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Mmmmk first and foremost, the pro pics from our first event. This noodle. Lookit him. LOOKIT HIM.

Second of all, I wasn’t joking when I said we almost ate shit in the dressage ring.

@breed.ride.event

That time we almost died in dressage #souljaboycranksyou #equestrianfail #horsefail #eventerproblems #dressage #equestrian #blooper

♬ original sound – Jay

Moving on.

If you haven’t yet downloaded your free copy of the Maryland 5* breeding data spreadsheet, you’ve got until the end of the weekend before the link disappears! You can get it on breedridecompete.com – the download link is near the top of the page. John Kyle used the sheet for the live stream commentary, and this morning Chris Ryan absolutely made my day by commenting and saying that it was “fantastic”. Deep respect for Chris Ryan and his breeding knowledge, it’s as close to a fangirl moment as I get.

I’ll also have an article with in-depth breeding info of the top 3 finishers coming out on Eventing Nation I think today (edited to add: it’s up! You can read it here.), so if you’re interested in knowing more about that very diverse podium, keep an eye out for it! Also I’ll be at TerraNova 4* this weekend doing the coverage for Eventing Nation so if you’re going drop me a link and we can coordinate a meet up. I was busy this week getting the breeding data together for their live stream too, which will be on Horse & Country TV. There’s no escaping me right now.

In Florida news, it is for some reason cold AF this morning, which is the only reason why you’re getting this post. I’m not riding until it warms up because I don’t have a death wish. When I went out to feed this morning Presto was levitating around his paddock snorting like a dragon, which was in sharp contrast to the unicorn pajamas he’s wearing.

What else is going on… my brain is mush.

Oh yeah, Patrons – we’re hosting a Secret Santa this year so if you’re interested, check your dashboard!

Last (I think?) but not least, Hidden Heights Fitness is hosting another facebook giveaway for a free one-on-one virtual training session, if you missed out last time! If you’re hesitant about the whole “working out” part, she also does a lot with biomechanics, stretching, etc so she can tailor the session to whatever you’re after. Cannot recommend enough!

I mean, ya know… how many years have we been waiting for this? How many different things have happened along the way that made us (at least me) think the day might never come? It has been a whole entire journey just to get the beginning of this journey. Breed another horse, they said. It’ll be fun they said. Ok “they” was me. And I was right. Mostly. But boy, if we go back to when I actually chose the stallion and planned the breeding, I have 7 years invested in this horse. I love him and he’s everything I wanted (um… most days…), thank goodness, but whew.

Anyway. Our debut show together was in the Novice at Majestic Oaks. We’ve schooled there a few times, it’s close (still blows my mind that multiple whole-ass horse shows are a mere 15mins away)… it made sense. For the sake of my no-longer-working-in-corporate-America budget, I want to stick to schooling shows for a while. Here they’re at the same venues as recognized, over the same questions, so… why not save some money while we’re getting to know each other and establishing a partnership.

A little backstory: Presto was not particularly good last week. For as good as he was in our showjump lesson the Friday before, on Monday (our last lesson before the show) he was awful. Like… awful. So full of demons and tantrums that at one point he spooked at a pole, leaped up in the air like a Lippazaner, and whacked me directly in the nose with his poll. I bled all over the place. Profusely. Poor Steph had to make two trips to retrieve enough paper towels to stem the flow.

The rest of the week wasn’t as bad, but he wasn’t great either. By the time Friday rolled around I was like “welp, hope I don’t die tomorrow, haha. ha. haaaaa. halp.”.

But ya know, such is the way with young horses sometimes, and you just gotta get on with it. So I trimmed up his mane a bit, banged his tail, gave him a bath (he still hates baths, if anyone is wondering, that hasn’t changed in his entire 5 years), cleaned all my shit, and packed my trailer.

On Saturday morning we pulled into the showgrounds around 10 minutes after 7, and I tied Presto to the side of the trailer with a bucket and a haynet. He just isn’t the type that you can leave standing in the trailer all day by himself, he feels like he’s missing something and then tries to climb out. Hard nope for me, dawg. He’s better off, and considerably more relaxed, if he’s out where he can see things and move around a little. He was wired when I first unloaded him, so I got on him a little earlier than planned so that he could walk around and check stuff out. I think once he got to warmup he realized what was happening, and immediately took a breath. He hasn’t been to that many events (he did 4 last year I think?) but I guess that was enough for him to get it. He’s never done a one-day though, so this format was new for him.

