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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.

Trying to catch up on some projects so no “real” post today, but I did want to drop in a couple little items worth mentioning.

Slightly related to yesterday’s post, after XC schooling Presto on Sunday I was feeling a bit sore in my hips and lower back, so I pinged Laura at Hidden Heights Fitness. She turned it into the topic of one of her weekly videos! I did as she suggested and it definitely helped, so figured I’d pass it along. I’m really enjoying her weekly series on facebook.

I also finally (after like… I dunno… 3 or 4 years of people asking) got around to making an Amazon storefront. I went back through 5 years of orders and put things on there that I like and have used or worn on a regular basis, or things from DIY’s that I’ve done on the blog, or stuff I’ve reviewed on the blog. It’s a pretty wide range, everything from saddle dyeing stuff, breeches, sunshirts, those seamless Lulu knockoff shirts, my trailer camera system, my exercise bike, trailer equipment, the scale I use to weigh feed/hay, clipping stuff, the dye I used for my breeches, etc etc. It’s random AF. Which… seems pretty accurate.

BreedRideCompete opened again earlier this week for pedigree reports, but (again) they sold out before I got a chance to post about it here. I know some people have been waiting a while to try to snag one… if so, shoot me a message!

And last but not least, if you’re a Ride iQ member keep an eye on the Office Hours episode for next week…

I have literally been XC schooling more times in the past two months than in the entire previous two years. Have I mentioned Ocala doesn’t suck? Just checking.

I’ve had some introspective thoughts lately on how my relationship with Presto has been in such a transitionary phase over the last couple months, but that’s a post for another day since it’s gonna be a lot of me rambling about philosophical things. I’ll get there. For today, let’s just talk about our last big adventure – we went to Majestic again on Sunday! Basically if Steph is going schooling somewhere, I’m in. Miles are what we need right now, and we all learn a little bit more about each other with every outing.

With all the lessons and schoolings Presto has had over the summer, he’s getting very easy to take places. He loads well, he doesn’t put up much fuss (maybe just some light screaming) and he comes off the trailer pretty well. I mean is he dead quiet? Definitely not. If this horse was dead quiet I would take his temperature (I have actually done that more than once). But he’s not a deranged feral idiot.

Well ok when I first get on he may or may not be sporting an Arabian tail, and it may or may not take 5 minutes to work it’s way down to normal. It’s not bad though, you just have to really put him to work and get him to focus. Granted he’s been to Majestic several times now so that venue has perhaps lost some of it’s excitement for him. When I unload him there on the day of the horse show and there are horses and trailers galore, it will be a different story. That’s what neck straps are for, amiright?

But he warmed up pretty well, and we popped over a couple Novice and Training warmup jumps, then our little group headed out to the field. Our first area of focus was by the ditches, and we put together an N ramp, a T brush rolltop thingy, and the N half coffin. He jumped the snot out of the T brush (do we need to give the brush an additional 6″ of clearance?) and thought the rest was boring.

Then we went over to the banks, where we jumped down the N combo that we did last time, down bank to a house, then kept going through the trees to jump the BN trakehner (our first trakehner, aw), turned around and jumped back over the N trakehner, then back over the N bank line the other way, house to up bank. He got slightly feral back in the trees because 1: we haven’t really jumped any of the stuff back there yet, so there was *novelty*, 2: there was a man mowing, and 3: it’s closest to the road, which is fairly busy. So ya know… every step I could feel the hamsters coming closer and closer to the edge of their wheel. I had to really leg him up to the BN trakehner because he wasn’t even looking at it until the last second, he was too busy debating whether or not he should pretend to spook at the mower. And then at another point he spooked at a jump we were cantering past and strongly considered running away into the sunset. I feel like this is going to be how every cross country course goes with him for a while… the jumps aren’t the hard part, everything else is because he’s just kind of an excitable chaos machine. You have to ride every single step and constantly keep his brain focused.

That little feral moment did lead to the best part of the whole schooling though, when this award-winning commentary was captured on video. I laughed extremely hard when I heard it.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRuJetQb/

Steph had me jump the N trakehner again and then hang a left to jump a Training bending line. Idea being that if we made it a little harder, he would have to pay more attention. She was correct. Honestly he gets a little easier to ride when there’s more for him to do rather than just cantering a bunch of single fences.

