As I mentioned last week, I had a little bit of post-Black Friday regret. For the most part I feel like I did a good job of stocking up on the things I needed and getting good deals on the few things that maybe weren’t quite so needed. But there was one big item that I lusted after, added to cart about a dozen times, then didn’t follow through on – those Kentucky show rugs. Mostly because I couldn’t find one shop that managed to both a) have a good price on sale (10% was not enough) b) have both the navy and the green on sale (a few places didn’t include the green, a special seasonal color, in the sale). But also because honestly they are ungodly expensive, even if they ARE on sale. Like, did my horses really need $400 stable rugs?

I mean, I am expert YOLO-er/Treat-Yo-Self-er but even I have my limits. Partly because in the back of my mind I know that those rugs are probably a little too heavy to get much use down here in the south, no matter how beautiful they are. Stupid practicality, always ruining everything.

I am sort of in love with those fleecy neck collar rugs though. They look so cozy. Plus I think they’d look extra cute with the WTW logo embroidered on them. Sharp. Classy. Fancy. And fluffy. So fluffy.

So since then I’ve been on the prowl for something similar, but less expensive. I’m not too good for a knockoff. Originally I really was hunting for green, but all the ones I found were either the wrong shade (too teal, too bright, etc) or had huge branding already on them. Ugh why these brands gotta plaster their logo all huge on it? Don’t they know that’s what I’m trying to do? I also needed something that was relatively lightweight, definitely under 200g and preferably more like 100g. Oh, and a good enough price to where I wouldn’t feel like I was just setting money on fire. Eventually I gave up on finding that at all in green and continued the search in navy. And it took me a few weeks, but I did finally stumble across one.

It was in a tack shop in the Nederlands of course, because why wouldn’t it be. The price was very right though, and shipping wasn’t bad. They also had a cooler version of it, in fleece, for even cheaper, AND it was on sale.

Originally I was gonna buy two of the same thing, one for each boy so they matched, but the more I thought about it the more I was like… maybe I should just get one of each. I could get them both embroidered with the WTW logo, and when Presto goes out in “public” he’d have both a cooler and a stable rug to use. At home I could use them on whichever boy needed whichever thing. Practicality winning out again.

Of course, the cooler is fleece. Generally I am very anti-fleece. I hate static, and I hate things sticking to it. I tend to be a wool-or-die kinda gal. But having had a fleece cooler that I picked up on a whim for $5 (it was an awards cooler from a freejumping competition in Europe and it made me sad that someone was selling it, how could I refuse? I gave it to a great home.), even I can grudgingly admit that sometimes there is a good time and place for fleece. Sometimes. And it’s easy to embroider. And the price was really really really right. So I caved. One stable rug and one cooler, added to cart.

And naturally, before I went to checkout, I did what any self-respecting shopper would do and perused the website thoroughly to make sure there was nothing else I, er, needed. Rule #1 of buying from overseas: if you’re going to pay shipping from Europe, you might as well make it worth your while. And omg did I ever find something.

Indeed those are the prettiest navy glitter fleecey boots I’ve ever seen. They’re a super dark, rich navy, and since only the straps are glittery they aren’t too much. Also on sale, also really cheap. I added a pair of Medium and a pair of Large to my cart and completed my purchase with a smug sense of satisfaction, since everything I ordered was still cheaper than ONE Kentucky rug.

Alas, the boots weren’t meant to be, as the company contacted me the next day to say that they were sold out and didn’t know exactly when they’d be back in stock. Womp womp. My options were to cancel the boots from the order, switch to another color, or they’d wait and ship the whole order when the boots were available. The black ones were really pretty too and I briefly considered those, but… no. They also had green, but it was more of an army/olive green, not quite MY green, so again… no. Neither of those put stars in my eyes like the navy ones. And since they had no idea when those would be back in stock, I had to let the boots go. Many sads. Much tragedy. I will totally order them once they’re back though, because I’m in love.

So at the end of this I got a cooler and a rug in the fleecey neck style I wanted for a little over half the price of one Kentucky rug, even with the Europe shipping. They don’t make my heart sing quite as much as the Kentucky rug does, but they don’t make my wallet cry so much either. I found the middle ground. When they get here I’ll have the WTW logo added and I think they’ll look really sharp. And, hey, now I have yet another European tack shop to obsess over. Just what I needed. I already told Michelle that next time we’re in NED (if they ever let Americans into Europe again hahaha SOBBING) we’ve gotta find one of these stores.

