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I say this every July 4th and New Years, but I really hate the BoomBoom holidays. Fireworks should be illegal and I will die on that hill. Hate hate double hate loathe entirely. But we made it through yet another BoomBoom holiday relatively unscathed (did my walls vibrate until 4am from the LOUD AF music coming from two farms over that was accentuated with regular BOOMS that sounded like bombs? yes they did.) so I guess we’ll call that a win I guess.

I spent Saturday at WEC helping get the Luxe EQ trailer and cabin (yes we’ve got TWO things this year – a bigger mobile trailer plus a double size cabin that’s full of just Cavalleria Toscana) ready before the circuit starts this week. I dunno that I’m mentally ready for the next three months at WEC but I’m only working a few half days a week so it shouldn’t be too bad. The worst part for me is all the people and how annoying it is to try to park. This year we’re back behind the barns over on the road with all the saddle vendors though, rather than being stuck in the vendor village of cabins. I think it’ll be a lot better over there. Plus it’s right next to the hamburger place, Ralph’s, which is great because the only nearby food for the vendor village was the patisserie… there’s a limit to how many croissants one can consume for lunch.

On Sunday Presto and I headed over to Majestic Oaks for some jumper rounds. I was using this as kind of a litmus test to see how I felt about entering the January USEA show. Truth is, Presto really needs to get back to his job. I can get stuck in Training mode sometimes but he’s happier and better when he’s going and doing on a regular basis. I kind of completely lost track of how close we were to horse shows though and didn’t even go look at the omnibus until after closing date for Majestic. So I figured I’d go do a couple jumper rounds and see how I felt about it, and if all seemed good then I’d enter and pay the late fee. I loathe paying late fees, I get real mad at myself when I have to do that because of my own lack of planning.

But we loaded up on Sunday with the plan of doing a 3’3″ class and a 3’5″ class. They did time slots per height, so 3’3″ was supposed to go at noon and then 3’5″ at 12:30. I got there at 11:30 and they had just finished 2’3″, so uh… it was running a wee bit behind. I was floored at how many people were there, the entire giant parking field was looking almost as full as an event during season. Did not expect that for the end of December. I hope this is not a foreboding of what is to come.

They did their best to move people through the heights but there were just so many rounds in the under 3′ heights. I ended up not getting on til like 2:30. Luckily once we hit 3’3″ the place emptied out pretty quickly, so I was able to squeeze in for both of my rounds without too much more hurry-up-and-wait.

In warmup I just legit could not see a distance. And I don’t mean couldn’t find one, I mean legit just didn’t see shit. I’m not used to that. I might not always be able to make it happen to get to a good one, but I can almost always SEE where I am, at least 5 or 6 strides out. I kept coming out of the corner and just not seeing jack shit. It wasn’t pleasing me the most. Presto didn’t care, bless him, but I was annoyed.

As soon as we got in the ring it came back, thank goodness. I’m very glad I waited it out and stayed for my rounds because they were much-needed but also confidence-building. Not having gone out in public and jumped courses since the end of September, my brain is still clicking itself back into the groove. I didn’t put quite enough bend in the bending lines for the first course, and Presto was a wee bit excited to be there (see below Freak Flag exhibition)

but he was really good. Once they raised the jumps we went back in for the 3’5″ and smoothed it out a bit. Still wasn’t perfect, but I rode it better, and Presto felt really good. He loves his job, I don’t doubt that for one second. It’s also fun to feel how delightedly unimpressed he is at the height… it gives me confidence because I’m not as worried about making a mistake. If and when I do, he is truly non-plussed. Underneath all of his drama and fuckery he really is a kind and genuine dude.

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Also peep his lil lead change – we’ve been working on those! Left to right is pretty much 100%, right to left is harder and usually late behind, but it’s progress. I swear it’s harder for these big long horses.

So now we’re entered for the Majestic USEA in a week and a half… we’re def not at peak form but it’ll be a good opportunity to start to get back in the swing of things.

Mostly I can’t believe it’s 2024 already. Seems absurd, does it not?

