On Friday I took off work early so we could head up to Willow Draw for one last XC school before Coconino. It’s a 4 hour drive, and it’s hot, so we decided to drive up on Friday, school on Saturday morning, and then drive home. That makes it slightly less awful. We got there Friday evening, rode the horses for all of 10 minutes (lord, the humidity), went to get food, and then went to bed.

On Saturday morning all started out normal. I got up, fed the horses, changed, and started prepping all my stuff. Then my stomach started hurting. Then I found myself in the bathroom 3 times in the span of an hour. I wasn’t sure what was happening but I realized my stomach was not happy. I swung up on my horse just hoping I wouldn’t have to make an emergency run for the bushes while we were riding. I dunno what’s up with me lately but the last 3 times I’ve seen Trainer, I’ve been either sick or injured. Maybe it’s her. (just kidding… maybe…)

Henry was On Fire with a wild hair up his butt, very happy to be back out in his element. We had to have a couple of discussions about who’s actually in charge of the speed at which we travel and where we leave the ground. He was super game though, definitely his normal self, which is a relief since I tried to kill us at our last XC schooling and I was worried it might affect his confidence. Yeah, no. Zero percent. He was balls to the wall and very delighted to be there.

We didn’t do a whole lot, no need to jump his legs off right before a long trip, we just wanted to get him listening and balanced and get our heads back into the XC game. Rideability was the focus. By the midway point of the school I started feeling like I might puke, but I managed to hold it together until the end. Something was definitely up. By this point I was in what could only be called severe gastric distress, I just wasn’t sure which end was ultimately going to suffer most. You know what makes for a really long drive home? Someone who has to stop at regular intervals to become a human fountain. It was horrific. Indescribably bad. I had Satan inside of me.

We eventually made it back to the barn late afternoon, got the horses unloaded, and then I started driving home. At which point I became concerned I wouldn’t actually make it before Satan made another appearance. I had the pedal to the metal, white-knuckling the steering wheel. By the time I Toyko-drifted into my neighborhood I was sweating profusely. My normally 40 minute drive took 33 minutes. Y’all, this was one of the most distressed times of my life. I made it to the bathroom, but barely. The neighbor was outside when I came screeching into my driveway and made a mad dash for the house, so I don’t know what he thinks but either way he’s probably right.

By that point I was definitely convinced I had food poisoning, and I capped off my delightful day by puking 6 times in half an hour. That seemed to finally do the trick though, or just managed to empty me out so completely that there was nothing left for my body to be angry about. Either way, it was a sweet relief. I spent yesterday rehydrating and ate some soup, all of which stayed down just fine. My appetite isn’t back to 100%, but the human fountain episodes are gone, so all seems to be well now. Talk about some really freaking great timing though. Lord.

So that was… a fun… experience.

But Henry feels great, and he looks great, and despite spending 8 hours in a trailer and plus an XC school all within 24 hours he was still apparently wild enough to run laps in turnout that evening while Presto and Dobby buried their heads in the round bale. I jokingly told the vet that maybe he put in too much hock juice. I’m totally okay with it though, I like it when he feels good, even if it means he’s extra sassy.

And now, let the packing commence. 2 more work days until I’m free!

My facebook memories popped up the other day with a picture of Henry from this time last year. The year all the hair fell out of his face. The year I took a literal bald-faced horse to Chatt.

How did this happen? Ah yes, let me explain.

See, I’m not always very good at being an adult human. I tend to be forgetful, especially when it comes to “errands”, to the point where if I don’t write it down somewhere there’s like a 5% chance of me remembering. One day I went to Walmart THREE TIMES because every time I went in I got distracted and bought other things I didn’t need, but not the one thing I did need (batteries. how hard is it to remember batteries?).

Thank goodness for the internet, which is my saving grace most of the time. I have a thought – “oh I need this” – and then I go order it.

Unless I don’t. Like if I have that thought in a meeting or while I’m driving and it completely exits my brain before I have a chance to jump online and place the order. That has definitely happened more than once. Which is how I’ve found myself needing bell boots for like a month now and have yet to order any, but if I order them now they won’t come before I leave for Coconino anyway so whatever.

