Can you believe it’s been seven years since I bought this dodo?

It’s crazy to even think of my life pre-Henry. Hard to remember a time where this goober wasn’t the center of my world. Also cute that I was ever deluded enough to think I was actually going to re-sell him. Ha. Hahahaha. That’s a big fat nope. Jokes on me.

Turns out that this chonky, grumpy, cheeky little wannabe-QH carved himself a permanent place in my heart and in my life. He’s never going anywhere. Stuck with me forever. He’s the best teacher, friend, and big brother that I never even went looking for. You don’t question the universe when it sends you a gift like this.

And while we both seem to live for that feeling when we leave the start box together, 2020 failed to deliver on our favorite high. I mean, we got to go XC school once, and we certainly fit lots of jompies in at home, so it wasn’t a total loss. In a way though, having the pressure of horse showing taken out of the equation and off of our relationship has been a really good thing. There are no expectations on the time I spend in the saddle. No strict schedules to adhere to, no timelines to stress over. There’s just less noise, so to speak. If there’s one perk of a pandemic, it’s clarity, and what’s perfectly clear to me is that having fun with this horse and keeping him happy are the only things that really matter.

If possible, our bond has actually gotten even deeper. Each year that passes, it just seems to grow and solidify even more. We understand each other, we know each other, and we can read each other so well by now. Especially now that he lives in my backyard. Having him right there has deepened the connection even more, in different ways.

I love both of my horses dearly, but they definitely take on different roles. Presto is the fancier, more athletic young gun that needs lots of attention. In some ways that may make it seem like Henry fades into the background a bit, but no. Quite the opposite actually. Presto is fresh and fun and exciting yes, but swinging a leg over Henry’s back feels like coming home. To know a horse this well and to trust him and just enjoy his company no matter what we’re doing – that’s a pretty special role. In a lot of ways they balance each other, and they balance me too. Henry keeps us all grounded.

I’ve used my seven favorite pictures of Henry from this past year in this post and looking at them now I think it shows a little bit of everything that’s so great about him. I hope we have many more years and many more photos to come, so here’s one more to grow on.

If this horse has taught me anything, it’s that when your gut says “there’s just something about this horse”: buy the damn horse. Even if it makes no logical sense at the time. Even if you’ve never actually met the horse in person before. Who knows, it might be the best thing you ever did.

Well guys, here we are, the last Foal Friday post for our 2020 crop of WTW foals. They’ve provided us with plenty of cuteness and some much-needed levity this year, every Friday since Remi was born in March. He was quickly followed by Oakley, then Ollie joined us about a month later, and we capped off the collection when Ellie joined us in mid-May.

It’s always a good season when all the foals find new homes, especially when those homes are as perfect as the ones these guys have landed in. Ellie and Remi are now in Tennessee with Alex Green Kerby, and Ollie and Oakley are in Kentucky with Caroline Dannemiller (def follow her Insta if you want updates on these guys – she posts them a lot in her stories and they already have their own Highlight!). And since they were all going to the same general area, they all got to ship together, too, which definitely helped make things easier for them.

They all got fantastic report cards from the shipper, and stepped off the trailer together in Tennessee.

They all settled right in and were quick to make new friends.

After a little rest and relaxation Ollie and Oakley loaded back up to make the rest of their journey to Kentucky… where they were promptly greeted with some SNOW! That was a new one for them, for sure. Luckily Caroline was ultra-prepared and already had (super adorable if I may say so myself) blankets ready and waiting for the ponykids.

They’ve settled in perfectly with their babysitter friends and have wasted absolutely no time getting comfortable with their new routine. Which, naturally, includes lots of naps.

Ollie has been… Ollie. His personality clearly has not been dampered at all by his lifestyle change.

They’ve even gotten to go on some fun little adventures already, like checking out some of the jumps in the XC field.

They got to wear some awesome hats for a holiday photo, too. Yep… they’re fitting in just fine.

And while these kiddos will absolutely be missed at WTW (things are definitely different without Ollie around), there is no better feeling than seeing them go to perfect homes like this and being able to watch them grow up and develop with their people. We really could not have asked for better homes and better matches than these. Congratulations and best of luck to everyone, we can’t wait to see what the future holds!

