If you don’t want to hear about what a good baby Presto is, you should turn back now. You’ve been warned.

On Monday my trainer was having an XC schooling day at Pine Hill again. I really wanted to take Presto but my truck is still in the shop, thus I am without a tow vehicle. Hillary (da real MVP) stepped in and said she’d really like to take Luna too, and offered to come pick me up. Heck yes. Baby horse brigade.

Her rig is pretty big and getting in and out of gates and turning around can be a PITA, so we opted to just drop the ramp and load Presto on the road – it was early morning and it’s a pretty quiet road anyway, so there was no traffic, and it took us all of 30 seconds to toss all my stuff in the tack room and put Presto in the trailer. Bless him, he thought it was fun.

We’d made it almost all the way there when we heard a POP and realized we had a blowout. Great. We were having a bit of a hard time loosening a couple of the lug nuts but luckily a nice guy stopped and helped (which made me think about how having an impact wrench or breaker bar – mechanic SO votes for a breaker bar since you don’t have to worry about keeping it charged – in my trailer might not be a bad idea). Luckily it didn’t take very long before we were back on our way, so we arrived, got tacked up, and were only a little late.

I stuck Presto on the lunge line first, just to see what I had… last time he came to Pine Hill by himself and there were just a few horses on the property so I wasn’t sure if adding a buddy and more horses/chaos would spin him up or not. The answer is not. Like I could barely get him to canter. So after a few minutes with no excitement I called it good and got on.

The plan for this visit was pretty much the same as last time – just hack around with the group, go in the water, etc. I was hoping that this time I could trot around a bit, but we had no grand plans or expectations. Since we’d been a little late the group had already started jumping when we got out there, so in the beginning we mostly just stood and watched. Eventually they moved over to the little baby starter bank, and I thought Presto could do that. The holy trinity of cross county is ditches, banks, and water, all of which can be introduced to them right from the start in their simplest and smallest forms. This particular bank was a very small little step up and down that’s on the starter course, and he’s done banks plenty of times on the lunge line. We joined the line of horses walking down it, and at the last second I was like “maybe a down bank wasn’t the brightest idea for his first mounted XC obstacle…” but Presto didn’t even blink. He walked to the edge, peered at the bank, and stepped right down with zero fanfare. The line turned around and we all hopped back up it, which he found equally as simple. Well ok then.

After that we were off to the water. We walked across as a group then we each trotted back and forth by ourselves. While we walked across Presto was relatively certain he wanted to roll, but he forgets about that once he gets a little more speed. He had certainly remembered the water from last time and was much more sure of how to trot through it.

My friend Kathy was on her new OTTB, and we had gone through the water right after her at one point. She was going to jump a log after the water and asked if I wanted to as well. There was a super teeny one that was definitely under a foot tall, pretty much just a big ground rail, and I said “that one”. So she trotted over it, stopped, and turned around to wait for me to follow. I grabbed my neck strap just in case, but Presto literally trotted over it like it was a rail on the ground. I was laughing as I let go of the neck strap and pulled him up, at which moment the OTTB decided he HATED Presto coming near him (fair enough, most horses don’t like Presto very much, it’s like they can sense that he’s a pest) and wheeled around at him. Presto, ever respectful of horse authority, spun away from him as fast as he could, and since I was bent over laughing and had already let go of my neck strap, I was politely deposited over his shoulder in the process. Oops.

I’ve been saying since the first time I sat on this horse that sooner or later he was going to move too fast and I’d go right over his shoulder, and I was 100% right. HA. Luckily it was a very soft landing in a sandy area, and Presto was just standing there looking at me like “well that was a weird way to dismount, human.”. It was hilarious. I led him up to a BN box and used it to get back on, no harm no foul. We trotted back over the log (again literally trotted over) the other way and kept going to trot through the water. Presto was so proud of himself by that point, he cantered the last few steps out of the water like he was having a grand time.