My fancy new white board tells us that in the last 3.5 weeks of December (how long I’ve had it) I had two dressage lessons on Presto and two jump lessons, he went XC schooling 3 times., did one XC run at the POP show and then the Majestic jumper show. Argo had 12 rides (well one of those was groundwork, so 11 rides) and Henry had 7. I did quickly notice that in my effort to spread the horses around more, I wasn’t taking any days off of riding for myself, so we’ve rectified that. Rest days are important, my back and my knees are old. One rest day a week for me is the goal. Ideally I’d like to get 5 rides a week on Presto, 4 on Argo, and 3 on Henry, but we’ll see how well my schedule will allow for that over the next few months. I’m still figuring out how to juggle everything effectively, but the white board is helping a lot. I ordered some magnetic labels for her today so that I can more easily put shows and stuff on there. Look at me, being so organized(ish).

Well this week really just snuck right on by me didn’t it. Time is a slippery concept for me it seems… I really had every intention of posting on Wednesday but lol whoops. This is just my life in perpetuum at this point, is it not?

Now I gotta go all the way back to last week in my brain, which was nigh impossible, so I had to scroll through the pictures on my phone instead to remember what the hell even happened.

First and foremost, my dearest smooth brained Argie boy was genuinely naughty for the first time ever. I loaded him up alone and took him over to Trainer’s place to ride, and in retrospect I think I took his generally chill demeanor a bit too much for granted with that one. He tried to be good, but it’s a busy barn with lots going on, and as several horses started coming and going from the ring and the field, he got upset and nappy. If there’s one ding against him it’s that he does naturally want to be a bit nappy, something he’s gotten way better about at home. But I think taking him somewhere different and adding a bunch of horses doing different things all over the place into the mix was a bit much for him at this point.

He had a few explosions of protest, and we worked through it, but that field trip did give me plenty of stuff to continue to work on and reminded me that although he is an absolute Dude, he’s still a horse that has spent his entire almost-8-years only knowing one type of life… it might take him a minute to understand the new rules and realities of this one. I think he just got genuinely worried and overwhelmed. That was my fault.

I took Argo back over there yesterday on the ground and we walked around/grazed/did some groundwork while other horses worked and hacked and came and went. He was much better and more relaxed, so we’ll just keep working on it incrementally until he understands.

Presto has also been on some adventures… last week he went to Sweet Dixie to gallop (and yeehaw, he was a-gallopin’) and this week he went XC schooling again. Florida Horse Park had a free open schooling day, so like… you don’t gotta tempt me with a free good time. Sarah came with me on Henry and both of the boys got to pop around some fun things.

I popped Presto over all the ditches and he was super good about all of them. Wild, and throwing in plenty of random spooks and airs-above-the-ground, but ya know… good when he actually had something in front of him to do. This is kind of classic Presto, when he gets a bit bored or overconfident he starts to make up “fun” things to spice up his life, which are generally only fun for him. He feels really good right now and he’s not doing enough (in his opinion) to make his brain feel engaged. I jumped him through the water combos and then finished with the full coffin, and that FINALLY got him to quit fucking around a bit. Absolute dingus. He needs to go to a horse show so he can get himself together.

Henry was a beast and seemed to be having the time of his life… that horse and his cross country, man. He got to jump a few harder Training combos with Sarah and he was like YES FINALLY I KEEP TELLING YOU GUYS. He literally strutted back to the trailer like the king that he is.

I think those are the most important things that have been happening. Hillary is visiting family so it’s just me holding down the fort here. Freya has been getting worked a bit while she’s gone so that Hillary doesn’t come home to a wild OTTB. Mostly I’m feverishly working on pedigree reports because we sold a bunch in the last couple weeks and I’m trying to make some good headway on them before my next project starts.

Oh – update on the velcro wall. First, it’s still bomb. Second, I have expanded it to my trailer. I used the loop side of the velcro for the crossties, so I still had the full length of corresponding hook side leftover from my roll (a bunch of people have asked me what velcro I got – it’s this stuff). It’s the super heavy duty adhesive so it sticks really well even here in humid Florida. I put a strip up along one wall inside my trailer and then another strip above the door. It’s amazing how much shit you realize you can stick to velcro once you start.

