Category: Uncategorized

Well well well, here we are again.

Henny and Presto have both been rocking and rolling as we’ve had some really deliciously lovely Florida fall weather. Lows in the 50’s and 60’s, highs around 80… it’s why we love Florida so much from October through April. Granted, that gross cold front that’s been sweeping down from Canada is also tiptoeing it’s way into these parts, so it’s supposed to be around freezing temps the next couple of nights. Ew. Y’all keep your winter shit out of my yard.

Should be especially great tomorrow morning for my 8:30am dressage lesson, where it’s supposed to be 35 degrees. It was my only option, clearly, otherwise I wouldn’t have picked it. We’ve gotten back into the swing of lessons after my trainer was gone for a few weeks and Presto had his little break to reset.

Granted, she’s going to be gone for most of the stretch between the holidays, so I’ve been trying to capitalize on her presence as much as I can at the moment as we start building up momentum heading into season. Mostly I wanted to get back into the swing of things with Presto, since I really didn’t jump him much for basically the whole summer while he was getting so many training rides.

I took him to the POP Open Schooling XC day (solo, Trainer was still gone), and he was well-behaved but still spooky and looky. He got better as we went around and as we started jumping bigger and more complicated jumps. He never tried to be nappy nor were there any meltdowns, and he jumped everything I put in front of him, he just didn’t start out feeling like his usual confident self and always seemed to have one eye looking for the boogeyman. We spooked at so many rocks, guys.

Since then we’ve had a few jump lessons, where he’s felt more and more like his usual self as we’ve gone along, and at the end of one of them we went out to Trainer’s XC field and popped over just a few things. On Saturday we had one of our best jump lessons in a long time. He was very confident, he was rideable, everything felt easy and fun for him, and he felt very relaxed in his brain and his body from start to finish. Then yesterday we had our first official (supervised) XC school and it was honestly one of the best I’ve ever had on him.

He never put a foot wrong the entire time, he was super relaxed, he was having fun, he was brave… back to normal Presto and then some. I wish I had video, because we tackled a few more technical things, like a corner to a double upbank (it took me 3 tries to get my ride right, but he was very patient about it and jumped through it without complaint even when I made mistakes), down the hill to a skinny. A coffin with 4 elements, the last of which was a skinny shoulder brush. A rolltop down into the water (he’s generally always lookier at things on the edge of the water but he was spot on fantastic to that). It wasn’t just how he was at the questions either, it was the fact that he stood on a loose rein while my Trainer’s horse went, never was anxious about her leaving him or nappy when we left her, didn’t pay any mind to the other horses that were schooling, etc etc. He was taking me to the jumps but still super rideable. I couldn’t have been more pleased with him in every regard.

We did tweak his bit/bridle setup again after Ellie rode him for a while in one of her bridles and liked him in it. I tried it and agreed, so I bought him a similar bridle and the same bit. Amazing that despite the fact that I own 17bajillion bridles, I did not own one like this.

The one she has is an older model something – we couldn’t figure it out nor could I find one exactly the same. She sent me this LeMieux bridle that looked similar, and since Riding Warehouse had it, I just bought that one. So far I’ve been really pleased with the quality. It needs to break in more so it lays flatter, but it’s a nice bridle for the price. The bit, naturally, was not cheap, and that seemed like the more critical part of the equation so I didn’t even bother trying to find something similar for cheaper. I’m not out here trying to waste money on trial and error when I can just buy the one I know he likes.

Trainer felt like (and I agreed) the full cheek helped keep him ever so slightly straighter. Sometimes when he’s wanting to be a little argumentative he tries to push out slightly through his left shoulder and the left rein. Usually that’s his go-to for giving himself more space in a line if he’d rather not listen to you and shorten his stride. Having the full cheek seems to give just that teeny bit of extra “nah, dude, stay straight” that we needed. I got him the one she was using, the Trust french link full cheek. I don’t love not having keepers on it, but he prefers how it sits in his mouth without them, so I just have to be careful and attentive when he’s wearing it. I do quite like jumping him in this bit and bridle combo.

