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It seems like, a lot of times, when you say a horse is “smart and sensitive”, a lot of people take those things to be negative. I suppose if you want a horse that’s a bit dopey and a kick ride, then yes, smart and sensitive are probably not what you’re after. But to me, they’re good qualities. I like a horse that is naturally forward thinking, responsive, light, retains lessons well, and can think for itself a bit. So when I say that I’m noticing that Presto is smart and sensitive, I’m totally okay with that. It’s why I wanted all that thoroughbred blood in there, after all.

The next big step in Presto’s training will probably be long-lining and ground driving. With that in mind, I’ve started laying down some of the prep work so we can gradually work up to that. He already knows the basics on how to move his body away from pressure, and we’ve been working on voice commands (at least cluck and whoa) for a while. This past Saturday he wore a surcingle for a first time, and we introduced the word “trot”. Or as I like to say it to horses: “TER-ROT”. Because I’m weird. I dunno, I just think it’s more clear and positive sounding. As a voice command I’ve said it that way forever. Look, I already said I’m weird ok?

Before we got to the surcingle, I flopped a saddle pad all over him. He’s worn them before, with me just casually tossing one over his back sometimes. But this time we did a more formal “sacking out”, if you’d like to call it that. I flopped that thing around all over him, from nose to tail to hoof, tossing it high and low and slow and fast. He was a little concerned the first time it walloped him in the butt, but his feet stayed still. After that I tossed the surcingle on and off a few times, then let it hang while he investigated.

He was still unconcerned, so I went to fasten up the surcingle, but… um… he’s so scrawny. Even with it all the way up on both sides, I had a huge gap. So off I trudged into the barn to get a half pad. Or two. Yep, definitely two. With both of them stacked I could at least get the surcingle snug enough to where he could walk and trot around without the whole thing sliding right off. Poor kid. It’s hard being a yearling.

But he packed it around with no complaints, almost looking bored. So we incorporated our TER-ROT voice command, going from trot to walk to trot to walk and back again several times. He caught on really quickly, and after a few repetitions, saying “trot” was all it took to get him stepping off promptly into trot.

We’ve also been working a lot more in-depth on moving away from pressure. He’s known since he was a kiddo that a pressure on his side means move over and pressure on his chest means move back. Now we’re refining that a bit, using much lighter cues, and getting more specific to the area of his body that I want him to move, and in which direction, and how far. Presto is incredibly sensitive about that and is quick to respond to even the lightest pressure.

After that we worked on his ground tying skills, which are… uh… not so strong. It’s a lot to ask of a yearling colt. Especially one that’s always looking for something to DO. Asking him to just stand and not DO is a lot tougher than the opposite. He got a couple minutes of standing still though, so we’ll call that a win for now. He tried. Sorta.

The more I ask of him, the more it feels like I’m kind of peeling back layers of Presto’s personality and getting to know him a little bit better. These days I can usually predict how he’s going to respond to something, and guess which things might upset him the most or get more of a reaction from him. I also see that he’s got a good work ethic, and a strong desire to do find the right answer. He’s not lazy, he learns fast, and he retains his lessons amazingly well. He even seems to look forward to his “work”. There is definitely a stubborn/naughty streak in there though, and it comes out sometimes when he’s thought about something for a while and decided that maybe he knows a better way. Luckily at this point it doesn’t take much to dissuade him. That might get a little tougher with age.

He now also knows what “ENNNNHHHH!!!” means. Mostly because he learned that if he stands on the hose, no water comes out, so he would very deliberately look for it and then stomp. “ENNNHHHHH” is his “I see you, you little shit, and you better not!” warning to cease and desist before he gets in real trouble. I also had to start clipping him into the crossties differently because he figured out if he swung his head around a certain way, he could eventually work his halter over an ear. Okay, so maybe smart has it’s downsides.

Eventually we’ll put the long lines on (with a halter) and get him understanding that whole deal, but there’s no rush. Right now it’s time to shift the focus back on his in-hand stuff a bit more, since FEH Champs are right around the corner. Of course, after almost a whole month of looking like a relatively normal horse, his neck is starting to look like it’s been put on upside down again. Usually that precedes a really awkward growth spurt. I have no doubt that’s exactly what he’s planning on doing in the next few weeks. Maybe I should have entered the Future Event Camel Championships instead?

