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We are now officially 10 days into Presto’s summer vacation and yeehaw, things are starting to get… fun?

He’s getting wilder by the day, and bringing him up to the barn yesterday for a hose and a fly spray was an actual snortfest. He’s seeing sounds and hearing colors.

The original plan was two weeks completely off and then two weeks of hacking… assuming his wounds from the trailer incident are healed up enough to start hacking this weekend, we’ll stick with that plan. Naturally he popped the stitches out of both of them early last week so that’s just superb. Luckily I was able to get a Regenaflex-M patch from Hilltop Bio, so I put that on there last Thursday. Ideally they want it to stay on for 5-7 days… today would be day 5. At this point Presto has like an entire roll of Elastikon layered on his legs, getting it off is gonna be a real bitch, but I have be determined to keep it on there.

I haven’t used the Regenaflex patches before, but I’ve heard good things about them. My vet thought it was probably overkill considering the wounds aren’t that severe, but ya know… I like overkill sometimes, it makes me feel better about things. The Regenaflex-M patch is made from amniotic tissue, and it’s supposed to help it heal faster and reduce scar tissue and inflammation. It’s a very thin piece of sorta tissue-papery membrane that goes directly on the wound. It can even be stitched in, but in this case I just top dressed with it and then wrapped over top. We’ll see what the wounds look like when the wraps come off.

Presto also got a chiropractic visit, because I was certain he probably had to be all sorts of jacked up from getting high-centered on a chest bar and then falling sideways off the ramp of a trailer. But aside from some soreness around the middle of his back, she said he felt quite good actually.

I took a week off from riding too, because I figured it might be good to just have a bit of a break myself. I had lots of work to catch up on anyway, so having a little more time back wasn’t a bad thing. Since then I’ve been putting in some rides on Henry, mostly just playing around, letting him dolphin to his hearts content and hacking all over the farm.

It’s been quite hot here (not Texas hot, but very hot for us – low to mid 90’s) so I don’t want to do too much with Henry since he doesn’t sweat that great, but I think he’s enjoying getting more attention again.

Mostly things have just been chill around here. Feed horses, clean stalls, medicate horses, try to keep everyone cool and happy… that sort of stuff.

The only other fun thing that happened was that Presto’s FEI paperwork came back.

This is not the final complete version… we actually have to restart his influenza series because I don’t have suitable records to meet the FEI’s very particular criteria for that particular vaccine. Even though he just got that booster in March, I don’t have enough of a documented history to suit their requirements (like… I’d have to track all the way back to his original foal series). Anyway, luckily our chiro vet is also an FEI vet/steward so she knows all the ins and outs of this FEI crap. She looked over everything while she was here and we set up appointments to get his flu vax done (AGAIN) in a way that will satisfy the FEI’s timeline requirements. Once those are done, about a month from now, I can send everything back in to USEF for it’s final approval. What a fun process. Why did I want to do an FEI again?

Hope you guys are staying cool out there!

I feel like this is very important for everyone to see. Rhett is the Captain of Chaos, the Master of Menace, the Dealer of Doom. At least if you ask the ball, anyway.

Hillary is going to have a really good time trying to stay on top of this one. Somebody get the popcorn ready!

Happy Friday everyone.

Also, unrelated to foals but very related to Friday, if you haven’t yet checked out the Riding Warehouse Bargain Bin deals for their Fourth of July sale, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND. There are Kastel and San Soleil sunshirts as cheap as $20, Anique as cheap as $25, show shirts for $25, $5 fly masks, $5 Dreamers and Schemers socks, $25 breeches, $50 horse blankets, etc etc. You have to dig a little bit but it’s worth it!

Well this post should have been a show recap but SOMEONE decided to something STUPID and HURT HIMSELF before the show even started. Horses, man.

We left for Aiken early on Thursday, arriving around 1pm. It was an uneventful drive, and a fairly easy one. Long enough to make me question how I used to stay sane while driving that far for literally EVERYTHING in Texas, but ya know… it wasn’t that bad. We hit some rain off and on but nothing too heavy, so it mostly just helped keep things cool.

We were stabling and staying offsite at a friends farm, but we went straight to Stable View so we could ride around and let the boys see the sights. This was a new facility for both of them. It was a little cool and drizzly, which was a-ok with me, and Presto was really super for his flat ride. We rode in the covered and in one of the outdoor warmups and he was just really focused and felt great.

Hillary was showing in the Training on Friday and Saturday, and I was supposed to show in the Modified on Saturday and Sunday. I was hoping that some of the other horses with us would be staying at the farm on Friday so Presto wouldn’t have to come to the show, but no such luck. I couldn’t leave him there alone, so onto the trailer he went as a tag-along.

When Hillary got on to do her dressage I got on Presto and went for a hack and then came back to the warmup rings and did another flat ride. He was nappy AF when I first got on him, just being a real premium toolbag about leaving Lex, but by the time I got to the rings for his flat ride, he was super. He neighed a couple times but otherwise was really fantastic. Like… the make-the-5-star-rider-stop-coaching-to-watch-him kind of fantastic. I mean, did someone else see all the screaming and spinning that happened before that and ask if he was recently gelded? Maybe. Ignore that.

We went back to the trailers and hung out for a bit, then Hillary had to get on Lex for show jumping. Rather than leave Presto in Hillary’s trailer by himself, I put him on Steph’s trailer so that he would have two friends with him. Seemed like the better bet.

While it probably WAS the better bet, it was not sufficient. This mofo tried to jump over the chest bar and out of the trailer.

As you can imagine, that didn’t go well. He got hung up halfway and eventually flopped his way out, but not before he sliced up 3 out of 4 legs and banged the absolute shit out of his stifle. Luckily the show vet was very close and in less than 10 minutes Presto was getting stitches.

