Category: Uncategorized

No, this isn’t a post about Bobby, as I’m sure most of you (rightfully) assumed upon reading the title. While he IS definitely a hardcore stalker, that’s not what this post is about. This post is about how I stalk certain horses and their show records/photos, and why. Surely I am not the only creepy one?

My stalking is mostly relegated to a handful of horses, the majority of which are by Mighty Magic. Two are here in the US, and a few are over in Europe. Yes, my stalking skills are international. Some of you might remember these three horses that we saw when we were on farm tours in Belgium in 2015, the ones that originally made me want to breed to Mighty Magic:

They were all young horses then, just getting started in the eventing game. I’ve tried to follow their careers since it seems like I “know” them a bit and have more personal interest in how they do. They were the motivators to make Presto, after all. Now they’re all out there competing, and Mighty’s Match (who is a few years older than the other two) is a 3* horse.

Granted, it’s not as easy to stalk the European horses. Most of my updates on them come via their owners and riders on facebook (except for Mighty’s Match, he’s a bit easier to stalk since he’s an FEI horse). It’s pretty cool to see them going around now, all “grown up” and everything.

There was another European horse that I used to follow pretty closely after he won the 5yo Bundeschampionate for eventing in Germany in 2015 – Michel 233. Imagine my surprise a couple months ago when Will Faudree announced a new addition to his string, none other than mister Michel 233 himself. This of course makes him much easier and much more fun to follow, especially since Michelle is friends with Will.

They’ve already been hitting some 1* events this spring and he’s done quite well so far. Definitely interested to keep watching that pair and see where they go, especially because Michel 233 is out of a Hanoverian dam with a few similar lines to Sadie. Pedigree-wise he’s got a lot in common with Presto.

The other horse that I’ve been watching on this side of the pond is actually not by Mighty Magic. She’s a young mare named West River, by Sadie’s sire Westporte. He’s advertised as a hunter sire but has made some jumpers and eventers too. This mare was fun to watch with Waylon Roberts (she won a big indoor eventing thing in Canada with him, and went through the 2* level) and now she has a new owner. They just won the 1* at Chatt Hills, and at Carolina she finished 12th and Michel 233 finished 5th. I tend to obsessively flip through the galleries on EN, COTH, USEA, and photographer’s websites after the big events, looking for pictures of those two horses.

So really, all of my horse stalking is because of pedigree and how they tie back to Presto. Because what else is there to do in the first 4 years of a horses life while they’re growing up and turning into show horses themselves besides dream about what they might become?

Anybody else have particular horses that they stalk? What are your reasons?

Alternate titles for this post could include:

• Penchant for Mischief
• Can’t Fence Me In
• How to Give Your Human a Heart Attack
• Perhaps I Should Just Take Up Alcoholism
• Momma’s Little Shit
• Ain’t Got No Sense
• WHY HORSE WHY

But they really all mean one thing: Presto is a devious little turd.

I can check Presto’s stall cameras on my phone, and there for a while I was doing it pretty obsessively. I am more than a little traumatized from his first few weeks of life when he was literally on the brink of death while fighting chlostridium, so when he came home I kept a really close eye on him through the cameras. I even used to set an alarm on my phone at night so I could wake up and check on him and make sure he still looked ok. And really, he’s looked great. I’ve kinda learned his patterns now as far as when and how long he sleeps, when he’s more active, how often he nurses, etc.

Over the past week I’ve tried to wean myself off of checking him so frequently, and even stopped purposefully waking up in the middle of the night to check him (although if I wake up on my own, I always check him, because I’m paranoid AF). So on Monday afternoon, after I was done running my errands after work, I pulled up the camera and was very confused to see Presto in the wrong stall. Sadie was still on their side of the fence, but now Presto was in the stall and run with Lissa and Liam. Um. What.

But Michelle was already in the process of moving him back, so I went back through the camera feed to figure out wtf happened. Turns out he wiggled under the fence. It looked fairly accidental, like he’d laid down with his head too close and ended up partway under, then just squirmed his way to the other side. Granted, that’s pretty impressive because the gap under the panels between their runs isn’t even 12″. Luckily Lissa didn’t try to kill him, although she did chase him into the stall and keep him pinned down in there, away from Liam. We figured that it was just a one off scenario, made plans for building up the ground under the panels, and didn’t think much more of it.

