Category: Uncategorized

Hey there, long time no post. For me anyway. As you may have noticed, I left for Chatt last week, and I didn’t have the time or the energy or the WiFi for the blog, so I took a hiatus. But now I’m back home, fully WiFi’d, and with tons of updates and pictures and videos that will take us a few days to get through. Yay? In all seriousness, Presto was just THE BEST kiddo and I’m so freakin proud of him.

Anyway – as you may remember we were originally supposed to do both weeks of Chatt. Unfortunately something came up at Megan’s barn that she had to stay and take care of, so she had to scratch week 1. With everything happening with Quinn that kind of ended up working out better for me anyway honestly. I ended up flying in on Tuesday morning, Hillary picked me up at the airport since she was already there, and then Megan got there on Tuesday night with all her horses. On Wednesday they offered some jumper rounds, so Presto got to go in and jump around a 2’11” (he was clear and a very good nug) although the course was short and simple and didn’t use all the “spooky” standards… it was still good to get him in the big ring with all the flags and stuff. He didn’t bat an eye, naturally.

On Friday he did the YEH class, which we’ll circle back around and talk about later, because I have a lot of thoughts and need to organize them before it just becomes word vomit. On Saturday the regular horse trial started, and he had dressage and stadium.

Presto was the last of Megan’s four horses to do dressage, and she had to come right off of Prelim XC and onto Presto in the dressage warmup. It was hot AF that day, like melt the skin off your face kind of weather, and poor Megan was just dripping sweat like a faucet. Presto decided that would be a great time to be a very disagreeable little shit in warmup, of course. It got a little better towards the end but it wasn’t great, so she headed down to the ring and I was like “well, this is just gonna be what it’s gonna be, that’s green horses for you”. Really Friday had been a very long day for him and I think he was just kind of Over It by that point.

But wouldn’t you know it, the second he trotted into the show ring he was 100% all business and never put a foot wrong. Guess he decided he just doesn’t want to warm up? Whatever, he went in there and threw down his best test yet, being such a good boy and super rideable, with very few bobbles, even in a ring with a lot of possible distractions happening in the background. He just looked very steady in general, without any of the temporary losses of focus that he’s had at his first two shows. I really wish the photographer had gotten any dressage pics so I had something besides these crappy screenshots. Low quality screenshots, high quality horse.

After Megan halted and started walking out the judge asked what breed Presto was, which I hoped was a good sign. She seemed to really like him and said he was lovely, and he was as good a boy as a 4yo can possibly be, so I was hoping the third time was a charm and he’d break into the 20’s (his test at Texas Rose was 31, MeadowCreek was 32). I took him back to the barn, hosed him, and Megan was off to hop on Tenny for cross country. By the time I got down to XC warmup we checked the scores and holy shit did he ever break into the 20’s.

Fuck yeah, Noodle! He was out in front by a 3 point margin in a class that ranged from his 23 all the way up to a 45. The judge loved him for sure, and we will 100% take that and run with it. There was still room for improvement, so it’s kind of fun to see glimpses of some real potential. Imagine how good he could be when he’s stronger and really coming through his body more! It’s pretty exciting. But also kind of intimidating for me, because I’ve never had a horse that was even capable of a score like that, and now I have to learn how to ride this creature at some point LOL. Luckily Megan said that despite all his monkeying around in the warmup he’s actually super easy to ride in the ring, so hopefully he stays that way.

I think my favorite part of the entire test is the collective comments – “lovely prospect” and “well started”. It feels so freaking good to see that. For me, because I believe in the horse’s potential so much, and for Megan, because she’s done such a stellar job with him already. If you’d told me 5 months ago when I dropped off that half-feral creature at her farm that he’d soon be at one of the biggest shows in Area 3 scoring a 23 in the Novice in excellent company, I’d have said you were high AF. I’m getting a ton of joy out of watching him blossom under Megan’s guidance, and I’m so freakin proud of both of them. She’s put a lot of hard work into him and it shows. It was really fun to be rewarded with a great score like that at a place like Chatt, not gonna lie.

There wasn’t a ton of time to celebrate though, because showjumping was next!

We said goodbye to Quinn the corgi yesterday. The writing has been on the wall for him for a while, so there was nothing sudden or shocking about it, which honestly made it one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. When Quinn was diagnosed with DM a couple years ago we promised ourselves that we’d let him go if/when his quality of life diminished too much, or if/when he started to lose the control of his front end or bladder. And well… we kinda hit all three of those milestones at once.

DM is tough, because they aren’t really in any pain. And for a smaller dog like Quinn, who is extremely lazy and very content to lay around the house most of the time, it didn’t affect his quality of life too much for quite a while. His hind end was first to go – one foot followed quickly by the other. We got him a wheelchair and while he never really took to using it, it did help him toddle around a little bit when he felt so inclined. DM of course is progressive, and over time his paralysis has inched it’s way forward. The past few months he really hasn’t been strong enough to hold up his front end in the wheelchair anymore, nor more recently could he push his upper body up on his own anymore. He could scoot from side to side, but not lift himself any. A couple weeks ago he scooted his front end off of his bed in the middle of the night and was just kind of hanging his front end off sideways, all twisted up and contorted, looking at me for help as soon as I got up in the morning. Who knows how long he’d been stuck like that but he was pretty stiff. My heart just sank.