Is there anything you passed up on Black Friday that you’re regretting now? Do you need a bad influence to talk you into it? My services are always available.

I’m sad that Foal Friday is over. I’m not ready. And while it’s true that I can no longer offer you cute lil fluffy foal antics to brighten up your Friday, I do have one very entertaining clown in residence here who is majoring in Shenaniganry.

He is undoubtedly the star of my Instagram stories, and there’s rarely a day that goes by where he isn’t up to some kind of mischief. A lot of it is ball-related, for sure.

Even that time he got his foot stuck in a hole in the ball’s cover and my first reaction was the one you’d have if a normal horse did that, where your heart stops in panic at all the bad shit that’s about to go down. But no, I own Presto. So after I scurried over to “rescue” him he glared at me and immediately tried to put his foot back in. He was proud of his equine Skip-It and thought it was rad.

This is also how he’s murdered 3 balls and 2 covers in the past month, which is also why he is currently ball-less. There’s a point at which this habit of his becomes too expensive to fund. He’s been put on a ball-a-month budget.

Although him not having a ball is mostly a punishment to the rest of us. Especially Henry and (to a lesser degree) Quinnie. He and Henry have been playing a lot of Holdy Chins, a modified version of Bitey Face. I haven’t quite figured out all the rules yet, but from what I can tell the gist of this game is to see who can bite the other’s chin the hardest and who can tolerate having their chin bitten for the longest. I have no idea how points are awarded.

It’s a very Henry-esque game if you think about it, and Henry usually wins. Although I think sometimes he cheats.

Presto has tried to get Henry to play with the ball with him, but Henry remains terrified of it and wants nothing to do with it. So naturally Presto likes to nudge it at him sometimes for fun.

Presto’s attempts to engage Quinnie never go very well, but that doesn’t stop him from trying at least once a day, if not more. They usually end with him evacuating her private space pretty quickly, often with flair.

He’s decided Henry is the easier target, or maybe it’s just that he doesn’t respect Henry’s authority as much.

Not that he really seems to respect my authority very much either. Like the other day when I went to take his blanket off and he was napping, and absolutely REFUSED to get up. I ended up taking the blanket off around him and then yanking it out from underneath him like a tablecloth. Which was NOT very easy by the way.

And then yesterday when I went to take his blanket off he removed the hood of my jacket. Twice. He’s learned that it snaps, which apparently is really satisfying to yank off. Turd.

BTW, this is all just stuff that’s gone on THIS WEEK. Every day is like this. It’s not a matter of if he’s up to no good, it’s just how bad is whatever he’s doing?

You definitely can’t be bored with him around though. He’s got me laughing multiple times a day. Yelling a lot too (he might think his name is NO), but, ya know….

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, Presto is officially entered in the 2021 US Event Horse Futurity. And as I also mentioned, while he’s not entered with the intention of winning, he’s definitely entered with the intention of representing. Especially his home farm and namesake (ok, suffix-sake?) Willow Tree Warmbloods. By the time I’m done everyone will know where Like Magic WTW came from. I’m proud of what my friend Michelle has built so far with her breeding program, and I’m also proud to be a part of it. So, one of the first orders of business is acquiring a few WTW-branded pieces for Presto’s wardrobe. If you’re gonna represent, you gotta have swag, and since this is a serious professional endeavor, he needs some serious professional swag.

Well ok back up one step… the actual first order of business was acquiring him a pro rider for his planned summer on the East Coast. I talked about that in the last post too but it hadn’t been totally ironed out yet at that point. Now they have – discussions have been had and loose plans (because horses) have been made and right now the plan is that he’ll go to Will Faudree in the summer. There were two big draws about Will – 1) he and Michelle actually grew up in the same town and knew each other when they were kids, so it’s like one big Texas-themed team here. 2) he already has a horse exactly like Presto- Mama’s Magic Way. Like after talking to Will about him in the past it’s creepy how similar those two horses are when it comes to how they think and act, so I thought it might be an advantage to have someone who already understands how this horse ticks. The exact timeline is a little up the air due to the Olympics and/or 5*’s, but that can be figured out later.

Anyway, let’s return to the swag. Despite the fact that I myself have a lot of WTW logo attire (jackets, tech shirts, polo shirts, hats, decals, etc) the only thing Presto has is a scrim sheet that I ordered a couple years ago when Triple Crown had a 35% off sale during Black Friday.

Otherwise though he is without any WTW swag, something we certainly have to remedy before the Futurity starts.

