Presto had TWO rides over the long weekend! One was about 15 minutes and walk-only, so might not count, but whatever lets go with it.

On Friday (ride #10) he had two landmark moments in his 15-minute walk-only ride. First, it was his first time being ridden in the ring with another horse. The barn owner and I wanted to take the babies (her 5yo and my 3yo) for a short little hack across the property, so we started in the arena first. I led Presto out with the mare, got right on him with no lunge, and proceeded to stand in the middle and play tripod while I videoed the mare doing a few w/t/c laps around the ring. He stood like a champ and didn’t mind at all when she passed close by him at speed. I’m not sure you could ask much more from a 3yo that hadn’t been ridden in a week.

Then we walked out through the pasture, down the path, to the back of the property. Presto has gone a little ways that direction before, one time, but never all the way to the spooky back. He was interested, but stayed calm and quiet, and seemed to enjoy having a companion. It was a quick hack but both babies were super.

On Sunday (ride #11) I wanted to do more of what has become his “normal” short w/t/c ride. Well, first I wanted to check on the canter. You might remember me saying last time that I didn’t even canter him, because he’s growthy right now and was falling out of his canter lead behind on the lunge line. Out of character for him, but that happens sometimes in growth spurts. So first I lunged him for a couple minutes each way, checked the canter (his balance is back to normal!) and then got on.

He’s at that stage right now where he retains things so much that you feel like you’re building something tangible out of Lego’s. There’s a real satisfaction to getting on and seeing that despite going a week or two between rides, it’s as if the last ride was just yesterday. On his last real ride we started doing figure 8’s, changes of direction across the diagonal, and even big 3 loop serpentines at the trot. He was a little confused by the changes of direction at first, thinking he needed to walk through them, but this time he never even tried, just kept trotting right on through like “ok, now we go dis way”. He’s also getting a little bit straighter on his trips down the long side. I wouldn’t say he’s anywhere near actually being straight, but… it’s less drunken. The trot rhythm is starting to get a bit more consistent, too. It’s far from perfect but there are little baby improvements with every ride and I’m quite pleased with his progress with only this many rides spread over 2 months time.

Since his canter looked better on the lunge we went ahead and cantered under saddle too. He was a bit quiet about it that day so I had to encourage him forward a little more. Granted, this was, what… the 4th time he’s cantered under saddle? Sometimes he wants me to sit on him a bit more and help him balance (usually in the turns) and sometimes I need to get up off him and just leave him alone/send him forward. It’s a fine line between not hindering him but also not wanting to help him too much. I try to just adjust what I’m doing to suit how he feels underneath me at the moment.

I propped my phone up in the corner of the ring so I could get some stills and maybe a few flashes of video. I’m not editing all 13 minutes of the ride down to take out the “empty space” so I just nabbed the last minute that shows some canter and trot. Sorry, this is where my level of commitment is at right now.

The good news is that I finally caved and ordered a Pivo “robotic cameraman”, so hopefully I will have improved video capabilities soon. I was a little skeptical about the Pivo at first, but as they’ve done more updates it seems to be getting pretty good reviews from riders, and it’s very reasonably priced, so I figured why not try it. If you haven’t seen the Pivo, it’s this little device that you set your phone into and it tracks you/rotates as you ride around it, so you can get video on your phone while you’re alone that isn’t just a bunch of passes by the camera on a fixed tripod. Pivo seems to have recognized that it could potentially have a good market in equestrian sport so they’ve been doing a lot of updates, support, and marketing toward us. From the feedback in their facebook group it seems that the original Pivo (the red) works pretty well too, but the Silver has 2x faster tracking ability so I figured for $30 more I might as well go with that. There’s a good video review of it here.

