I got word last week that Presto’s entry was officially accepted for the 2021 US Event Horse Futurity, and as of yesterday the entry fee is paid, so he’s officially-officially in!

Of course I’ve already said that I highly doubt he’ll be the type that ends up at Championships, but I’m excited for the journey and the process. I’ve already started outlining his first vlog post… it has to be an “intro” one about the horse and it’s breeding, which I already made a similar one last year to post here. I just need to shorten in a bit (ok a lot) because well… y’all know I’m wordy, and I don’t think most people want to watch a 10 minute intro vlog on some rando girl’s rando horse. I’m trying to get it under 5 minutes. We’ll see.

I did start trying to plan some little local show adventures for him too. I was hoping the show facility near us would do their normal monthly winter shows but alas they aren’t starting their series this year until March. I’ve definitely penciled that into the calendar, although I’d been hoping for something in February. We’ll see what else comes up. I do have a tentative plan to have my favorite dressage trainer sit on him a time or two as well, as soon as we get schedules figured out. As of now I’m the only person that’s ever ridden him, and I think some rides from the dressage guy could really help a few things that are right-on-the-edge-of-his-grasp actually click into place.

I also took a tentative peek at the YEH schedule when it was posted. I’m not convinced that Presto will ever actually be ready to make it to a YEH class this year at all, but I wanted to see what was on the calendar anyway just in case. And LOL – there is a grand total of ONE qualifier in Area 5 and it’s in MARCH. Hilarious. We do have a lot more FEH options here if I wanted to take him to the FEH 4yo classes (they w/t/c under saddle and judge confo, plus freejump at Champs) instead of the YEH 4yo (dressage test and jump little sj and xc fences under saddle in more of a derby format), but honestly I’m not sure that I see a ton of value in spending the money on the FEH. Either he’s ready for the YEH or he’s not, and if he’s not I could do a lot of smaller schooling shows that would add more value to his education than FEH would, I think. Maybe my opinion will change as we move forward, but… meh.

I did get him ridden 3 times last week, the first time I’ve actually managed to pull that off. He did a dressage day, a pole work day, and a long (for him – 30 minutes – I’m still only riding him for like 15-20 minutes at a time usually) walk on the hills day. On his dressage day I took him out to the field afterward and practiced “galloping” a lap. He’s still not totally sure of his balance enough yet to get his true gallop going. Right now it’s a little bit like a dressage horse trying to gallop – far too uphill and climbing. I know it’s in there though, I see him gallop flat out ALL THE TIME, he just has to get more comfortable and sure of himself with a rider on his back.

The farrier is coming again this week and I strongly debated having his first pair of shoes put on (fronts only) but I think we’ll wait until next time. That would put us toward the end of February, and March is probably when he’ll start doing more stuff (starting his formal o/f training and going to some shows). I’d rather he stay barefoot as long as possible, naturally, and his feet are pretty good, but it’s really difficult for a horse to stay barefoot on the ground we’ve got down here. Rocks and coarse sand are tough once they actually start working and putting more wear on the feet (indeed, he already chips them up a lot since he gallops around like a maniac constantly). I fully expect that he’ll need a full set by summer once it’s dry as hell and everything is hard as concrete, but we’ll start with the fronts.

He’ll be a real horse soon, y’all! Can you believe it?

When the weather folks first started murmuring last week about a Winter Storm heading to Texas, I didn’t pay it much heed. The Northern half of the state seems to inevitably get snow at least once every winter, but it’s not that common for any kind of real frozen precip to make far enough south to effect us. Especially not down where I am now, Southeast of Austin. You might get some snow every few years, usually a light dusting, and it may or may not actually accumulate at all. They didn’t seem sure of how south the system would go, and it had been in the 60’s all week leading up to Sunday, so… call me skeptical. But I’ll be damned y’all… it snowed. Like… SNOWED.

It started out as just rain for a few hours, and then slowly turned to a mix of sleet and snow before going all the way into big fat wet flakes. It was still 34 degrees and the ground was soaked so I wasn’t sure anything would actually stick, but sure enough it finally started to accumulate. It snowed pretty much all afternoon, and we ended up with about an inch of accumulation. Which probably sounds absolutely comical to you Northerners, but for down here it’s A LOT.