We went around with the group through the woods, with Presto leading in spots. Last time he wanted to be in the lead but wasn’t quite confident enough to go up there on his own while we were in the woods, but this time he took charge. If other horses spook, he’ll get looky too (it’s like he respects his elders and their opinions a little too much sometimes), but he’s quite confident in his own regard. He was more patient about standing still this time too, when other horses left the group to go jump. Last time we had to make a lot of circles, but this time we made very few. He’s figuring it out.

When we came back out in the main field I wanted to pop over the teeny tiny Green As Grass level box, juts to end on a good note and also to make sure he wouldn’t be nappy about leaving the other horses since he’d just spent pretty much the whole ride standing in and traveling along with the group. I thought the little box might get a little bit more out of him than the teeny log by the water had. But he… literally trotted over it.

That made us all laugh. He was good about leaving the group though, he trotted away without resistance.

My trainer missed it and wanted to see it again, but clearly the box was boring. Looking at my other options I was like ok how about the BN faux ditch? It’s two itty bitty logs with some dark mulch in between. Historically some horses take real exception to that thing (it’s like they either don’t even notice it or they think it’s a portal to hell, there’s no in between) but he’s hopped over it before on the lunge line, so I didn’t think he’d be worried but I did think it might be enough to at least get a little bit more than a bored trot step. And omg, he was so cute.

I mean, he was still so unimpressed that he trotted immediately after he landed, but that was his first actual effort. “Ditches”, banks, and water (all in the simplest, littlest way possible)… check, check, and check. He’s basically an event horse now right? 😉

I remain really impressed with his brain. He’s definitely not a deadhead by any means (thank god) but the more we do, the more I can see all the things that I wanted when I bred him. Those were his first “jumps” if you can even call them that, and he had zero hesitation or confusion about it. It’s like this game makes total sense to him… I’m pretty sure I could have just gone around and trotted the whole GAG course without a problem if I’d wanted to. He won’t actually start jumping or XC schooling for real until next year, but it was fun to get a tiny glimpse at what’s waiting in there in it’s rawest form. I also think it’s really good for him to go have these very easy, laid back experiences now, so that a good foundation is in place when it actually comes time to start asking more of him.

Presto is getting this week off as we get some rain and a cold front (god only knows how much galloping and yeehawing is going on out in his pasture today with a 30 degree temperature drop) and yesterday I went out and gave him an oatmeal cream pie and some belly scratches. Tough life for that kid, I tell ya. Next outing – maybe a trail ride in the next couple weeks? We shall see…

Yeah, I dyed another saddle AND put a Britney Spears earworm in your head at the same time. It’s called balance, y’all.

But it’s a good thing I don’t have a lot of extra money and time, or I would probably make a little business out of buying up faded, ugly-colored saddles, giving them makeovers, and re-selling them. I just LOVE it. This is now the 4th saddle I’ve dyed and it’s a little bit addicting.

Anyway, as I mentioned a couple weeks ago, Presto got his own saddle – a Mark Todd Charisma monoflap. Henry’s back is more curvy and Presto’s back is more straight, so Henry’s Devoucoux just was not going to work for Presto long-term or as he started getting ridden more frequently. I was able to find the Mark Todd for cheap on a UK facebook group (although the seller was actually in Spain) that looked promising fit-wise, even if it was a bit ugly. I was confident that I could make it look better, so best case scenario it would fit Presto and I could make it pretty and have a decent saddle for him at least for a little while until he grows out of it, or worst case scenario it wouldn’t fit Presto and I could fix it up and re-sell it for a small profit. Seemed like a worthwhile gamble. I ordered my dye supplies the same day the saddle left Spain (and naturally, the saddle got here first).

Luckily it fits him quite well. It’s a massive improvement over Henry’s saddle, for sure. He may grow out of the width before the next year is out, unless he decides to pop a massive wither (which is entirely possible) but we’ll see. The tree is sound, the billets are in decent shape, and there are no tears or anything like that. But it definitely looked… rough.

It was very thirsty and had this weird tricolor thing going on. The skirt area was an awful orange, the seat was more reddish, and the flaps were a proper brown, with a strip of orange at the bottom. There’s nothing flattering about that color scheme. It was actually quite a nice little saddle, just stuck in a really ugly wrapping that was hard to see past. Especially when the horse it’s going on is dark bay (well, when he’s not super sunbleached, anyway)… red or orange tones really stand out and not in a good way.