Not green as in horses… I’ve been used to green horses for most of my riding life. What IS a newer concept in my world, though, are green numbers. Aka Prelim fences. We’ve jumped a smattering of them over the past couple years, usually the smallest ones or parts of a combo… ie not really a true Prelim question. The first real Prelim-sized fence we jumped was the bigass wagon, at Pine Hill last winter. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever actually have the balls to jump that thing, but Henny just pinged right over.

The past couple XC schools, we’ve actually been adding in more Prelim fences. And not just single fences, but combinations. Real, actual Prelim questions in their entirety. Granted, we’ve schooled at venues that have what I would call softer Prelim courses, so they’re not as hardcore or intimidating as you might see at a more stout venue. Both of these places run recognized shows though, so… they count.

I’ve waffled back and forth on the Prelim thing a lot. It’s a huge step up, it’s a lot harder, a lot bigger, and the room for error is considerably less. It’s the level at which I think things start getting stupid, and the consequences for mistakes are generally more serious. I’m not a fearful rider, but I’ve never been sure if my balls were big enough for that. Of course, if I’m being 100% honest, there is also nothing I would love more than to get to the point where I can run a Prelim on Henry. Even if it’s just a time or two, even if it’s just the “soft” ones, and even if all we do is Complete in a totally unspectacular way. I think Henry deserves the title of Prelim Horse, and I’d be lying if I tried to deny the fact that I want him to have it. I’ve had (and still have) plenty of doubts though, mostly in my own ability.

So these past couple schoolings, where we’ve pointed at real Prelim fences, Prelim combinations at that, and been successful – they’re confidence boosters. Because we know we can jump the height, but it’s the combinations where the weaknesses come out. We still have a hell of lot of work to do at Training, of course, that’s for freaking sure. The stadium definitely needs help and I need to be better in general at… literally everything. But I’m feeling a little more confident that maybe someday we might actually leave the startbox headed for the green numbers of Prelim. Maybe I won’t even piss myself in the process. Nah, j/k, I’ll definitely piss myself if that ever happens. I am never nervous in the startbox but I think that would finally be the time.

Yesterday we headed down to Pine Hill to school. It is a very rare, almost unheard of occasion for me to be able to XC school twice in a week a half, but I definitely can’t pass up the opportunity when it presents itself. The more we can get out there and do it, the better. Plus it’s clearly been way too long since I’ve been to Pine Hill, considering they changed the course in April and I still hadn’t seen it.

We warmed up over the little houses, then moved on to the big mound. The old Prelim route was a log with a big downhill drop landing, down the steep hill to a pile of logs on a bending line. That little log looks so cute and innocent when you canter up to it, then you’re in the air going “Oh wow I have really underestimated this hill”. Henny was a little surprised by it too. From there we went to a right hand bending line combination of fences with a skinnier jumpable face on the left side. They’re an interesting shape, and tall but not very wide. On the course maps, the first fence of the combination is called the Time Warp and then the second one is called Let’s do the Time Warp Again. Anything that’s named after something from The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a-ok by me.

By this point a big line of storms was starting to bear down on us, and we were trying to speed things along. Henry and I jumped through the crater, which had a rampy log pile landing in the crater, with a right hand turn to a skinny that came up pretty fast off of a relatively blind turn. XC Henry is generally like riding a jump-seeking missile though. If you point him somewhere near it, he will find it.

After the crater we headed to the Irish bank. Yes, the same Irish bank that made Henry, the XC savant, have a total brain meltdown last year. He just really didn’t understand that question at all, for whatever reason. This time they had it flipped around, so it was jumping the other way. The “in” side was a bit bigger bank with a ditch in front of it, and then the “out” was a log on top of the bank. Whether it’s the extra experience he’s gotten since then, or the change in direction, he seemed to understand it perfectly this time and jumped through it with no problem. That’s a definite relief.

From there we were on our way to the water when it started raining, which was quickly followed by lightning and thunder. That put an end to the day, as all of us on course made a mass exodus to the barn. There were a few more things I wanted to jump, but we can get to them another day.

 

If you watch the video, fair warning, Trainer’s voice is loud AF.

Overall it was another good, confidence building day for us. Not that Henny really needs it, he’s got plenty of swagger in his step when it comes to XC, but it’s great to finally conquer that stupid Irish bank and feel like maybe, just maybe, I could do this someday afterall. Next weekend we’re gonna try to hit a jumper show, and then it’s time to sit down and figure out my fall season. I think I’m just gonna do a couple recognized Trainings, although I haven’t quite decided which ones yet. After that I think we’ll set our sights on doing some of the Pine Hill schooling shows over the winter. They’re affordable (plus I have a ton of credits to use from volunteering), and they use the same courses as the recognized, so it’s a good bang for your buck. At least it is when the weather cooperates. We’ll see about that part.