Last year the thing I forgot to order was Henry’s tea tree spray. He’s really prone to skin funk, and a few years ago (after trying what felt like every other skin product on the market) I finally tried this stuff. It was magic. It’s the only thing that has ever kept all of his funk at bay during the summer.

But last year I ran out a week or two before Chatt, totally forgot to order more, and then traveled to the land of constant humidity and fungus. Henry’s face, which had already started to look bad in the days before we left, quickly turned to looking terrible. I tried a random tea tree spray (meant for dogs) that I found at a Walmart, thinking maybe it was just the tea tree factor that he needed, but over the course of a couple days it did nothing to slow the spread. I happened to have a sample size of Equiderma with me, so I tried that too, and I guess that was the final straw because by the next day all his hair had just… fallen out. I told you he was delicate.

I learned my lesson. Henry simply cannot Summer without his fancy tea tree spray and I really shouldn’t bother trying anything else, nor can I forget to order it. Now I order a new bottle as soon as the current one is half empty, because I’m not risking that again. I spray his cannons and his face daily, and if any other areas start to look suspicious, they get zapped too.

Looking at those pictures from last year really brought it home. God he looked TERRIBLE. Like a sad homeless horse that no one loved. Gah. Of course, the weather here this year has been super humid and sticky, the worst conditions for his skin. So what’s he looking like this summer, with daily use of his tea tree spray?

I’m telling you, man, this stuff must have unicorn tears in it or something. I don’t know what kind of magic they’re bottling but I’m gonna keep buying it.

What products can you not live without in the summer?

I guess my brain is just stuck in the breeding groove this week but I found myself sitting here thinking “if I could have any mare in the world, who would it be, and who would I breed her to”? Admittedly, I do this probably at least once a year. I’m a weirdo like that. It’s kinda like that classic “what’s your dream horse” question, but with another layer of critical thinking, because now you have to come up with the recipe, not just the end result.

So here are the rules: if you were breeding for yourself, a horse that you would keep and raise and eventually ride – what parents would you pick? Preferably something well known, since that makes it more fun, but hey… go wild.

I believe very strongly that the most important part of the breeding equation is the mare. I also know that if I was breeding for something for me to keep and ride myself, I’d pick different crosses than I would if I was breeding to sell/for 5* level. So I’ll start with the mares. Yes plural, because I have 2 that I can’t pick between: Classic Moet and Fischerrocana. They are a bit similar in that neither of them is particularly remarkable or flashy. They’re both plain, they’re both average movers and jumpers (ie something I could actually stand a chance of being able to ride), and they both have a lot of thoroughbred blood. But what they also both have is rideability, trainability, grit, and a lot of heart. The description of Classic Moet on Janelle Price’s website is enough to seal the deal for me:

Molly would, if she were a person, come from Swindon ( Or West Auckland for our NZ followers), be a couple of stone overweight, have several tattoos, wear a too tight leather jacket over skintight leopard skin pants and have a boyfriend with an IQ of 10 who is a club bouncer and 4 children by 4 different fathers. Molly is a legend but a kind of rock and roll one like Mick Jagger as opposed to the Princess type! 

I mean.

And since, in this particular fantasy, I’m breeding for something to keep for myself, that means I’m not looking to make a 5* horse. I’m looking for something that can forgive mistakes, get me out of trouble, and is always forward-thinking and looking for the flags. Something with 3* talent, with cross country as it’s strongest phase because I don’t want to die.

For Classic Moet, I’m thinking Irish. Classic Moet has a bit of an odd jumping style, so I’m going to stick with one that produces more conventional horses stylistically, and one who’s offspring seem to be pretty rideable on the flat. I’m also gonna go for the weird color, and I generally DETEST breeding for color as a general rule but this is one I would pick even if he was plain bay. Tullabeg Fusion is also about half TB, so I’d still have a horse with a lot of blood.

And since I’m in charge here in this fantasy, I’m gonna go ahead and say that the resulting foal looks like this

and grows up to jump like this

and have Classic Moet’s bad bitch mentality.

Fischerrocana is a really fun one, too. She’s more conventional than Classic Moet, with a bit less thoroughbred blood. I love that she seems like she would absolutely turn herself inside out for her rider – those are the best kind of horses, especially when it’s a mare.