For my dye I decided to go with a deep chocolate brown, about as dark as you can go without being black. Partly because I like that color a lot, and partly because I wanted the saddle to be all one tone when I was done, which meant I needed to match the darkest part of the saddle, which was the color under where the stirrup leathers lay. You can darken a saddle, but you can’t really lighten one, so if you want a super even finish you have to match the darkest part.

I also decided to try out a different finish this time. In the past I’ve used Resolene or Tan-Kote or both, and they were fine and did the job, but I didn’t LOVE them. I’ve been lurking on leatherworking groups for a while now and based off of what I’ve learned I really wanted to try a wax-based finish this time instead, so I ordered one that got a lot of good reviews. For the dye I stuck with the one I’ve always used, Fiebing’s, because it’s always worked really well.

This time I stripped the saddle with straight acetone instead of buying deglazer, since I already had acetone in my house (hello nail polish remover) and didn’t want to spend another $10 on deglazer which is basically the same thing. It required maybe a little more elbow grease to get the top finish totally removed with the acetone, but in the end it worked out just the same.

Once I was satisfied that it was properly deglazed, I let it sit for a while and then prepared my dye and supplies – ie a glass bowl, a foam brush, a couple rags, and the dye itself. I like to dye it in sections, so I started at the skirt, then did the knee pad, then the flap, then the panels, then the underside of the flaps, and ended with the seat. That’s the part where any imperfections will be most obvious.

Once it was all evenly painted, I got to buffing with a microfiber rag. A lot of people use sheepswool for that part, but microfiber is what I had and what I’ve always used, so it works fine for me. I buffed and I buffed and I buffed and I buffed, until it felt like my damn arm was going to fall off. But even after just one coat and some buffing, it already looked way better.

I left it to dry overnight, then came at it the next morning with a really light second coat and a lot more buffing. Once you’re done putting the dye on, you need to keep buffing until no more dye is coming off on your rag – that’s the best way to prevent dye leech and staining your breeches or saddle pads. So I would buff it for a while, go back inside, then come back out and buff it some more. Once I thought nothing else was coming off, I gave it the ol’ white paper towel test – rubbing the seat for 10 or so seconds with a paper towel – and yay, no dye transfer. It was ready for the next step: the finish.

*I will add a caveat here and say that before you think you’re finished with the dye coats, make sure to check the saddle thoroughly in natural light. It much easier to see any spots you missed or areas that might be uneven.

I was kind of excited to try the new wax finish. It was a little different from what I expected… I was thinking it would be more the consistency of, well… wax, but it was liquid. Really liquid. I ended up going for same pour-in-bowl-then-paint-on technique that I do with dye. I started just on one flap to test it out, putting it on, letting it dry for 5 minutes, and then buffing (which is exactly what the directions say to do).

I’m not sure if maybe my dye coat was just still too fresh or what, but the more I buffed, the more it started to lift my color and make it uneven. I stopped as soon as I saw a patch that was now a shade lighter than the rest. Minor crisis, but ok… still recoverable at this point. I deglazed the area to remove the leather finish I had just applied, put more dye on the spot to even it back out, and decided to change my approach. Originally I had the idea of making my own finish by mixing beeswax and oil, before I decided to just try the Bee Natural. You know what’s pretty much already beeswax and oil? Most of the german lederbalsams. A nice thick, wax-heavy one like Passier especially. I already had some at home, so once my fixed spot was buffed and dry, I started the finish again but this time using the lederbalsam. And guys, I think I’ve found The Way.

It worked amazingly well. It did require a lot of lederbalsam… like I globbed that stuff on there and buffed it with a rag, several times over. Three generous coats in all. The saddle absolutely drank it up and asked for more. The oil gave it some moisture and the wax gave it some shine but also provided the leather with a nice grip, ending up similar to how the french saddles feel – soft but grippy. The difference in the leather from start to finish is pretty remarkable. When I was done I gave it the white paper towel test again and there was still no dye transfer, so I’m happy with that. Will the waxy top coat prevent any and all dye leech? No. If it gets wet, there could be a little bit (as with most saddles). Obviously lederbalsam is not a sealant. But it does allow for conditioners or oil to still penetrate the leather, which for saddles I think this is the much better choice. Our minor crisis worked out fine in the end.

