Ready or not, winter season has officially started in Ocala. All the snowbirds are trickling in, the circuit shows have kicked off, and suddenly the calendar is full to bursting. Depending on how you feel about all that, it’s either annoying or exciting.

It also means a return of the Great Seasonal Side Hustle for me, because we definitely do like extra money. Last year I mostly worked at HITS, which is my preference between the two major h/j facilities here. The vibes are better, the parking is close and easy, and the vendor area is near a couple food options. As a vendor, those are selling points. This year, however, the store is doing something a little different. We have 3 locations in Ocala – a really nice cabin at WEC over by the hunter rings with all the latest and greatest, a clearance trailer at WEC up by the vendor village with literally everything inside 15-50% off, as well as a trailer at HITS. Since my hours of availability are the least predictable and consistent, I’m in the clearance trailer at WEC this year. Which, let’s be real, is probably the best place for me anyway. Who loves a good deal more than me? Literally no one.

The downsides are that parking at WEC is a literal nightmare and there’s nowhere for me to get food anywhere nearby. Also, the WiFi blows (to be fair it also blows at HITS… and in this entire town, really…). The clearance trailer is kind of fun though, since discounting stuff always makes people happy. Also, one of our customers has the cutest corgi puppy. Bonus.

This is also the time of year where everyone starts to come visit, so it seems like friends are always trickling through, and I have a couple business meetings set up next month with people I’ve only ever talked to on the phone or through Zoom.

Things are also back in full swing with riding, too. I started up lessons again this week, and I’ve got a clinic and a show on the calendar for this month. I’m trying very hard not to think about the fact that we’re less than two months from foaling season… the first mare hits 320 days in mid-February and after that they’re pretty much all just bambambam one after the other through mid-May. We’ve got 9 expected foals this year, which sounds relatively terrifying because 6 felt like a lot last year.

I guess I should do a post on what all foals we’re expecting, in case anyone is thinking about adding a cute little baby horse family member to their herd this year. You know you want one. We all want one right? Of course we do. Baby horses are fun (mostly).

Anyway, on to more fun things. Bingy boy and Presto have both been in regular work, gearing up for the season. Presto got a bit of a chill time/mini hack vacay around Christmas and New Years since I knew we’d be hitting the ground running in January. Bingo has mostly just been chipping away at the basics. Like learning to go straight, the beginning of lateral work, transitions and half halts, etc. He’s pretty clever, and gets better ride over ride.

He’s naturally pretty well-balanced but was very crooked when we started and, like most racehorses, is a bit stuck in the base of his neck and wants to do everything with this weight down in his shoulders. That’s the way they run, after all. He is a very big and long horse so it’ll take him some time to build up the muscle and ability to truly carry himself from behind, but he’s starting to understand what I’m asking and shows glimmers of it now and then. He’s naturally quite well balanced and definitely has the ability to be uphill, so I think as soon as we get the “shoulders up” concept and muscling established, he’s gonna be fancy on the flat. I haven’t really done much jumping at home aside from trotting and cantering cavaletti… I’m alone most of the time and it’s difficult to start one over fences without a ground person to set things and pick up rails, so I’ve been holding off on much of that.

As of this week we’re back in our regular lesson schedule. Presto had a jump lesson on Monday, which was rusty at best.

I haven’t jumped a course on him since mid-November, aside from XC schooling, so I was honestly expecting him to be a little wild and wooly. Presto was the opposite. A little TOO quiet, and behind my leg. We finished up better than we started, but we’ve got another lesson scheduled for today to try to polish that back up a bit more. My trainer is hosting a Tom McEwen clinic next week and I signed up for a private dressage lesson plus both the SJ day and the XC day, so Presto will be busy. Hopefully we’re back in sync by then.

As for Bingo, he had his first training ride on Tuesday, which was very exciting. I’m maybe like 5 weeks into actual retraining with him, and the past two weeks are the first ones where he’s done more “working” than hacking. He’s still pretty brand new to all of this, but I really wanted my trainer to sit on him because 1) she’s a much better rider than I am, and can help him understand things more clearly 2) obvi I wanted to see what she thought of him.

He loaded and traveled great, and while he was definitely wide-eyed and interested at all the activity (their place always has a lot happening, it’s overstimulating to the max compared to our very quiet life here at our home farm) he was reasonably behaved. Trainer did some groundwork with him, which he was mostly good for but tried a couple times to bolt and exit the arena, so she went absolutely skiing. He eventually gave up and focused and decided that maybe he could circle her politely after all.

She got on him for maybe 10 minutes at the end and he was foot-perfect for that. He trotted and cantered and did his transitions and was straight and relaxed. A+ for sure. She said he felt really straight and even, and especially liked his canter. We’re on the same page there.