Again, if I was breeding her for 5* I would make a different choice, but since we’re still playing by the rules of “something I have to be able to ride”, I’m going to go with my favorite boy Mighty Magic. Y’all know I’m biased, and he produces really good cross country horses. They’re just my type, from goofy temperament to how they’re built. He should add a little size, and it might end up a little chunky, but it should also be a heat-seeking missile for cross country fences and happy to jump them with or without my assistance.

Naturally, it’s gonna look like this:

Interestingly, Classic Moet has already had an Upsilon foal (via ET), an excellent choice for 5* IMO, and one that I probably wouldn’t have a chance in hell of being able to ride myself.

So, who would your choices be? A hunter? A showjumper? An eventer? A western horse maybe? Tell me your recipe!

 

 

Presto’s got a new little half-sibling! Well… he will (hopefully) in about 325 days. Sadie is officially in foal.

It was an end of season hail mary, one last attempt before wrapping things up for this year. Michelle decided to try fresh instead of frozen, and after we wracked our brains for a few days trying to think of a stallion available fresh that got us both excited, we landed on a bit of an “outside the box” option.

When we were in Ocala for the FEH symposium in February, we both really loved one colt in particular. He’s still a baby, but there was something about him that grabbed both of us. His pedigree is superb, he’s a fantastic mover, really nicely put together, and should be able to jump a house. He’s stuck with me ever since. Michelle got in touch with his owner, who agreed to have semen collected and shipped, and now here we are. It worked! This will be his first foal.

He’s by the showjumper Herald 3, who jumped through the 1.60m level. Herald 3 is by Heraldik xx, my personal favorite, out of a mare with L and M holsteiner lines on the bottom. If a lot of that sounds familiar it’s because you’ve seen it before in Presto’s sire, Mighty Magic, who’s dam is by Heraldik with L and M Holsteiner lines on the bottom. What can I say, I have a type.

Hopefully that little black dot settles in there and makes itself at home.

We’ve also still got Peyton in foal to Ramiro B, and Daisy and Stormie are in foal to the French jumper pony Usandro. First time using the frozen Usandro semen that WTW imported, and first pregnancies! These will be his first foals in the US. So that makes 4 foals coming in 2020, hopefully, which is a good number. For the ones that didn’t get pregnant this year for whatever reason, they’ll start early next year.

And if you haven’t seen this video of Stormie’s 2019 sportpony foal, Nunez… you’re missing out. He’s the zoomiest little creature I’ve ever seen! Too bad pony racehorses aren’t really a thing.

Happy Wednesday!

Despite going to Young Event Horse/Future Event Horse symposiums and courses and clinics for a few years now, I only became involved as a competitor starting last year. Presto went to two FEH shows in 2018 – one qualifier judged by Peter Gray, and then Championships judged by Peter Gray and Robin Walker. I had really good experiences at both shows with both judges, and agreed pretty much 100% with all 3 score sheets we got and the comments on them.

The main complaint I’ve heard over the years regarding the FEH program has been the judging, particularly with regards to inconsistency. It was one of the reasons I wanted to learn so much about how they’re supposed to judge, what they’re looking for, how it works, etc before I got involved. And last year, I had very positive and consistent experiences. I came away from both shows feeling like I got completely appropriate feedback. The scores were fair and so were the assessments. Peter and Robin disagreed a little on a couple minor things at Championships, as is to be expected from one person to the next, but overall I felt the judging was quite good and accurate and very consistent. This time was a little different.

First off – I have to say the show itself was great. I’m so grateful to have more FEH classes available to us down here, especially ones that are held on the weekend so I don’t have to take a day off of work and drive 4 hours each way to a recognized HT just to show a baby on the line. I’ll be honest, I probably wouldn’t show FEH at all if that was my only option. This venue, a new one to me, was beautiful and the show ran well. No complaints there at all. But the feedback I got from the judge was very… confusing. Some of it really had me scratching my head completely. This judge was totally new to me, I’ve never shown under her or met her before, and overall it was a very different experience than what I got last year under the other judges, for several reasons.

