I was looking through some story templates on Instagram the other day, and one of them asked about your worst riding injury. There is no way that the tale of MINE would fit in the little place provided, or even on an entire story page. Out of all the things I’ve managed to do to myself, including cracked ribs, a broken tailbone, and a broken elbow, there is one injury in particular that was far far worse than any of those. It occurred to me then that I don’t think I’ve ever told this story here.

Let me set the stage for you.

It must have been somewhere around 2003ish, and I was working as the barn manager at Rising Star Farm. This is when it first started up and was located here in Texas, at a beautiful farm north of Austin. Now they’re in Georgia and have tons of stallions and mares and babies, but back then I think we only had a few mares and may or may not have already purchased the first stallion. We had an OTTB or two that I was working on to resell, and I lived in the apartment above the barn. I also had a little resale pony that a friend and I had picked up unbroke and cheap, as a project. We had named her Lexi, but we really just called her Po (short for pony. I know, you’re impressed with my originality.).

So one day I was riding Po out on a hack around the the farm roads – RSF was surrounded by other horse farms – at a leisurely walk on a loose rein. Po tripped over something, went down to her knees, and came up with a foot having somehow gotten over the reins. She just froze, and I went to jump off so I could safely unbuckle the reins before it turned into a wreck. Here’s where I made my error.

I did not make sure that I had completely cleared the left stirrup before I jumped down. In my haste the stirrup leather got caught between my legs on the way down, and I landed with my full weight, on the metal stirrup, on my crotch. I had somehow kinda slid down the stirrup leather like it was a fire pole, only the stirrup stopped me. In the crotch. Full force. WHAM.

I don’t really know a good way to describe exactly what happened in that moment. The best thing I can say is: imagine what happens when someone gets punched really hard in the mouth and their lip splits open from the sheer force of it. Yeah well, that’s exactly what it did. Except to my lady bits. Across quite a wide area.

I freed the pony from the reins and got back on before quickly realizing that I was bleeding. A LOT. It soaked through my pants within a couple minutes and by the time we got back to the barn there was blood pooling on my saddle. I quickly untacked and ran upstairs to the bathroom to figure out what the heck had happened.

Y’all. It was not a pretty sight. I won’t describe it in detail but lets just say there was tearing, and swelling, and things were ALREADY black and blue. BLACK. REALLY BLACK. In hindsight I definitely needed stitches, but I just mopped up the blood, got the bleeding under control, slathered some ointment on it, and proceeded with my day.

The next week was relatively awful. Wearing pants sucked. peeing sucked, showering sucked. Which… I was the only person working on this farm so I still had horses to take care of and ride. The state of my crotch had no bearing on the things that had to be done every day. I would wait to pee until I literally could not hold it anymore, and showered as little as possible. It stung. It stung real bad. The swelling and the bruising were the worst parts, though… there’s just no way to avoid putting pressure on that area with clothes.

There is still a scar to this day, you can see exactly where I slammed into the junction of leather and stirrup. Out of all the ways I’ve ever hurt myself with horses, nothing has ever been as bad as that. Nothing. It’s also by far the most random way I have ever managed to hurt myself. I didn’t even fall off! I can tell you what though, you never make that mistake twice. I’m very certain to kick completely free of my stirrups before sliding down, even to this day.

Please tell me that someone out there has done something even dumber and worse than this. It’ll make me feel a little better.

A few weeks ago, Presto’s turnout situation changed.

He’s been living with the mini donkeys since he got here last April, mostly because he was an ungelded colt at a boarding barn and it was the only turnout where he could be effectively isolated away from any mares. He never did seem to realize that he was a colt, but still… not taking any chances with that.

Dobby’s turnout buddy left right around the same time Presto was fully healed up from being gelded, so we figured we’d try putting those two together. Dobby is just coming 4, so he’s still young enough to play with Presto a bit, but old enough to put him in his place when necessary too. Presto is extremely submissive to other horses, and Dobby is pretty laid-back, so I hoped they might be a good match.

