Category: Uncategorized

Things are a bit quiet around here at the moment. I’m enjoying it because I know that it’s the calm before the storm, with a lot of things happening in the next few weeks.

Henry was back to 100% within a day of having his shoe pulled so his abscess could drain. He’s having to wear a boot on that foot because he’s not getting re-shod until next Monday and he’ll chip it up otherwise, but luckily we’re used to working with hoof boots since he has a history of pulling shoes (although way less with this current farrier than any others before). I don’t really like jumping in them, although we have before… it just feels a little clumsy, but he can flat just fine so back to “work” he goes.

Naturally he is FULL OF BEANS having had over 2 weeks off total, between my Cali trip and his abscess. There’s been a lot of dolphining around the hacking trail. It’s like a Sea World audition, although with the current state of his dad bod the sounds that come from him are more like grunts than squeals these days. It’s entertaining either way, and he feels great. LOOKS a mess… needs a bath and a mane trim and another body clip, but…. he FEELS great.

This weekend we also took Mina down to the river refuge for some hiking.

She continues to not like car rides and she definitely has anxiety about unfamiliar places. Plus no one ever taught her how to walk properly on a leash, omg. Her shelter notes said “strong puller” and they were not playing. At home she’s really never on a leash, because farm dog, but we’ve been working a lot on her verbal recall, and thankfully it’s translating over to the leash walking. She’s learned “wait” now, which helps tremendously when she wants to start shooting ahead and pulling. It’s light years better than when we started.

Luckily the place we went was largely deserted, so we only came across a few other people and dogs. I had her step off the side of the trail and sit while the others passed us, so she wouldn’t spiral. She just gets overexcited and overwhelmed easily, trying to prevent that from happening seems to be the key when she’s out and about in public.

At home she’s a fabulous farm dog. A bit overly enthusiastic sometimes, but she’s really settled into farm life well. It’s a good outlet for all of her energy, and she likes the routine of it. On days when I hack Henry she comes with us and runs around the pasture… it’s the only way to actually get all her energy out. I have no idea how the hell she was ever an apartment dog, she’s off the charts energy-wise. Methinks that has a lot to do with why she ended up back at the shelter. Her nickname Beans really suits her because she’s permanently full of them.

The weather here is cooling off and the leaves are starting to fall… I can’t believe it’s already Thanksgiving week. What the heck. Where did the whole year go?

I go today to get my covid booster, fingers crossed that it’ll go as easily for me as the first two shots went. I’ll have my first draft of the Black Friday sales post up on Wednesday, so be looking out for that! And more fun horsey news tomorrow…

Well guys, next week is it – Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday. It has caught me completely off guard this year (how the f did it get to be the middle of November already?) and I realized yesterday that I’m already way behind the eight ball on starting to prepare my equestrian Black Friday Sales post. I both love and abhor that list, if I’m being honest. It’s gotten me some great deals but it’s also a mega huge pain in my ass to put together and maintain. Normally I run several updates, adding sales a few times a day each day in that time period. This year I’m going to be away from my computer on Friday and Saturday, so I’m trying to start gathering sale information early to get as many in that initial post as possible. Thus, if you’re a company with plans for a BF/SBS/CM sale, please send me the info (via my contact page) as soon as possible to make sure I can get you included early on.

In other news, Henry would like everyone to know that despite his near death experience (his words) he seems to have recovered use of his broken limb (his words). It was touch and go there for a while (his words) but he thinks he may just pull through after all.

Naturally I’m talking about his abscess. He was fairly convinced that this was the end for him, because his drama level is always 11, but we got it sorted out.

I had a feeling that the abscess was trying to come out under his shoe, because that’s what they do EVERY TIME with him despite my best efforts to pull it elsewhere. On Monday I texted the farrier and asked if he might be in the area anytime in the next few days and would have time to stop by and pull that shoe off. Luckily he doesn’t live super far from me and has other clients around, so he said he would stop by on his way home that afternoon. As soon as we pulled it I knew I was right, you could smell it immediately. Vomit. I got some on my hand the other day when I was changing out his animalintex wrap and I thought the smell was never gonna come off my skin. I’m not normally sensitive to smells but I legit gagged.