I’m not expecting it to be perfect but even if it only gets half of my ride, it would be worth it to have the phone video footage that doesn’t just consist of “trot past… wait a few seconds… trot past in the distance… wait a little more… oh there he went again… now enjoy the view of the arena for a while…”. Nobody likes that, me included. The Pivo seems easier and less fussy than the SoloShot or Pixio (you legit just pair the Pivo to your phone, plop it onto a tripod or a barrel or a mounting block, and start recording – that’s the level of work I’m into), albeit definitely far less fancy. Granted, it’s also only $110-$140 vs $700+. I’m hopeful that it’ll work well enough for what I need it for.

I’m also currently in the process of trying to plan Presto’s first off property trail ride. The plan all along was to get him broke enough in the spring to where we could spend the summer mostly hacking and trail riding, and I think he’s there, so I’m keen to see if I’m right. Maybe in the next couple weeks!

Good news – look what finally made it from Australia!

It’s a little hard to tell in the picture because my phone just could not get the color right, but it’s navy with dark green sheepskin, and gray and dark green piping. The sheepskin runs along the underside of the panels as well. I kind of wish I’d gone ahead and gotten the correction system built in, since this one is for Presto, but I didn’t since I already have a correction Mattes half pad for him. Right now he is in a real funky, weedy stage, so I’m definitely having to use the correction system. For now this one will be living in my trailer, waiting for Presto to a) fill out b) be a show horse. It’s a really pretty trailer decoration though.

My PSoS/Horselet import fees situation still isn’t resolved, although it seems to have been resolved for most other people. They remain responsive and helpful, so my fingers are still crossed that we can fix this by end of day tomorrow so the package doesn’t get booted back to Sweden. We’ll see. It’s out of my hands at this point.

My pre-ordered masks finally showed up as well!

I’d been looking for some nice lightweight masks so I have extras, and these from Dreamers and Schemers definitely fit the bill. They’re really lightweight and comfy, so much so that these have now become my primary masks and my other one has been delegated to the extra-one-I-keep-in-the-car. Somebody in Lowe’s on Saturday noticed the F-bomb mask and chuckled, saying “accurate”, so… the sentiment is shared right now I think.

While literally nothing exciting or noteworthy is going on, I’ve still been riding.

It’s getting hot for Henry, but I’m trying to keep him ridden at least 5 days a week while I can. Lately it’s mostly been hacking out, as I’ve been waiting for the mowers to come and hack down my jump field. That got done yesterday afternoon, so this week I’ll go set up a little course again. I still haven’t been able to get Henry out for the gallop he so desperately needs, and it’s currently rainy, so I’m not sure if/when that’ll happen. Jumping should make him happy though, and help take some of the YEEHAW out of him.

Presto has been on some adventures too, but we’ll talk more about that tomorrow. I gave up on finding him one of those big corner feeders I talked about last week, and opted for a simpler solution for now. I got him just a simple corner bowl type feeder that bolts in, so we’ll see if/how this one lasts. If he’ll keep his feet out of it, it might be ok. At least for now he’ll actually get more of his food into his mouth, rather than what he was doing before with flinging the bucket off the wall, tossing his food from one end of the stall to the other, and eating basically none of it. It just ends up mixed in with the shavings, and then he won’t eat it. Considering how much I spend on his high-fat low-NSC feed and fancy oil, I sure would like if he’d eat it instead of stand on it. 

I bought the feeder from a place called Corro, which I’ve mentioned on here before. I first found them when I bought Henry’s sparkley boot last Black Friday, and now I’ve ordered from them 4 more times, mostly because they’re one of the few places that has Presto’s flaxseed oil, they have the best price on it, and they don’t charge an extra freight fee to ship it. Their product range is still a bit limited, but 1) their prices are great, 2) they ship FAST. This time I tossed several things into my order. All I really needed right this second was the corner feeder and another jar of the latest breathing supplement I’ve been trying for Henry, but I wanted to get to that $75 free shipping threshold so I figured I may as well stock up on stuff I would need eventually anyway. Well ok, I hit that $75 threshold once I added a gallon of fly spray (which I won’t need for a few more weeks, but their price was $2 cheaper than even the sale price at other places) but I decided to grab a couple other necessities as well. Like a new manure fork (I’ve been wanting a nice aluminum one but didn’t want to pay $40-50 for a shit fork. This one was $18. SIGN ME UP.) and more fungus spray (I’ve probably got about a month’s worth left but we’re entering that season where Henry’s face hair likes to fall off in mass quantities, so I don’t want to be caught without). 