And now that I’ve ridden in the saddle some, I have to say I’m mega impressed with it. It has a very similar feel to my Devoucoux (which thank god, because my whole fear with an English-made saddle is how they tend to ride and feel very different from the French ones) with a similar balance point and shape. Considering the Mark Todd was 1/4 of what I paid for the Devoucoux (which was a used, cheap, lucky find in and of itself, all things considered) it’s a pretty high compliment in my book. The only slight bummer is that it’s a 17.5, and I really always need an 18 (my Dev is an 18 with an extra forward flap), but I figured it should be workable and it is. My knee is definitely to the edge of the flap, but not quite over it. Presto seems to like it too… no more rocking, and no more half pad that needs to be shimmed 6 ways to Sunday. Now he can wear just his Mattes full pad, which I ordered for him months ago and never could use until now.

Now it just needs its own stirrup leathers so I can easily swap my Free Jump irons back and forth without having to deal with swapping the leathers between Presto’s saddle and Henry’s jump saddle. I’m kind of sad that it’s over so soon though… I want to dye more things. It’s fun. Like a makeover but way better because it’s a saddle and not a human.

When I showed up at the barn on Friday, the BO let me know that the dentist was coming that day for her horses. The really good dentist, one of the best in the country if not the world, who can sometimes be tricky to schedule because he travels (or used to, pre-covid) a lot to teach and work on special cases. It was ironic timing, because literally just a few days before I had thought to myself “I really should ask her when she’s planning the next dental so I can get my two in on that appointment”. But then I forgot to mention it, naturally. Luck was on my side though, because when he arrived he said he did indeed have time to do mine while he was there. Major score! The stars rarely align so perfectly.

I was grooming Presto while we waited, and I did a minor thing. I know that his crazy wild ombre forelock is part of his overall trademark chaotic look, but… I was at my wit’s end with it. For the second time in a week it was stuck in his eyeball when I went to go get him, and full of hay and burrs (where did the burrs even come from, I have yet to see them on a another horse). It was nothing more than dry gross sunbleached VELCRO and I couldn’t take it anymore.

I wasn’t really sure the best way to approach it, to be honest. Forelocks are much trickier than manes. I sure as heck wasn’t taking scissors to it. Nobody needs a bowl cut. But I didn’t want to pull it either, and lose any of the thickness. So I decided to run my little rake thingy through the bottom half and see what happened.

It worked really well. I used it a little higher on the sides to keep the natural tapered look, and it basically just removed all the gross fried orange hair on the ends. His forelock still goes down TO his eyes, but isn’t long enough to get stuck in them anymore. and overall looks much better. He looks more like an adult, somehow. Like a kid that got a proper hair cut and is ready to go to school. I mean he’s still super sunbleached and covered in bites and nicks and scrapes and the occasional cactus thorn, but ya know… the bangs are an upgrade.

And when it came time for his turn with the dentist, there was even more adulthood happening.

Overall his teeth look pretty good. Nothing crazy or super out of the ordinary. He was due for a float, but his mouth is developing well and properly. Somewhere around 3 1/2 is when they start shedding another set of caps, and he was right on the money for that. One of the front ones was so loose that Dr. Moore just tapped it with his tool and it fell out. Another front one took 3 taps. Basically all of his 3 1/2-year-old ones were in the process of coming out, so he went ahead and helped them along the way. Especially two in the back that were starting to pack food between the cap and the adult tooth – those were getting a little stinky.

While everything looked normal for his age, there is definitely a lot of tooth activity happening in there. He recommended that I continue to have him done every 6 months or so for a while, because of his age. Presto doesnt have too many more caps left to go before he will have a mouth full of just adult teeth! Pretty much all he has left are the ones that come out at 4 1/2.