It was gross, and oozing some seriously nasty black goo. The farrier dug out a tiny bit just to make a better track for it to drain, and I opted to just leave the shoe off for now since Henry is on the schedule to be re-shod after Thanksgiving anyway. It’s a hind foot and I’ve got hoof boots, so he should be fine until then and I can keep it cleaner. The hole itself is actually quite small.

Henry hates wearing his glitter-boot-of-shame on a hind foot but he’s already like 98% better and it seems to be almost done draining now. I’m glad we pulled his shoe off for sure, it’ll drain and heal a lot faster. Funnily enough this is the exact same foot and almost the same spot as where he blew his last abscess, almost exactly 6 months ago. Against all odds (his words) he’s survived two near death experiences (his words) in one year. What a trooper.

I finished up the last of my four Airrosti appointments before all of my October travel started, and I was really interested to see if/how the program worked out for me throughout all that was to come. All of my trips (Ocala, Maryland, Cali) entailed a lot of standing, walking, carrying… all the things that are oh so great for someone with back problems.

One thing that I had already known to be true before I even finished my Airrosti treatments was that it wasn’t like all my back issues just magically disappeared. It helped resolve the acute pain and swelling, sure, but what was most beneficial to me about the whole program was finding the cause of my reoccurring issues and then figuring out what to do to help prevent them from happening, or how to go about working some of them out on my own. That included stretching, foam rolling, and targeted strength exercises to make up for all of the muscle imbalances that I’ve spent basically my entire life creating.

I travelled with my lacrosse balls and resistance bands, since they’re small and easily packable. I also screenshotted all my exercises so I wouldn’t have to keep logging into the Airrosti portal to remind myself of what all was on my docket. Granted, by then I had pretty much memorized them all anyway, and expanded on some of them to ratchet them up a notch in difficulty.

While I didn’t run through every single one of the exercises every day (which isn’t the point anyway) I started to figure out which ones help me the most before or after which activities. On days where we sat a lot, I’d do more of the strength exercises and stretching. On days where we spent a lot of time standing, I spent a lot of time using the lacrosse balls on my lower back and glutes to help with the tightness. It helped a lot, and any problems I did have (there were a couple days where my back was legit killing me at the end of the day) were able to be helped a lot by the targeted exercises so that I didn’t carry the pain and/or stiffness into the next day.

For me I think the program as a whole was extremely helpful. My lower back isn’t constantly swollen and angry like it was before, and I’m a lot more comfortable in my day to day life. I think what was most valuable though was how much it’s helped me figure things out about my own body and how I move. Like the fact that when I think about standing or sitting up straight, my go-to maneuver is to hollow and hyper-arch my lower back. Which… causes a lot of my problems. I have scoliosis, so it’s even more important for me to always support my body with my core than it is for a normal person. My back can’t take it when I try to do that to my spine. So now I constantly find myself being much more aware of using and supporting with my core in literally everything I’m doing… even (or especially) when I’m just standing around. The second I hollow out my back, trouble starts. I’ve kind of had to re-learn the biomechanics behind doing even the most basic things.

And that’s also not to say that I’ve been 100% successful in my execution of all this. I haven’t. I still have a lot of strength to build up and imbalances to correct, which will take a lot of time. But I do feel now like I have a way better understanding and awareness of my own body and what’s happening to cause all these issues I’ve always had. It translates a lot to my riding too, where I tend to always want to “protect” my back a bit with my posture, which *shockingly* doesn’t work.