So basically, I stocked up on essentials that I could have waited a few weeks to buy but figured I may as well toss them all into one order. I should be good til at least July. And despite all that big, heavy stuff, Corro still didn’t try to slap me with an oversize or overweight shipping fee. It all shipped for free! AND I ordered on Thursday night and everything arrived on Saturday. I remain super impressed and pleased with Corro, all of my orders from them have gone this way. That combined with their prices are making them really hard to beat for basic stable supplies/supplements like this, especially the stuff that I can’t get at my usual favorite places. If you’re interested in trying them I think using this link will get you $10 off your first order of $50 or more. If not let me know and I’ll email you the link directly. 

We’ll see how I feel about the AniHist after this next jar. With the first one I wasn’t convinced that it WAS helping, but I wasn’t convinced that it WASN’T helping either. Henry doesn’t really care for the taste of it but he does eat it begrudgingly, and there were a couple of humid days where I thought he should have been puffing a lot more than he was. But then there were other days when I was like “yep, this is how awful he always looks in the summer”. So I dunno. May is still a bit early yet to be a true litmus test, so I think I’ll find out for sure in the coming month. I would be delighted if it did help him, since nothing else has, but I remain skeptical since… nothing else has. But it’s only $20 so I figured it was worth giving it another month before reaching a verdict.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about what Presto has been up to (well, aside from tossing his food all over the place and making us all want to throttle him)!

Since all the 2020 foals are finally here, the Foal Friday posts can now be all-inclusive! Right now they’re turned out in pairs – the two older ones Remi and Oakley, and the two younger ones Ollie and Ellie. As you can imagine, the latter pair is somewhat comical, with Ollie so little and Ellie so big. They’ve only been turned out together for a couple days and their dams are still being a bit overprotective, so they haven’t interacted much yet, but Ollie is a spitfire and Ellie is a gentle giant, so I think it’ll work out. So what have they all been up to this week?

When he’s not zooming around the pasture like he was born with a rocket booster implanted in his bum…

Ollie’s been spending some time climbing the round bale like it’s his own personal jungle gym.

Right now he’s definitely the most boisterous and exuberant one. They all like to gallop and play of course, but Oakley and Remi have settled down a bit as they explore things like eating grass, and Ellie, while she’s unfolded a lot, still has a whole lot of leg to manage.

She manages them pretty well though, and remains super balanced, as she’s been from the very beginning.

She’s been doing some running and bucking herself, but isn’t quite as zoomie as little pocket rocket Ollie.

As I mentioned, Ellie and Ollie just recently got turned out together, so while they aren’t quite interacting yet, they’re getting pretty darn close. They’re definitely curious about each other, and with foals it usually never takes long for them to start playing once the curiosity wins out.

The mares just aren’t quite having it yet, both still a little overprotective and territorial. They’ll relax and give up on trying to keep the babies apart soon, and I bet by next week we’ll have some pics of Ellie and Ollie playing. I kind of can’t wait to see that.

As for Remi and Oakley, they’ve had an exciting week too. Well, mostly Oakley. It’s been very hot here in Texas (triple digits) and Oakley had a super thick fuzzy coat, so she was sweating to death. Remi and Oakley are both starting their foal shed, but still mostly just on their faces/legs, so Michelle took pity on Oakley and clipped her a bit. Not only is she much happier, we can get a really good look at her color and the dun markings that were under all that fuzz!

