Alright come on, fess up, what are the things that are driving you extra crazy lately? Let’s call this Twitchy Tuesday and we can all commiserate with each other over the things that are threatening to slowly drive us insane.

Leaving halters attached to cross ties

If you’re the only person in the barn, then sure… I guess. I mean I still hate it but if you’re alone at least it’s not affecting anyone. But if you’re one of many at a barn, and one of many that uses a set of crossties, please for the love of god, when you bridle your horse, unclip the halter from the crossties and hang it up. If you hang the halter up with a crosstie still attached, I have to resist the urge to chuck your halter in the poop pile every time I unhook it. One of these days I’m going to give in to the urge. And if you leave the halter on the GROUND with the crosstie attached, you’re getting a throatpunch from the safety police before I chuck the halter in the poop pile.

Bit keepers put on incorrectly

I don’t know why this one is so common but it seems like at least 50% of the time that a horse is wearing a full cheek, the bit keepers are on too low. When they’re too low, they aren’t doing anything, so you may as well take them off and live the daredevil lifestyle. Keeper, at the top, sitting just under the “knob” = things can’t get caught on the cheek of the bit. If you don’t like the angle of the mouthpiece when the keeper is at the top, perhaps a d-ring would be a better choice. I’ve seen what happens when a horse gets a full cheek caught on something, so maybe I’m overly sensitive about it, but trust me when I tell you that it’s not a thing you want to witness. Ever. That incident happened when I was a kid and I still remember every vivid detail (and the lecture that every single person in the entire barn got from my trainer afterward). Thank goodness it wasn’t my horse or I’d have been even more scarred. Know and understand your equipment.

“Friends” constantly trying to sell me shit on my personal social media

Dude. If one more person tries to sell me Rodan & Fields or Lipsense, I’m going to lose it. You want to sell that stuff, great (I’m all about that side hustle), but please post about it once, maaaaaybe twice, and then take it to another account or a group with all the people that were interested. Constantly bombarding your “friends” to try to sell them something is really freaking irritating. To the point where pretty much everyone on my friends list who sells that sort of stuff has been unfollowed. It’s like Avon on crack.

People who can’t measure jumps

If you post a picture of your horse jumping X height and then claim that it’s Y height, you look dumb. Like… I have eyeballs. I know your standards are not 7′ tall. That middle hole is not 3’6″. If you have 4′ standards and you’re 3 holes from the top, it’s not 4′. Measuring isn’t hard. You can even make your own measuring stick! Everyone should have one of those anyway.

Black backgrounds with white text

Speaking of eyeballs, maybe I’m showing my age here but am I the only one whose eyeballs physically hurt from trying to read white text on a black background? There are a few blogs I’d like to read but can’t, because my old lady eyes are dying after the first paragraph. White backgrounds are your friend. Be kind to old ladies.

 

 

First of all, there is a crapton of media in this post. I probably could have broken it up into two, but… happy Monday.

Second of all, Sadie is still over a month away from having her Diarado foal and she already looks like she’s going to explode. Laken’s milk test says that she’s gonna have hers within the next couple days, so BABIES ARE COMING.

Third of all, I haven’t seen Presto since last September, and he’s definitely transitioned from foal to baby horse in that time. He is lanky and long and has way more leg than he knows what to do with at the moment. One of the first things I did was string test him, since he’s almost a year old now and those tests should start being pretty accurate. They were totally accurate with Sadie, anyway, far more so than the general “add two hands to yearling height” method. I never believed her string tests, but lo and behold if she didn’t grow to exactly the height they predicted. So I grabbed some twine and a tape measure and decided to just go ahead and use the two methods that had predicted Sadie’s height so accurately. First, the measurement from the coronary band up to the middle of the knee (idea being that however many inches this is, that’s their final height – so like 16.25″ would be 16.1h, 16.5″ would be 16.2h, 16.75″ would be 16.3h, etc)…

I checked that 3 times to make sure I was definitely going from the right place to the right place, and yeah… it’s definitely 17″.