While Presto seemed much more enthusiastic about Dobby’s presence than Dobby did about Presto, they got along just fine. Dobby wasn’t shy about nipping Presto when he got too annoying, but there was no drama at all. Over the past few weeks I think Presto has kind of grown on Dobby a bit… a first Dobby seemed to think of him as mostly a pest (I mean, he’s not wrong) but I caught them playing Bitey Face a few times. Still, Dobby continued to act like he was a little too good for Presto, and seemed relatively indifferent about his presence. I thought that was great, because it meant you could take each of them out by themselves, leaving the other behind, and neither of them really cared. My biggest concern with all of this was Presto getting herdbound, so I was super happy that Dobby didn’t love him enough to care where he went.

They’ve coexisted really well for a few weeks now. Presto has a couple little chunks missing out of him, but I have no doubt that he deserved them. He’s still very submissive and bottom of the pecking order, but he’s gotten a bit braver and more social and started to test his limits a little bit more.

Last week Bobby brought Cannavaro over to our barn for a couple months of groundwork training. The best turnout option for him seemed to be the pasture with Presto and Dobby, so we decided to try it out as a trio.

First we put Dobby and Cannavaro out together, since we figured they would be the two most likely to have issues. They weren’t immediate best friends, but seemed to have no objections.

Then we put Presto in.

Remember all that indifference Dobby showed towards Presto before? Yeah well, now it turns out that he decided Presto is actually HIS. But Cannavaro thought he might want to stake his claim too. And poor dumb oblivious Presto was just going back and forth between them like “OH MY GOD I GOT ANUDDER BESS FRENN DIS IS THE BESS DAY OF MY LIIIIIFEEEE”. Not a clue that the other two were having a power struggle about which of them got to claim him.

Eventually they seemed to settle on joint custody. Cannavaro and Dobby would maintain a respectable distance from each other, and Presto would take turns grazing next to each of them. I still don’t think that either Cannavaro or Dobby really like him all that much, they just don’t want the other one to have him.

Presto, of course, remains dumb as a box of rocks about these complex herd dynamics. All he knows is that he went from two mini donkeys to two Cool Kids. He’s like the little scrawny freshman nerd that’s been drafted into the group of senior football players and he is having the time of his life.

The arrangement is only a few days old but things seem to be settled and content now. Hopefully Presto will get to play with them a bit and continue to get a little braver in his social interactions. These two guys are definitely much nicer to him than Henry has ever been.

Baby Bets contest participants and baby horse enthusiasts (which, the latter should encompass literally everyone on the planet) will be pleased to know that there’s a new addition at Willow Tree Warmbloods!

Lissa foaled a bay filly (yes I made Michelle count the holes this time!) by Catoki yesterday morning at 6:30am. Her name is Nalah and she’s BIG and healthy, with a star and one hind sock. Also she’s ridiculously cute, because baby horse. But she has big floppy ears too, which y’all know are my favorite.

It was nice of Lissa to wait until I was awake for her water to break, and then for Nalah to be born after I was sitting at my desk at work, watching the camera feed on my computer. The birth was a little stressful in that Nalah first presented with her feet upside down, but quick action from Michelle got her position corrected. Lissa didn’t push much (I swear she is the opposite of Sadie, who rockets those babies out as fast as possible) but Nalah showed some grit by basically trying to crawl out on her own. This girl’s got spirit.

Lissa is recovering well and looks good, and Nalah seems perfectly healthy too. I can’t decide if foaling and the first 48 hours are my favorite part or my least favorite part. It’s so nervewracking, but also pretty amazing.

I can’t wait to see how Nalah bulks up and continues to unfold over the next few days. So far she looks really elegant and leggy and tall, like her dam. I will definitely post more pictures! With two big-time Grand Prix jumper parents, it’s going to be really fun to watch her grow and develop. This one won’t be for sale.

As for the Baby Bets contest, no one guessed the correct foaling date, and only two people got the time correct. We’ve got plenty of folks with points on the board for color, gender, and markings, but this contest is still very much wide open! It’ll all come down to Stormie’s pony foal.