Hopefully this will help me keep my trailer a bit more organized at shows though. One can dream.

The only other semi-interesting thing I can think of that happened was meeting this super cool dude when we went to a local training center to look at a mare for Trainer.

This is Nobals, winner of the 2023 Breeders Cup Turf Sprint. He spends his winters in Ocala in between racing seasons, and he is just the most delightful little animal. He’s won lots of stakes races and $1.5million dollars so far in his career. Super cute and friendly, even if his name is a bit unfortunate (he does indeed have no balls). It was fun to get a tour of the training center and get to see all the horses… there were definitely one or two I’d take home, Nobals being top of the list.

I’ve got a couple more adventures planned for this week, trying to fit in as much as I can before season starts and life becomes completely out of control again. I hope everyone had a good holiday and is getting to enjoy a little bit of a break!

I’m a little behind on the documentation side of things surrounding the holidays… our barn worker was off for 3 days so that left me doing the whole farm, and it rained yesterday so the riding horses got a bit off-schedule. I’m still playing catch-up today! I’ll work on a bigger/better post about whats been going on over the past week and all the Christmas excitement (or lack thereof, really) but today, please behold my glorious velcro wall.

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Obsessed. #equestrian #barnhack #horses #equestrianhacks

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When the SO asked me what I wanted for Christmas, this was the only thing that really came to mind. About a month ago I had bought some heavy duty outdoor adhesive velcro with the idea of making some strips to hang my boots in the crossties, but I never made it any further than that. So ya know… I passed the project on to him. It was a win/win really…. he got out of Christmas pretty cheap, and I got a chore done that I just really didn’t have the capacity or energy for. Plus I’m freakin obsessed with my velcro boot wall. It’s a solid 10/10. It keeps the boots off the ground, they’re easily accessible, and they can hang up there to dry where they get more airflow and are out of the way. I may or may not be debating what all else I could velcro to the wall.

Another quick side note: Riding Warehouse started their annual Bargain Bin sale today… it’s worth a dig, I saw some Knotty Girlz rope halters and saddle pads and sunshirts for $15, LeMieux pads/boots and Woof boots and some Shoofly style fly boots for $25, Ariat Romfh and LeMieux breeches in the $50 bin, etc etc. I think I might nab some new barn boots and see what else they’ve got.

Hope everyone had a good holiday!

Look, there are plenty of bloggers and companies that put together extensive gift guides full of beautiful equestrian-themed gifts, all of which were posted like a month ago.

Surely you don’t come to this blog for stuff like that? I’m here for those of you who are like “Oh shit, WHAT DAY IS IT?” or “OMG I forgot that person existed!”. Y’all are my people. That is my life.

By this point I think most of my friends understand that with me you may get your gift any time between Thanksgiving and the middle of January, depending on how badly my brain farted. But sometimes I do really TRY to look like an adult that has my shit together, I swear.

So if you’re looking for gift ideas that can arrive quickly and are kinda fun or different, or at least maybe something a bit more outside the box: I got you. You’ve come to the right hot mess. Snuggie in.

The Quick and Easy

The first and most obvious answer is gift certificates/gift cards… they’re the ultimate solution for the last-minute shopper. I have utilized many a gift card in my day, and it’s one of those things where you can’t really go wrong, they’re useful and basically like getting free money. Unless it’s a gift card to a place the person doesn’t like… then whoops. But in general they’re easy and quick to buy and require very little mental energy. Which also makes it feel a little mindless to me, or boring, or predictable. But if you need quick and easy, here’s ideas for gift cards for things that feel a little more personal or exciting or different.

Etalon Equine Genetics gift certificate

Between the genetic testing I’ve had done on my own personal horses and the articles I’ve written for EN, I’ve been all up in the Etalon business lately. You gotta admit though, learning about the genetics of your horse is fun. There’s a reason why Ancestry and 23andme are such popular muggle gifts, so gifting someone the equine version of that is – IMO anyway – really cool and unique. This ain’t your standard Dover gift card. Granted, genetic testing is not super cheap, so if you’re looking for a lower-budget gift this probably wouldn’t be it. But as something special? Definitely. I’d be delighted with a gift cert from Etalon, and I feel like a lot of other people would be too.