As for Foal Friday, we’ll pick it up again in March. Hope you guys enjoyed following along with these babies this year and getting a little dose of weekly cuteness.

I haven’t even shipped my box to my SS recipient yet (still waiting on one last thing – hopefully this weekend) so I’m feeling very inadequate as a gifter over here, because my own SS gift already arrived! Michelle (Cruisen in Stilettos … I have a lot of Michelle’s in my life…) is seriously on top of things in a way that I most definitely am not. And at first I was like maybe I’ll wait until Christmas to open this, but then… nah. Nah like I didn’t even make it all the way to my house, it got opened in the barn. I am who I am.

First of all, peppermints as packing material is a legit choice. Very smart. Henry has had a few already. Presto has too, although he can’t decide how he feels about them. He eats it, says it’s yucky, and then eats another one. Who knows with that kid.

There were also human treats in the form of chocolate, which maybe I’ve already eaten half of one. Maybe. It’s possible.

There were even “future treats” (clearly she understands me and my bunch – we’re all highly food motivated) although I have a major black thumb when it comes to plants, so I will be recruiting the SO to grow these for me. He has a couple planters of veggies and peppers that he manages to coax to life, so now he can grow me some goth carrots too. Very fitting at the goth farmhouse.

Oh yeah btw all this stuff was individually wrapped but I didn’t take a picture of that because I was too busy opening things. I told you I like presents.

The main item was this super cute pin from Forge Hill…

It’s totally Henry and Presto. Grumpy Henry face and WANNAPLAY Presto face. I thought that immediately, before I even opened the card…

And I only have one stock pin, which I don’t really love, so this is great. It totally looks like both boys!

I know I’m a tough one to shop for, and even more so now that I have the tiny house/no space factor, but Michelle did a great job. I love everything and am so delighted that it all came from local and small businesses to boot. Thank you so much Michelle! And also many thanks to Alberta Equest for being willing to take the reins from Tracy and host the Blogger SS for us this year.

To my own recipient, sorry you got me, I’m hurrying I swear.

Yesterday kicked off the annual USEA convention (virtual this year, although I’ve always watched online anyway) and the first session right out of the gate was one of my favorites – RULES! Coming changes, rule change proposals, all that good stuff. It’s not that I like having lots of rules per se, it’s more that I really like knowing and understanding them. Who has actually read the rule book cover to cover? (me. it was me.)

Anyway, like I said the Rules discussion is really interesting, and it never fails to give me some thinking points. This time the one that stuck with me was the proposal that, at shows where stadium happens before cross country, IF a horse and rider have 5 or more rails it equals automatic Retirement and they are not allowed to run XC (applied at Training level and above). Reason being that they have seen a correlation between a high number of rails and cross country falls. They didn’t provide said correlation data in that discussion, so I don’t know if it’s a tiny correlation or a large one, or how consistent it is, or how far back this data goes, or what it looks like at each level. Interestingly enough they DID say that while they saw a correlation at 4 rails and 5 rails, once you got to 6 rails and above there did NOT seem to be a correlation between the rails and the XC fall rate. That part just raised more questions for me.

I’ve gone back and forth on my thoughts about this. As the owner of a horse who does not give a flying F how many rails he pulls but is an exceptionally good and safe XC horse, my knee jerk reaction was no. Granted, he’s never pulled 5 or more rails (but we have pulled 4 rails a couple times) so this never would have impacted us anyway. Unless of course I found myself riding around with the thought in my head of “OH NO WE CAN’T HAVE ANY MORE RAILS” and then I massively choked and murdered the whole rest of the course. Which is entirely possible.

But I can also easily sit here and think of several upper level horses who pull lots of rails but are some of the best XC horses I’ve ever seen. Quick and safe and smart on XC, but tap their way around stadium because they know the difference (ironically – or not – most of the ones I’m thinking of are Irish or TB). One in particular locally… if they R’d him every time he had 5 or more rails, he’d rarely make it to XC. He doesn’t plow through them, he just taps every single one and it’s a matter of how many stay in the cups. That horse is a BEAST on cross country though.

