Sorry not sorry about my lame rhymes. It’s just par for the course around here these days, what can I say.

Anyway… although I’m on a self-imposed spending chill (“freeze” is a harsh word, ya know? Chill seems better.) while Presto is enjoying his Ocala spring, that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped window shopping. Let’s be real, if I ever stop window shopping it probably means I’m dead. I’ve always been one of those people that loves to flip through a catalog, be it a hard copy or an online store. I just really like seeing what’s new and different, whether I like it or not. I will admit though that it’s gotten a lot less fun in recent years as my collection of stuff has built up to such a nice point that I just don’t really find myself needing anything that often. I’ve got a lot of variety in my collection, and some good quality. Things do need to be replaced sometimes though, and there’s always room for an upgrade, so… window shopping totally justified IMO.

Sometimes I see stuff that just captures my curiosity because it’s a new concept. Like the Cabasus Smart Boots.

These haven’t actually come out yet, and I’ve seen a “smart boot” concept before, with the western style Zebra boots that monitor temperature to prevent overheating under the boot. The Cabasus boots will supposedly have features more like the girth attachments we’ve seen, like speed, gait, acceleration, distance, jump analyzation, etc. It can also supposedly detect unusual movement patterns (if you leave the boots on the horse, obviously) like pawing that could be signs of trouble brewing, and send notifications to your phone. I’m not sure that it’s something I’d really utilize myself, but it’s an interesting concept for sure and would be fun to play with. I’ll be interested to see what they look like and how they work when they come out. Horse wearables are always fun.

The other thing I always love is an online configurator. The Mattes one has gotten me more than once, and playing with the helmet and custom boots ones are a fun pastime. Horse Pilot used to have one for custom coats, although they were relatively tame. I feel like anytime I come across a configurator for literally any horse item I fall into a black hole and emerge 30 minutes later in a daze. Things were no different with this Flying Changes one. They have SO MANY color and customization options, it’s unreal.

Of course, I need another coat like I need a hole in the head. I’ve got one in my closet I haven’t even worn yet. So… no new coats. No. Noooo. Back away slowly.

I’ve also really got to break the Epplejeck addiction. I’ve liked everything I’ve ordered from them, and I’m especially obsessed with the glitter tights I got in the last go-round. They’re stupid comfy and fit me really well, and I like that the glitter aspect is super super subtle. The navy is so dark that it almost looks black, and the only other color they make them in is… black… so it seems a little pointless to buy the black ones too. That doesn’t stop me from wanting them though. If nothing else it would be good to have a second pair, right? Just nod.

I also still peruse the Riding Warehouse “New Items” section on the regular. For, uh, research. Or science. Or whatever. They added a bunch of new LeMieux, which luckily I am immune to. Apparently the new sunshirt thing is patterns, which… I’m definitely also immune to. I think Kastel owes my eyeballs an explanation and apology for this one.

I’m not much a pattern person, I’ll admit, but that one seems particularly offensive. I DID notice a couple brands bringing back that ultra-90’s arm stripe though, which I am totally here for. Yes please. I will forever be loyal to my favorite decade. Except for maybe the bucket hats and the platform shoes. Arm stripes though, I’m in.

I admit that I DO actually like the sloth pattern that Pro Choice has come out with on a few items though. The colors are pleasing to my navy-loving eye and what’s not to like about sloths?

Riding Warehouse has it on a tote bag, a grooming bag, and a fly mask. I would buy this if my horses already didn’t have multiple fly masks each and if I didn’t already have multiple grooming bags. I mean, I’m not ruling out that I’ll buy it eventually anyway, but… not now, at least. There’s a unicorn print too but it’s lavender, which isn’t really my thing. Unicorns, though, I can almost make an exception for that. Almost.

Speaking of unicorn vibes, I also may or may not need this rainbow ombre dressage whip (which also comes in a short crop version and blue ombre or green ombre as opposed to rainbow).

It would match my rainbow box, ya know? Plus like… how could you possibly lose that thing ever. Do I need a dressage whip? No. Do I already own a black glitter unicorn-shaped whip? Yes, yes I do. Both of those facts are unimportant.