Then I did the other method, taking his elbow to ergot measurement, doubling it, and adding four. That got us this:

Yep, 17 again. They both agree. I was kinda hoping for more like 16.2h, but I guess Sadie likes to throw her elephant height. I did stick him and he’s only 14.2h, so if you use the “add two hands to yearling height” method, then that’s 16.2h. Granted, Sadie herself was 14h at yearling height and ended up 17h by 6 years old. It seems to be a slow-growing family. I guess time will tell! Either way, he’s definitely on track for 16.2h to 17h.

I banged his little tail, which really was just taking about 1″ of gross yellow ends off to make it sorta even, and then chopped off his mane. Long mane on scrawny yearling neck just is not at all attractive, trust me.

He was also really really really incredibly hairy.

I’m not sure I’ve seen a coat like that outside of a shetland or mini. It was thick, it was plush, and it was long. He literally had dreadlocks behind his elbows. I couldn’t tell how much of him was hair. I was mostly thinking “Is his head really that blocky or is it hair? I don’t remember it looking like that???”. I really didn’t want to body clip him, but even after an hour of grooming not much hair had come off. And it was 85 degrees. He was hot underneath all that. So we dragged him into the barn and sheared him like a sheep.

This is now the second body clip this horse has gotten in his lifetime. Apparently I should just get used to clipping all the time, because between him and Henry I think it’s going to be constant. Presto didn’t really mind the clipping part at all, but every few minutes he’d start screaming for his friends (being inside the barn alone is terrifying, y’all) and swing himself around. He gave up for a while, and then by the time I was on his legs he started losing his patience a lot more, so he got to keep his little legwarmers from the knee/hock down and his face hair because I don’t need to die over this, thanks.

He was feeling pretty fancy on his way back out, though, and all the mares had to come running over to check out his hair cut. He was more than happy to show it off.

His little QH friend Murphy was pretty fascinated by how we transformed his yak friend into a sleek giraffe.

We left him alone for the afternoon (he was quite done with me by this point, poor kid) and then got him back out that evening to take some pictures.

He basically went straight to the fenceline to trot back and forth in front of everyone in the paddocks.

Then he realized there was a really fun water puddle and he proceeded to first leap over it a couple times…

And then splash and stomp his way through it.

Then he had to take a few (screaming) victory laps.

Then we stuck Murphy out with him so they could be idiots together.

The next morning, of course, a cold front blew through. What was only supposed to be mid to upper sixties turned into mid 50’s with a ridiculous wind, so I dug through the barn to find an old pony blanket. I tossed it on him, let him run a few angry laps of his paddock, and then adjusted everything.

He was not a fan. At all. I sat up on the fence to watch him for a while and he mostly just stood there and glared at me. Every few minutes he’d reach down and try to pull it off, then Murphy would come up and pull on a strap. That just made Presto stand there looking mad again. Henny’s mare glare ain’t got nothing on Presto’s. I have a feeling he’ll be looking at me like that a lot.

 

Luckily (I guess?) It’ll be back up in the mid-upper 80’s by Wednesday, so he only has to tolerate the blanket for a couple days.

The tentative plan is that he’ll get gelded this week, and then I’ll come pick him up on my way back from Texas Rose at the end of the month. It’s not really on the way at all, but it just adds like 4 hours of extra journey instead of a whole extra 10-hour round trip, and he’ll have Henry in the trailer for.. um… emotional support?

So really, as long as all goes according to plan, just a few more weeks and he’ll be home! Then I can start torturing him on a daily basis. Poor kid.

My first recognized show entry of the season went in the mail this morning, which means it’s officially that time again: show season! Well, ok, there have already been shows going on all winter, because Texas, but it’s the first recognized show of the season. Well, ok, that’s not true either, because the first recognized show of the season is next weekend and I can’t go because one of SO’s friends is getting married. People. Stop getting married.

So that means our first recognized of the season will be Texas Rose at the end of the month. Since I just sent off my TR entry this morning, I kinda cut it close there considering closing date is Tuesday. Typically I don’t wait that late, I know that’s annoying to organizers. I just couldn’t really commit until after our XC schooling. TR is a big ask for the first show, so I wanted to see how he felt. Beast mode seems fully engaged, so off the entry goes.