The most obvious things of course are a saddle pad and a bonnet. My first thought for saddle pad was a Mattes, especially since there’s a 25% off Hufglocken code. They’re pricier, but they’re definitely professional and elegant looking. It would be a show pad, of course, so white, and jump shape makes more sense since 2/3 of the phases are jumping.

And that’s as far as I got. Because if there’s one thing the Hufglocken Mattes configurator has, it’s options. Too many options. I become completely crippled with indecision. I built about 9 million (okay maybe it was closer to 7 or 8, whatever) different options, could not choose a clear favorite, got entirely overwhelmed, and ran away.

There are cheaper options too though. Option one, I could buy him a white Premier Equine merino wool jump pad. Or, for about the same price as the one Mattes pad I could buy him both a jump and dressage Premier Equine merino wool pad. I hopped on their website to do just that and SON-OF-A-B pretty much all of their merino wool pads are entirely sold out. Still are, weeks later. Womp womp.

Of course, I DO already have white PE jump and dressage merino wool pads. They’re Henry’s show pads. I could just commandeer them, get the WTW logo embroidered on them, and be done with it. Granted, I wouldn’t want to show Henry in said WTW pads, so he’d then be show-pad-less, but ya know… CLEARLY that isn’t much of an issue right now. That would certainly be the cheapest option. I’m still waffling.

For bonnets there WAS one thing I decided pretty easily – I want one of those mesh and faux leather ones. They look super sleek and professional and I think it would look awesome with the WTW logo embroidered on it. But then I got stuck in the same way I got stuck at Hufglocken. What colors do I do? Navy and white is the simplest, for sure. Could also do a black bonnet with navy trim and white piping, to be even more subtle on the horse’s head. Or we could bring Presto’s green into it and do a navy bonnet with green trim and white piping. Or a navy bonnet with navy trim and white and green piping.

Companies should not offer custom things to people like me. We’re shit at making decisions. I need other people’s input, because I’m stuck. Halp?

Other than a bonnet and saddle pads, what else do y’all think he needs? I really really really really really am DYING to get him a Kentucky show rug and have that embroidered, and even had it in my cart a few times during Black Friday, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger. I really want one for both Presto and Henry because I’m obsessed with them, but omg they’re so expensive. Even when they were on sale during BF. I just COULDN’T do it. Now I have regrets, because they’re pretty and I want them. I’ve been looking around at some knockoffs – there are some with that same faux sheepskin neck that could also be used as a cooler, which would maybe be more practical, if less luxe. I dunno. I’m waffling on that too.

Thoughts, opinions, input? I know, I’m crazy. Presto needs to look sharp for his first real “public appearance” though, and custom stuff can take a while, so now is the time!

Originally Henry was supposed to go to a little jumper show this past weekend, but it got cancelled due to the rise in covid cases. They did, however, replace it with a $5 open schooling day (very limited numbers of people and by appointment only) so I figured it was the perfect opportunity to take Presto out instead. I asked Hillary if she wanted to meet me there so that we’d have a buddy, made an appointment for mid-afternoon, and off we went.

We ended up being the only two people in our time slot, so it worked out perfectly. I didn’t really even think about it but I hadn’t ridden Presto the day before, nor did I bother putting him on the lunge line when we got there. He’s not quiet, he’s got monkeys in his brains for sure, but he’s not completely stupid either. Plus, ya know…. I had a neck strap. I felt fine to just get on.

Since we essentially had the entire property to ourselves (jumping arena, cross country field, trail obstacle course, and dressage arena), and there were no more appointments after ours, we made a plan to meander around and briefly hit all of them. More bang for our buck. Since I was on a silly 3yo and it was mega windy, we decided to hit the jumping arena first. When I first picked up the trot to start warming up Presto just couldn’t quite contain his glee and wanted to canter, so that was fine, we cantered a few laps each way before he settled into a very giraffey trot for a few more minutes. He’s just like a kid in a candy store sometimes – so much to see, so much to do. As long as he’s not rude or malicious about it I tend to just wait it out, because he does inevitably settle within a few minutes. This ride was no exception.

When the barn owner saw which horses we pulled out of the trailers (aka KIDDOS) she was kind enough to put some of the jumps down for us. There were a few crossrails and some small verticals and oxers. When I brought Presto I honestly had no plan for what exactly I wanted to do with him, I just wanted to bring him and let him see everything. Hillary jumped a few things with Luna and I was like well why the heck not let’s just see what he thinks. He has yet to actually start jumping yet, the only thing he’s jumped under saddle were those few little logs the last time I took him to Pine Hill. But, ya know, when in Rome. This is a better space than I have at home and the jumps were already there and waiting for us. I figured he wouldn’t have any issue with the little crossrails, so I pointed him at one to see what happened. And, well, he basically just did the world’s tiniest, most bored little hop over it.