As for Henny, he’s been busy too.

He got to go on a long trail ride with Hillary/Tully and Kathleen/Butterball, where we all had great fun cantering around the wilds of Florida like a bunch of lunatics. It made me remember how much Henny loved fox hunting, and I really would like to get him out a time or two this season if we can find a buddy that also wants to join. Knock on wood, but he’s looking and feeling as good as ever as we get closer to his 19th (omg) birthday.

I’ve been jumping him some at home, and my friend Sarah has ridden him a couple times. We’re entertaining the idea of entering him in a little hunter derby at HITS in December. I think it would be adorable.

Otherwise it’s been the usual stuff happening around here, lots of working and horses and working and horses and rinse, wash, repeat. I have no complaints. We’ve also entered tack sale season, and I’ve gotten some good scores, like a couple free tubes of SynChill, some free black show spray, a pair of Equilibrium boots for $1, a bit for $3, a Mattes girth, and some REALLY cool old stallion books from Germany. Such a random but awesome find for a breeding nerd like me.

I also picked up a pair of Romitelli Boots and a pair of La Mundial boots for $10 each. Neither of them fit me, but they do fit people in the Patreon group, so those spectacular finds are getting passed along to them. I still wear the heck out of my LM boots that I got from that tack sale last year!

I do have one other exciting thing happening, but… y’all are gonna have to wait to get the details on that. We like to leave it on a cliffhanger.

Since Presto got kicked off the East Coast Tour (ok that’s not what happened, but it’s also not NOT what happened…) October was slotted to be just a nice relaxing reset time for the both of us. And in many respects, that’s what it has been. In other respects, it’s been a bit balls to the wall. I last checked in a couple weeks ago, and we’ve had no trouble filling our time since then, so let’s get you all caught up. I have A LOT of pictures of various activities, so buckle up.

First and foremost, Presto has made a few more off-property trips. With our trainer away at Morven and Maryland, we’ve had no lessons or training rides, but I still wanted to do something that felt productive without putting a lot of pressure on Presto. I think we both needed to remember that this is supposed to be fun, so fun is what we’ve had.

On his trip to Majestic a couple weeks ago, I was literally the only person on the property. I wasn’t anticipating that, I’ve never been there when it was totally dead, so I ended up having to desperately call a friend last minute to come be my groundperson so I could actually ride (props to Emily for saving the day… bonus that she’s actually a TD so I literally had my own personal TD babysitter). While I was waiting for Emily to get there I walked Presto around all over the place, letting him sniff everything and just play around. He’s nothing if not a curious creature, and he’s hella nosy. He wants to touch everything, so why not let him.

When Emily got there I got on and popped him over a few little jumps, the water, the ditches, etc, and let him open up his gallop a bit up and down the hill. He felt a little behind the leg and looky at first, but once I let him gallop he absolutely LIT UP and was like WHEEEEE THIS IS FUN and tada, just like that I had my bold, cocky cross country horse back. It was a relief to feel him click back in. We mostly stuck to little jumps and just kept it simple and easy.

And then the next day, because I’m nothing if not a silly goose, I flew to Seattle for a Sleep Token concert. I was up at 3:45 on Tuesday to drive to Tampa to catch a 5.5 hour flight to Seattle. There I met up with my equally insane friend (aka internet wife and concert buddy) who had flown in from NC. We did some touristy sightseeing for a few hours in the afternoon (which included 5 miles of walking with my heavy-ass backpack while wearing my platform Doc Martens), stopped off at the hotel to get ready, and then headed to the concert venue in Tacoma around 6. We were back at the hotel by midnight and up before 5am to head back to the airport for a 5 hour flight home. In the middle seat. With an open-mouthed perpetual heavy breather sat to my right. I felt every minute of my 42 years old on the way home.

And listen, did I get like 5 hours sleep in those two days combined and confuse the heck out of my body by jumping back and forth 3 time zones in 24 hours? Not important. YOLO, my dudes. Sleep Token was an absolute 10/10, incredible show, and 100% worth it. Would do again. Plus I got to dress up like some kind of fairy witch and it wasn’t even weird at all, I fit right in.