I will say that I think a large part of the success that someone has with Airrosti depends a lot on their particular issue as well as the provider they end up seeing. I was very lucky that the woman most local to me actually knew a lot about riding and how it affects your body (and vice versa) so I wasn’t having to explain a lot of things to her – she got it. But for me personally I feel like it’s helped me tremendously and changed the way I think about and approach a lot of things, and I’m definitely glad I did it.

For about half the year I live in sunshirts or tank tops, since Texas is balls-hot (scientific temperature reading) most of the time. However, once it stops being so aggressively Texas and things dip below 70, I feel like I’m always struggling to figure out how to dress myself. Layers tend to be key, since even when it gets “cold” here, it doesn’t tend to stay that way for long. Right now we’re doing the thing where it’s in the 40’s or 50’s at night and swings up to the 60’s or 70’s during the day. Which… it’ll do from basically now until April, with about a month’s worth of colder temps somewhere in there. I feel like every fall I’m caught off guard and find myself scrambling for long sleeves that aren’t sunshirts. Last year I found myself eyeballing the Anique shirts a lot, or the similar Lulu style long sleeve workout tops. I struggled with the idea of paying $70-$120+ for what was essentially just a baselayer though.

I ended up spending most of last winter in the Sporttek tech shirts, which worked out fine. They aren’t as fitted and don’t tuck in or layer as nicely, but the weight was suitable and they were only like $20. But over the past year a lot of equestrian brands have been popping up with Lulu knockoff type shirts like the one above for closer to the $40-50 mark, which was more enticing to me. One company put them on sale at one point over the summer and I snatched up two, just to see how I liked them, and well… I’m fairly obsessed. They’re fitted, they’re soft, they’re super stretchy, they’re comfortable, they’re the perfect length, they’re warmer than a sunshirt but not hot, and they have thumbholes (which I love when it’s chilly). I’ve been wearing them basically every single day that the weather is cool enough to allow it.

When I got them though I noticed that the packaging was VERY generic. Not branded in any way, and looked like something you’d buy off Amazon. I went to Amazon and scoured the listings of shirts like these but couldn’t find any that looked exactly the same. I ordered a light blue in a similar-looking one, and yeah… not the same. The cut was a little boxier and the fabric was slightly different. Then Holly had the idea to look on AliExpress and bam – found them. The exact ones I had ordered from the equestrian brand, like the same exact packaging and tags and little quote on the inside hem. They even come in the exact colors that a couple of the equestrian brands sell, so I’m pretty confident that this is where they’re sourcing them from. Except straight from AliExpress they’re $15 vs the $40 or $50 that they’re charging at resale. Granted, I think other people have figured this out too, or some brands have done a big order recently, because right now their online stock is pretty low. I’ve ordered 5 more myself now – 3 long sleeve and 2 short sleeve.

They ship from overseas so it does take a while to get them – mine took 3 or 4 weeks. I’ve spent a grand total of $74 though on 5 shirts, which would have cost me $200 even buying from the cheapest equestrian brand, so… to me it was worth the wait. I really love these shirts a lot and think they’re super versatile for the cooler months. Great to layer, and perfect to ride in. Since they’re fitted and aren’t too long (if you’re familiar with the Lulu Swiftly shirts, these are shorter like their race version), they tuck perfectly into breeches and stay put. I wear them a lot with jeans too though, especially if I’m doing anything active. They would make great cross country shirts too since they do sit so nicely under a vest.

I have a 35″ bust and bought the small, since I did want them pretty fitted for layering. They’re very stretchy but if you prefer a looser fit you should go up a size or two from your regular size. I was pleased with them at $40 a pop but I’m even more delighted at $15… can’t beat that!