Breed.Ride.Compete. gift certificate

Yes I’m putting my own business on here, sue me. There’s a reason though, hear me out. We tracked our numbers this year for time investment, the cost of our tools and databases, Etsy fees, taxes, etc and came to the swift and glaring conclusion that the $100 price point for a pedigree report is not sustainable. We LOVE doing them, and they’re always really well-received, but they take a lot of time and all the research tools we utilize aren’t free. Someone who is better at math than me advised a price increase, so reports have now gone up to $125. HOWEVER – as a last minute before Christmas special, we’re selling 5 gift certificates at the old $100 price. Buy one as a gift or hold onto it for yourself (you have a year to redeem), either one is fine, those will just be the last 5 we have available at that price!

If both of those things are out of budget or just not quite right, I feel like when in doubt – Riding Warehouse gift card. Can’t go wrong.

Practical Horse Girl Shit

So, these are things I’ve either already given someone or that I’ve given myself. Sometimes I buy me the best presents, ya know? The twist: all of these are available through Amazon Prime. The best version of myself tries to avoid buying from Amazon in favor of supporting small businesses, but the worst version of myself that waits until the last minute sometimes doesn’t have a choice. Whether or not these things would make it to you in time for Christmas depends on where you live, but it might be worth a shot… I ordered a bunch of stuff that said “by 12/22” and it all came within two days. In my area Amazon is keeping up, but your experience may definitely vary.

Retractable Ratchet Straps

Y’all I got these for Hillary and she’s still gushing about them a week later. Truth is, if you’re a horse girl or you have a farm or you own a trailer or you have to haul hay/feed or whatever else goes along with this horsey lifestyle of ours, you probably need ratchet straps. And lets be real, traditional ratchet straps absolutely suck. Threading them, rolling them back up, storing them neatly… who’s got the patience for that (it’s not me, I can tell you that much)? Hillary is one of those people that loves a good useful practical item, and she hates regular ratchet straps as much as I do. This particular design has a lot of really nice features, so when I saw these I knew they were a shoo-in. And I was correct, she’s obsessed and has already used them. Honestly I could see these being a really useful gift for a lot of people, they’ve been a big hit in our friend group.

Calendar white board

This is something I bought for myself, and it’s proving to be mega-useful. At first I wanted it just to keep track of what horses had worked, when, and what they’d done. Then I realized it was also great to remember lessons, farrier appointments, vet stuff, chiro, bodyworker, any medications, or special things happening. I keep a lot of that stuff in my phone calendar but being able to walk into the tack room and actually see it all in one place makes it so much easier for my brain (which is basically a sieve) to keep up with everything and be able to make a plan. I love this thing, 10/10. It would also be really easy to personalize with vinyl logos or lettering or painting the frame, if you’re crafty.

CAT hands-free flashlight

I got this for the SO because he’s freakin obsessed with always having a flashlight (Is this a man thing? I think it’s a man thing.) but he also tends to need both hands when he also apparently needs a flashlight. This one was economical, bright, and I like that you can move each side independently to aim the light where you need it. As a plus, it comes with batteries! Even as a non-flashlight aficionado I gotta give it a 10/10 will probably be stealing for blanketing at night check (I can admit it would be nice to be able to see things in the dark sometimes).

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If you’ve got any other quick/easy gift suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comments!

As I mentioned in Monday’s post, we had two (count em, two) cross country adventures this past weekend as part of our “Knocking the Rust Off” world tour. Or Ocala tour. Whatever.

Sunday was the last POP show of the season, which is a bummer because I love the POP shows, so I wanted to take full advantage. These shows take place at Florida Horse Park an utilize the same jumps/courses as all the big recognized shows there, so their schooling show series is really a good bang for the buck. Plus they have a full 3-phase (starter through Training), CT’s, or let you do any phase a la carte. Yes, including XC runs. You can just show up, pay your $50, tell them which level, and out you go. It is the superior version of the sport if you ask me (and Henry).