And in thinking about it, I realized that Presto has never really seen snow. No more than a dusting anyway, and from inside his stall at the boarding barn. So, while the horses were safely and snugly tucked into their stalls yesterday, I had to go get Presto out to see what he thought of the white stuff when the fat flakes started to fall.

He really thought he wanted to play in it. He really really did. And then he actually got out in it and the snow started hitting him in the face and he wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic.

After laughing at him for a few minutes I put him up and went back inside, and it just kept on snowing. For hours. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it snow that long here. Towards the end of the afternoon when there was more accumulation I got Presto out again. Maybe he’d change his mind when there was more of it on the ground and less of it hitting him in the face?

Okay maybe not. I had to take advantage of the ultra-rare opportunity to get pictures of him in the snow though. I mean, how often to we get that chance?

He just really couldn’t figure out what to make of it. Very weird cold stuff that isn’t even fun to eat. I don’t think he was impressed with this winter thing. Makes sense though, since he’s a giraffe. Summer is more his jam.

Henry, being from Arkansas, isn’t nearly such a stranger to the snow. He wasn’t impressed by it and seemed content to ride out the Texas blizzard from the comfort of his stall. I did get him out for pictures too though, because what kind of crazy mom would I be if I didn’t. This is the first time in the 7 years I’ve owned him that I’ve been able to get pictures of him in snow.

And naturally Henry is a professional. He knows how to pose for photos so he can go the hell back to his stall.

The snow started melting pretty much as soon as it stopped falling, and this morning it’s almost gone. Which, to be honest, is my preferred way to experience winter. The snow is fun and novel and all that, but one day of it was enough. Thanks for letting us borrow it, but you Northerners can keep the rest. We’ll be back up to 60 by tomorrow, as if nothing ever happened.

Well that was an interesting first week of 2021. So far it’s definitely starting to feel more like 2020 The Sequel.

I have zero brain power left at this point, so instead of trying to pull a post out of my butt that won’t make any of us happy, I wanted to repost an article I saw this week that I thought was extra worthy of sharing.

Five Training Philosophies for Young Event Horses

It’s rare that I agree with an entire article on a subject like this, but this one managed to do it. I had a lot of YES happening while I was reading it.

Certainly a million times better than the article a couple weeks ago that I refuse to link to that said (at least before someone went back and edited, which was after I got screenshots) that all horses should be started over fences with: a standing martingale so that they can’t hit you in the face when (when, not if) they resist, a “firm”-fitting flash noseband (because drop nosebands “can’t control the jaw” and a simple cavesson “isn’t enough noseband for a horse that gallops across the countryside”, and rubber reins (of which women need thinner ones for their small lady hands – clearly he hasn’t met me, I wear a size 8.5 glove). I’m still hardcore glitching over that one. Not over it. Utter load of complete garbage. I hope no one actually took advice from it, JFC.

But the article I’ve linked to above is actually a really good one IMO – it’s solid advice and good info for anyone with a young horse or a re-start, really, no matter the age or discipline.

Also have to give a shout out to Practical Horseman magazine. It’s been YEARS since I got any print magazines (well except the magazines that come with USEA and USEF memberships) and even longer since I’ve read a Practical Horseman. PH was one of the first print publications to come out with a strong stance in favor of increasing diversity in the equestrian world, and dedicating themselves to do better to further said cause. Because some folks are garbage, that statement brought PH a lot of heat and people declaring that they wouldn’t be renewing. I wanted to support their efforts and counteract some of the negative backlash so I bought a year subscription (it was only $15, why not), and while I’m only two issues in, so far I’m relatively impressed with the content. There are at least a few articles in each that have been worth the read. Now we just have to see how/if they stick to their diversity pledge.

Read anything this week that deserves a shout? Drop a link in a comment. We could all use a little distraction I think.