Then it was back to normal life, which was mostly a lot of work because taking off two days put me a little behind. I still got the horses ridden though, and Presto has been feeling great. Other than being a bit lazy (which is better than tension I suppose) he’s just been really stellar. Rideable, happy, and feeling strong and confirmed in his work.

He’s also been doing a lot of hacking out, and continues to feel happier about it each time. He’d been so tense and on edge about being out there alone, but now he’s kind of back to his normal ambling self, and wanting to touch literally everything. I’m not joking, one day he wanted to sniff and touch every single line and reflector on the road. It was a long hack.

But I think taking the pressure off of him for a while and letting him just have some time to breathe has been good. There’s no agenda really.

I do think that he genuinely enjoys going for lessons and doing things, but not having an agenda for a while has been good too. We’re never bored anyway, he makes sure of that. We spent most of that week hacking and flatting, with one little jump day in there where we mostly worked on adjustability down a line of poles, with some cavaletti and one real jump thrown in.

The following Saturday was the giant annual Horsey Yard Sale at Tack Shack of Ocala, and once again Hillary and I nabbed a vendor space. It was just as packed as last time – we joined the line to get in at 6:20 and finally were in there setting up at 7:30. We sold a lot of stuff though and made some money, which was the point. Do we still have enough stuff left to start our own consignment store? Potentially. But ya know, reductions were made.

AND, at one point while we were sitting there chatting, we were talking about concerts. Hillary was like “we should go see Billie Eilish” to which I had an immediate yes because she’s been on my top 5 bucket list for years. Hillary got on her phone and was like “she’s playing Orlando on the 14th”.

Mind you, it was currently the 11th.

She found two tickets for not an insane price, plus a parking pass for the garage. I’d made enough money to cover my ticket within the first hour of the tack sale sooooo I mean… the universe wanted it to happen, right? Who was I to say no? It was basically free (girl math). The seats weren’t the best, but ya know… in the house in a not-great spot is better than not in the house at all.

So anyway, on Tuesday (yes, one week after I flew to Seattle to see Sleep Token) I fed the horses a little early and then we drove down to Orlando.

It was once again an amazing show and I’m delighted I got to see Billie. I’ve seen almost all of my favorites this year now!

It was also by far the loudest concert I’ve ever been to (and mind you, I mostly go to metal shows) because of the sheer VOLUME of the SCREECHING from all the tweens. Like… I probably have hearing loss just from that. It was so incredibly shrill. The concert was a wholesome girlhood experience tho, even if I was definitely one of the oldest people there who wasn’t chaperoning a minor. Details.

We were back home by midnight, so I didn’t even have to lose too much sleep. Bonus.

And then on Thursday our friend group had made plans to go to an Edgar Allen Poe themed dinner theater event. To be fair, that event was the first thing I’d planned for this month, before either of the concerts, but by the time we got to the day I was like “wow I really went for it”. Which is fine. If we’re being honest, Presto wasn’t the only one needing a reset. I go really damn hard at this riding thing all the time, I put a lot of pressure on myself to try to be better and make good decisions, my life revolves entirely around it, and it’s literally 7 days a week. When things go tits-up with the horses (as they do sometimes, because horses) I tend to crash out. Having a little bit more balance, where maybe not every single thing is about the horses, is refreshing sometimes. I do generally need to make more of an effort to do other things every once in a while so I don’t lose myself entirely, and this month has been a good reminder of that.

Anyway, yeah… Poe Dinner Theater.

It was in Gainesville, so just a short drive up from Ocala, and a whole group of horse girls came (my vet, a working student, Emily the TD/Event Organizer, Hillary, Sarah, me). We dressed up a little, had some dinner and some themed-drinks, and listened to a few Poe works. It was fun! And while we were there we made plans to attend a murder mystery dinner next month, so we can keep the non-horsey fun stuff going.

