left turn to a bending line. I noticed while watching the day before that if you had a horse that tended to step into the very edge of the water, it was a perfect 3 forward strides to the rolltop. I happen to have a horse like that, so I knew once we got to the edge I could just close my leg and the 3 would come up well, and it did. The line to the next one seemed to ride best in a 6, then you could ride forward and the skinny was there in 3. Some people hung out/slowed down and did 7 and 4, but it definitely looked more awkward that way. Megan wanted me to take the bolder route, so we did. Presto was delighted, he’s a fan of taking bold and forward routes.

From there we had another decent gallop stretch to a table, which came up pretty well out of a forward stride, and then we looped back (and balanced up a whole whole lot) for the coffin. We jumped the MIM rail that Prelim usually has, bigger than any of the ones we’ve had before, and with the bigger ditch. Otherwise thought it was a pretty straightforward line… two strides to the ditch, four straight strides to the corner. It was bigger than usual but I feel like we’ve seen more technical questions at that coffin before. Presto was super through there.

Then we had the log table, which was good, to the next little house thing. Then it was 8 bending strides right to the log stack, with four bending strides left to the skinny. This question rode really well if you picked your line from the beginning and really stuck to it, but I saw it do some gnarly things to people who didn’t make a decision or tried to change their mind. Presto was really good and rideable through that question.

Then we had another gallopy table before we got to the next combo, the crater. Here, his anxiety got the best of him. As soon as I got straight to the A element he spotted the videographer sitting under a big umbrella directly in his line of sight on the other side of the crater, and he spun like an absolute top. Damn near dropped me right off the shoulder. We were still a good 6-7 strides from the jump… I don’t even think he’d seen it yet, but he was NOT having it with that big flappy umbrella.

I got him turned around, he eyeballed the shit out of the umbrella, and then we re-approached. Once he locked on to the jump he was bold as brass, remembered he had a job, and jumped through the combo like easy peasy. Unfortunately the spin happened close enough to the jump for it to count as a 20, even though it had nothing to do with the actual jump itself. Big fucking bummer. BIG FUCKING BUMMER. UGGGGGGH. This is totally the kind of shit he does when he gets anxious though (recall Stable View?), and given the day leading up to that point… I’m not shocked. I wish I’d felt it coming, but he really got me with no warning on that one.

Once that happened I took my foot off the gas a little. No point in going for time anymore, womp womp. But he hopped over the collapsible table great, and up over the mound really super.

Then we got to the second water, which I thought might have been the most interesting question on the course. You had a fairly standard brush fence into the water, and then turned right and jumped a corner. Caveat being, there was a Training jump in the way of what would be the best line to the corner. So you could either cut inside of the Training jump and come into the corner on a bit of an angle, daring yourself a little, or you could go around the Training jump and make a quick 90 degree turn to jump the corner dead-straight.

While we were walking the course Megan told me to take the inside route. When I looked at her a second too long she was like “If you’re gonna move up to Prelim, you need to take that route. Going around is a waste of time. Keep his shoulders straight and ride through the flags. Don’t be a p*ssy.” and then kept walking. Did you know this is apparently a very effective strategy of coaching me? I was like “ah well yes obviously I am not a p*ssy, so clearly I would take the inside route”. And honestly? She was right. It rode really well that way. Presto was genuine as hell, locked on to the corner right away, stayed super straight in his shoulders, and it worked out great. And since this was the water jump directly in front of our stabling, I got to see literally dozens of people jump through that question all weekend long between the various Modified divisions and the 1*. Not very many people took the inside route but it always rode better when they did. The longer route was awkward and required too much micro-managing.

After that we just had a gallop up the hill to the log oxer, then to the skinny table, both of which were great. Then we galloped between the ropes and across the road (ok that was fun) into the big grass arena for the last jump.

After we crossed the finish we pulled up to trot and trotted a circle for the vet and steward at the finish. They gave the thumbs up and off we went to vet box in the covered arena to start his cool down. We pulled his tack off on the way and I had plenty of ground people to help, so honestly I mostly just watched and chugged a bottle of water. They walked him a bit, or tried to. They put water on him, or tried to. They took his boots off and studs out, with some difficulty. I figured he would be naughty for vet box because he HATES baths and hates being wet, especially if the water is cold. I was correct, he was violently opposed to having buckets of cold water thrown on him. He scattered the bucket volunteers pretty quickly.

The good news is that he was barely winded and not that hot. He cooled down really quickly and was very obviously not tired, so we were out of vet box in less than 10 minutes. Granted, they opted not to try to take his temperature for fear of their life. Fair. That’s fair. Either way, he was very clearly not in any kind of distress health-wise. He was completely back to normal respiratory rate by the time he got back to his stall, and seemed fresh as a daisy. All good!

From there it was just normal post XC care stuff. Or normal for him anyway. Magic cushion, handwalking, etc. I tried to wrap him since he was going to be stuck in a stall, but he pulled those off in an hour. I gave up. He very clearly did not need fluids or anything like that, so… it was a pretty simple and easy post-XC.

If we could just erase the stupid umbrella spin, it would be the best XC day we’ve ever had. It was smooth and bold, the jumps came up well, and it felt honestly incredibly easy. He’s fit and even in the hot weather he handled it fantastic. That stupid 20 will bother the shit out of me until the end of my days. We’ll talk more about my thoughts on that and the how/why/what next aspect later. I did learn something about him and his show management from this, at least.

But, either way, we were through the XC and on to the next and (finally) last day – the final jog and show jumping!