Henry’s teeth were also a little interesting, although in a less normal way. His jaw doesn’t quite line up, so there’s always a little extra work that needs to be done with him, but also… he’s got another tooth that’s thinking about breaking. Ugh. You may remember we had to pull a very broken tooth last fall, and it was certainly NOT my favorite thing (nor his) and I don’t really want to have to do it again.

I wish I had taken a photo of the graphics Dr. Moore showed me because it explained pretty well why this is happening. I couldn’t find anything nearly as good on the internet. But in the simplest terms, horse’s teeth have these pillars running through them that are filled with cement-like material. On normal teeth, these pillars are fairly straight and even. On some horses, these pillars can be very irregular, super thick in some areas, super thin in others, or even have gaps where there isn’t any of the actual cement-like material in them. Henry is the latter. So as he ages and more of his tooth erupts, we’re getting to the areas that are very thin or that have gaps. This makes the tooth much weaker and more prone to breakage, especially in horses like him where their jaw alignment makes the teeth wear unevenly.

The good news is that this tooth hasn’t truly broken yet, and Dr. Moore is capable of a procedure that would most likely prevent it from happening. It’s basically like a human getting a filling – they drill out a little bit and fill it with some material to make it stronger and prevent it from breaking. It’s surprisingly not stupid expensive, definitely cheaper than what it would cost to pull a broken tooth, but it has to be done in the clinic, so I have to make another appointment to haul him up there.

So basically I have one horse with a normal but very active mouth because of his age, and one horse with a wonky weird problem-prone mouth that will probably always be high maintenance as he ages. Sounds about right. My wallet doesnt even weep about these things anymore, it has become accustomed to it at this point.

I hope everyone is enjoying a nice, non-laborious Labor Day! I’m off with Presto for an adventure early this morning so the real content will have to wait. But I’ve had a few people ask me if I was going to do a Labor Day Sales post, and I had no plans to do that but figured I’d throw together a list of the ones that have come across my feed. I haven’t been paying much attention to sales, so I’m sure there are lots more. If your business is having one or you know of some other good ones, feel free to drop them in the comments! Back to normal blog content tomorrow…

Riding Warehouse Bargain Bin Sale

Corro – 15% off with code 15CORRO2020

Shop Halter Ego – 25% off with code LABORDAY25

Decopony – 20% off in stock tack, pads, gloves, and coats with code 20OFF

Back on Track – 15% off with code LaborDay2020

Circuit Style – 20% off plus free US shipping, discount applied at checkout

Hunt Club – 20% off with code LABORDAY20

The Tack Hack – 20% off with code HELLOFALL

Gray Co Designs – 20% off sitewide

Tack of the Town – 15% off plus free shipping

An Capall Equestrian – 20% off with code LABORDAY20

Dover – free $50 gift card with $150+ purchase promo (code CMXSEP50)

Smartpak – 15% off with code 20LaborDay plus $50 gift card on orders over $200

Asmar Equestrian – up to 75% off select items

It’s a Haggertys – Read to Ship short sleeve and select long sleeve 20% off

Also for those who haven’t seen it yet, International Helmet Awareness Day is coming up this weekend Sept 12 and 13, if you’re in the market for a new helmet!

Ollie (aka Captain TwoHoles aka Mount Butt-suvius aka Dr. BootyZit) is back from the vet! His disgusting butt abscess continues to heal well and it doesn’t seem to be bothering him at all anymore. I also think he was really glad to be home. One week alone at the vet clinic with your boring mom for company when you’re as social and uh… outgoing?… as Ollie is – that’s not at all fun by his standards. Plus I think the rest of the baby herd just felt a bit incomplete without him. They were a little rudderless, and the chaos level was significantly decreased.

When Ollie showed back up, it seemed like the group was complete again. The fantastic four was back in action. Equilibrium had been achieved. Their diminutive leader had returned. And they were pretty happy to see him…

for a few minutes anyway.

There was a lot of really entertaining galloping to celebrate Ollie’s return, which was captured on video, so I figured I’d let that be the star of the show this Friday. Ya know, to make up for the gross infected second butthole pictures that y’all had to see last week. A few minutes of cute baby antics will erase that one right? You’re welcome.

Happy Friday!