On the other hand, I definitely don’t think that exceptions should guide rulemaking, especially in regards to safety. So if there really IS a significant correlation, and if 5+ rails equaling retirement WOULD prevent accidents in a large number of cases… it’s hard to argue with that.

Back on the other side of the coin, I have some concerns about the ripple effect a rule like this would have, on the horses and industry and the sport. For the horses: are the less careful ones suddenly going to find themselves out of work and unwanted? What happens to them? For the industry: is it going to become completely impossible to sell horses that consistently have 2 or more rails on their record, no matter how good they are on XC? Does this mean that people could be more likely to resort to shady tactics behind closed doors in an effort to make horses jump more cleanly? For the sport: is this going to sway a heavier emphasis toward people buying horses that are more careful jumpers (much as how the FEI scoring that made dressage more influential had an impact on the types of horses that were being sought out)? Because carefulness is definitely not always a safe quality to have in a cross country horse. If we end up inadvertently swinging the pendulum that direction, could we actually inadvertently make the fall rate higher and the sport more dangerous?

I guess a lot of my opinion hinges on the details within that correlation data, but I’d love to hear more pros/cons discussion too.

There is another proposal to increase the number of MER’s required to move up the levels, which I am 100% wholeheartedly in support of. I’ve always thought the current MER’s were quite easy to meet as-is, and I think asking people to do more shows at their current level before moving up is reasonable. MER’s cover a particular number of rails in stadium as well, so even by this rule alone, horses who pull a lot of rails would take longer to achieve their MER’s and thus be forced to move up more slowly. They just wouldn’t be forced to retire from the competition.

What are your thoughts on this one? Other potential pros and cons that you can see within this proposal?

I won’t lie, I love the week after Black Friday. Blame the society I grew up in and was brainwashed by, blame 2020 and it’s depletion of simple joys, blame it on the fact that I haven’t had Mexican food in like three months, but I love the “your package is out for delivery” notification email, ok? Sue me. “Follow your delivery on a live map”? Um, hell yeah UPS, don’t mind if I friggin stalk this truck all day, thank you!

And after Black Friday it’s like… raining packages. Essentials for the horses, a couple fun things for me, Christmas gifts? Make it rain. USPS, FedEx, UPS? MAKE IT RAIN. They’re little boxes of joy amidst all the other mundanity and you cannot convince me otherwise. Doesn’t matter if it’s a box full of dewormer and fly spray, I. AM. DELIGHTED.

It’s been a long year y’all.

Anyway, I got a few fun things this time so it did feel like a little bit of a Merry Christmas to Myself moment. Those are my favorite. I buy myself the best gifts.

The green Horze breeches were the first thing to arrive and damn y’all, this color is ON POINT. It might be the most perfect green I’ve ever seen, much richer than it looks in the stock photo. It’s also possible that I’ve been basically living in these pants since they arrived. I almost wish I had bought them in Patriot Blue too, when they were on sale.

Next was the Riding Warehouse package, with my sheepskin grooming mitt, cookies, dewormer, and a new girth for Presto. The billets on his saddle are abnormally long and the holes start low, so he really needed a 22″, and this one was on sale on top of sale, so in the cart it went. I couldn’t help but chuckle at how tiny it looks though. Looks like I ride a pony.

I think I like it so far but I’m not in love with it. There are things I like and things I don’t like. I generally prefer leather girths but I couldn’t find one I liked enough that was in the price range I wanted. It works for now though, and I DO like it better than Henry’s Collegiate girth, and I get the feeling Presto will outgrow the 22 soon anyway. When that happens they’ll get a nice leather girth that they can share.

Speaking of leather…

My leather bit came! I’ve been toying with the idea of buying one for a while, not just for Presto but for Henry. My trainer has been using one on her fussy-mouthed OTTB with great success, and I figured even if neither of them likes it, it’s a good thing to have in my bit collection (I know everyone has a bit collection right?). I haven’t tried it on Henry yet but I rode Presto in it and honestly I DO think he liked it. He carried it quietly, no chomping, and seemed happier to take a little bit of contact. We’ll see going forward, jury is still out.

Next up was his giant ball and cover, but y’all already saw how that one turned out.

Smartpak had some of their giant slow feed nets on clearance (hey they still do, just not quite as cheap) so I picked up a four-flake one in Patriot Blue.