Happy foaling season, everyone, and welcome the WTW family Nalah! Now we’ve got a couple months to wait for the next one.

If you haven’t read parts 1 and 2 and my Mental Game journey/series, you can find them here: The Mental Game Part 1: Awareness    The Mental Game Part 2: Long Hard Road

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So I talked in my last Mental Game post about the book Chop Wood, Carry Water and how much it resonated with me. I’ve highlighted the crap out of that thing, and I carry it with me in my purse like a total weirdo. I really can’t express how much it’s helped me get started on fixing my mental game… it’s given me some focus and direction, and been a real springboard into expanding how I think about and approach all of this. The book can be a little overwhelming because it’s one short, compact lesson after the other, which makes it essentially one large nugget of wisdom. How do you even know where to start? It’s a little like trying to eat a whole pie in one bite. So after I read it through once, I spent a little time thinking about what part jumped out at me most.

I found myself focusing on that particular quote a lot. A big part of changing your mental game is coming to terms with what you can control and what you can’t. The things we can’t control, we have to learn to surrender. But the things we CAN control, which are many, are the things I’m interested in improving. And it starts with the environment I put myself in and the things I choose to do on a daily basis.

Trying to change a mindset that you’ve had for your entire life is hard. It’s a very constant effort, and requires a hell of a lot of thinking and introspection. So I used the above quote as a springboard to take a full inventory, perhaps an even brutally honest one, of exactly what what I’m fueling myself with.

What do I watch? Does it inspire good feeling or bad feelings? Is it something I want to dwell on and devote time to? This can go for TV, the internet, and how I spend my free time. I rarely watch TV anyway, but I do find myself being more careful about what I devote my time to and what types of things I choose to put into my brain and heart. Garbage in = garbage out, so I’m not interested in putting garbage in.

What do I read? Does it leave me with a positive outlook or a negative one? Are they topics I want to dwell on and devote time to? I read A LOT. Usually several books at once – it’s typical for me to have a fiction book, a horse-related non-fiction, and an audiobook, switching back and forth between them. I have noticed that since I started making myself ask the question “Is this the type of subject matter I want to fuel myself with?” before I start a book, I’ve made slightly different choices. I kind of had to chuckle yesterday when I looked through my Kindle books from the last few months. I didn’t intend to choose a bunch of books with strong, badass female main characters, but it kind of just happened. Interesting the choices I find myself making when I’m thinking about it from a different perspective.

What do I listen to? Does it inspire good feelings or bad feelings? Is it something I want to dwell on and devote time to? I mostly listen to podcasts or audiobooks, admittedly. But I actually stopped myself about 10 minutes into one podcast and said “These people are making me feel more like my old self and less like what I’m trying to be” and turned it off. It’s a little fascinating to catch myself thinking about things that way, because that’s definitely new behavior. My audiobook selection has changed a bit too, I’m working down a list of recommended sports psychology/goal mindset type books that sparked my interest. Right now I’m about halfway through the book Mindset by Carol Dweck, which is mostly about fixed vs growth mindset, what they each look like, the impacts they have on people’s lives, and how to change it. It’s been really supplemental to this whole process of self-assessment.

Who I surround myself with – this is a big one. Huge. Do they inspire positivity or negativity? Are they people I want to devote time and energy to? Do they posses qualities that I would like to cultivate in myself? I have a pretty great friend group by now, luckily. I’ve tended to weed out negative people on my own, although since thinking about this I have put some distance between myself and a few people, for various reasons. The biggest change was to my social media. I admit that I’ve unfriended/unfollowed a fair amount of people since I had a real heart-to-heart with myself about this one. If things that they say or do inspire negative feelings in me on any kind of regular basis, they had to go. That included a lot of “big time” equestrian influencers, sometimes through no fault of their own really. But if something about them/the way they present themselves makes me feel the urge to compare myself to them rather than be inspired and uplifted by them, then it wasn’t helping me at all. I’ve followed more riders – riders who are doing things that I want to do in ways that I want to do them – and unfollowed a lot of influencers and brands. And yes, this social media “cleansing” of sorts also included unfollowing some bloggers. I count blogs in my “who” category instead of the “what I read”, because to me it’s a community and you end up feeling like you know the person behind the screen. I find myself gravitating towards the ones who have qualities I’d like to emulate, or that I admire in some way. Maybe later on once all of this is more “set” into my psyche, I can open myself back up again, but for now, I have to guard it closely, so that’s just how it has to be.