After that we wandered down and jumped the T chevrons around to the T tire jump. I thought he might look at all the shadows under the chevron and didn’t really give a second thought to the tires, but naturally he did the opposite – didn’t think much of the chevron and thought the tires were terrifying. I mean, he jumped them, with encouragement, but he tried very hard to leap sideways through the bush instead. Not totally the right answer, but at least it was still a forward effort? I do like that about him, he always wants to go forward.

Then we jumped the N corner, just to jump a corner since we hadn’t done that yet. At that level they’re still small enough to where it really just jumps like a table, but ya know. Baby steps.

We capped it off with the water, coming up through the N way – house to water to up bank to chevrons – and then cantering around and back through the water, out over the T rolltop. Easy peasy.

He’s funny because throughout the course of one XC schooling it’s really like riding 3 different horses. You get the semi-feral one in the beginning, then a really lovely one, then he starts to get tired (mentally or physically or both) and requires a lot more leg and encouragement. Thanks Presto, always keeping me on my toes.

Overall though – super good boy. With every outing I feel like we definitely learn more about each other and are building on that partnership. It takes time, but it feels like things are definitely going in the right direction!

We’ve officially made it through our first Florida hurricane!

Well ok we got very lucky last week with Ian… all those last minute bumps to the east made all the difference for us up here in Ocala. We went from being directly in the middle of the storm’s path to just barely getting the edge of it.

Naturally though, we had prepped for it just the same. The biggest concern was the wind, since high wind means downed trees, and downed trees mean downed power lines, and no power means the well isn’t pumping water. There have been times in the past where it’s taken a week or two to get power back after particularly strong storms, so I was crossing my fingers and hoping that wouldn’t be the case, but also preparing for the worst just in case it came to fruition.

I moved all the jumps, took everything out of the barn aisle, started hoarding water, moved vehicles and trailers away from trees, got extra feed, prepped the stalls with extra bedding, covered things that shouldn’t get wet in case it was raining sideways, etc. Some of the prep I had already done over the weekend, other stuff I did Tuesday after our regularly scheduled farrier appointment.

On Wednesday morning the first little edge of the rain reached us, so I brought everyone in. The horses really aren’t inside much unless the weather is bad, so usually they just come in and see it as a nice opportunity to stuff their faces with hay and take a good nap. And then there’s Presto.

Always a delight. I was not too enthusiastic about the idea of him being stuck inside for a long period of time, mostly because he is walking Damage. I did toss Presto and Henry out in a paddock in the afternoon while I cleaned their stalls, just to let them chill for a minute, and that did seem to decompress his brain a little bit. Everyone stuffed their faces with hay pretty much the entire time (although to literally no one’s surprise, Presto broke his hay net within the first 2 hours).

It rained pretty much all day Wednesday, but never particularly hard. The wind started to pick up in the afternoon as the meat of the storm approached, and it was forecasted to be at it’s worst overnight. Still though, with all those little shifts to the east, we went from projected gusts of 80mph to gusts of no more than 40mph. You could hear the wind howling all night, and every now and then something would ping off the house (little sticks blown out of trees, I discovered) but really… it was less violent than most of the summer afternoon thunderstorms we get here.

The rain had stopped by Thursday morning around breakfast time, but the wind was still gusty. I made a lap of the property to check on things and it was really just a lot of blown spanish moss and sticks all over the place, with a couple small branches down here and there. Definitely nothing major. I ended up turning the horses back out by noon, since all of us were tired of them being cooped up inside by that point.

Of course, the temperature had also dropped about 25 degrees, so they were all super full of beans when they got turned back out.

The wind died down gradually throughout the day, and by bedtime on Thursday it was basically all past us. By the time all was said and done we got less than an inch of rain – far better than the original forecast of up to 12″! I feel really bad for the areas to the south that got hammered by the storm, but I will admit that at the same time I’m selfishly glad we were spared from it.

Well, mostly anyway. Friday morning we woke up to this.

Can you believe that? We made it through that entire storm and then hours later a bigass tree fell in the front pasture, taking down the power line. I guess maybe the wind was holding it up lol. Luckily since the power companies had so many crews on hand in the area and there had been so little damage, they got it fixed within a few hours. We ALMOST made it through with no damage.

All total the horses were only inside for about 28 hours, and we only missed two days of riding. Granted, now I’m having to move everything back out that I had originally moved inside, empty all the hoarded water containers, etc. Still, I much prefer a wasted effort like that to some kind of massive cleanup! I’ll take that any day…. not everyone was so lucky.