It’ll be breeding season (MY FAVORITE SEASON) again before we know it. Stallions are already being picked, semen is already being purchased, and plans are already being solidified. Last year I had a lot of people ask me to write out some terminology, since those who are not involved in the breeding world might not have heard some of the terms or abbreviations used. I tend to forget that when I’m writing. So here’s a basic explanation of some of the breeding terminology or abbreviations that you might see, and hopefully we can use this as reference later on. If you think of anything basic that I missed please let me know and I’ll add it!

“by” vs “out of“

You will often see this written as Foal by Stallion out of Mare, although a common blunder is for people to use the “out of” part in reference to the stallion. Trust me, foals do not come out of stallions. Physics would not allow it. So “by” = the sire, “out of” equals the dam. E.g., Presto is by Mighty Magic out of Westbound.

stud vs stallion

This one can be a little cultural. In Europe and in sporthorse breeding in general, a “stud” is a farm where stallions live and breed. Western culture and general societal slang has kind of taken the word stud and used it in place of the word stallion. In the sporthorse world though, you would always refer to the stallion as “stallion”, not “stud”, since stud denotes a place. E.g, Hyperion Stud.

half sibling

In the horse breeding world, the term “half sibling” only applies to horses out of the same dam but by different sires. Horses by the same sire but out of different dams aren’t generally referred to as being related, or if they are they’re called “paternal half siblings” (or as I like to call it, “brother from another mother”). E.g. Presto and Manny are half siblings.

ET

ET, in the breeding world anyway, stands for embryo transfer. In this procedure Mare A (known as the donor mare) is bred to Stallion, and the resulting embryo is harvested from Mare A and transplanted into Mare B (known as a recipient mare) to carry to term and foal out/raise. Although it incurs a lot of additional expense, there are several reasons that people might choose this procedure. Perhaps they have a performance mare that they don’t want to take out of sport for a year and a half to have a foal. Perhaps they want to get more than one foal from a mare per year. Perhaps the mare is unable to safely carry to term, or the owner doesn’t want to risk her during foaling. Some people even freeze harvested embryos from exceptional mares and offer them for sale. E.g. We are expecting two full siblings in 2021, by Faustino de Tili out of Chanel, one of which is an ET. (note: even if the biological dam of the offspring did not actually carry and foal the offspring herself, you would still say “out of” as the proper vernacular when referencing the biological dam).

Due Date

I try to explain this a little every year in the Baby Bets contest, but horses don’t actually have due dates the way humans do. The average gestation for a healthy foal can be anywhere from 320 days to 380 days. Viable foals can still be born earlier or later than that range, but that is the range that’s considered typical. The average gestation per a study in Northern Europe was 340 days, so that’s what has been widely accepted and used to calculate a loose “due date” (which isn’t really a due date at all) for horses. Obviously though, this can vary by weeks or even months. I know someone who had a healthy foal born at 309 days of gestation, and I know someone who had a healthy foal born at 396 days gestation. E.g. Y’all see why breeders have come up with things like milk testing to help predict foaling rather than just relying on averages to calculate due dates?

foal shed

Foals are born with a fluffy foal coat that they generally start shedding around 3 months of age. With many horses the coat that shows through underneath after this first “foal shed” will be darker (sometimes much darker) than the eventual adult coat. This is especially true of a lot of chestnuts – often they will look very dark, even liver chestnut, during and after their foal shed. You always see a rash of “LOOK AT MY LIVER CHESTNUT FOAL” posts on social media in the summer time, from people who don’t understand this. Dark brown can sometimes look black in this shed, too. The foal shed can be misleading when it comes to showing the horse’s adult color. Eg. don’t publicly declare liver chestnut until you’re well beyond the foal shed, lest you look like a dingus.