He had abrasions on his chin, stomach, and both stifles, a deep laceration that cut an L shaped flap of skin on one front knee, and then a jagged and gnarly cut on the inside of the other front. Somehow, by pure fucking luck and miracles, he managed to miss anything important. None of the lacerations were that close to joints, there was no tendon or ligament damage, and he somehow jogged up pretty darn sound the next morning.

Still, he gave me an actual stroke. Are we even keeping track of how many years this horse has shaved off my life by this point?

Naturally, we had to scratch. I was disappointed to not be able to run him, of course, especially because I think he would have been extremely competitive. The courses and footing were fantastic, the XC looked well within his wheelhouse, and he’d felt so good for our pre-rides. Mostly though I’m just super incredibly fucking relieved that he didn’t damage himself worse. That could have easily been really really really really really bad.

Someone remind me: why did we choose horses as a hobby, exactly?

Anyway, needless to say his summer vacation got an early start. He’s also been an absolutely terrible patient for his wraps and stitches. Shocking. I’m doing my best to keep them clean and in one piece but he’s not making it easy (because when does he ever). Fingers crossed we can get through this without any complications.

In other news, I’ve been hired on to the team for the big Educational Three Day that’s happening down here in Ocala in the fall. I’ll talk more about it in another post (and I’m working on the website right now) but if anyone out there – a business owner or otherwise – is interested, what the event needs badly is sponsors. Lots of them. Opportunities start at $750 to sponsor an XC fence, and go up to $10k for the title sponsorship. The plan for this event is really cool – lots of educational opportunities for participants, the classic format competition, clinics, big name riders teaching… it’s a Whole Big Thing. It’s got to raise not an insignificant amount of money in the next 5 weeks in order to stay viable, so if you, your company, or anyone you know might be interesting in sponsoring, let me know and I can send the info packet!

I debated taking this week off from the blog since I’m busy wrapping up a couple projects, starting another, and we’re leaving for Stable View on Wednesday. But every time I disappear for too long people start to assume that I’m dead, and we wouldn’t want that. No worries, not dead.

Last Thursday we had a jump lesson, our last before we leave. I used the pelham again and Presto was still quite good in it. A couple times he thought he knew better than me (he’s probably right) but he does seem to like it. We’ll see which one we ultimately decide to SJ in at the show, but we’ve got options.

He’s so funny in our lessons, because as soon as we get to Steph’s place he goes into lazy boy mode. At home he’s wild half the time, but there he knows he’s there to work, so he automatically decides he should preserve his energy as much as possible. He’s also convinced that if he follows Steph around she’ll save him from me making him work… he doesn’t realize she’s the source of all his required efforts.

Last Friday we finally made it down to the Ocala Oddities Market, which is a monthly market with local artists selling all kinds of just… weird shit. Dolls with crocodile heads? You got it. Skull lamps? You got it. Crystals? omg so many. There was just tons of stuff and I loved it. They also had a band playing emo hits, so like… you don’t have to keep selling me on the Oddities Market, man, I’m already sold.

It was really fun though, and I came home with a few things that were a steal of a deal. We’ll definitely be going back.

I also finally got around to changing up my stirrups. Some of you may remember that a couple years ago I painted them navy with holographic glitter. Since I’m no longer doing navy, it was time for a facelift.

My XC stuff is black with silver glitter, so that’s what I went with for the first pair. I sanded them a bit, washed them, did the black coat, and then many coats of silver glitter. I got some video of the steps so I can make a little tutorial, that’ll be on Patreon at some point.

For the other pair (I have two sets of FreeJumps, they were both navy with holo glitter before) I decided to change it up and do purple. I have a few hints of purple happening now, in my jump whip and with my purple coat, so… why not.

I did the base coat of purple and then put silver glitter on top, and it made a really pretty dusty lavender color. Which was great, but not the color I was going for. So I sanded it back down, did the base coat again, ordered purple glitter, and did that on the top instead. That kept the stirrup a darker, more true purple. I ended up doing a few good coats of purple glitter and two light sprays of the silver glitter.

The black ones went on my jump saddle… not sure yet how much I’ll use the purple ones or when, but they are definitely pretty. Pleasingly sparkly.

Yesterday we hauled over to Magnolia Sands to pop over a few XC fences before we leave. They normally have lots of skinnies/combos/water questions, and they had a few things this time, but not as much.

We popped through a crater combo, some half coffins, a bank to skinny, and an up bank out of the water. This outing for us was mostly to see how the pelham worked for XC. I’m not 100% certain that I’ll have brakes if he truly decides to fuck right off, but he does lay on it less in the gallop stretches than he does the Myler. We’ll try it at Stable View and see.

I’m going to try to make time to go get some pics of the babies so I can have a Foal Friday post drafted and ready to go for this week, but no promises… depends on how much time I have amidst everything else. We’ll see what I can get done!

We already talked about how Andy is 100% named after the character Andy from the show Parks and Rec, because they’re basically the same personality. If you haven’t seen the show you should watch it… I don’t even like TV much but I did like that show. And if you haven’t seen it you won’t understand today’s reference, which is one of Andy’s alter egos: Johnny Karate.

Our own dear Andy sometimes shows off that side of himself, and perhaps never before as clearly as he did this week when he found a stick. The most magical, coolest ever stick. Or so he thought.

He tried to pick it up, but um… ya know… he did so when his front feet were over top of it, because his foal proportions make it hard for him to reach all the way to the ground without sticking his feet way out in front.

As you can imagine, the physics of that didn’t work very well.

And that’s when the karate moves came out.

And then he high-tailed it away from the scene of the crime before Burt Macklin, FBI could show up and bust him.

Jokes, man. This kid has got some jokes. Remind you of another little colt from Foal Crops Past that we all know and love?

Happy Friday everyone!