On a marginally more practical note they’ve got Mountain Horse pull on paddock boots in the clearance section right now, which DOES actually make my “trigger finger” a little itchy. I love my MH tall boots, and the price on these is really tempting. I don’t NEED new paddock boots though, having just bought new ones last fall. Still though. They have brown and black. My current ones are brown, so would black ones even count?

That Clearance section is maybe almost as dangerous as the New section… I’ve been eyeballing the clearance Anique shirts for so long that they’ve slowly sold out of almost every color in my size. Equal parts sad and relieved. They’re pretty shirts though, you have to admit, and 35% off is nice.

Honestly I think we should all just be impressed that the window shopping hasn’t led to any actual purchases. Look at me with that self-restraint. Kinda sad watching those FedEx and UPS trucks lumber right on past my house without stopping though. Miss you, boos.

At the rate I’m going through fly spray right now it seems much more likely that I’ll be having to stock up on essentials long before I ever get back to anything superfluous. Practicality is boring. Maybe they should put glitter in fly spray and I’d be more excited about it.

Anything fun out there that’s caught your eye lately?

There are certain perils that come along with living in Texas. It’s a little bit like Australia in that there are a lot of things that want to sting you, bite you, eat you, or stab you, whether they be animals or plants. For animals it runs the gamut from rattlesnakes (I’ve had a horse bitten by a rattlesnake before, it’s NO FUN) to scorpions to those giant disgusting freaky feral hogs. *shudder* The plant life isn’t always much better, with lots of mesquite and those stabby little sandburs that hurt like fuck, and of course cactus.

When you say cactus a lot of people picture the big tree-size ones you see out in the desert if you go further west. Here in this part of Texas we’re kind of at the point where the west meets the east. Drive a few hours west, you hit desert. Drive a couple hours east and you’re deep in pine forests. That means we have a mix of landscape and vegetation, which gives us this interesting juxtaposition of things like super rocky soil but also pretty decent pasture grass, or big oak trees but also cactus. Mostly a few different types of little ones, which grow here and there but aren’t particularly noteworthy or noticeable. The horses tend to be very smart about avoiding them, and aside from Presto accidentally jabbing a mesquite thorn into his head once (because of course he would) I’ve never really had a horse tangle with any of the stabby vegetation we do have.

Until yesterday anyway. I went out to get Henry and he was standing by the gait very pathetically, resting a hind foot but also looking very irritated. At first I thought it was the flies – they’re starting to come out in full force – but as soon as I got closer I could see the little chunk sticking into his leg. Poor dude! Some of those thorns were really jammed in there too, at least half an inch.

First I took a good look at how many they were and where they were. Nothing in a joint or anything like that, luckily, so I tied up his tail and started the process of carefully pulling them out. There were 9 total, with a few stuck in there deeper than others. They definitely hurt, he threatened to knock my block off a couple times. I tried to just be quick about it while also trying to avoid stabbing myself in the process (wasn’t 100% successful with that, I stabbed myself once). A few spots bled quite a bit, which I figured was a good thing to help clear them out.

They stopped bleeding pretty quickly, and I scrubbed them up, ran my hands all over the area to make sure I didn’t miss any and that none of them broke off, and he seemed fine after that. I think the spots must have stung a bit because when walking through the longer grass in his pasture he hiked that leg up a bit more, but he trotted out sound and seemed no worse for wear. He’s normally pretty smart about nature in general, so I figured something must have spooked him and he flew backwards into the wrong, unlucky spot.

Then when I was grooming him I found a little swelling and a bite mark on his neck, which makes me think the neighbors horses might have been involved. There are definitely some stabby plants up near the back fenceline, and if Henry was playing bitey face with them over the fence and things went too far, he easily could have flown backwards into one.

Henry is also zero percent stoic and extremely high drama, so he milked his multiple stab wounds for all they were worth. Plays me like a fiddle, this one. I lost count of how many cookies he had, because according to him, cookies heal all wounds. At least one cookie for every stab, that’s for sure.