The “color” gray

Since we’re already the topic of color, let’s go one step further, because gray is especially weird when it comes to foals. First you have to understand that gray isn’t actually a color, it’s a depigmentation. Therefore, no horse that ends up gray is actually born gray (this is also why gray horses continue to lose pigment and get whiter over time). The gray gene is a modifier that, when present, expresses on top of whatever color genes the horse already has. So a horse can be born literally any color, but if it has the gray gene it will eventually depigment and turn gray. The gray gene is also dominant, so if the horse has the gene, it WILL gray out. The gray gene cannot “hide” and then show up again further down the line in other generations. A gray horse will always have at least one gray parent. A horse with only one copy of the gray gene (heterozygous) has a 50% chance of passing it to an offspring. A horse with two copies of the gray gene (homozygous) has a 100% chance of passing it to the offspring. Another interesting note: foals that will eventually turn gray tend to be born hyperpigmented, or darker than foals that will not eventually turn gray. Eg. Ollie was a good example of all these things – he is grulla with a gray gene on top so will depigment over time from grulla to gray, and he was born hyperpigmented (which was the first clue that he got the gray gene).

I looooove color genetics, I could go on all day about that, but I’ll stop here. I wanted to hit the gray gene since we have a lot of foals coming next year by a gray stallion. Let’s get to the more complicated bits!

registries vs breeds

In the warmblood/sporthorse breeding world, there really isn’t such a thing as true breeds (except maybe Trakehner, and I’ll explain why in a second). If someone asks your favorite breed and you say Dutch Warmblood or Hanoverian or something like that, it sounds a little bit silly. Why? Because almost all of those European registries have “open” books – meaning they will allow stallions and mares for breeding within their own regstry that originated from another. This has become especially true within the last few decades with the prevalence and availability of shipped semen. Your Dutch Warmblood might actually come from Holsteiner, Selle Francais, and Hanoverian bloodlines. Your Oldenburg might have a lot of Hanoverian roots. Your Holsteiner might actually be largely thoroughbred (Mighty Magic is registered Holsteiner but is actually by a full TB stallion and out of a mare that also had a full TB sire). All of these different European-based registries, which are regional, end up intermingling, albeit some more than others. While technically still an open studbook, Holsteiner is typically less accepting of outside blood than a lot of other registries, for example.

All these different warmbloods aren’t breeds the way a Haflinger or a Friesian are – they are more of a TYPE (sporthorse, or warmblood) that contains different regional registries within said type. This is why, when it comes to sporthorses, it’s much more important to look at the actual names on the pedigree rather than the registry at the top of the page. The registry only tells you which studbook the horse is registered with, it doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about it’s actual lineage. The only major registry with a “closed” studbook is Trakehner, in that they have only allowed Trakehner, Arabian, and Thoroughbred horses to be used within their registry. E.g. Presto is registered Belgian Sporthorse (the studbook of the southern French-speaking region of Belgium, not to be confused with Belgian Warmblood which is the studbook of the northern Flemish region of Belgium) but he is by a stallion that himself was registered Holsteiner despite being mostly TB, and out of a mare who is registered RPSI but is actually by a Hanoverian stallion out of a TB mare. And of course, he’s never been to Belgium in his life, nor are either of his parents from Belgium. It’s a lot to unpack, but you can see why they aren’t really breeds.

approved vs registered

If that last one wasn’t enough to hurt your brain, I have one more super confusing but often misunderstood topic: the difference between approved vs registered. As I said above, these European-based warmblood registries tend to all intermingle. This is helped along largely by the fact that a single horse can be approved for breeding by multiple registries. In the world of sporthorses (with a few complicated exceptions), breeding stock must be inspected and approved in order to be used for breeding – you can’t just take one rando horse, breed it to another rando horse, and then get papers for it. The inspection and approval process provides a level of quality control, as every horse that is used for breeding within every registry has to meet a minimum standard of conformation, pedigree, and quality in order to be allowed to produce papered offspring. And while a horse can only have one set of papers – ie it can only be registered with one registry – it can be approved for breeding with as many as you like. This means a horse could produce offspring for any registry it meets approval for.

To use our same example, Mighty Magic (registered Holsteiner) is approved for breeding with: Selle Francais, Anglo-Arab, Holsteiner, Hanoverian, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, Rhineland, Westfalian, Swedish Warmblood, and Zangersheide. Additionally, many registries (like Presto’s – Belgian Sporthorse) will also accept foals by known stallions with multiple approvals, even if they haven’t specifically obtained approval within their own. That means Mighty Magic can produce foals for any of those registries. He only has ONE set of registration papers, and he will never be anything but Holsteiner since that is his birth registry, but he can produce registered offspring for just about any other registry.