The next morning I took Presto over to Majestic again, hoping to be able to jump around a bit more stuff.

They had a schooling show the next day, so I figured it would be busy with people schooling, and I was correct. Presto had enjoyed two trips to Majestic where it was quiet and he was alone out on XC, so I wanted to see if he had any feelings about being out there “alone” with a bunch of other groups of horses. I figured if the nappiness was gonna come out, it would be in a situation like that.

He started out feeling actually super quiet, but started to perk up a bit as we went. I headed to the water first because it always seems to help him lock in to his task, and we cantered through, then popped some small jumps before and after, and then dropped down all the banks into water. He was feeling pretty good about himself by the time we moved on to the bottom of the field. I popped him over the Novice combo down there, then let him really open up his gallop up the hill. He went for it, charging super boldly up it. He felt keen by then so I pointed him at the Training combo, a rolltop to a down bank to a skinny wedge, and he absolutely ate it up. THAT is my normal boy.

He landed and tried to drag me through the woods at Mach 5, which made me cackle with delight. He was having a blast. We ended the day by popping over the ditches and then through the Training coffin line, which again he just ate up. Easy peasy, ears pricked, having a great time.

I was super happy with him, so we quit there. No napping or spooking. He did stare off in the distance at groups of horses a few times, but always got to his job with no fuss. Except for that one time he was staring at horses, stepped in the ditch, and got mad at ME about it. Perhaps watch where you’re putting your feet, sir, those are your job.

Either way, I’m happy with how he felt… much more like his normal self than the first outing a couple weeks ago.

On Sunday he got body-clipped, which to be honest was a bit overdue. If he’d been showing I would have gotten him done a few weeks ago, but I was kind of hoping to milk it as long as possible. It’s just too warm for how dang hairy he was though, so it was time for a hair cut. Now he’s his beautiful, super super dark fall color.

Oh, and he got his best grade yet from our body clipper (who has also braided him for me some). He didn’t try to knock her off her stool or put the clippers in his mouth at all, and only wanted to squish her a couple times. What stellar behavior for the boy.

Our trainer is back sometime this week so lessons will probably commence again soon, but I think we’ve accomplished what we wanted while she was gone. She said to make it fun for him again and try to bolster his confidence, and I think I’ve done that. It’s also given me some distraction-free time to step back and really ruminate on what I want and what’s most important to me, and how that might look moving forward. There’s a whole lot of stuff still up in the air right now, but ya know what? That’s okay.

Heeeeeey there, long time no type. I’ll spare you the excuses, they’d just be a formality at this point. We are, in fact, all here and alive and mostly well, and while I don’t have a ton of time for a super lengthy and in-depth update (the Patreon people have to listen to all that 😅), I’ll give you my best TLDR version of where we’re at and what we’ve been up to.

Basically, after having a really super and confident and happy run at Ocala in August, Presto went to Bouckaert and had a bit of an emotional meltdown. Then he went to Tryon and had an even bigger emotional meltdown that involved trying to jump out of the trailer and slicing his legs up (yes, again) and his mental state didn’t really get any better for several days after he got home. We’ve decided to give him a little bit of a break, regroup, make things fun for him again, and probably abandon the idea of taking to him horse shows that require long hauls and overnight stays. He seems to have a lot of major attachment issues and come-aparts in those situations, and he really caved under the pressure.

So, given all that, Presto obviously did not go on the previously planned east coast horse show tour with Trainer. Instead we had a couple of fun and easy lessons before she left, and since she’s been gone we’ve been doing lots of hacking and basic work that he’s good at, just trying to make him happy with himself again. It seems to be working, knock on wood, and he’s been really good. We’ll experiment with some local shows and get back into the swing of lessons when Trainer gets back, and then see where we’re really at. We have to regroup and change some of the goals and plans for Presto, given what we’ve learned in the past couple months. As of right now, the future is a little bit uncertain, but he’s sound and enjoying his work.