They also offer an open schooling day the Saturday before every POP show, and typically those days are… busy. You really haven’t experienced an open schooling until you’ve experienced a POP open schooling. Typically it’s mass chaos, hence why I haven’t been to one in a while. But I really wanted to get Presto out and school a few things that weren’t on the Sunday course, so away we went.

The forecast was really terrible for the weekend. Rain was supposed to roll in around 10am and then it was supposed to just pour buckets for like 24 hours. Spoiler: the forecast was absolutely correct. But because the weather had so many people freaked out, this POP schooling was really lightly attended. We showed up at 8am as soon as they opened and it was the loveliest schooling experience we’ve had there.

Hillary brought Henry just for funsies and he was entirely too excited to be there. Bucking, I mean REAL BUCKING and yeehawing like the looniest dolphin. I was more amused by it than Hillary was. I jumped a bunch of ditches on Presto, then just ran through the waters, and jumped a bank combo then called it done. Henry was trying his best to drag Hillary all over the place so we switched and I jumped him over a few things and let him go for a little gallop to let off some steam. In the meantime I convinced Hillary to pop Presto over a couple things, and he was actually quite lovely about it.

After that we loaded back up and booked it home so we could make it before the rain hit. And when it started raining, it rained for real.

Originally they said we’d get 2.5 to 3 inches, but by the time it stopped 24 hours later we were at more like 6″. There was standing water all over the farm, it was a whole mess.

And then once it stopped raining the most ferocious wind swept through, and for the next hour it was just flying moss and lunatic horses. Even Argie got some wind up his butt and joined in the shenanigans.

I was very tempted to not go to my XC round. I was skeptical about the footing after SIX INCHES of rain, but my friend Emily is the organizer there and she said it was actually great since their soil is so sandy. Finally I was like ya know what, let’s do it, why not. I tossed all my shit into the trailer, loaded Presto up, and we rolled out around noon.

By the time I got there my trainer was already warming up her other Training level person, who was the last of her riders to go for the day, so I tried to boogie and get on quickly. If you’re doing XC rounds they don’t give you ride times, you just show up between 10 and 3 and work your way into the order. It’s really lovely. I got on, warmed up real quick, let the starter work me in, and away we went.

This is where I admit that I hadn’t actually walked the course.

The day before I’d walked around most of it on Presto while we were warming up, and I had jumped the mound combo and the water when we were schooling, but I hadn’t even looked at 10 or 11AB. Trainer gave me the rundown and said “yeah that hill combo is now a water combo, but the footing is fine”. Me: “hahahaha, ok”. Thinking she meant there were puddles.

Y’all. No. There was a whole new WATER FEATURE. Like the cabin at 11A was now IN THE MIDDLE OF A BODY OF WATER instead of at the bottom of the hill with the wedge at B at the top. Which I didn’t find that out until I turned toward the jump and was like WAIT WHAT THE FUCK, I THOUGHT SHE MEANT A PUDDLE. No time but the present to sit up and kick, I suppose.

Presto, for the most part, was a feral animal. He was actually quite good and bored at the jumps, but was looking around and spooking at everything in between them. Ya know. For funsies. We jumped a corner on an interesting angle because he was so busy staring at a bush. The stuff he jumped best was the harder combos like at the bank and the “never before seen” water.

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He did level out by the time we got to… well, the end. It was the end before he leveled out. But I appreciate that even though he was being the absolute biggest freakin goober, he was still doing his job. I’m definitely glad I went and did the round, he 100% needed it.

He didn’t even have the decency to look remotely winded or focused by the end, and his not-quite-big-enough Santa bonnet was a whole situation. I feel like his post-XC look was a real summary of how the round was.

It ended up being a really nice day, albeit a bit windy and gloomy. Still nothing compared to how gusty and awful Texas can be, that’s for sure. Plus like… where else can you load up at noon to go run a XC-only round just hours after receiving 6 inches of rain? That’s a luxury for sure.