How I talk to myself… that’s my other big one. Am I saying things to myself that are helpful? Am I focusing on the negative or am I trying to build on the positive? No one talks to you more than you talk to yourself. I am, and always have been, my own worst critic, which in turn makes me my own worst enemy. It requires a lot of effort on my part to find the positive and focus on that. I say things to myself I would never say to someone else. Why? I don’t know. It’s not constructive. It’s improving, slowly, although really at this point it’s still more like: the negative thing pops into my mind, I realize what I’ve just done, and now I have to turn it into a positive instead. Some days it’s easier, some days I struggle.

And the last point – what I visualize. What kinds of things am I spending my time and energy thinking about? This is an interesting one to me, because I’ve never been one to do much specific visualization. A little here and there, sure, when I’m thinking through a dressage test or a jump course or an XC round, but that’s about it. Lately I’ve made an effort to do this on a more daily basis, especially before I ride, really focusing in on what I’m going to work on and what I want it to feel like and what I need to do in order to get it to feel that way. It’s made me approach my rides from a more cerebral place, and I’ve already started to see the effects.

What I’ve realized most in all of this so far though, is that while this is very much a process about changing ME, it involves everyone and everything I know. I’m not an island, and I’m not immune to the things around me. Everything we see and do and experience molds and shapes who we are. This is especially true when it comes to the people we surround ourselves with and the things we choose to devote our time to.

All of this is still kind of hard right now in that it’s work. Constant effort. A lot of evaluation. It’s uncomfortable. It’s the good kind of work and discomfort, though, the kind that feels really worthwhile because you know it means that things are changing.

Every once in a while I like to circle back around and give updates on things I’ve reviewed, or maybe just thoughts on small things that I didn’t bother doing a full review on. It’s been a while, and a few things are worthy of some follow-up, so here we go.

First up, those Freejump stirrups. I somewhat impulse-purchased the Soft’Up Pro during Black Friday and while my initial thoughts were positive, my long term thoughts are downright glowing. I freaking love these things. They’re so balanced, so comfortable, and so grippy. I have been plagued forever by knee and ankle issues, and now I can’t even remember the last time I actually thought about my knees or ankles while I was riding. I love how they hang, I love the weight, I love how grippy they are. The only annoying thing is that they don’t really stay run-up on the leathers when your saddle isn’t in use. Which is because they naturally really want to hang down where they’re supposed to. I can’t get too grumpy about that. Zero regrets about this purchase.

I also bought a new XC vest right around the same time as the stirrups. I haven’t reviewed this one yet because honestly I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it. After a lot of internet research I bought the Dainese Balios 3. I wanted something comfortable, breathable, BETA 3 approved, and with good coverage of my stomach and collar bone area. A lot of vests really only cover the ribcage, and I want more than that. The Dainese had many excellent reviews in the UK (because of course no one sells it in the US) so I bit the bullet and bought one.

I’m still kind of on the fence. On one hand, the thing is REALLY bulky looking. Like… when I put it on I look as though I’m suited up to go play football. There’s nothing flattering about this thing at all. BUT, on the other hand, it’s still somehow really comfortable. I never would have thought that a bulky vest like this would be as comfortable as it is, but that hexagon construction makes it very flexible. Despite being considerably bulkier, it’s markedly more comfortable than my Airowear was, and it doesn’t feel bulky to wear. It also covers quite a bit more surface area, making me feel a bit safer. Of course, that’s also why it looks bulky. So, ya know… catch 22.

There are pros and cons here. Do I feel well-protected and comfortable? Yes. Do I look like a navy ninja turtle? Also yes.