I debated about how much of this I should even say here because I definitely don’t want it to sound like I’m complaining. Like I said above, the show was super, and my horse got his qualifying score, so… I’m 0% mad or upset at anyone. I want to be totally clear on that. I’m only saying any of this because I like the FEH program and believe in what it’s trying to do, and I think that we have to be willing to speak up when we care about something and want it to be better. I also think it’s worth talking about this experience and how it compares to past ones, for people who might not be as familiar with FEH. I want to caveat this by saying I know that wildly differing opinions are just a part of subjective judging and horse showing. But consistency is one of the big goals with all judging, dressage or in-hand or otherwise. I also think it’s important to be willing to say the same things in public that you’re saying in private, especially when giving feedback about stuff that can be improved or made more clear. That’s what this is about, and the much more succinct version of my feedback has already been sent through the official pipeline.

All of that said, my issues were thus:

1. The judge asked how Presto was bred. This was a huge point of contention at the FEH symposium we went to in Ocala in February, because Maxime Livio thought it was important to consider as part of the judging, but the founders and heads of FEH strongly disagreed. They thought it was important for the judges to evaluate the horse that was in front of them, totally without bias, and it was stated unequivocally that the judges are definitely NOT supposed to seek out that information prior to judging. It threw me for a loop when she asked me, enough to where I asked for clarification “His breed registry, or his breeding?” and she said “his breeding”. I told her, but it was weird considering I know they aren’t supposed to ask.

2. She never looked at him square from the front or the rear. They are supposed to travel around the horse (one side, front, other side, back) to fully assess the conformation, and the handler should square up the front and hind feet as the judge travels around so they can see the straightness of the limbs. That didn’t happen.

3. She only used half marks on the score sheet, like you would for dressage scoring. FEH is supposed to use the full scale, ie scores of 6.8 or 7.2 or whatever. They REALLY encourage the judges to use those extra tenths, because it can make a definite difference in the overall score, given how every category is multiplied and weighted. I will say that obviously I didn’t see every sheet, but all four of the ones I did see had nothing but .0 or .5 marks.

4. Scores and comments didn’t match up. For his Type, which has always been Presto’s best score (never been below an 8) the comment said excellent athletic refined type with a score of… 7. I admittedly don’t quite understand how that comment matches up with a score of 7.

Those are my official observations. As for the completely personal opinion side of things, I disagreed with a few comments. Especially the ones saying that his neck is tied in low and that his pasterns/shoulder are upright. I don’t see those things AT ALL. I went back and stood next to him at the trailer and looked again, still nope. He’s never gotten comments remotely like that before. A judge doesn’t have to like my horse or score him well, but I do want to be able to at least understand what the judge is seeing. If you said his pasterns are a little long? Yup, I agree with that. Toes out on the RF? Yup, also true. Neither of those things were mentioned, but upright was. I respectfully disagree, which is fine, it’s just weird to hear things that no one else has ever said and that I can’t see myself.

After we trotted the triangle she spent a while discussing how she was surprised that he has a big stride considering how upright his shoulder is, and that he moves uphill  considering how low his neck is set. I mean… his shoulder is maybe a touch straight, but the stride length comes much more from the humerus, and his is quite long and sloped. His stride is huge because of that (for real, you should see him gallop, the kid can cover some ground). The “low set neck” was a little confusing too, since I do have a horse with a low set neck and this one is not it. I think his movement matches his conformation, personally – good and bad. It’s big and he travels slightly uphill, but he’s not naturally very active or underneath himself behind. That’s the weakest part of his movement (and has always been mentioned at his other FEH classes and his breed inspection) but it wasn’t mentioned at all. His trot was his best score, actually (an 8).

So it was just very different from my other experiences, and one that left me scratching my head a bit. I will say that I do appreciate that she took her time and was more conversational, something I know they aren’t really supposed to do but I did kind of like. I might not have agreed with all of it, but I liked having additional words and explanations aside from just whatever fits in the comment box on the scoresheet.

In the end we DID get our qualifying score for Championships, so mission accomplished, and no harm no foul. That was really why we went. I’m still on board with the FEH program and in full support of it’s purpose. I already know who the judges will be for Championships, and I’ve had good experiences with them. Hopefully by then Presto’s current growth spurt will slow down and he’ll look a little less weedy! And, uh… maybe Henry will stop taking huge chunks out of his hide. I’m excited for the opportunity to represent Willow Tree Warmbloods at the Central Championships again, and see some friends and their babies!