Henry has been mostly good, although we had a really scary moment cross country schooling a couple weeks ago where he twisted his shoe and stepped on his clip, going instantly 3-legged lame while cantering to a jump. That was not a fun experience. He bled like crazy, another XC schooler on course nearly ran us over while I was on the ground holding his leg up waiting for help… just not the best. THANK GOODNESS once we got the shoe off he was totally fine, and it’s healed up with no issues. Moral of this story though: make sure you have extra farrier tools in your trailer. Mine were at home.

As for Rubes, you’ve probably noticed that we’re not at the RRP Makeover this week. I’ve still not been able to get shoes back on him yet after he ripped a chunk of hoof off in late July. It’s been so wet here (I literally cannot accurately express to anyone how wet it is here during the summer months, between rain and heavy dew) that I just reaaaaaally struggle with his feet. Right now he’s wearing casts on the fronts, because he had ALMOST enough wall last week but we were worried that it wasn’t quite enough. He’s sound, and he wants to work, but I’m gonna be honest – I’ve given up on him being compatible with Florida. At least for me, with my situation, where I have no access to a dry turnout and don’t have the set-up or manpower to keep him inside.

He’s great during the dry season, no problem, but standing in moisture 24/7 just does terrible things to his feet and then they fall apart and he can’t be ridden and he gets sad and I get sad and it’s become a cycle I’ve not been able to break. His feet seem to be able to withstand the first 6 weeks of wet season, and then the trouble starts. Truth be told, he’d be much happier in a less tropical climate… he’s not a fan of our dog-sized mosquitoes either.

I’ve waffled back and forth on this for months, but I finally talked to his breeder about re-homing him. I love Rubes, he’s so sweet and tries so hard, but I don’t think Florida is the place for him. Plus, he really wants to be a showjumper type, IMO. He absolutely loves routine, predictability, doing the same thing all the time, etc. I think the chaos and constant change of eventing isn’t his jam. He’d be absolutely perfect as a jumper for a bold junior or ammy that lives in literally any climate but this one. If you know of someone that might make a good match for him, send them my way! Perfect home is of the utmost importance.

Basically we’re in a bit of a period of upheaval and rebooting in a lot of ways. But what is life with horses if it’s not constantly changing?

Just dropping in real quick because I know how much y’all love a sale. I’ve teamed up with a site called Turnout HQ (their app is coming soon) and a sales list/coupon codes can be found on their site!

You do have to create an account to access their online community, but it’s free to join and we started a whole Equestrian Discounts group that will be an ongoing collection of codes and sales. Having people create an account to access the community is just a way to help keep out bots, spammers, and scammers! I’ve done two sale posts already, each with 24 sales listed, so there are quite a few already if you’re looking to stock up or treat yourself.

Check it out here

They’ve also got a Marketplace that is similar to Poshmark – I’ll be posting a lot of stuff on there in the coming days. Peruse the community and check it out, there are a lot of fun things coming from Turnout HQ. And if you want to be do a full membership (not just the free one) so you can post in the community and buy/sell via the Marketplace, it’s only $10 a year and half of that goes to a charity of your choice!

I won’t even bother with excuses because I know no one wants to hear them. It’s been almost 3 weeks since the last update and a lot has been going on, so let’s catch up!

When we left off I said that I was pretty sure Rubes was brewing an abscess. Indeed that was true, but it was one of those that kept coming and going, and it’s just finally started to burst. It seems like it might be a pretty big one, so that’s super fun and neat. As of right now he’s shoe-less because it’s come out right at his toe, which would be under a shoe. We’ll re-assess next week and see if we feel like the abscess is resolved so that he can get a shoe back on. As of this point he’s been without for about 3 weeks so what’s another one, really. (if it sounds like I have given up, you would be correct)

His new custom-fitted loaner saddle did arrive from France though, so whenever he decides to get with the program and rejoin the riding squad, we’ll be in business.

Presto had a little bit of a light week after my two jump lessons at the end of July, mainly hacking and doing flatwork while my trainer was out of town. Then he was back to training rides to start to prepare for his two shows in August.