More recently I’ve been revamping my riding shirt collection. A lot of my Kastels are going on 5 years old, and they are looking really sad and faded and stained. To their credit, they’re still perfectly useable, they just look relatively awful. When I was at the Tack Shack of Ocala I walked around their extensive sunshirt collection, feeling all the fabric and looking at the colors. I’m kind of picky about what I like, and I am also a bit cheap when it comes to sunshirts. I ended up settling on a Tredstep Sun Chic shirt in hunter green, mostly because the shoulder detail was cute, I liked the color, and the price was acceptable. I could not say the same for 95% of the other sunshirts in the store.

I like the Tredstep. The outside fabric is very deceiving because it almost feels cottony, but the underside is silky smooth and REALLY nice. The fit is a little more boxy than I prefer, but it’s a nice shirt. Not as cooling as the Kastels, I don’t think, and I’d rather buy it on sale than pay full price again, but I would buy another. They have a really pretty dark purple.

Then I picked up a couple of Equine Couture Erna shirts at Karen’s recommendation. I’ve not been much a fan of EC stuff in the past, but they always have a 30% off coupon code, so I was ok with risking $35 per shirt. These are interesting because the entire arm and top of the shoulder is mesh. As you might expect, they have pretty fantastic airflow. If the fabric of the body was more like Kastel I would fill my closet up with these things. As it is, I’ve ended up going back and buying one in every color they have (which right now is only black, white, and navy – I’m wearing the navy in the pic above). For $35 I’m pretty darn happy with them. We’ll see how they hold up over time.

I’ve got two sets of tall boots in my collection right now – a pair of Tucci Marilyn’s and a pair of brown Ego 7’s. I’ve reviewed both in detail in the past. It’s really unfair to even compare the two, since the Tucci are high end and the Ego7 are economy. To be honest, I’ve been a bit ruined by the Tucci’s. They’re so comfortable and fit so well and are so pretty. I can wear them all day and it’s no problem. They’re also wearing like iron.

The Ego7’s are fine. I’ve had a couple of issues, first when the zipper puller broke off of the zipper bridge. Both are metal, so I can only assume that I am the Hulk. That was a relatively easy fix at the boot shop, at least. The bigger issue is that the leather under the laces on the right boot has started to disintegrate a bit. If I’d paid the US price of $500 for them I’d probably be upset, but since I paid $250 in Europe, they’re wearing about like I would expect a $250 boot to wear. I love the chocolate color, the sole is still in great shape, and no off-the-rack boot has more fit options, but they’re definitely no Tucci. Granted, they aren’t anywhere near the same price category either.

I kind of think that any other budget boot is going to be underwhelming to me forever now. It’s hard for me to want to wear anything BUT the Tucci’s. Major first world problems.

I’m about at my wit’s end with quarter sheets. They are not particularly easy to shop for when all of your saddles are monoflap and you also live in a warm place where you are guaranteed to have to remove said quarter sheet after your warmup. Early last fall I picked up a Shires on clearance, after selling the previous one (who’s brand I can’t remember) that I also bought on clearance. I purchased the previous one because it was basically just a nylon shell with nylon lining – no fleece. But it was so lightweight that it got whipped all over the place by our insane Texas wind.

The Shires had a lining (granted it’s fleece, which I’ve always hated, so I kind of did this to myself) so I was hoping it would be heavier and stay put. Yes it’s heavier (real freakin heavy) but the stupid fleece lining makes it stick to the horse and then get pulled toward the back when they move. I can’t get the damn thing to stay on unless I strap it down completely underneath the saddle. And if I put it under the saddle then I can’t remove it while I’m riding, which makes it basically useless in my climate. Even if I put it on top of the saddle and sit on the damn thing, it goes flying off the back as soon as we trot or canter. I’m about to just give up on quarter sheets, considering the only one I’ve ever loved was the wool PS of Sweden one that Henry outgrew. And then when PSoS finally came out with more they changed the style. Still pouting.

We’re past quarter sheet season now so I’m going to let my angst die down a bit before I start looking around again for more options, but the Shires is a fail.

Anything else I’ve bought or reviewed in the past couple years that y’all want updates on? I tend to lose track of things…