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Well, it is summer in Florida. Not summer but like… SUMMER. It’s hot. It’s sticky. It’s gross. Still not as gross as Texas (they’re having a real nasty summer) but it’s been worse this year than last year for sure.

Nevertheless, we chug along. We make sure to ride early, take more breaks, keep things lighter/easier, and make sure everyone is hydrated. Well… I’m never particularly hydrated, but the horses are.

We had another jump lesson last Thursday, which was considerably less feral than the one before. I also put Presto back in the Myler combo bit and he was considerably less fussy. I dunno why he loves that thing so much but ok, duly noted. I do like galloping him in the pelham, so I think we’ve got a little more experimentation to figure out. He was a lot more rideable for this lesson though, and settled right back into it.

We’ve got a schooling CT this weekend and then Ocala Summer HT next weekend. It’s supposed to stay hot so hopefully we get decent ride times, but I’m also more than happy to just lope around the XC and not go for time, too. He mostly just needs to get out and jump around a course again.

In other news his leg is continuing to heal nicely (knocking on all the wood) and isn’t requiring much extra care anymore. I did discover that the scar sits right under the edge of an open front boot, which is superb… he might have to end up either bootless forever for SJ or with sheepskin lined boots. He would, wouldn’t he?

His FEI passport got approved too, it’s on its way back to me as we speak. That’s one thing checked off the to do list.

I’m currently trying to shop for a good lower-budget (prob like entry level budget) mirrorless camera that does nice video for social media content, if anyone has suggestions. I’m still looking at/researching both cameras and lenses. Guidance and experiences appreciated.

BRC is also open for pedigree reports if anyone is looking to nab one! We’re now offering to do them in custom color schemes now too, if you’re into that kind of thing. Peep a Barbie themed one I did last week. It was fun!

Doing the reports keeps me inside out of the heat, so I’m more than happy to pile up the queue at the moment. 😅

Hope everyone is staying cool out there!

This week we’ve got ourselves a good old fashioned Rock Em Sock Em battle of the colts.

In one corner we’ve got Rhett:

Stats:

Chonky

Short King

Uses his mouth first and his brain second

In the other corner we’ve got Andy:

Stats:

Build like a beanpole

Legs for days

All ding, no dong

Rhett immediately took away’s Andy’s height advantage by standing on higher ground. He was also patient enough to let Andy make the first move.

Rhett struck fast and hard, getting Andy in the chest, making him rear up to get away.

Rhett quickly struck again, going for Andy’s ear, but Andy was quick enough to avoid losing his precious lion tufts.

Andy came back at him from below, heading for a bite to the jugular. Unfortunately he was a little too slow and obvious, and Rhett was able to deflect.

It came down to a good old fashioned Giraffe Standoff. In the end I think it was a draw, or at least too close for me to call.

Since I couldn’t choose I thought maybe we should leave it up to Lucy to pick a winner, but she said they’re both losers. Maybe you should be the judge instead.

Happy Friday!

I’m not really sure how it’s Wednesday already. These things just happen like *poof*.

I feel like we’re back in our groove a bit more over here now. We had our first jump lesson since our break (our first since like… mid-June I think actually) and Presto was legit kind of feral. We just did some small jumps, with a turning exercise that meant he had to rock back and pay attention. He wasn’t a real big fan of either of those things, he was just real excited to be doing jompies again. We’ve got another lesson on Thursday so hopefully that one is a bit less exciting.

Presto does look and feel really good though. I think the break combined with a lot of the strength work we’ve been doing has got him filled out in all the right places. Plus, ya know… age. Getting close to 6 and half now, like a legit big boy. Since his break he’s been doing a butt-ton (scientific measurement) of poles in all of his rides particularly at the walk and trot. Like lots of poles. Over and over.

At first he was really inconsistent through them, not really self-regulating his effort. Now he’s a pole master, and I’ve been able to make them a bit harder. My favorite exercise is putting him on a circle at the trot, walking right before the poles, and then picking up the trot again right after the last one. Over and over. We’ve been able to move the transitions closer and closer to the poles, to the point where he’s walking like AT the first pole now, and he’s keeping a nice marching energy the second he comes down to walk. Then same thing on the other side – crisp step up into trot with the same power and energy that he had over the poles. This week we started playing with it a bit at the canter too, cantering up to it, walking through, and then picking up canter again. His walk-canter is pretty good but the canter-walk isn’t quite there yet. He was trying though!

Yesterday we went over to Majestic to trot and canter some hills. It took until the 3rd hill for him to stop bucking his way up. Which like… Henry bucking is funny because it’s not really bucking, its just leaping that has no real chance of unseating you. Presto bucking is not funny because he’s a big athletic mofo that corkscrews his entire body when he bucks. I’m less confident about my ability to always stick that.

In other news he completed his re-vamped flu shot series for his FEI passport last week, so that got sent back to USEF for hopefully final approval. And we entered the August Ocala show that’s in a couple weeks. It will likely be hot so we may end up just doing a lope around the Modified, but with the show schedule options and our goals toward the end of the season (and the fact that we had to scratch Stable View), we felt like he needed to hit this one. I’ll prob enter a CT the weekend before at a schooling show so we can at least do the dressage test (it’s test C, which means his first long court test) and jump around something at height.

