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Man, this has really snuck up on me this year. Can you believe that it’s already almost foaling season?!

As has become tradition around here by now, that means it’s time for our annual Willow Tree Warmbloods Baby Bets contest! Last year we had only one foal due, so we just did a smaller contest in the Patreon group. This year though, we’ve got a full line up, so we’re bringing it back out to the public.

First thing’s first: the prize (aside from extreme bragging rights, amazement at your psychic powers, and a virtual fist bump). The winner of this year’s Baby Bets contest will receive a Willow Tree Warmbloods swag bag, including a shirt, decal, cup, towel, and some other fun surprises. 😉

We’ll do the rules the same as we have before. Basically all you have to do is exercise those psychic powers and comment here with your guesses for the following, for each foal:

• Foaling Date
• Foaling Time (doesn’t have to be to the minute accurate, just to the hour is fine – ie 2AM. If it happens in the 2AM hour, you get the points.)
• Gender
• Color
• Face Markings
• Leg Markings (again doesn’t have to be specific – “one sock”, “none”, “four socks”, etc will work)

So your submission should look something like this for each mare (there are 6 this year):

Mare Name: 4/2 3AM bay filly with a stripe and two socks

But filled in with your actual guesses, of course. 

Everything you guess correctly will earn points. 10 points each for foaling date and time, and then 5 points each for gender, color, face markings, and leg markings… each foal can potentially net you up to 40 points. So even if you get a few things wrong, there are still ways to rack up some serious points. If there are any ties, I’ll put them all in a hat and get Michelle to pick a winner.

Submit your entries via a comment here on this post or you can message them to me on my social media. Just make sure you leave a link or an email address so I can contact you if you win! Easy peasy.

The “Due dates” I’ve listed below are based on the average 340 days gestation, but keep in mind that normal gestation can be anywhere from 320ish to 360ish. I’ve included pictures of both parents and whatever info is important so you can make your best guesses!

Sea Lion x Kilpatrick Grace

Embryo Transfer (Carried by recipient mare Glo)

Due 2/17

One of our most anticipated foals ever! This will be Grace‘s first foal, carried by a recipient mare. The sire is the full Thoroughbred stallion Sea Lion, who competed to the Advanced level in eventing with an amateur. Sea Lion is plain bay (and throws a lot of fairly plain bay) and Grace has 3 socks and a stripe.

Utrillo x Lasilissa

Embryo Transfer (Carried by recipient mare Champ)

Due 3/16

This will be a full sibling to Percy, definitely bred to jump with two Grand Prix parents! Lissa’s color panel is AA/Ee (homozygous agouti, carries the red gene… so she can throw bay or chestnut). Utrillo obviously is gray and we think he was born bay. Since gray is at play here and isn’t always immediately obvious at birth, I’m looking for guesses about the base color only. Chestnut, bay, black, etc.

Lingo van de Watermolen OR DSP Araldik x Vonhra xx

Due 4/18

We don’t know yet who the sire is for this one, because we used partial doses from both stallions to make up a full dose… it’ll be a fun surprise on so many levels for all of us. This will also be Vee’s first foal! We do know that she has a red gene, since her dam was chestnut. Vee is fairly plain bay and so are both potential baby daddies. Lingo is still quite young, his oldest foals were born in 2021 and he’s currently jumping at the 1.30m level. Araldik is a full sibling to Ingrid Klimke’s superstar 4* mare Asha P and he’s jumped to 1.40m.

Future Hepsilon x A Firm Question xx

Due 4/24

I’m really excited about this one because I love this young UK stallion by the famous eventing stallion Upsilon, and of course I love Peyton. Future Hepsilon is gray (born bay) and also carries a red gene, and Peyton is a pretty plain bay although if you remember her first foal Remi was by a plain bay stallion and came out a very flashy chestnut. Her second foal by a plain bay stallion came out fairly plain bay. Peyton has a hidden white-markings gene at play that shows up sometimes and since she’s had a chestnut foal already she obviously also carries a red gene. Since gray is on option here also and isn’t always immediately obvious at birth, I’m looking for guesses about the base color only. Chestnut, bay, black, etc.