I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve ever had to extract so many big sharp thorns from a horse, despite how long I’ve had horses in Texas and just how many stabby things we have here. Guess it was time for nature to bite back. I gave him a little bute last night just in case, and took a good look at the area this morning by flashlight, and all seems fine. No swelling, and you can’t even see the spots anymore. He walked out of his stall looking totally normal. Hopefully he stays that way.

And, uh, hopefully he keeps his chonky ass out of all the stabby stuff from now on. Lesson learned, maybe?

I got to wondering about this the other day when someone posted on facebook about having a flatwork lesson and what it entailed. Over time my general flatwork routine has definitely evolved, from horse to horse and discipline to discipline. Back in the hunter days we might do different size circles, some transitions, a little bending left and right, maaaaaaybe some shoulder-in, mostly in a stretchy trot type of outline. When I moved to the jumpers it got a bit more intense – shoulder in, leg yield, opening and closing the stride, smaller circles, etc. And then of course over to eventing, dipping our toes into actual dressageland (um, -ish…) and adding in such fun things as haunches-in, canter squares, half pass, etc.

As I’ve learned more, my overall flatwork routine has definitely evolved. Of course a lot depends on the horse you’re sat on and their level of training – I can’t just go in the ring and pop out a casual half pass on the 4yo for funsies. But he did get a lot of things introduced to him earlier on than some of my other horses, because I have more of an “established” (lolhelpme) background in flatwork fundamentals. I’m still shit at it, but… ya know. A little less shit?

Anyway, I think a lot of us probably have a “typical” flatwork routine for most of our horses. Like, let’s say, it’s just a regular ol’ work day, not a lesson day or anything, and you’re flatting your horse just to push some buttons and keep them moving and tuned up. I’m curious – what does that look like for you with your own horse, whatever their stage of training or discipline?

For example, mine: Henry was a Prelim event horse but we don’t really seem to show anymore (at the moment anyway). I can’t tell you the last time I put a dressage saddle on him, but we still do flatwork several times a week. I push all the same buttons I spent so long installing, both to keep him tuned up in case we ever do make it to a show again, and to keep his body stronger and more gymnasticized. So for him, just a regular ol’ not-at-all-special day of flatwork starts at the walk, usually going back and forth from freewalk to contact, opening and closing the stride, and doing figure 8’s on 10-ish meter circles to get him bending around my leg. Then we move to trot, which he usually likes to do a big stretch before we really dig in, so we might make a few 20m circles or laps of the arena just letting him stretch before I start to put him back together a bit. From there we do a lot of lateral work – leg yield and shoulder-in are is his jam, he is always Mr. Tension and it helps him relax into the outside rein – and serpentines. I’ll play a lot with transitions within the gait – lengthening the stride, then making it small, then back to working – and going back and forth and in between. We’ll throw in a few trot/walk/trot on a circle (rapid-fire transitions have always been his “come apart” trigger, and some days they still are). Then canter, with leg yield, maybe a little baby half pass, always some counter canter loops, and most assuredly our favorite and most important exercise for an event horse – opening and closing the stride. I want to be able to go from a 10′ stride to a 14′ stride to a 12′ stride and back again at the drop of a hat while jumping, so transitions within the canter are probably the #1 thing we do and we do it EVERY ride (I think if you sit outside the jumper ring or the cross country warmup that’s probably the thing you’d see most often too). If you can’t quickly and easily adjust the canter, you’re screwed on a jumping horse.

Canter squares are big for us too, because Henry is a croup-high, naturally quite downhill horse, and they help get his hind end more underneath him and his front end up a bit. I’ll do a simple change here and there with him sometimes but almost never flying changes, because he loves to throw flying changes into dressage tests where they shouldn’t be. We’ll do some canter/stretchy trot/canter or some canter/walk/canter or some canter/trot/halt/rein-back/canter too, how many or which variations depend on the day and how spicy he is. After that we do some free walk, more stretchy trot, stretchy serpentines, etc, and then we’re done. It could be 20 minutes or it could be 45 minutes, depending on the day.