So I strung a few crossrails together. Yeah same thing. Big yawn from him.

Ok then, I pointed him at a vertical. Same reaction.

May as well up the ante then right? How about a line of verticals with flowers and fill, trotting in and cantering out. MEH, he says. WhAt, LiKe It’S sUpPoSeD tO bE hArD oR sOmEtHiNg?

Sometimes I think he’s mocking me.

We barely even canter much at home yet but alright then. Guess he jumps. Not bad for a first effort. Honestly I feel like I probably could have just done the whole course that was in the ring if I really wanted to, but I figured that was a great place to call it quits since we were still at the beginning of our journey around the property.

From there we wandered out to the XC course to find their baby banks/ditches/water. I’ve been exposing him to the holy trinity of eventing on the ground since he was a yearling, so it’s nice how now that he’s under saddle these things aren’t totally new concepts to him. Different, being under saddle instead of in hand, but not new. He understands the elements at least.

First we walked up and down the little mounds, then walked up and down the tiniest bank. No problem, ma. Easy peasy. So then I trotted him up and trotted him down. Aside from almost continuing on and jumping off the big side (ok there kid, reel it in), he was perfect. I just grabbed my neck strap, gave him a loose rein, and let him go. It’s really fun to feel his brain actually focus for once, when it’s got something worth thinking about. Those focused moments are rare. I think it feels like a game to him, so he’s into it.

I’ll post the whole video at the end, you have to watch his little hops up and down. It’s adorable, and I’m definitely not biased.

Anyway.

Then we went over to the little ditches, which he just trotted over with zero fanfare, so we didn’t linger for long. Then it was over to the water. But in order to get to the water, we first had to pass by this adorable dude:

Which both horses were initially a bit horrified by. Presto’s horror very quickly morphed into a desire to play with it (naturally), so he was first to approach and make friends. Luna remained relatively befuddled by the “abomination” (her word) and maintained her distance.

Once we succeeded in getting past the donkey, we walked together through the water. Honestly I thought he might balk more about going into it, their water is narrow and dark and a lot of horses are spooky about it, but after putting their noses down to take a sniff they wandered right in. Good babies.

We took turns trotting back and forth through it, but it was pretty uneventful. Except the time Presto thought he might want to take a canter step into it, splashed water right up his nose, and thought he was dying. He took two steps out the other side and stopped dead to cough and sneeze. I didn’t even have to do anything, he waterboarded himself.

I’ve noticed his tail is an indicator of impending tomfoolery. Too bad I can’t actually see it when I’m riding.

After the water we walked through the little trail/obstacle course, and I couldn’t resist walking him over a little bridge thingy and through the pool noodles. He’s seen stuff like that in hand, too, and didn’t care much about it under saddle.

We capped everything off with a walk around the dressage arena, stopping to sniff (ok, lick, he licked it) the judge’s table before heading back to the trailers.

There’s more video of his day here:

Overall I was incredibly pleased with him. I can’t really express how neon-green he still is, our rides at this point are like twice a week and 98% walk/trot. He’s only got about 40 rides total at this point, all by me, probably at least a third of which are just hacking. Mostly we spend 10-15 minutes working on response to the aids, moving off the leg and seat, and steering. We’ve not really branched out beyond that at home yet, so for him to go off property and take on whatever I point him at, I can’t really complain. He’s definitely not a super easy quiet horse, not by any means. He’s very easily distracted. He’s got a motor. He’s squirrelly. Sometimes he spooks for fun. Sometimes the power steering goes out. Sometimes (a lot of the time) it’s like riding a drunk noodle. The neck strap is my best friend. BUT – I really enjoy riding him. He’s forward-thinking and willing, he learns fast, and he loves a challenge. That makes him super fun to ride, in my book. Is he a monkey? You bet. Does he make me excited about the horse I’ve got for the future? Also yes. There are moments of brilliance amidst all the shenanigans, and he’s so smart and brave. Things come very easily to him, especially the cross country – he just GETS it like it makes sense.

I’ve always been a baby/green horse person, so I’m loving this stage. They’re little sponges and it’s really rewarding, especially when you have one that feels special like Presto does.