Philanderer x Daisy

Due 4/25

The color possibilities with this one are a little more fun – Daisy is a grulla with a color panel of aa/Ee D/D. Philanderer is black, but I’m unsure of his red status. If he carries red then there’s a chance of red dun, but otherwise it’s grulla. They’re both pretty plain as far as markings go. Philanderer has evented through the 4* level in Europe.

Usandro Tilia Derlenn x Chanel Z

Due 4/28

Yup that’s right, there’s a hony superstar en route! Chanel is obviously chestnut but Usandro is homozygous, meaning that the foal will have to be either bay or black. Usandro is plain, Chanel has a stripe and a couple socks. Usandro is the #1 pony jumper stallion in France, and Chanel competed to 1.40m. She had two foals in Europe before being imported to the US – her offspring have competed to 1.50m and 1.45m, and she also has a granddaughter that has so far competed to 1.35m. This one will JUMP.

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I’ll leave entries open through 1/24, so that gives you 2 weeks to get your guesses in! The contest winner will be announced after the last foal is born. Obviously I have no idea exactly when that’ll be, hopefully by early May.

This week/weekend I’m working at WEC, but I wanted to be able to get a lesson in with Presto before that started. The winter season is very quickly approaching (closing date is next week for our first one!) and I thought it might be a good idea to go XC school a few questions that he maybe hadn’t seen yet. In particular, there’s a Weldon’s Wall at Training at a couple venues, and I am not the biggest fan of those, and Presto had never seen one.

Our favorite close venue happens to have a Weldon’s Wall on their Training course, which was tres convenient, and Steph had time on Tuesday to meet us, so we headed over there.

Aside from the Weldon’s wall I also wanted to school a drop into water, since we haven’t done that question very much either. Presto is bold, but he IS still green, and we’re still a relatively new partnership, so I’m definitely interested in doing the things that put deposits in the trust bank. It’s never the best feeling to get to a show and be like “hmm well we’ve never done anything quite like that before”. At least not for me.

So we started with a few simple warmup fences, then went over to the trakeners. He’s jumped the Novice one before and the Training one isn’t much bigger, so he didn’t even blink at that. He was far more interested in the horse at the top of the hill in the distance that was having some primo shenanigans.

What I have noticed about him now that we have a few XC runs under our belt is that there are 3 very distinct Presto modes while on course. For the first few jumps he’s almost a bit overly bold… super pumped to be there, not as responsive to my half-halts. After that he levels out and goes into cruising mode and is quite lovely and focused. That lasts for most of the course. And then by the last few he’s like “perhaps I have regrets about my earlier Fuckery” and can be a little slower off my leg. Three different horses that require three different rides within about 5 minutes.

Schooling is a bit of the same. In the beginning he’s like YEEEEEHAW and then levels out, which is helpful because we can at least practice the best way to ride/handle each of the modes.

After the trakehners we went over to the Weldon’s, which he gave less than zero shits about. I don’t think he even registered that the ditch existed.

Since that was super uneventful we went to the water next, jumping down the smaller bank (which was on the T course), then doing the whole T line (down bank into water, skinnyish ramp a couple strides out of the water), then the Prelim drop. The T line was no problem, but he did seem to quite enjoy launching himself into the water. Steph was very convinced that if we repeatedly just walked or quietly trotted off the drop, he would eventually jump down it normally.

Which would be sound logic, if Presto was normal. I’m not sure if y’all knew this, but Presto is NOT normal.

If this had been a cannonball competition, he’d have won hands down. You could practically hear his glee every time he leaped out into the water like he belonged at Sea World. His enthusiasm never once wavered, no matter how many times we went down it or how quietly he approached. He was having a grand time. My knees and spine were having a less fun time. Also, I was soaked. I got a face full of water on multiple occasions, like I went to the water park. I guess I did.