It’s funny… the footing in warmup felt great. A little dew on the grass but it’s so sandy underneath that I have never (literally ever) had an issue with horses slipping here. My trainer went a few horses ahead of me and when she came out she warned me that our grass arena felt slick. Duly noted, I’ll keep it in mind. So ya know, woe was me when we trotted up centerline, turned left, and Presto immediately almost fell on his ass. Like… he barely saved himself. I think we both went “oh… fuck…”.

Bless hims little heart though, he kept on trying for me. He didn’t spook at the tent, he didn’t get distracted by the other rings, he just put his little (ok big) head down and did what I asked. Granted, after that he was really protecting himself and hesitant to move out the way he normally would. I was also scared to ask for as much as I normally would. It was not our best effort. He slipped pretty badly one more time, and after that his canter more resembled a pogo stick because he was just trying his best to keep himself on his feet.

It was not our best work. I mean, all credit to Presto, he really gave it his best. But a big baby horse in small very very slippery grass ring just was not working in our favor. Lesson learned, I will absolutely stud him from now on anytime we have dressage on grass. Better safe than sorry.

Unfortunately every time he slipped we got a 5 for the movement, and his canter circles were quite stilted and not entirely circular. He still managed a 34 though, so ya know… if we could do a dressage test instead of Icecapades I think there’s potential there for a good score.

I was quite pleased with him really, considering. He did what I asked with no shenanigans, so I couldn’t be unhappy with that. Truth be told he was more rideable in the ring than he usually is at home.

After that we had a few hours until SJ. At this show they did SJ and then 15 minutes later you did XC. My plan was to showjump, come out, put his XC boots and my vest on, and then go to XC warmup. This facility is nicely laid out to where everything is quite close together, so I pretty much passed right by my trailer on the way to XC anyway.

While we were waiting we walked the stadium course… I didn’t take a pic of the course map but did my absolute best artwork for y’all below. That’s a lie, this is terrible and definitely not totally correct in it’s scale or placement but whatever you get the idea.

Sadly I have no stadium video. There weren’t many of us there in our group and my priority was on not dying rather than recruiting someone, so ya know. Hopefully the photographer got something… I didn’t notice if she was standing over there or not. We’ll see. Sorry.

Anyway, Presto was decent in warmup. Got a little spun up a couple times when horses were buzzing past him, but nothing bad. We jumped a couple, walked for a bit, jumped a couple more, then went to the ring. He was so freaking spooky and naughty the last time we were in that ring, I was more concerned about the corners than I was about the jumps. Really though, he was pretty good. I felt his eyeballs wander a little bit a couple times, but he kept going forward and jumped everything fine. The only issue we had is that I got him a bit deep into the in and out and didn’t support him well enough to that distance, and he ticked the rail there. I’ll take the responsibility for that one.

After that it was back to the trailer to put on his boots and my vest, and then over to XC warmup.

Again I am a media failure because I didn’t take pics of the jumps. To be honest, I only walked like half the course. Everything there is mostly in one big field, and only a few things had moved, so… we just walked enough to make sure we knew where everything was, and walk the related distances. And I was too busy listening/focusing to stop and take pictures along the way. Clearly I need a horse show assistant.

It was your pretty basic Novice though. Friendly ramped first fence, stacked log thingy, table, ramp, ditch to hanging log half coffin, another table, house, water, bank up out of water, 5 bending strides to a sharks tooth thingy, then a corner, some tires, a house, a down bank 4 strides to a house, a skinny log, a trakehner, and a rolltop brush.

When I first picked up the canter in warmup he was like YEAAAAAH ZOOOOMIIEEESSS. Which, like, ok dude thanks for the forward-thinking enthusiasm, and I’m glad you remember and like your job, but… brakes are cool too. We went forward and back a few times, threw some 20m circles in there, jumped a couple jumps, and then he was golden. I still had a few horses in front of me so we just walked and let him settle more. Then over the startbox and before you know it I was hearing something I haven’t heard in a very long time… “3, 2, 1, have a great ride!”. My favorite words in all of sports.

I honestly had no idea what to expect of him out there. Sometimes when we’re schooling he wants to pretend to be nappy, or pretend to be spooky, and in those cases he’s kinda hard to ride because you’re never sure if he’s gonna take off or stop dead. I figured I’d know his frame of mind by the time we got to jump 3, since that one turned directly away from all the other horses and went off into the Nether.