I think she’s going to be one of those bay duns that remains pretty light, more buckskin looking, and her leg bars/dorsal stripe/black-tipped ears are quite a strong contrast. Her head and legs remain unclipped (this was a clip job for practicality, not for beauty) but they’re shedding out nice and dark. She’s going to be a pretty color.

Oakley has also caught up a bit closer to Remi in size, their butts are only about a hand different in height at the moment. If I was a gambling woman I’d say she’s going to end closer to the 15.2 end of the spectrum, but we’ll see.

As you can see, she still very much owns Remi. He is 110% obsessed with her and she’s got more of the Regina George “why are you so obsessed with me?” response. Remi is still a complete super model, but Oakley doesn’t seem wooed by his good looks and charm.

These two both lead really well and have good manners, and of course Oakley now bathes and body clips too. They’re well on their way to being solid baby citizens.

While the babies will remain in their paired groups for a while, they do share a fence line and have gotten themselves acquainted over the fence a little bit.

As their personalities and herd dynamics continue to evolve, there’s one thing for sure: they’re all still ridiculously cute.

Happy Friday, everyone! Who’s your favorite foal from the 2020 class?

Small update to the situation I posted about on Tuesday about theHORSElet/UPS shipping fee drama. UPS finally got back to me and just kind of threw up their hands and told me I was on my own. They said that clearly I had already paid the seller for shipping, they could see that from my receipts, but since no one had paid UPS for shipping yet, they couldn’t (read: wouldn’t) help me. They said I would need to get in contact with the seller and try to have them work it out on their end. That’s about the level of helpfulness I expected from UPS, and the fact that it took 3 days and 6 different people to end up being a completely useless waste of time in the end is also no surprise.

I did finally get ahold of the seller though. Emailing PSoS directly seemed to do the trick – they answered me, and then a few hours later I finally got a response from theHORSElet (on my Instagram DM that I had sent the day before, not to the email I sent via their website 4 days before). They apologized and said they would fix it, and they had already been in contact with UPS to get everything straightened out. That was Tuesday.

In the meantime, my package arrived. Or tried to arrive, anyway. I did not accept delivery, because by signing for the package I could end up getting stuck with those charges. They tried again to deliver it yesterday, but the fees were still showing on my account, so again I didn’t accept delivery. It was then marked as “final attempt” so I had no choice but to have the package rerouted to the only store option it gave me (which is about 25 minutes away and I pass approximately 9,025 other UPS stores to get there). They will only hold it through next Tuesday before they return it to the sender.

As of this morning the charges are still showing on my account, so now it’s a stand-off. Will the charges be cleared before the package gets booted back to Sweden? It’s anyone’s guess. I’ve kept in contact with a few other people that ordered around the same time I did and also had this happen, and their charges have yet to be removed either. I know from prior experience that UPS red tape tends to move at a freaking glacial pace. I did email the rep I’d been in contact with before to ask if he could at least confirm that there was a case ongoing about this, but surprise – crickets.

So that disaster is unfolding however it will, I suppose. I appreciate that PSoS/theHORSElet finally got back to me and says that they’re trying to make it right, and it does seem like a genuine mistake. I will remain wary until it’s actually fixed though, because we’re definitely nowhere near that point yet. If it ends up booted back to Sweden… lord only knows wtf will happen then.

Since apparently that wasn’t enough, I also decided to frustrate myself even further this week by scouring all of Texas for those big plastic corner feeders.

I think I’ve called at least two dozen stores and emailed/messaged another dozen. You can order the feeders online but the freight almost doubles the cost, so I was trying to find a store within a couple hours of me that carries them. I found places that USED to carry them. I found places that normally carry them but sold out and have no idea when they’ll have more and would not let me pre-order/get on a wait list. I found a bunch of farm supply store workers who didn’t understand wtf I was asking about and kept trying to suggest a metal cattle feeder. And I found a bunch of places that carry them according to the manufacturer but in actuality definitely DO NOT carry them. I just know there has to be some random little feed store in the middle of podunk nowhere that has these, but so far I just can’t find them. For now I’ve given up, though. I’ve had all the frustration I can take for one week. I spent a ton of time chasing my tail on all this stuff with nothing to show for it yet.