I mean, the good news is, he has no hesitation about dropping into water. You just… might not enjoy the style in which he does it. The joys of a young, exuberant horse.

After that we finished up by stringing together the coffin, a corner, and the big open MIM oxer, all of which he popped through easy peasy. He was a super good boy and it left me feeling a lot more confident about whatever we might see on the Training courses this season. Time to send in the first show entry of 2023!

And just like that, it’s 2023.

Please hold, when I typed that I just sat here and realized that I turn 40 this year. I thought I was 38. Gonna need a minute to process that. What the fu….

Anyway, we’ll deal with that particular existential crisis later, let’s talk about the fun stuff that happened last week instead.

First and foremost, I had a jump lesson on Presto. Specifically grid work, which was super good for him. We hadn’t jumped since the show like a week and a half before, and I’ve noticed that if we spend too long at home without going anywhere and challenging his brain with something beyond conditioning and flatwork, he starts to make up fun games. And when I say fun games, I mean fun for him. The day before the jump lesson he was playing a game of Corner Ballerina (you know, where you spin like a ballerina in every corner). He thinks that one is hilarious.

So off he went the next day for gymnastics, where he spent the first times through the line swearing that he was just way too tired to use his booty to push himself off the ground properly. That’s a lie. He is just a big young horse that would prefer to avoid using said booty because it’s hard. He got it by the end though. And then the next day he got a massage from his favorite bodyworker, because ya know… hard knock life. (lets ignore the fact that I’ve been unable to stand fully upright for like 2 weeks because I tweaked something in my back while I was SLEEPING. It’s fine.).

My Christmas present to myself arrived too…

If you said “Jesus, that’s shiny.” or “Good Lord”, or “You could see that thing from space”… yes. Yes you are correct. I dunno man, my helmets are coming up on their expiration and I’m having a real glossy moment right now and this one was on sale for like $100. Plus it fits me really well. So who am I to question the audaciousness of the glitter plus glossy combo? It is a whole-ass lot. I’m kind of obsessed with it.

On that same theme….

Sunday we had our barn holiday party at Steph’s, complete with a taco bar and a White Elephant gift exchange. As soon as Party Coordinator Libby (who is also a Steph student, a fantastic friend, a blog reader, a Patron, and the owner of Higher Standards Leather Care) said White Elephant, I knew exactly what I was going to bring. I did not pause for even a moment – I marched straight over to Amazon and got this glorious creature.

I mean. Come on. Who doesn’t need one of those? It got stolen the max number of times in the White Elephant, so we’ll call it a success. And I walked away with a Harry Potter sorting hat, so like… win/win on that one.

Libby also got me a Christmas present.

Here’s where I should preface and say that these people are Croc lovers. Like…. really into Crocs. Pretty much everyone at the barn has multiple pairs, they wear them all the time, are hardcore devotees. And I have nothing against that. You do you, bro. But I’m not wearing them.

Right?

RIGHT?

Libby rolled up in there with these black glitter crocs, complete with skull charms, all wrapped up in a unicorn gift bag. How thoughtfully manipulative, using all my favorite things to convert me. I stood no chance, really.

I put them on, flipped them into sport mode, and I’ve basically been wearing them ever since. Even into PUBLIC, and I didn’t give one flying fuck about who might have been judging me. You know why? First of all, look at them. Second of all, they’re stupid comfortable. I am shooketh. I don’t even know what happened.

If you don’t have friends that indoctrinate you into some weird shoe cult against your will, are you even living?

Boy… what a year, huh? Life doesn’t look the same in December as it did in January (for the better, I think)! Let’s take a very brief trip back through the months and look at the highlights of what all happened in my world this year.

January

We bought Gemma! Was it partially because I was having a complete mental breakdown about Presto’s mystery lameness? Perhaps. It’s fine.

A couple weeks later Presto got an MRI which showed us that he “just” had a bone bruise rather than the 9000 various career-ending soft tissue injuries that I had built up in my head over the preceding month.

At the end of the month Hillary took Henry to a jumper show and did the 1.10m, which was fucking adorable.