Henry’s got that net too and it’s 2 years old and still looks great. Plus it’s HUGE (seriously, Hillary got inside of one once), holds a ton, and the 2″ openings aren’t too hard for the horses to get hay out of. Both of my horses will just quit trying if the holes are too small, and these seem to be just the right balance. Small enough to stretch out how long the hay lasts but still gives them enough to keep them interested. I actually like this color too, it’s sort of navy. And Smartpak got it to me a lot faster than they usually do. I tend to avoid them like the plague if I can but maybe they’re slightly working their way back into my not-so-bad graces.

The real MVP of my Black Friday haul, though, was Corro. I first discovered them last year during Black Friday and have been a steady customer ever since. Their warehouse is in Dallas, so stuff gets to me super quickly, and while they don’t have a huge selection, they do have some of the essential stuff that I need and buy regularly. Like balls, and fly spray, and flaxseed oil. So I made an order of exactly that, plus a few little grooming items and something for my blogger SS gift. And then FedEx promptly mucked that one up. It was supposed to be delivered on Monday, saying it was “out for delivery”. The day came and went, but nada. I checked the tracking again that evening and it said it had been “returned for inspection”. We use FedEx at work so I texted my work friend the shipping guy and asked what that meant, and he said it usually means the package was damaged or leaking and they’d either open it up and check it and then deliver it, or return it back to the sender. Ok, so I waited. Next day it said “out for delivery again”. Still nada. Then “returned for inspection” again. OMG. So I contacted Corro to let them know what was up, they checked it out, apologized profusely, and promptly shipped out a whole new replacement order. The next day FedEx AGAIN said “out for delivery” and then AGAIN “returned for inspection”. Finally, the next day, there was a box at the door, clearly not the original box it had come in, with no paperwork, no packing materials, a sad bit of tape on top, and about half of the items I ordered.

I don’t know where the rest went. FedEx never said a word about it, so I’m assuming the original box was damaged, some stuff was lost/leaking, and this was their solution? Thank goodness for Corro. The next day I had the replacement order at my door, packed just like they usually have it, with all my items intact. A+ customer service. Although now I have a shitton of flaxseed oil.

As for the more fun stuff… there were a lot of sparkles and I regret nothing.

These Majyk Equipe sparkle boots are the classiest sparkle boots I’ve seen in my life. The leather is gorgeous, with just a hint of subtle sparkle along the back. They’re like “yes I’m here to win, but also I’m already dressed for the party afterward”. Love isn’t even a strong enough word.

And because one should never have just a single sparkly item (ok I have like 5 or 6 now but who’s counting) I also added this lovely creature to my bridle collection – the Halter Ego Natalia.

I don’t want to hear one word about my bridle collection. Not one word. Some people collect saddle pads, or polos, or whatever. I have very few saddle pads. No polos. Not a single matchy set. 10 or 11 bridles. Partly it’s because I like bridles. Partly it’s because I don’t like changing bits or nosebands or resizing things from one horse to the next, therefore you gotta have a bridle for every occasion. Leave me alone. It has BLACK SPARKLE PIPING.

You know what makes dressage better? This. Proven scientific fact.

Plus I only had one black bridle before. And how badass is that gonna look on Presto with a spiked browband? Glam punk is his aesthetic.

On that note, I originally wasn’t gonna post these since they’re a non-horse item, but I’m so in love with them that I’m thinking I might need to do a 3Day JUST so I can jog up in these bad boys.

The horses have sparkle boots and now I do too. Are they ridiculous? Hell yeah. Do they bring me a ridiculous amount of joy? Also hell yeah. I wore them to early vote in our local runoff elections last weekend and a little old lady told me they were “magnificent”. She is not wrong.

Tell me they wouldn’t make a rad jog outfit with a leather jacket or something. Showpiece shoes, that’s what those are. I’m gonna have to take a pic of them next to henry’s sparkle Cavallo hoof boot, they’re pretty much exactly the same glitter.

Hope everyone else has been enjoying their BF packages as much as I have! It’s always kind of sad when they all arrive and Mini-Christmas is over though… luckily real Christmas isn’t too far away.