Presto obviously isn’t here right now and is neon green, but before he left his flatwork sessions were about 15-20 minutes and consisted of transitions between walk and trot and canter (mostly walk and trot since he was still kind of struggling with his canter balance in the dressage arena), beginning leg yield (he was actually pretty good at that), the extreme beginning of shoulder-in (less good at that), small transitions within each gait, serpentines, and figure 8’s. Nothing particularly complicated, but enough to keep him focused and thinking and paying attention to my leg/seat and not just blobbing around on endless 20m circles. At the canter he either did simple laps around or did circles. We had just started playing with opening the stride and then coming back when I sent him off for training.

So tell me – what does your average, not-special flatwork day look like? Discipline and level of horse? I love seeing what everyone else does and why!

Just me or are weekends way too short lately? When the sun is shining and the weather is mild, it’s extra hard to want to go back to work and spend all day in front of a computer.

It was a nice horsey weekend though, in all regards. Henry’s back up to being ridden 6 days a week now since he’s the only horse on my plate, and he’s been doing a bit more fitness work. Definitely getting some strength back and getting back into more proper shape, despite the fact that he reminds quite round. Round is a shape.

On Friday afternoon I brought him in for a fun little conditioning hack out in the back (where he inevitably always turns into a dolphin at some point during the canter laps) and realized he was looking a little… ranchy. So I got out my scissors and my rake and got rid of a lot of that mane, which kind of just makes him look even rounder and chonkier. Whatevs, he’s owning his figure.

Sometimes when I’m feeling cheeky I’ll make little challenges for us, like the time I set the two little piggies up as a bending line of skinnies. On Friday after we finished our canter sets I was like… I wonder if I can put both reins in one hand, canter down the alley, hang a 180 turn through the gate and under the tree, and jump the little log. While holding my phone to video, of course. Tis the Instagram era. Henry, bless him, has been dealing with my weird shit for so long now that he’s not even phased. He was in his sidepull, but no matter, we cantered down one-handed, made the turn through the gate, under the tree (just about dropped my phone ducking under branches) and popped over the log. Sometimes the little random goofy stuff like this is really the highlight of my rides. It’s fun, and it’s spontaneous, and doing weird shit just for the sake of it is totally my jam. I like testing all the buttons that have been put on my horse over the years, and he seems to enjoy doing different stuff.

Saturday was Henry’s day off, and was split between barn chores, errands, and stalking Mason on the Carolina live feed. He looked like he was having a GRAND time galloping around that track, ears pricked and full of running all the way through. He crossed the finish looking like he could have happily gone around again.

He’s entered at Kentucky for his first 5* so fingers crossed that everything goes well and he gets to go. #1 fan right here, for sure. I just love watching him go around… his enthusiasm, his gallop, his balance, the way he hunts the fences like he’s just having the best time… totally my type of horse. He eats cross country for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If Presto decides to be even half the horse his doppelganger brother-from-another-mother is, I’ll be delighted.

On Sunday I went out and set my cavaletti exercises back up in the arena. We’ve been working over those twice a week, trying to build Henry’s hind end and topline strength back up. This time I pulled out my rail raisers (which are actually Ikea potties) and put them on a curve to make it a little more difficult. These are my skinny rails, only 4′ wide, so it’s definitely an accuracy exercise especially when they’re on a curve. Henry was pretty good when they were half up…

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But as soon as I put them up on both sides he was convinced they counted as jumps. It took 3 or 4 times through before I finally successfully persuaded him to stop trying to bounce through them. Which was… awkward. Although I guess that’s one way to get a butt workout.

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Can’t blame him for trying to make some boring work a little more interesting I guess. He’ll make a jump out of anything if he can.

I’ll try to get a Presto update this week, and I’m planning a trip down to Ocala to see him sometime next month. Otherwise there’s not a whole lot going on around here. Peyton is edging her way towards baby time, she’s at 334 days today, although she doesn’t appear to be in any particular hurry to release her hostage. I dunno about y’all but I’m ready for some baby horses. Let’s do this already. I need my weekly doses of cuteness. I don’t think we’ll be getting a Foal Friday this week, but maybe next week? Feels like I’m a kid waiting for Christmas morning.