February

Hillary and I launched the Patreon, which… despite how skeptical I was about it in the beginning, it has been AMAZING and the community that it’s resulted in is one of my favorite things to come out of the entire year.

I got a new-to-me dressage saddle and gave it a very satisfying makeover. It’s been a great purchase.

Presto went out to West Texas to do some small paddock rest to heal from his bone bruise, where he proceeded to take a few years off Michelle’s life.

March

We did a quick trip out to Ocala to get the farm ready for the seasonal boarders.

Gemma got the all-clear from the vet to start back to work, and I discovered that she is a Very Fancy Good Girl.

Presto had a giraffe-themed 5th birthday party.

April

Gemma went on an outing to the local XC facility, where she jumped her first jumps.

I was off the rails busy trying to get everything ready to move to Florida, including the tiny house and the horses.

We had the most epic Lady’s Weekend trip to Kentucky, where we also got Pat Your Horse tattoos.

May

We moved to Florida! All 3 horses and all my shit driving halfway across the country ala Beverly Hillbillies.

I started Presto back under saddle after 7 months off.

Henry continued to prove that he is the OG for a reason, and brought some balance to my circus of greenies.

June

Got a new boss at work and things slowly but surely started to shift in a very bad and stressful direction.

I got my very first brand new custom saddle and it was delightful (still is).

Presto went on a couple outings just to hack around and was a terrorist.

July

Hopped Presto over some XC jumps for the first time and realized it was definitely time to get serious about finding a trainer because he wasn’t bad but also I may or may not have been in over my head.

A few days later I took my first lesson with Steph and was instantly like “yes. yes, this.”. We spent most of the month taking flat lessons and then toward the end of the month Steph started doing training rides.

I realized I was in a real shit pickle with my job and started trying to figure out just how much more I could take and WTF I was gonna do.

August

Presto continued his training rides for the first half of the month, and on August 21st I had my first jump lesson on him with Steph (second jump lesson on Presto ever… the first one was the previous September).

Gemma also went to her first couple lessons, one dressage and one jumping. She did not blink twice at the liverpool.

I took Henry XC schooling because he was feeling a bit left out and that’s the quickest way to make him happy.

I finally got covid, my company disrespected me so much that it was finally the straw that broke the camel’s back, and I rage quit. After 18 years in corporate. Cue extremely mixed feelings of terror and relief.

September

Presto became more and more civilized and rideable by the day. It made me deeply suspicious. We also went out XC schooling with Steph for the first time.

Gemma got inspected and approved for breeding by sBs.

I focused on expanding BreedRideCompete, took on more social media clients, and started writing more for Eventing Nation (like the Windfall piece, the Burghley article, the Pratoni breeding breakdown, and the Banzai du Loir spotlight).

Hurricane Ian pointed straight at us and made for some exciting hurricane prep, but mercifully turned away at the last minute.

October

More XC schooling, including Steph’s now famous commentary. I was told it was time to enter a show.

Spent a weekend at TerraNova covering the FEI divisions for EN and ate my weight in italian ice.

Did my first and second shows on Presto – Majestic Oaks in the Novice and the Halloween POP show in the Novice. The mohawk was rad and so was he.

November

Presto continued to really step it up in our jump lessons and Steph suggested we look at a Training move-up. I pondered whether or not she might have a crack habit, but she kept raising the jumps and the horse just got better.

I started picking up some part time work in the Luxe EQ mobile for the first time in like 5 years.

Presto and I did our first 1m classes at a jumper show, after he spent the entire morning screaming in my ear and making me question literally all of my life choices.

December

We were off to Rocking Horse for our first recognized event, where I mostly just wanted to not look like a total idiot. Presto showed up to party and won on his 23.6 dressage score.

Presto jumped 4′ in a lesson and it still barely even felt like he was trying.

We celebrated Henry’s 9th gotcha day with the sassiest road hack.

Presto and I completed his first Training and he was super!