Many thanks to Scissortail for having us and to Hillary for coming along with us and getting media! It was a great baby day.

This might be the last t!ny h0use update for a while, because we’ve kind of hit a plateau as far as interesting developments or noteworthy changes. There HAVE been some notable additions since the last THT post though, so let’s get caught up.

First and foremost – she’s got skirting! It ended up taking a little longer to get this done than I had originally wanted since so few people actually got back to me with quotes, but like I said last post, it ended up being a blessing in disguise. If the skirting had gone on right away we might never have noticed the water leak, so in the end it all worked out for the best. The leak issue seems to be totally resolved since the TH company came out to repair it (knock on wood).

Ultimately for the skirting I went with a local handyman business because they were actually responsive and professional. The quote was slightly higher than another one I had, but this guy actually emailed and called me back, so… that means a lot. And since he IS a handyman type, he was also able to build out some stairs for us off the back porch. He came out with his teenage son over the course of a few days and they installed/built everything, and in the end I think they did a great job. She’s now fully dressed and closed up.

Also, having watched them install the skirting I am 100000% certain that hiring someone else to do it was the right call. It’s not COMPLICATED work, you can definitely DIY it, but it is tedious AF, and the tools they had definitely made it easier than if we’d tried it ourselves. It seems like one of those projects where you end up intensely hating your spouse afterwards.

Those two things were a pretty big chunk of money so I haven’t really bought anything else for the house that’s noteworthy, and we’ve still got another month or so to wait before the couch comes in. I think I’m going to hold off ordering anything else until that gets here so I can get a better idea of colors and space. We did put some string lights up on the back porch to give it some ambiance (those can lights in the ceiling are BRIGHT AF, you could land a plane on our back porch) but that’s about it.

Otherwise we’ve kind of settled into a little routine here. As you can see in the first pic, the dog ramp is attached to the front steps. I want to make a little dog run area off to the side at the bottom of the ramp, but I really wanted it on the other side, which I can’t currently do because the hand rail for the stairs is on that side. We’re going to look at either moving that rail to the other side or removing it completely, I just haven’t gotten that far yet. Right now I supervise the dogs when they’re outside and pick up the poop daily, so it’s not particularly urgent.

I’ve also gotten in the habit of riding my bike back and forth across the pasture to the barn. The only bike I retained in the purge is my cyclocross bike (which is sorta like a road bike with knobby tubeless tires and components that are meant to handle mud and dirt) so it’s perfect for the job. Okay not so much on rainy days, but those have been few and far between so far. A golf cart would be easier (especially when I have to hike to the back 40 to take blankets off mid-morning) but the bike works for now.

I did get a little tiny space heater for the bedroom – it only draws 500 watts (most are more like 1500) but it does a great job of heating up small spaces. Which, coincidentally, I have plenty of. I can put it in the bathroom for 10 minutes before I shower and its nice and toasty in there, or have it on for a little while in the bedroom with the door closed and it warms it up enough to where I don’t have to turn the big heaters on. Those heaters are intense. Like being blasted with dragon’s breath. It’s not ridiculously cold here, and so far it’s been easier to use the teeny space heater when we just need a little more warmth.

I’m also really digging the big 4″ memory foam mattress topper I got when I first moved in. It’s comfy AF.

I’ve also decided that since they’re farm dogs now and I’m not a total masochist, they’re going to the groomers once a month for a proper bath. Quinn is a freaking nightmare to bathe and dry but he’s a super gross dog, and Stewie loves to roll around in the grass every day while I clean stalls. If they stink at all, the whole house stinks, plus they tend to track whatever is clinging to their bodies into the house. And honestly, I don’t exactly have ample space in here to be wrestling with trying to bathe and dry two grumpy old man dogs. The local grooming place I took them to last month did a good job, only took an hour from drop off to pick up, and was super affordable, so we’re just gonna keep a monthly appointment there. They go back in on Friday. I’m all about making my life easier.

I remain happy with this little house. It’s all the space I need with none of the space I don’t. It’s much easier to keep clean (I did a “whole house” clean on Sunday in 30 minutes HAHAHAHA), and I haven’t found myself feeling cramped at all. Granted, SO and the cats are still living at the other house (progress has been made towards getting it ready to rent, but I’d say he’s only 50% of the way there) so I know it’ll be different with more humans/animals in here. I’m glad to have this time by myself though, to figure out the best way to do everything and maintain everything without having to worry about another person.

I think that’s it up to now for the t!ny farmh0use, y’all are all caught up. More updates later once we get more stuff in here!