Ok, first and foremost big shoutout and massive congratulations to the most spectacular pain in my ass, Bobby. He went to US Dressage Finals this past weekend in Kentucky with his boy Carlson and placed in ALL THREE of his classes, which were all championships… sixth in his 1st level freestyle AA, 5th in his 1st level AA, and 6th in his second level AA. He’s only had this horse since April but their partnership has come along so quickly and it’s been super fun to watch. They’ve still got so much more room for growth too, it’s pretty freaking exciting. Bobby absolutely loves Carlson, it’s freakin adorable, and I’m so proud of my friend and what he’s done (and even more importantly, how he’s done it). Even if he does keep trying to drag me over into DQ land with him, which, like… no. Hard pass. Why are you so obsessed with me.

Anyway, ew, that’s enough nice things about Bobby.

There’s not a whole lot to report on the horse front this weekend for me personally. Henry is trying to blow an abscess out under his shoe which has been a lot of fun, and his drama factor is very high. If you ask him, things are touch and go as to whether or not he’s gonna make it from one day to the next. Really I just need to get the shoe pulled off so it can drain and I can clean it. Working on that.

I also need to clip him again (already, ugh) since it was warm enough yesterday where he came in sweaty from turnout. The shortage of T-10 blades from all my favorite retailers is really cramping my style though. I had to cave and order a 10W since that’s all that was available, and I even went into Dover the other night to see what they had in stock. If you want a T-84 you’re in business but if you prefer a T-10 like I do… good luck. I found a place about half an hour away that can sharpen blades so I think I might try to take a bunch of my old ones up there this week and see if they can help me out. There’s a lot more clipping left to do in the next 4 months, I need blades. I did buy this doormat when I was at Dover though. Couldn’t resist.

For most of the weekend I was pretty glued to the Tryon live feed. It was the first time that any commentator ever actually took me up on my offer to provide breeding and pedigree data and I wanted to hear how it all came across and worked out in the live feed. I really wasn’t sure how much Cyndi would use the data, or if anyone would even care besides me. So like… knock me over with a tiny feather when she read basically everything I gave her, and the response was incredible.

I had people messaging me all weekend saying how much they enjoyed having some extra info and stats. I am DELIGHTED. People say that riders, especially eventers, don’t care about breeding but just don’t believe that’s true. The feedback from even just the little bit of data I was able to provide (only having 24 hours to prepare didn’t allow me to wander down as many rabbit trails as I would have liked) makes me think that a lot of people do indeed care. I think riders and fans in general would be a lot more interested in all this breeding stuff if we had more information readily available all the time and talked about it more often. People just don’t realize how interconnected it all is and how there are definite trends in their horses and where they come from (Sinead even remarked that she was surprised at how many were US-bred, I could have died happy at that comment). Breeding is not as embedded in our horse culture the way it is in other countries, particularly Europe, thus I think it has kind of become a blind spot for us. I’d love to try to help change that.

Also big shoutout to Cyndi Kurth, the main commentator for the weekend… that was her first time doing a live stream and I thought she did a fantastic job, especially on such short notice. More Cyndi, please! It was refreshing to have someone different directing the commentary that didn’t talk over people or interrupt their cohost, and kept focused on what was on the screen rather than rambling tangents.

Also thank you to Libby for connecting Cyndi and I in the first place, none of this would have happened without her facilitating it. Oh, and Hillary came in clutch helping me put the stats together, saving me many hours of work and helping me get all the data in Cyndi’s hands before the start of XC. Team work.

Here’s a few of my favorite blurbs and side-conversations that stemmed from the breeding data, in case you missed the live stream.

It was well-received enough that I’ve already had two other event organizers reach out to ask about getting breeding data for their live streams, and a media outlet has reached out about a future project as well. I was really just hoping someone, anyone would give a shit, so this kind of response has blown me away. Y’all know that this stuff is something I feel really passionate about but also feel deeply discouraged about on the regular, so I’m just ecstatic. This gives me a lot of hope that all indeed is not lost, and that people do really care, and that it really is something worth putting the effort into. You’re giving me hope, America.

I think we’re on to something here. I did come away with some things I’d like to do differently next time, and some stuff I’d like to add in, but… hopefully it’s a start.