After she was done I untacked him and grazed him by the ring for a while so he could take in more of the activity, and by that point he was very settled. He loaded back up like a champ and ta-da, first training ride in the books. I think the goal will be one a week, and then we’ll kinda see how things go week by week from there. The first one was kind of a “let’s see where we’re at” so we can make a plan for him going forward. The big thing at this point is obviously just strength. All of what we’re asking is brand new to him.

Patreon folks, you have video of him on your dashboard, and I’ll try to get some video up from every training ride so you can see the progression. Sometimes I set up my Pivo at home to get some footage of me riding him too… the goal is to document his journey pretty clearly from the start, so hopefully the change will be fun to watch over time!

One other fun happening that I’m finally able to announce publicly – I was invited to join, and elected to the Retired Racehorse Project Board of Directors. They have some really interesting ideas as far as breeding, registration, databases, pedigree tracking, etc so I was approached due to my history with those things. I’m very honored to have been asked and looking forward to seeing what we can do over my two year term!

Time is FLYING, it feels hard to believe that it’s already been almost two months since Bingo got to Florida!

He arrived on November 11th, and his transition from race mode to sport mode has been, knock on wood, relatively uncomplicated so far. New shoes, ulcer treatment, 24/7 turnout with 24/7 forage, massage, magnawave, chiropractic adjustment, daily stretches, and learning how to move and carry his body differently… he’s already started to morph into a new animal.

Here are pics from November 4, his retirement day:

And these pictures are from December 20th, so 6 weeks off the track and 5 weeks in Florida.

I think it’s safe to say that the off-track life definitely suits him!

He still needs another 50-100lbs of weight and has PLENTY more frame to fill out with muscle, so I can’t wait to see how he keeps developing. He’s going to be massive when all is said and done, I think. He’s just turning 6 at the end of March so there’s still a bit more development to come, in every regard (he really doesn’t need to get taller tho please… he’s tall enough…).

I’m also pleased with how he’s coming along under saddle so far. The first couple weeks were a mess of tangled limbs, body parts going different directions, and tripping all over himself and everything in his path. He’s gotten better week over week, and is starting to feel a) stronger b) straighter c) like he’s beginning to have the slightest little inklings to push and carry (listen, the moments are fleeting, but they do happen).

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We’ve got a very long way to go, of course, but considering that half of his rides are just walk hacks, I think he’s starting to put things together pretty well.

On Christmas Bingo went on his first off-property adventure, just a quiet hack around a local XC venue, and he was a little superstar. It took him a few minutes to believe he could walk in the water and not drown, but once he was in he seemed to have fun.

I’m hoping I can get him to a lesson or training ride this month to keep the progress rolling!

I’m a bit stumped at how to even begin to write a 2025 wrap up post, or what to say. For I while I decided I just wouldn’t say anything at all, and intended to let the end of the year pass without fanfare. Ultimately, though, that didn’t feel right either. Y’all know by now that I’m not a woman of few words (how many times do you think my editors have asked me to shorten something?).

I turned 42 years old this year – my favorite number. The nerds among us that have read or seen The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (if you haven’t I will pause here to insist you go culture yourself immediately) will recognize the number 42. In the story, people build a supercomputer called Deep Thought, and ask it to figure out the meaning of life, the universe, and everything in it (side note, this book is from 1979 but that sure is sounding reminiscent of how so many people use modern day AI, is it not?). After 7.5 million years of computing, Deep Thought spits out the answer to the ultimate question: 42. The significance or lack thereof when it comes to the number 42 is never explained in the story, and people have been debating it ever since.

Personally I’ve always found that answer to be amusing, and deeply satisfying. It embodies the idea that the meaning of life is whatever you want it to be… it’s what you make it. It certainly isn’t for someone or something else to figure out for you. In April I had the number 42 tattooed on the back of my leg, and I dunno how to explain it, but I just had a sense that this year would be one of clarity for me. (am I getting more woo woo with age? Perhaps. Please do not ask questions about my Tiger’s Eye necklace, it’ll make me seem even more like a feral bog witch than I already do)

In every way, that feels like exactly what happened. I learned A LOT this year. About myself, about the world we live in, about the systems we’re part of (for better or worse), about my role in it, and about what really “fills my cup”, so to speak. Authenticity has always been incredibly important to me, and although I tend to keep my cards pretty close to my chest (my close friends really deserve awards for persevering enough to actually get to know me), I do feel like I’ve become more and more authentically myself as I’ve gotten older. I used to fear aging, and now I find myself embracing it. The bullshit really does start to fade away over time.