Hope everybody had a good weekend! Send Peyton some “wrap it up already” vibes so we can get this show on the road.

Time flies when the weather is nice. That’s what the saying should be anyway. Spring is the best time of year in Texas, and it’s always early and short-lived so we have to enjoy it while we can. Right now everything is green, the days are fairly mild, and the nights still have a little bit of a nip to them. The whole 10 day forecast is highs between 70-80. It’s almost enough to forgive Texas for all the bullshit it pulls the rest of the year. Almost. Anyway, at the moment we’ve got good riding weather and happy horses and beautiful pastures. Plus, ya know, I’m ALWAYS in a better mood this time of year because it’s breeding season and foaling season and there’s nothing I love more than delving into bloodlines, picking stallions for the mares, and waiting for the babies to show up (Peyton is at 331 days today! Getting close…).

And in the spirit of the season, it’s possible that WTW has acquired a new mare to add to the eventer-breeding string. My love for the sporty TB has rubbed off on Michelle, who’s spent the winter deep diving into TB performance lines. For real, y’all should see all the notes she’s gathered from the research she’s done and competition results she’s dug through, it’s a literal book. But anyway, we’ve been keeping our eyes peeled for a really good quality mare to add, and indeed I feel like we’ve seen every TB mare on the internet at this point. Lots of cute ones but none that were quite right. We found a really lovely one a few weeks ago but were about an hour too late and another eventing breeder snapped her up before we did. Lesson learned.

And then earlier this week we came upon this one in Arizona (much closer than Delaware, at least!).

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She’s 8 years old and still racing on remarkably clean legs – selling point #1. When she decided she wanted to be fast, she was, but unfortunately that only happened once, in a turf race. Otherwise she’s seemed delighted to toodle along mid-pack. She’s reported to have a good temperament, is a nice middling size around 16h, has a great gallop, nice uphill balance, and the right kind of conformation to breed to warmbloods for sporthorses. Plus, like… look at them airplane ears. She also really ticked the pedigree checkbox – we were looking for a pretty specific handful of lines, and hers are well-suited for our purpose. Lonhro mares are hard to find and tend to go quick, his offpsring have great canters, are smart, super athletic, and forward-thinking but not idiots. Broken Vow has made a lot of super sporty ones too, and of course Lyphard and Riverman on the bottom. Definitely a nice pedigree for sport.

The discussions about who to breed her to first have already been flying, complicated a bit by the fact that a lot of frozen semen brokers are sold out and awaiting delayed shipments. Frustrating, but we’ve got a lot of good options still, so we’ll see where we settle. I’m pretty excited to have another really nice TB mare in the crew.

Along the same breeding lines, I had intended to do an In The Blood post for Carolina 4*S but I was just too busy with other stuff this week to get it done. The good news is that they have the live stream at least (granted it’s behind the H&C paid firewall) so let the stalking begin. Poor Mason was a bit wired yesterday in the dressage and had a hard time – not the only one with that problem – but Carolina isn’t a dressage contest so we’ll see how things go. I keep hearing about a new Normandy Bank on the course that’s supposed to be pretty gnarly so hopefully we’ll get to see it on the live stream.

Also a big shout out to Event Entries for a really cool new feature that some of their events have. See the little blue i bubbles next to the horse’s name? Some events are actually showing breeding information right there in the results! Not a ton of them yet, but some, and a lot of it is incomplete since the USEA data is as well, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. This screenshot is from the Ocala results. I LOVE this feature. They also show all the individual dressage marks, which fences they have rails at, and which jumps they have issues with on XC. Really cool data to poke through if you haven’t seen it yet.

Last but not least, Riding Warehouse and Better Dressage Scores have teamed up to offer an online horse show, with all proceeds benefitting the Optimum Youth Equestrian Scholarship. It’s open to USDF tests, USEA tests, and Western Dressage tests, so something for everybody. Entries aren’t due until April 8 so you’ve got some time to get your tests videoed and submitted!

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Have a good weekend, everybody!