I will say that for as much as I really love riding him and reaaaaaaaaally am itching to have the ride back, this summer of basically full training has been really transformative for him. I think it’s also helped Trainer get to know him really really well, and find lots of little holes to fill. You just get a lot more information riding the horse multiple times a week and showing it vs watching someone else ride it or riding it every so often. She’s also been able to help him figure some things out way way faster than I would have. I think it’s been super good for him and a really worthwhile spend of time and money as far as his development and his future. He’s a little bit tricky in that he can be really emotional and dramatic and over-reactive (literally if I had a dollar for every time someone has called him “dramatic” in his life, he’d prob be pretty well funded), so we’re at the point where guiding him through his big feelings is the key. He needs for everything to be calm but very clear, very black and white, and confidence-building.

This past weekend he ran the Prelim with her at Ocala, and he was honestly pretty foot-perfect start to finish. No dramatics, no excuses, he just went and did his job like a wholeass grownup.

She thought there were a couple moments in showjumping where he could have been a touch more submissive (story of his life, is it not), but it’s for sure markedly better and continuing to improve.

We’ve backed him all the way down to a basic snaffle and taken the running martingale off. She felt like at the moment if he feels any kind of restriction he wants to fight it, which mostly just causes him to drop behind the leg a bit and hollow out behind the saddle. That’s the opposite of helpful really. There could be a time when we put it back on, but for now she thinks he needs to be a bit more rideable in general and better about staying genuinely between the leg and hand and thinking forward. He seems to be going just fine for both jumping phases in his very plain set-up. He’s the kind of horse where, if anything, he could be a little sharper off the aids (he’s def not a lazy kick ride but he’s also not really TAKING you places as much as he kinda needs to be at this point) so having him in a very simple setup does seem to make him more inclined.

He finished in third in a big competitive open Prelim division, adding some time to his dressage score. It was a very warm and humid day, he ran XC at noon, and he’s running again this weekend at Bouckaert, so speed was not a priority. Mostly we were looking for rideability, straightness, and him wanting to take her to the fences. She did ask him to pick it up a bit on a couple of the long stretches though, and he obliged. I think his gallop is getting better too – more balanced and carrying.

Another thing we’ve worked on over the past couple months is increasing his strength and fitness, which (while challenging to do in Florida in the summer) is starting to pay off I think. He was definitely hot when he was done, but he cooled down quickly and didn’t seem particularly tired afterward.

She was really happy with him in all three phases, he earned a gold star and lots of cookies for the weekend.

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Presto had yesterday off and will hack today and tomorrow, then get a really light jump school on Thursday when I drop him off at Trainer’s barn. They’ll haul him up to Bouckaert on Friday and I’ll make a quick trip up there to see him go this weekend. We’re all hoping he’ll decide to be a well-behaved creature so that I can have the ride back as we head into fall. Fingers crossed he makes good choices… you just never really know with him sometimes.

I do think he’s looking REALLY incredible though, like the changes in his body and his strength and how he’s carrying himself over past year are pretty phenomenal. Heck, even over the past 6 months really. Is it the training program? The fact that he’s 8 now? Probably both. It takes such a long time for horses to build up their bodies and mature as they come up the levels, and he’s such a big horse. But man, he’s really starting to look like the real deal. It almost makes me wish I had Owner Money so we could find out what he was really capable of. Alas, I want the ride back. Gimme gimme.

In other news, things with the 2yos are getting pretty serious.

They’ve worn saddles a few times now, and Andy has done a little bit of very very light walk/trot lunging with his. Rue is a little bit behind him, so she’s mostly learning how to pay attention and be still (Andy LOVES being still, it’s his favorite) but they’ve both been champs about the saddle. Next will be bridles!

Next week Studbook sBs will be here inspecting the 2025 babies, and then after that we’re already getting close to weaning time.

Hopefully we’ll get some good pics of the foals to share before they start getting into that weird growth stage and aren’t cute again for possibly years.

Fingers crossed Bouckaert goes well this weekend, and I hope everyone is surviving the swampass part of summer!