Hope everyone else had a great Labor Day, full of all sorts of non-laborious things!

I have decided that 4 day weekends are my favorite thing ever and this is just what I’m gonna do from now on. How do we make a 3 day work week an actual thing? Because it’s Monday and I’ve still got today and tomorrow off, so it’s basically like I get a whole bonus weekend. This does not suck. Especially because I’ve managed to fill my days with horses… as one does.

Thanks first and foremost to technology, I watched a hell of a lot of live streaming. I watched Burghley XC, all of the eventing 5 and 6yo’s from Bundeschampionate (and some of the jumpers and dressage horses), and a lot of the AEC’s XC (when it was working, anyway). At one point I had 3 different live stream windows open on my laptop, plus HorseTelex so I could look up the breeding of whatever horses I liked. If that’s not your definition of heaven, we can’t be friends.

Big congrats to Gentleman FRH, who won the 6yo eventing final at Bundes with a massive 19.4 cross country score (out of a possible 20). That horse is really fun to watch, and it’s possible that I’ve already asked his owner Alex when we’ll have frozen available in the US. He seems like he would be such a great cross on a blood mare. A Mighty Magic offspring, Mighty Carerra, was 4th in the final, too. He’s a cool dude, really fun to watch and seems to love his job.

I also rode and played with the boys of course. Henry got to go for his first long canter sets in a while, which he loves to use as an excuse to spook at things and turn into a dolphin. I don’t mind. Clearly he’s having fun with it. Presto got to do some exciting stuff too, but we’ll talk about all that later.

On Sunday I drove down to Boerne to meet my friend Michelle (of Willow Tree Warmbloods) at a GOV inspection where she was spectating and taking pictures. It’s been many years since I’ve been to a GOV inspection, and they’re really trying to expand the jumper side of their registry right now, so it was interesting. I still have grumpy opinions about foal inspections, but I also appreciate any opportunity to sit there and listen to what an experienced horseman has to say about each horse. They were really big on shoulders, hocks, and masculine vs feminine type. And they did choose a jumper foal as site champion, which was a bit surprising because there was a De Niro x Totilas filly that was KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF stunning and jumper foals rarely beat that type. I’m curious to see how their jumper program expands over the next few years, with this push to grow the program.

Today I’m headed out for XC schooling, so hopefully the rain will hold off long enough to fit that in. Henry will be pumped, a second XC schooling in a little more than a week. We do need some rain though, really badly, and it looks like we actually might get some over the next week. My fields need it, the ground is hard!
Hope everyone else is having a good extended weekend too, filled with All The Ponies!

I had a long, kind of heavy post drafted for today but it’s Friday, we’ve got a holiday weekend (mine is four days and I’M SO EXCITED, and I just can’t brain anymore this week. So instead, how about just a few fun things?

First – holiday weekend equals sales! I expect that a lot will pop up over the next few days, but some notable ones for now: Riding Warehouse, One Horse Threads,and Teddy’s Tack Trunk. Riding Warehouse is doing 20% off sitewide, including new items and clearance. The discount is applied automatically when you add stuff to your cart. I noticed they’ve picked up a lot of cool new brands lately, including LeMieux, Mattes, GPA, KL Select, Dreamers & Schemers, etc, and expanded some of their previous product lines. There’s way more Back on Track, OneK, Charles Owen, Acavallo, Ariat… on and on and on. Not that I like, creepily look through their website all the time or anything.

One Horse Threads is doing 30% off of their apparel. Time to stock up on cute shirts.

Teddy’s Tack Trunk has 10% off bathing supplies with code TEDDYBATH through Monday. Which reminds me, I need more Espana Silk. I’m addicted to that stuff now.

Second thing: There is SO MUCH GREAT STUFF live streaming this weekend. I was sad to not get to go to Germany for Bundeschampionate this year since we had such a blast last year, but Clipmyhorse is showing everything online (both live and on replay). I’ve had my face glued to the event horses and the jumpers. My two favorite 5yos from last year, Gentleman and Mighty Carrera, are back again this year in the 6yo’s, and both are in the top 6 heading into the finals. There are 2 Mighty Magic’s in the 6yo finals! Diarado has also made a good showing for himself, with two different offspring winning a couple of the jumper classes already. Here’s Gentleman’s first round in the 6yo’s, which has put him out in the early lead on a 9.5:

Burghley is live sreaming XC on facebook here tomorrow: Burghley Horse International . My face will definitely be stuck to that, Burghley is my favorite 4*.