So, ya know… what’s different? I live in a new state, I have a different job (ok jobs, now I have jobs), I officially launched my own business (complete with an LLC like an actual grown up), I have another horse, I found a trainer and barn family that I love, and am now not just riding Presto but competing him at Training level.

Whoa. What a difference a year makes. 2022 certainly was not all sunshine and roses… it might actually be the year that has taxed me the most and stressed me out more than any other. At times it just felt like one bullshit thing after the other. Changes are scary and hard, and I had many. But I also believe that change is an opportunity, and it’s up to me to make something positive out of it. The blog has certainly had to take a backseat during all of this, and honestly that’s likely just the new normal. Updating the Patreon group is a lot quicker and easier, and I feel like I’ve gotten at least a little bit of privacy back when it comes to having a smaller audience to share the more personal aspects of my life. But at the same time it’s sad to me that the blogging community has died out so much in the past couple years (man I miss the old days!), and I don’t want to be another casualty, so I have no plans to stop anytime soon. Plus like… how could we possibly live without Foal Fridays? Have no fear, BRE will keep on going, even if it too has had to undergo some changes along the way.

I am a little jealous of everyone that’s on vacation right now, or at least had a long weekend. That’s not how things worked around here in any capacity.

First and foremost, wtf with the weather, man. Yeah I know Florida barely got anything of note compared to… well… the rest of the country. But still, we’ve had 4 nights in a row of hard freezes. Ya know what’s not built for that? Florida. So I’ve spent a lot of time covering pipes and spigots and dripping things and unhooking things and breaking ice and soaking grain and tossing extra hay and making sure horses are drinking and that they’re not cold and doing constant wardrobe changes on mine. Winter is work. Every year I don’t understand how people do actual winter. Just a tiny tease of it is enough to make me want to go play in traffic. Makes my skin hurt. Is awful. Would 10/10 rather be sweating.

I also was extra busy because – surprise – I got a new job. It’s a very part-time consultant position, just enough to fill in the remaining gap (ok there was no remaining gap, but the theoretical remaining gap) in my work schedule. I was offered the right opportunity at the right time and the job is a perfect fit plus it’s for a company I love and believe in (Ride iQ) so that was a no-brainer. It did mean that I basically spent the weekend trying to clear a bunch of pedigree reports and breeding consultations off my plate to prepare for this first week, so… between that and the weather there was no relaxing holiday here. On Christmas I unwrapped my total of one present (the white breeches I asked for), I took a break for lunch to go get Chinese food (it’s tradition) and otherwise I was cranking out pedigree reports like it’s my damn job (it is).

Presto got an early Christmas present – a boat fender buoy. A buoy? Yes a buoy. It was an idea I’ve been bouncing around for a while, wondering if a buoy might be a better toy for him than those balls (which.. he destroyed the last ball in less than a day) since they’re a lot thicker and more rugged. I was really wanting something more like 36″ – he likes the bigger ones that he can lay on – but I found a really good deal on a 24″ that made it basically the same price as the horse ones. He won’t play with a Jolly Ball, I guess it’s too small or too heavy to be fun, but I was hoping this would work. I got it, inflated it, made him a rope handle with baling twine, and well… it’s been a huge hit.

I do think he would definitely prefer a bigger one, so I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for that (if you know where I can get big buoys for cheap, hit me up) but for now this one is an absolute champ. He has stomped it, thrown it, body-slammed it, and attacked it Jaws-style so many times, but it’s still kicking. Presto did dislodge the original stopper, but it came with a backup, so we just blew it back up and put a new stopper in it. He’s had hours and hours of fun.

Maybe I need to start my own horse ball company using buoy material instead. Granted, I think most horses don’t destroy them at the astonishing rate Presto did.

I gave him the two super cold days off because I neither want to freeze to death or get murdered, but we were back at it yesterday. He’s looking like quite the snack these days, I gotta say. What happened to that mega awkward kiddo that we all looked at for 4 straight years?

I have a lot of grown up stuff on my plate this week so I’m not sure yet how the horse parts will play out, but we’ll see. How is it almost 2023 already?