But the process of that – it’s not always great. It’s uncomfortable. I could probably try to throw some kind of motivational quote at you about how everything you want is just on the other side of discomfort or blah blah blah. Don’t worry, I won’t do that to you because it would irritate the shit out of me, too. The truth is that some changes – the ones that aren’t really physically SEEN – almost feel more like a reckoning. They shake you to your core. For me, someone who has a very hard time being vulnerable and is slow to understand/process my own feelings… this year has seen some hard days. I’ve spent a lot of time questioning literally everything.

This year I saw things in our federal government, local and online communities, and equestrian governing bodies that I cannot unsee or dismiss. I simultaneously feel like I know too much but not enough. 2025 was one of those that said “do we take the easy way out and just give up, or do we stand up and fight in whatever ways we can?”. I choose the latter.

I’ve done a lot this year to cultivate my life to reflect what I want to see, hear, and embody. I unfollowed social media accounts that don’t align with my values. I stopped shopping at some stores and websites. I cancelled A LOT of accounts with businesses that were using my money in ways I don’t agree with. I started actively searching out companies and people that feel true to ME and what I stand for. It’s easy to feel like you’re just one person and one person doesn’t make a difference, but MANY people sure do, and you can’t get many unless you start with one.

In all the ways that 2025 sometimes felt like living in a house on fire, there were still plenty of highlights for the reel.

• My second-gen homebred that very nearly didn’t make it past the first two weeks of his life moved up to Preliminary, and did the 1.20m jumpers at WEC. And while of course those things are fun little checkboxes to tick, really I learned just how much I love this horse, even when he sometimes makes it difficult to do so. He brings joy to my life every single day, and that’s the part you can’t capture in a social media highlight reel.
• I figured out that truly, I like the process of learning more than I like competing. I’ve always had an on again/off again relationship with competition, but this year was the first time since I was a kid that I was actually able to be in a consistent lesson and training program all year long. Honestly, that’s the part that keeps me going. For me it’s just FUN to learn, and to see my horses get better. Competing is fun too, and definitely has it’s place in my world and probably always will, but it’s not what fuels or fulfills me.
• I got to see my top 4 FAVORITE bands/artists in concert (Bad Omens, Sleep Token, Billie Eilish, and Motionless in White), and share the experience with some of my bestest friends. Music is incredibly important to me, so this was big. I dunno if it’s the neurodivergence, but music and lyrics have always helped me understand myself and connect to people, especially the music of those particular artists.
• My business has taken off such that, for the first time since I started, I’m currently not taking on new clients for 2026.
• I found that when I started to shut the door on things that don’t align with who I am, other opportunities found me. Potentially big ones, and ones that give me a feeling of ongoing purpose. I’m understanding more and more just how precious TIME is, and I want to spend it wisely and meaningfully. There’s so much potential for big and purposeful change in our industry, and these could be opportunities for me to take some of that disillusionment I’ve felt this year and turn it into something positive. (We love being a do-er and not just a complainer, amiright?)

But most importantly of all, when I think back on the moments that added the most value to my life this year, it really wasn’t the accomplishments or the achievements on the highlight reel. It was the moments that held a lot of deeper meaning. Like the moment the curtain dropped at the Sleep Token concert (that my crazy ass flew to SEATTLE for) and simultaneously my friend belted out a series of squawks that could only be described as cockatoo-esque. Or the time when the maiden mare didn’t lay down during labor and it took three of us to get that slippery gooey dolphin of a foal safely into the world (a truer and slimier bonding experience does not exist, lemme tell ya). Or hacking around the farm after a particularly challenging horse show and realizing that this – getting to ride horses that I love, live in a place that I find to be incredibly beautiful, do life with people that add meaning to it, and admittedly sometimes participate in some exceptionally weird shit – those are the things that make up my 42.

For that, 2025, I thank you.

From my merry little band of misfits 🎄

I think I’m almost fully recovered enough from the whirlwind week that was Black Friday to return to a somewhat normal posting schedule. Between all my jobs I worked an insane number of hours that week, and the last two weeks were pretty busy too. I’ve got a lot of catch-up to do I suppose, since the last post I had pre-BF was about the arrival of Bingo, who has now been here for over a month. Henry and Presto have been up to some fun stuff too!

First and foremost, I had some lessons with Presto in the first part of November, but otherwise my trainer is traveling for the rest of the year. We were able to fit in a couple jump lessons and a flat lesson before she left though, which left us with plenty to work on in the meantime. I’ve also taken him XC schooling a couple times, and popped over to a POP show to run just a Training XC round.

We’ve mostly been maintaining, but also with very low pressure. I’m in need of a little mental refresh just as much as he was, I think, so while we’re still doing work (like the walk-canter and canter-walk transitions in particular) it’s very much on a “what do we feel like doing today” kind of schedule. Vibes. We’re operating on vibes.