Monday night/Tuesday morning Stewie woke me up around 3am having another anxiety attack (he’s been much better since he started his medication but still has them every once in a while). I took him to the guest bedroom, laid with him for a while, and got him calmed down. After about 45 minutes I was finally able to pry him off my neck and rolled over to try to go back to sleep. Then I thought “ya know… I’m just gonna check Presto real quick”. Grab my phone, pull up the camera – he’s in Lissa’s stall. WHAT THE ACTUAL EFF. So I start panicking, because Lissa is really keeping him chased back into the stall fairly aggressively and at that point I had no idea how long he’d been over there (answer – since 2:30). I started calling Michelle, who of course had been up really late getting some non-horse stuff taken care of, so it took me a while to rouse her. When she answered I just said “Presto did it again”. She sprung out of bed, put some shoes on, and drove down to the barn to rescue him. AGAIN. For the second time in 12 hours.

Once, I believe that’s an accident. Twice, in such rapid succession… not so much. That little turd totally squirmed under the fence to go play with Liam. I guess in retrospect it’s not too surprising. The past couple days Presto has become increasingly bored, constantly looking for things to play with.

Point taken, baby horse, you want to go run around and play.  We hadn’t been quite ready to put them all out in the bigger pasture yet, but we’d also rather he stop trying to crawl under the panel between their stall runs. Ya know… lest he get stuck or stomped on by an angry mare. So yesterday afternoon he got his way (what else is new) and they all went out together in the big pasture for the first time and got to stay out all afternoon.

First 50 seconds are Presto and Sadie running around, the rest is Liam and Presto playing.

They played pretty much the entire time. Like to the point where they were both so tired they could barely stay upright anymore. But they seemed to have a really great time being colts. Liam is like twice as big as Presto, but Presto is much sneakier so they seem pretty fairly matched.

Meanwhile, this horse is aging me fast. Could you please just not, Presto?

This past weekend was my first one at home in over a month, and I made the most of it with lots of riding time. On Saturday Bobby and Halo came over to gallop!

I’ve already talked a lot on here about how amazing the giant field is at my barn, and I’m really not kidding. The footing is almost always perfect, the rolling hills are great for conditioning, and it’s huge (YUUUUGE). I also keep my coop out there to practice galloping fences (I still want to add brush to the top to give it more height, someday I’ll get to that). Bobby wanted to come over to give Halo a good gallop since my field dries faster than his (let’s be honest though, his real reason was to see me) which worked out fine because I needed to give him his birthday present anyway.

Plus, I won’t lie, it’s nice to have someone to ride with on occasion. My favorite thing about my barn is that there’s never anyone else riding when I am. I never have to share my jumps or my fields or my riding space. The flipside to that situation is that sometimes when you just need a good hackout and chat with a barn friend, there isn’t one. Or, if you ride a particularly lazy Henry who has no real interest in participating in conditioning rides until we get to the gallop part, it’s nice for him to have someone in front providing motivation (bc seriously I’m so tired of kicking to keep trotting).

We had a fun ride in the field, doing our trot and gallop sets together. We each popped over the coop a few times too, although by that point Henry had decided he was VERY FAST RACEHORSE and kept wanting to drag me past the distance. Someone will be wearing his Dr Bristol for XC schooling this weekend.

We went for a nice long walk all the way around the property after we were done, then hosed the boys off and let them graze. It’s so funny how even though they don’t live together anymore, it’s like they haven’t missed a day. They still love each other, but not too much.

Halo neighed a little when he got back into the trailer, and Henry watched him as they pulled down the driveway before going back to his grass. I swear I’ve never seen a horse that was so content to be alone in turnout. Henny does Henny, he don’t need no man. He definitely has a lot more affection for Halo than he lets on, though… Halo is Henry’s favorite horse to pin his fuzzy little ears at.

On Sunday (my 5th day of riding in a row – yay for being back to a normal schedule) I had a happier, more forward horse for our dressage ride. There’s still much clucking in the beginning to get him in front of my leg, but he’s getting more and more consistent in the contact and more and more rideable. Maybe it’s the green hat?