Coincidentally that was right around the time he started not being able to hold his bladder anymore. Sometimes he could, sometimes he couldn’t, but he started dribbling a lot pretty much all the time and keeping him/his bedding clean became a full time job. We moved into the diaper stage last week, and I had to start wrapping my head around the fact that it was time. He wasn’t going to get any better, he was only going to get worse. It was really hard to think of it being the end though, when a dog is otherwise happy to see you and wagging his nub and begging for treats and all that stuff. He wasn’t in pain, but he clearly wasn’t living a happy dog life anymore either, and I was worried that there would be more incidents of him getting stuck, or he’d end up with some kind of infection or sores from trying to keep him clean and dry all the time. Trying to judge quality of life is tricky, and not something I would wish on anyone, even though pretty much all pet owners have to face it at some point. I have always said though that I would rather let him go a week too early than a week too late. There comes a point when you’re keeping them alive more for your benefit than theirs, and I think we were at that point.

We made an appointment to have him euthanized at home, to avoid the stress of the vet clinic. He spent the morning eating all sorts of terrible food that he normally can’t have, and then we said our goodbyes. We’re having him cremated, and we’ll spread his ashes out at the barn. He did love wandering around through the fields, back when he still could.

While we didn’t have Quinn for a super long time – we adopted him 6 years ago as a “senior” special needs corgi from a rescue up in north Texas – we loved him a lot all the same. He was part of the family, and quite possibly the cutest little miniature grizzly bear I’ve ever met. We never did succeed in training him even a tiny bit (he was totally uninterested in our opinion) but he was a funny, sweet dog in his own way and he fulfilled my dream of having a corgi. I will greatly miss his fluffy little stumpers, and I hope he enjoyed his time with us as much as we enjoyed our time with him.

Since it’s a holiday weekend I figured we could all use a little extra dose of foal cuteness, and the kiddos were more than happy to participate in providing the media. Well, ok… the fillies and Percy were interested. Mostly those 3. The fillies in particular really seemed to like their tutus and tiaras. Hope everyone is having a good long weekend and holiday – these guys sure are!

Maybe it’s because he had such a rough start but Percy is quickly emerging as a favorite of the 2021 class of foals. It’s hard NOT to love him, he’s such a sweet little dude. Plus like… his ears. LOOK AT DEM.

He’s continued to do well, with gradual but steady progress. Every week his legs look stronger, and he’s been growing like a weed. I think he’s easily doubled in width for sure over the past few weeks.

You can tell that he’s looking more proportionate, with the rest of his body catching up to his head and legs. He’s still got some filling out to do, but it’s a massive improvement for sure.

He’s also quite perky. Now that he’s got his legs more coordinated, cantering is his favorite.

Besides getting his gallop figured out, he’s also starting to master the art of becoming airborne. These jumper-bred foals, I swear. They’re like little bouncing balls.

It’s going to take more time before he’s totally caught up, but this is good progress, and his temperament has remained superb. Just a sweet little kiddo that’s doing his best to catch up with the others, development-wise. Percy is very easy to love and it’s fun to see him start to blossom. I may or may not have a particular soft spot for him, given that Presto also had a rough start. It’s amazing what they can overcome with time.

All your good thoughts have worked well for him so far, so please keep it up!

I don’t really want to talk about what’s going on in my world right now because this week has been absolute shite, so how about a light-hearted blog post instead? The heavy stuff can wait. Bel Joeor posted a fun Bathtime blog hop and I do quite like bathing products (for horses anyway) so let’s do it. (Also – pssst – Riding Warehouse is doing a Bargain Bin sale for the holiday weekend, check it out)

Do you bathe regularly, or only before shows?

As necessary, really. Before shows or if they’re really dirty, or pre-body clip. In our mild climate they can get hosed off for most of the year, and mine are pretty much always clipped, so they don’t tend to get super dirty.

What’s your temperature cutoff?

65 if they absolutely must be bathed, but I’d rather it be 70. We’re Texans, we’re allowed to be weenies about “cold”.

Any favorite gadgets or shampoos?

Ooo boy do I have some favorite products.

My “gadget” I suppose would be my Power Shower sponge. It’s a regular sponge on one side and a Tiger’s Tongue on the other so I LOVE this thing for bathing. It’s a super all-in-one little tool.

My favorite shampoo/conditioner line is probably Espana Silk, it washes out easily and smells fantastic, plus the conditioner does a really good job detangling the tail with little effort.

I also do an after-bath rinse where I fill up a bucket about halfway with water, add a few glugs of liniment (usually Vetrolin because it’s more economical, sometimes Sore No More if I’m feeling bougie whene I’m buying liniment) and a capful or two of baby oil.

I sponge that all over the coat and it’s a nice brace for the horse’s muscles plus the little bit of baby oil leaves the coat nice and rehydrated and shiny without needing to use any kind of silicone spray afterward.

In the winter if it’s too wet to bathe but they’re particularly dirty (you know how clipped horses get super dusty? Or your horse – ahem Henry – loves to lay in poop?) I like to use a good waterless shampoo and dampened towels to get them clean.

Any other strong opinions?

I have a lot of strong opinions, but not many about bathing. As long as you’re not freezing your horse to death by bathing them when it’s too cold, you do you.