And then of course AEC’s is livestreaming at RideOnVideo. XC is today!

Last but not least for today, I wanted to offer a big CONGRATS to Sydney on the purchase of Manny! I’m so excited that Sadie’s 3rd colt (and Presto’s half brother) gets to go live with someone I know, and we’ll be able to follow him as he grows up. This should be a really great partnership, Manny lucked out for sure. Some of you may know Sydney as the owner of Two Socks Designs – maker of all sorts of cute stuff from hats to saddle pads to decals.



I could not have hand-picked a better home for him if I’d tried, so hopefully he grows up to be as spectacular as he seems, and they set the hunter and derby rings on fire. I think the Diarado x Sadie cross definitely needs to be repeated!

Happy holiday weekend everyone!

I dunno if she really intended for this to be a blog hop or not, but Olivia asked “What would you do if a long-lost distant relative died and left you a zillion dollars?” and this is a fantasy world that I cannot resist. Mostly because I think about it regularly. In excruciating detail. Even though I do not play the lottery or have any uber-rich relatives, nor am I ever gonna wrangle me a sugar daddy. But a gal can dream right?

First, I’m going to assume that the amount I have to spend is infinite, because although her post was titled “Millionaire Me”, she said “a zillion dollars”. And I can blow through a million or ten in a heartbeat, so I’m taking that “zillion” literally here.

Step 1: buy a farm. This 115 acre eventing facility in Aiken, for a cool $1.8 million, should do just fine. The price actually seems really reasonable, all things considered. Gallop track, two barns, cross country courses, and a log home? Sold.

As soon as the ink is dry on that deal, my ass will be on a plane (first class, of course) to go horse shopping. First thing a girl needs? How about an experienced and yet very forgiving 2* or 3* horse to show me the ropes through Prelim and 1*? I’ve never owned a schoolmaster type in my entire life, but I would love to have something very experienced so I could learn from it. Let’s go ahead and see what that’s about. Bonus points if it’s a mare.

The second horse I’m buying is a good broodmare by Heraldik. They’re hard to find these days, but since I have a zillion dollars, I’m sure it’s not impossible. As soon as the mare gets here I’ll do a few embryo transfers using Leprince des Bois, Upsilon, Ramiro B, and Contenda. Maybe even Sea Lion. And Cevin Z and Diarado and Diacontinus. Shit, better hire a breeding farm manager, we’re gonna have a lot of recip mares and babies. Also I may as well buy a nice Mighty Magic mare while I’m in Europe so she can keep the Heraldik mare company. Look at me, thinking ahead.

You know what, lets throw in a world-class youngster for my trainer, too. I wouldn’t mind having a VIP owner’s pass at LRK3DE or Burghley one day. I’m picturing something like Astier Nicolas’ Alertamalib’Or (his Mondial du Lion 7yo winner from last year). Guess we could just go to Mondial du Lion and let her pick out which one she wants. Because ZILLION DOLLARS.

Clearly we’re gonna be in Europe a lot, may as well buy a house there too. Somewhere around Namur, Belgium, I’m thinking. In the middle of everywhere I want to go and near a main train line. Perfect.

Henry and Presto would benefit from all this money too. Aside from their beautiful new farm, I’d be flying in the best farrier I could find, getting monthy chiro/acupuncture, weekly massage, maybe a nice solarium in the barn, a pool so the horses could swim for fitness, a nice salt water spa to soak their legs, why not throw in a PEMF blanket, etc. Henry would still get to show and do cross country and pack my butt around, until he decided he didn’t want to anymore. And since he’d be living on a farm with XC courses, he could have way more fun way more often.

I’d definitely have to buy the two miniature donkeys that Presto lives with now, because I can’t imagine him going anywhere without Dudley and Bob. They’re a staple.

May as well go ahead and buy a fancy air ride trailer while I’m at it, too, to haul all these creatures around. And all new totally custom tack with all the upgrade options I want. Which means navy piping EVERYWHERE.

Better make sure there’s a big closet in the house, I’m gonna need it for all the breeches and custom boots and helmets I’m buying. It’s gonna be like a Stacie situation up in there.

I think I’d also want to start an OTTB retirement program, so maybe a whole separate farm for that?

Yeah even with infinite dollars I feel like I’d be broke pretty quickly.