In other news, I have some stuff for sale! If anyone is looking shoot me a PM on any of my socials or you can send me an email through the contact page here.

This week the younger three kiddos got to move out to the big field with Rihanna and Rue! Very exciting occasion. And I mean really really exciting. Stampede-worthy, you could say.

Our method was to move each mare and foal pair into a stall on the big field side of the barn, and then open the stall doors into the field so that we were kind of ripping off the bandaid all at once rather than separating and upsetting them over and over. As soon as we opened their doors, they were off.

It was pretty funny to see their approach to their new freedom. Andy and Vee immediately took off for the farthest reaches of the field but then split in opposite directions, both galloping big laps. Chanel and Rhett did some very reluctant hand galloping (anything more seems uncivilized, she says) but mostly preferred to trot around like little Valegros. Peyton, who is normally the herd nanny and the strictest mother, forgot herself there for a minute and absolutely TOOK OFF around the perimeter of the field.

Poor Lucy, who is used to always being the center of her mother’s world, was trying her absolute best to keep up. I can say with confidence that Lucy has never run so fast in her entire life. She screamed the entire time, thinking she was being abandoned, but Peyton did finally slow down and let her catch back up.

Vee did a pretty good job of trying to get Goldie/Rihanna and Blue/Rue involved in her shenanigans but their efforts were half-hearted. Well… Goldie trotted half a lap and then flat out resisted completely. Rue wanted in, but Blue wasn’t really having it, and Rihanna decided she was done after the first lap.

Andy and Vee went around for quite a while, both just happy to stretch their legs and go for a run. After a few minutes the others mostly just tried to stay out of their way.

It didn’t take long though for everyone to settle in. There was no real drama between the mares, probably because they all lived together before they foaled.

They’ve slipped right back into their previous hierarchy and habits. Vee is the boss, Peyton and Chanel pair off a safe distance away from Vee, and Goldie and Blue pair off far away from Vee.

The foals haven’t interacted enough for me to figure out yet who’s gonna be top dog, but Andy is definitely at the bottom of the totem pole. Maybe because his dam is so alpha, he’s always learned to just submit. I get a feeling that Lucy or Rue might end up on top.

Aside from the first bit of shenanigans, I don’t think any of them have hardly lifted their heads from the grass yet. The smaller turnout they were in before had grass, but not as lush and beautiful as this bigger field, so they’ve all been really enjoying stuffing their faces, babies included. It’ll be fun to see how their dynamics play out over the next week or so!

Oh, and this new field is directly across the driveway from Presto, who is absolutely DELIGHTED by his new neighbors.

Happy Friday!

We’re pretty much back to full swing around here after Presto’s summer break! Over the past two weeks we’ve worked our way back up to mostly “normal” rides (have been keeping them a bit longer on the hacking and shorter on the working, since it’s been hot) and I think Presto is delighted to be back in his program. He requires ATTENTION and was real salty when he didn’t get it.

We haven’t been able to make it for a lesson yet, which I’m really itching for at this point because I had some things on my list that I really wanted to chip away at over our summer off season. Mainly getting him quicker off the aids and improving my leg position in the dressage saddle. I’ve been working on both at home, but ya know… a keen eye would help a lot. Maybe this week? We’ll see.

We’ve continued doing lots and lots of poles, too, particularly raised poles at the walk. Presto is not the best at poles (they require focus for longer than 2 seconds but are also boring – the ultimate Presto conundrum) but he’s gotten a lot better and I’m seeing and feeling a difference in his hind end strength. That’s a naturally weak area for him so I think going forward we’ll continue to incorporate lots and lots of raised walk and trot poles into most of our rides.

Last week Holly was in town, and we jetted over to Majestic one morning for a nice long hack. Presto was dying for a change of scenery I think, and was very happy to go exploring. Holly rode Henry, who is such a dolphin right now that he even managed to dolphin his way up a tiny upbank at a walk. Never change, Henny.

This week I think will finally be the week that all the babies go out together in the same pasture. Everyone is big enough and well-socialized enough in herd dynamics now. That should be entertaining at least, and I’m sure the “littler” kiddos will be happy to find themselves in a much larger pasture.

The only other interesting thing that’s happened is that last Friday one of my crowns (the tooth kind) fell out. Just… fell right out while I was chewing a sandwich. Granted, that thing is like 18-19 years old so I guess it had quite a good run. I haven’t established a dentist here in FL yet though so it was great times trying to get an appointment booked that wasn’t like weeks or months from now. I got something for tomorrow, thank goodness, but we gotta go through all that new patient shit before we get to the crown. Hi hello yes I have an exposed root canal nubbin of a molar just CHILLIN IN THE NUDE in the back of my mouth, if we could fix that asap it’d be really cool. Chewing sucks. The most annoying part though is that is so freaking expensive to fix tooth stuff and it’s not even a fun thing. Being an adult is dumb.