But the good news is that I have a 4 day weekend coming up, and tomorrow is Foal Friday, and Riding Warehouse is having a Memorial Day sale! Well ok I’m not really sure if that last one is good news or dangerous news, but seems like a good time to stock up on fly spray and such (this is always how it starts, me just “stocking up” on something…).

Hopefully this weekend I’ll be able to get Henry over to the giant property across the street so he can go for a gallop (please lord, let us be able to go gallop, I’m getting tired of finding myself at the rodeo every day even if I do keep winning the bronc riding) and get Presto out for another little hack. The forecast starts looking pretty crap on Sunday though, because clearly the 6″ of rain we got last week wasn’t enough. Sigh.

With USEF releasing their new horse show covid guidelines, there has been a bit of a stir across the interwebs. Some people seem ready and willing to get back to horse showing no matter how different it looks, but other people don’t want to participate until the guidelines are able to be loosened.

I admit that when it comes to the latter group at first I was kinda like “damn, y’all have spent months whining about not horse showing, and now you’re whining about not wanting to have to horse show like that“. But as I read their explanations a bit more and understood where they were coming from, their reasons made more sense.

To me, horse showing is not a social experience. I mean… it is, by it’s very nature, being a large gathering of like-minded people, but it’s not the reason why I horse show. I tend to be the reclusive one that disappears somewhere by myself for hours and rarely goes to a competitor party. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing all my friends (except Bobby, he’s a loser) but it’s not what draws me the most. For me, the biggest perk of horse shows is being able to spend focused one-on-one time alone with my horse, taking care of him myself, doing what we love to do, while enjoying time in our little bubble away from the real world. My favorite non-riding part of showing is getting up early and having some quiet time in the barn or hand-walking my horse in the quiet calm before the storm. None of the new covid restrictions would change that.

But not everyone is like me, obviously. There are a lot of people that really really love the social aspect of horse shows. Spending time with their friends, going to the parties, talking about horses 24/7, having their family come watch, etc. I am not a social person so that’s not me, but can still totally understand it. Especially those who don’t get a lot of “horse time” or “horse friend time” in their regular day to day lives. For them these new covid restrictions, while absolutely 110% valid and necessary and the right thing to do given what’s going on in the world right now, put a big damper on all the things they love so much about showing, so they’re opting to stay sidelined until things relax a bit.

There isn’t actually choice here for me to make anyway, about whether or not I want to start showing again. It’s summer now, already nearing triple digit temps in Texas, and my heat intolerant horse is unlikely to do much of anything until fall. Maybe a very local jumper show or a day trip for XC schooling, but definitely not any real horse showing. Our season was done before it started when he bruised his foot so badly in November, so this really isn’t even a debate for me personally. Seeing both sides of the fence though, I can see a lot of different reasons why someone would or wouldn’t want to get back to it – health reasons, economic reasons, social reasons, horse-specific reasons, you name it. It’s a strange new sea we’re living in, and not everyone is in the same boat.

I admit that I’m a little surprised USEA still says AEC (Championships) are a “go” for August in Kentucky, though. That seems like a Bad Idea to me for myriad reasons, but I sure won’t be judging anyone who wants to go as long as USEA is willing to make it available. Again, it’s not even on the table for me anyway due to the whole “August in Kentucky” part so it’s easy for me to not feel tempted.

I’m curious though, now that I’ve spent some time way overthinking all of this: why do you horse show? What are those little moments that keep you coming back for more? Are you eager to get back out there no matter what kind of covid restrictions are in place, or are you going to wait until things ease up a bit?