I’m honestly not even sure what 2026 will look like for us, and at the moment I truthfully don’t care. We’re just gonna go with the flow and see what we both want to do. I wrote a piece on EN about how a lot of the latest events have been affecting my mental state when it comes to this sport as a whole, and I’m still kind of in the “taking time to reflect” stage. I’m certain that we’ll be out competing this year in some format, I just really can’t tell you at this moment what that’s going to look like. And honestly, that’s a little bit freeing.

Presto and I have been nose to the grindstone for years now. We’re definitely going to stay in our lesson and training program as we head into the new year – I think I enjoy lessons the most out of everything we do – but as for the rest of it… we’ll see. If 2025 has shown me anything, it’s that this horse’s happiness and my relationship with him are always going to be what matters most, even if that means I have to be more flexible with my thoughts and plans and expectations. There are so many options here in Ocala, I don’t have to be so dead-ass tied to one in particular.

As for Bingo, he’s settled in like an absolute champ.

Really, he’s been an utter delight so far. He was pretty reserved and in-his-shell when he got here, but he’s starting to show more and more of his personality by the day. At first he just kind of went very stoic and still at any interaction, but now he’s been coming up to me in the pasture, nickering for his nightcheck cookies, learning to smile, and showing interest in the things he’s learning. He’s a quiet boy, a thinking type, but he’s actually quite smart. I’ve not asked anything major of him yet, he’s still learning the very basics of how to bend his body and move his parts around. He got introduced to three trot poles in a row this week, and cantered his first pole. He’s been on lots of hacks and really likes exploring things around the farm – he’s a pretty curious type of guy. Even if he thinks something is scary he’s the type to stop and look at it and then want to go inspect it, rather than just panic and flee the scene.

I’m had him on miso and ulcergard since he arrived (he legit was like a walking list of ulcer symptoms) and we’re tapering off those now. He was very very girthy when he got here and did not want to be brushed at all, and now he’s happy to be brushed, much less girthy, eating a lot better, etc etc. He saw my vet for the first time earlier this week when she came for a chiro appointment, which seemed like a good way to get her hands and eyes on him for the first time. She watched him jog, checked all his acupuncture points, felt his joints, etc and then got to work.

Having had my own hands and eyes on him now for the last month, and having ridden him and done carrot stretches and all that, I guessed that his neck might be the biggest area of focus and I was correct. She spent a lot of time loosening up and adjusting around C4, and he had a nice release afterwards. Otherwise, it was a largely unremarkable session in a good way. He wasn’t particularly sore anywhere muscularly, nothing else was really out of alignment, his back feels good, and the only acupuncture points that he showed much sensitivity to were for the front feet. There’s nothing obvious going on there that she could see, so I might try to sync up my vet and farrier in the next appointment or two to get some farrier rads and see if there’s anything that might need some support. And ya know, we’ll see how his body is looking and feeling at his next chiro.

I was very pleased with his behavior for his appointment, though. I was a bit worried he might be grumpy and bitey about it, given how he was when he first came (if I even just ran my hands over his belly he pinned his ears) but he was actually superb. Add an A+ to his report card for his vet appointment too. Next on the docket will be massage and teeth.

As for Henry, he’s also had a little bit of excitement this month. He got to go foxhunting!

It’s been years since I’ve taken him hunting, and I’ve been wanting to get out with the local hunt literally since I moved here but it just hasn’t happened. They had their annual Christmas hunt last weekend and Kathleen and I decided it was finally time to attend. The boys both had a blast. Henry was absolutely vibrating for the first part of it, he knew exactly what was up.

The hunt is Misty Morning Hounds, which is only about 30 minutes from me. It’s 500 gorgeous acres, and they drag hunt, meaning they lay scent down for the hounds to follow rather than actually hunting or chasing any animals. We much prefer that, yes? It’s also nice since you can plan the route and the distance, so not only did we get to go through a range of scenery and over lots of jumps, but we also got regular breaks. Kind of perfect for Henry, who is about to be 19 but remains convinced that he’s 5.

Everyone was really nice and welcoming and it was just a lovely way to spend a Saturday morning. We will be back! Honestly I think Bingo could hunt, but that might be something for him for next season rather than this one.

As for Rubes, he found his perfectly ideal person and left for his new home in Tennessee a few weeks ago. He’s already very very spoiled (his standard, really) and I’m delighted to know that he’s in great hands. Moving him on to a different climate was a very hard decision that I agonized over for months, but I think it was the right call for him and I’m excited to see what he does with his new mom. She’s keeping up with his facebook page, so you can still follow him there!