He popped easily over 1 and 2, we turned to 3, and he was just game on. Big ol dopey boy ears were happily looking for the next jump, listening to me and keeping his good steady canter rhythm. Everything just… came right on up. 3 and 4 were easy, we turned back to half coffin and hopped through there (I did get him to the ditch on a not so great distance, I just sat up and put my leg on and went “please don’t fall in that hole” and he figured it out), down the hill into the water, then up out of the water (ok he jumped up that bank in the most awkward way, like… literally all 4 feet at once. I dunno what that was.) and the bending line over the sharks tooth. They had a big bunch of flowers right in the middle of the corner which he flicked an ear at, and then I did give him a little tap on the way to the tires just to make sure he stayed in front of my leg there.

The rest was just basically coasting on autopilot. I pointed him at it, and he jumped it. It was easy. I didn’t have to do a whole lot besides keep him balanced and straight. I did kind of forget that Novice speed is slow and you don’t have to ride routes that save ground, so we were almost too fast (errybody be out there circling LOL) but just squeaked in there for a double clear. I had not worn a watch because I didn’t want a distraction.

At the beginning of the day Presto had wanted to roll in the sand pit in the trailer parking area and I told him that if he was good I would let him do it at the end. I keep my word, which led to the best photo series.

We did manage to snag an 8th place ribbon, which is nice, but mostly I’m just really happy with him. We left plenty of points on the table for sure – there is a lot of room for improvement – but for our very first run together I couldn’t have asked for more from him. He showed up, kept the Fuckery to a minimum, and did his job. Gold star for the kiddo. He hasn’t been out since last August, and I haven’t done an actual honest to god 3 phases in THREE YEARS. Can you even believe that?

It feels good to be back, and to take my baby kiddo around our first Novice. I got a glimpse of what he can be – what we will be – and it was really fun. Moments like that are why we do all of this stuff day in and day out, after all.

It occurs to me now that I could have done this as like a “Mare Monday” thing rather than a Foal Friday but technically it’s still part of our sBs inspection series so… it kind of counts?

Anyway, when we left off last week we’d just seen the yearling fillies, which meant that it was time to move on to the mares. There were 5 total for sBs to look at this time – Peyton, Vee, Grace, Daisy, and then of course at the very last minute I decided to toss Gemma in the line-up.

First up was Peyton, who – true to form – was unimpressed with all of our crap. She has better things to do, like nap and eat. She humored us though, and trotted and cantered around for a few minutes. While she didn’t really show us the best of what she’s capable of, it was still good enough to earn her approval into the mare book. She is in foal to Future Hepsilon.

Next up was Vee, who gave us at least a little bit more enthusiasm. I wish pictures could capture how gorgeous she is, she such a stunning mare in person. The judge thought so too, granting her breeding approval with the second highest score of all the mares, just barely off the high score. Vee is in foal to either Lingo van de Watermolen or Araldik (there were half-doses left of each, so they used both!).

It should come as no surprise that the highest score went to Grace, who you’re all familiar with by now from the blog. She brought the Snorty Prancies and showed herself off well, which worked in her favor and earned her Premium status. Grace isn’t in foal herself but she does have an embryo transfer foal coming next year by the Thoroughbred stallion Sea Lion.

After Grace I snuck Gemma in real quick, and y’all already saw the pics of her from the inspection, except for maybe this one.

She wanted to make sure the judge knew that her zoomies were top notch. Unfortunately “zoomies” are not actually a criteria on the scoresheet. Still, she scored pretty well, with her trot and canter being her highest marks.

Last but not least was Daisy, the Paint mare.

I have to be honest, I always love to see these warmblood registries and their reaction Daisy. She walks up looking like a QH (a nice one, she’s a good looking mare, but it’s obviously not a warmblood or TB like they’re used to seeing) and they always look skeptical, then she starts to move and they’re like “Oh. Oooohhhh. Yeah, ok, we get it.”. She’s a freaky good mover by sporthorse standards. Her foal next year should be interesting too – it’s by the Irish 4* eventing stallion Philanderer.

Daisy too earned high enough scores to get entered into the sBs mare books, so we went 5/5 for breeding approvals for the mares!

We do have two more foals coming next year, but those mares have already been approved by sBs in the past so they didn’t need to be inspected again. Those two are Chanel, in foal to Usandro (where are all the sporthony lovers?), and then an embryo transfer by Utrillo out of Lissa, for a full brother to Percy.

That wraps up the 2022 WTW sBs inspection! Never fear, I do have at least two more posts worth of photos from it so that we can milk a couple more weeks out of this photo set (I can’t be the only one that’s unwilling to let go of Foal Fridays) before we have to quit for the year.