The same goes for mares. A mare can potentially be approved by as many registries as you want to take her to for inspection. It’s not uncommon at all for mares to have breeding approval from multiple registries. This is why she could also produce offspring for different registries. E.g. Sadie, for example, is registered RPSI but approved RPSI and Belgian Sporthorse, and has produced foals that have been registered both RPSI and Belgian Sporthorse (RPSI actually got absorbed into Westfalen a few years ago, to make it even MORE COMPLICATED but I won’t go down that rabbit trail). Theoretically, she could even produce full siblings that ended up registered differently. As with stallions, a mare will only ever have ONE registration, but she can have multiple breeding approvals and produce offspring for multiple registries. It’s important to note that registration also does not equal automatic approval – every horse of breeding age must be presented and pass inspection in order to be approved as breeding stock. Just because they are registered with said registry doesn’t mean they will be approved for breeding with said registry. Clear as mud?

Hopefully that helps a little bit… although maybe I just made it more confusing. It’s a super complicated world and we could go on about this forever, but I tried to just hit the main most important things. Is there anything I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t cover here? Or did all of this just stir up more questions (probably)? Drop it in the comments and I’ll address it!

I feel like we really haven’t had enough Blog Hops in the past couple years. They’re fun, they usually offer a little bit of levity or good discussion points and it gives us bloggers some material, thus I think for 2021 we should have more of them. Except I’m kind of shit at coming up with topics, so… tag, someone else is it for the next one.

I did find myself musing about one particular relatively silly topic the other day though when I was cleaning stalls and listening to podcasts. They’re always brought to you buy some company or another, sometimes really random things that don’t even make logical sense with the theme of the podcast. But it got me thinking… if each of my horses had one big sponsor, which company could they best represent? Picture like NASCAR style branding. EVERYTHING covered with massive logos, casually whip out said item during post-show interviews (cuz, ya know, those are common…), be in commercials, etc etc. What product could each of them sell FOR SURE? What are they both super enthusiastic about?

Honestly, this was an easy one for me, they both popped in my mind instantly.

For Henry, without a doubt, it’s Little Debbie. Or more specifically, Oatmeal Creme Pies.

I buy a few boxes of these a month just to keep him in his pie habit. He LOVES them, and he demolishes them in a really satisfying way. I mean, the video of him ravaging a creme pie last year won us a dang bridle in an Instagram contest (ok, it technically won Presto a bridle which honestly sounds super jacked up now that I say it out loud). Lots of his online friends have gone out and bought creme pies to see if their horses like them too, so I have to think that surely Little Debbie has seen a sales bump over the last year. Henry is the perfect spokeshorse for the brand, if you ask me.

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A runner up could be Pop-Tarts, he eats those the same way. In any case, his would definitely be some kind of sugary junk food. He doesn’t have enthusiasm for many things, but the boy loves snacks.

Presto’s should be relatively obvious by now too. I’m pretty sure that I’m currently this company’s number one customer, and the reason why this product among the top most popular products on Corro’s website.

I really wish I knew how many of these he’s sold by now. It’s gotta be dozens, at least. He’s a walking sales boom, not just because he makes these balls look so damn fun, but because he also destroys his own on the regular. He would def need that sponsorship. Lifetime supply of balls, please (which at this rate would be about one a week). Like Henry, Presto too is savage AF, but damn if he isn’t also hella entertaining in the process of completely disrespecting my hard-earned dollars. Show me a better salesman and representative than this (ok maybe it would be better if he didn’t so readily destroy them, but you definitely can’t say he lacks enthusiasm).

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Plus, like, how funny would it be for all of his stuff to be branded with JOLLY MEGA BALLS all over it. Apropos. The audacity of that kid is off the charts.

So what say you friends? What products or brands could your horses definitely sell and represent to the fullest? Like… big huge logo printed all over your trailer and everything. What would their (not yours, theirs) dream sponsorship be?

For real tho Little Debbie, hit me up. Henry looks good in a hat.