 

I agree, 5 days is entirely too long without a Presto update.

First of all, everyone and their grandma has been asking about Uncle Skeeter. He did finally get picked up by his owners last week, so he is now safely and happily back home with his people. Yeah I know, it broke up our weird little family, but it’s great for Skeeter to get to go home. Meanwhile, Presto has been hard at work making friends with Liam. And by “making friends” I mean playing a whole lot of Bitey Face.

I’m pretty sure Presto could play Bitey Face all day long. Liam sleeps a lot more than he does, and Presto spends a lot of time standing at the fence neighing at Liam to come play with him. Usually Liam acquiesces eventually, and the game begins. And unfortunately for Presto, Liam is much better at it. He’s faster, bigger, more aggressive, and he’s not the one sticking his head through to the other side of the fence.

So, ya know… Presto is missing some chunks out of his face. It hasn’t dampened his desire to play with Liam at all, so apparently he isn’t very deterred by the fact that he keeps losing.

Presto’s other favorite activities include pestering the crap out of Sadie (particularly when she tries to sleep)

And pulling on basically anything that’s tied down, be it a lead rope or a bucket handle or a piece of baling twine on his stall grill. He still thinks it’s pretty fun to swing his Jolly Ball around too. Little dude is quite active and curious and into everything.

Yesterday Liam and Presto went out together for the first time. Presto kept walking around behind Liam, but Liam was still a little bit too shy to fully engage in playing. Plus whenever Liam’s mom came around, Presto very wisely booked it back to Sadie. Liam’s mom isn’t quite so lenient about letting him wander or play. But Presto did get to stretch his legs a bit more, and I think it won’t be long before he and Liam are playing together in turnout. Hopefully Presto doesn’t lose too much more hair in the process.

Speaking of hair – how freaking awesome is this custom Leistner brush set from Teddy’s Tack Trunk???

He’s already pretty spoiled for a one month old foal. Also he’s adorable and I love him, so it’s ok.

Well, uh, March didn’t quite go as I had planned. I knew better than to enter any shows in March, since Sadie’s due date was mid-month. But I only planned on being in Midland for 4 or 5 days, giving Henry a little mini-vacation and then being ready to come out swinging for a couple shows in April.

Ha.

Instead I spent 10 days in Midland, and 4 straight weekends. Henry’s mini-vacay turned into basically a month off. I was able to ride him on the weekdays when I was home, but mentally I was just not in the right place to be able to put in a serious ride. Mostly we just trotted and cantered through the fields, because every horsewoman knows that a canter really is the cure for every evil. Henry didn’t seem to mind the time off from real work, but he’s a little bit fat and in dire need of a spa day at the moment.

Because of all that (and, uh… the general state of emptiness in my wallet), we’re sitting out the shows in April too. We really haven’t jumped since that one little jumper show at the end of February (omg…) so it seems a bit unwise. Plus I need to get him a little more fit again. And that whole dressage thing I suppose. Ugh.

Money is also in short supply, so I’m having to do some creative wrangling of my show schedule but I think we’ll be able to eke out some cheap ones. We’ll try a little show or two in May, to dip our toes back in, start back up with some lessons again, and as of yesterday Henry is back into his regular riding schedule. And after 6 days off, geez was he spooky. Spring Time Henry is weird. He’s sluggish but he’s wild and spooky at the same time.

While I didn’t really plan on skipping basically the best two months of the year for showing Henry (because it starts getting hot in May, and Henry does not do heat), I’m not as upset about it as I would have been a year ago. The pressure is off this year anyway, and the whole extremely scary and honestly kind of traumatizing ordeal with Presto put a lot of things into perspective.

So, the lack of horse show recaps and photos will continue here for at least a few more weeks. Hopefully filling the void with a bunch of Presto pictures is more than enough to make up for the lack of HorseShowHENNY? Plus there’s ROLEX (anyone doing the RK5K?)! We’ll eventually work our way back to where we were in February and then figure out all the show stuff from there. At this point I’m just really glad to have my boys… everything else isn’t nearly as important.