As someone who spent most of their life in Texas, I have severe trust issues when it comes to fall weather. Texas does this thing where it roasts you for 4 months straight, gives you a week or so of semi-pleasant (like, high 80’s) weather to where you’re like YAY FALL and then bam it suckerpunches you with Second Summer that lasts another two months. I’m always relatively distrustful when the temperatures drop the first time.

Florida hasn’t really done any of that though. It hasn’t been intensely hot since August, and every day has started out a bit chilly and ended up just downright glorious (if you’re a lizard like me and enjoy low to mid 80’s, anyway). I mean it hasn’t really rained in like a month, but man. The weather this time of year is hard to beat.

Since it’s been absolutely stunning, I’ve been riding a lot. Okay, I’ve been riding the same amount, but it’s considerably more pleasant for all of us and doesn’t feel nearly as draining. If we were still in Texas I would already have bodyclipped Henry by now, but 1) it’s not nearly as hot, so he’s not getting hot either, 2) he’s not as hairy as he usually is by this time of year. I’m hoping I can wait until next month before I have to clip both him and Presto but we’ll see.

Last week I had another jump lesson with Presto, this time with the jumps all moved into the ring. That was a challenge in and of itself considering the ring is much smaller than the jump field. Not sure if you’ve noticed but this horse is slightly large, and still figuring out how to be rideable. Several jumps were literally only 2-3 strides out of the corner, and basically everything ends up on some kind of related distance. It was good for both of us though. Him because he actually had to stay focused for more than 5 seconds, and me because I was really forced to ride every single step with purpose or the jumps weren’t going to happen. It helped me react faster and be more proactive. Presto was actually really good, it went better than I imagined it would.

For jumping we switched him to a french link beval bit (so ya know, basically just gave me a hair of leverage compared to his plain loose ring) and I really like him in that bit. It’s just enough to get his attention a little more quickly.

I also have to do a quick PSA for this new shirt I got from Amazon. It’s advertised as a “golf shirt” but perfect for riding too since it’s a nice thin breathable material and a flattering cut – really impressed with it for $26. Just wish they had more colors/patterns! Love the navy and white stars though.

This week is already a bit busy (what else is new these days) plus tomorrow I’m gonna head over to the OBS yearling sale to watch some of the farm’s thoroughbred colts go through. We got the book last week and it’s massive – over 600 horses! I’m obviously not going to be shopping or anything, but when you have a chance to see this many Thoroughbreds at once, it’s an educational opportunity. Gotta go see what catches my eye! It’s called research, ya know…

I’m bummed that I couldn’t make it up to Maryland for the 5*/YEH Champs this year, but hope everyone that’s going has a blast. I’ll be watching at home! I did buy Kentucky tickets this morning as soon as they went on sale though, so that’s totally happening again in April. Anyone else quick on the draw for Kentucky tix this morning?

Continuing on in our sBs recap (am I stretching this out? you bet. it means we get to keep Foal Friday for as long as possible.), this week it’s the girls’ turn! We had two yearling fillies for sBs to look at – Teddy the sportpony and Pippa the eventer.

We brought them out together since it was easier and saved time. They looked at Teddy first, who is a little roly poly pony at the moment. She does not miss a meal and you can tell.

They looked at her conformation, watched her walk and trot in hand, and then she went over to wait while Pippa stepped up.

While Teddy is definitely butthigh at the moment, otherwise I think you’d have a hard time guessing her age. Pippa on the otherhand… she is very much a YEARLING.

She’s 81% Thoroughbred, although at the moment she looks maybe 81% giraffe. She’ll grow into herself eventually, it’s just gonna be a bit gangly for a while. Pippa and Teddy really could not be more of an “odd couple” pairing. Funnily enough though, Pippa is super quiet and chill and rarely into shenanigans, whereas Teddy… well she is a pony after all.

That theme continued when we turned them loose for the judge to see their free gaits. Teddy immediately stuck her little tail up in the air pranced around like she knew everyone came to see her. Pippa was like “but why are we running?”. Pippa just has zero chaos factor, bless her.

Teddy put on quite a show, with Pippa just kind of following her around.

Pippa did eventually make a few fancy laps of the paddock, and boy… I gotta say, I had yet to see her really move but that girl is something else. Her step is massive, she covers a crazy amount of ground.

Once she grows into herself she’s going to be a gorgeous mare. Dying to see her really gallop!

No surprise that Teddy earned Premium (all that strut really worked out) and Pippa juuuust barely missed it. She’s just so darn growthy right now, that’s not a surprise. They were both registered and branded, so they’re now officially official!

Overall a good showing for the girls!

Next week… the mares.