The next entry to go in the mail will be Holly Hill. I was majorly waffling on this one, because Trainer isn’t going and neither is basically anyone else I know. It’s also in Louisiana, which is a far haul with my trailer. But dammit, Holly Hill is my favorite venue and I didn’t get to go to either of their shows last year due to various conflicts. I’ve been dying to run their Training course since I first laid eyes on it two years ago, so I’m going this time even if it means I’m going alone. I don’t get to do that many recognized shows, so I’m gonna do the ones I want come hell or high water (please no high water, my horse is not a mudder).

After that I have no idea what our season will look like. Ideally I’d like to go up to Willow Draw for their One Day, since we haven’t shown there before, but with Presto coming home and me wanting to take him to a couple Future Event Horse shows, there might not be enough room in the budget for a third recognized for Henry this spring. We’ll definitely do the fundraiser derby at Pine Hill in May, and then maaaaaaaaaaybe the schooling HT at MeadowCreek in June if the weather isn’t already 100 degrees. That’s always iffy.

like, really though, it was hot as balls last year

Beyond that I’ve been a little hesitant to try to plan the rest of the year. There may be some major life changes on the docket, and I don’t really know yet what impact that will have. I really wanted to try to do something farther-away (because driving 4-6 hours to events isn’t enough for me I guess?) like Colorado or Kentucky, but I’m seeing that as fairly unlikely as of right now.

I’m guessing that most of our miles will come from smaller shows, closer to home. I’d like to do more Prelim CT’s, and some jumper shows. We need to work on all that. I’d really love to try our hand at a Prelim derby, if one presents itself as being workable. The green number stuff doesn’t look that terrifying anymore. Which is a weird observation in and of itself, coming from me.

Overall I think we’ll adopt last years planning method of “wherever the road may take us” and just see what happens past June. That was liberating.

Anybody else got their show season mapped out (or… mapped out-ish) yet?

If you didn’t read the title to the tune of Bennie and the Jets I’m gonna need you to go back and start over. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

So anyway, now that everyone will have that song stuck in their heads for the rest of the day, let us continue.

Four years ago, when I first got Henry. he inherited a lot of things from his “sister” Sadie. One of those things was her slow feed hay net.

Sadie was a total garbage disposal, plus she liked to pee in her hay, so she ate out of the slow feed net pretty much every day. It basically just slowed her rate of consumption to that of a normal horse, and made for less waste. When I got Henry he seemed much more normal (HA), and he was at a different barn that had way too many horses for the worker to be stopping to fill a hay net unless there was a really good reason. So Sadie’s everyday slow feed hay net got relegated to being Henry’s trailer/show hay net… basically the only times a hay net was needed for him.

The only problem is that, well, Henry is not the brightest crayon in the box. He’s also extremely impatient. Add those two things together and he just literally could not with that hay net. He couldn’t figure out how to eat from it, and the fact that he could only get a few bits of hay at a time seemed to infuriate him more than anything else. Eventually he’d just quit trying and go stand in the corner and sulk. When a horse won’t eat out of the hay net, it makes said hay net kind of moot.

So I went and got him just a regular hay net, with larger openings.

This seemed to do the trick, at least as far as a) holding hay b) the horse being capable of eating out of it. He did tend to drop a lot of hay in the floor of my trailer though, so I briefly experimented with a hay bag, thinking that one opening might control that a little better.

For a horse that was so incredibly dumb about the slow feed net, it took him all of 5 seconds to figure out how to wiggle his nose into the top of the bag and not come up for air again until all the hay was gone. Like for real he had chunks of hay in his nose. This is undesirable for obvious reasons.

Back to the regular net we went.

That one has served us well for the past few years, but last week when I was getting the trailer ready for our drive to Texas Rose, I noticed that the net was… moldy. I think it must have gotten wet at some point and then sat in the trailer getting nice and toasty. My bad. I was going to take it home and wash it thoroughly but the more I looked at it, the more disgusting it was. AND I have a horse that is super sensitive to mold. AND I was kind of in the eleventh hour, I didn’t really have time to wash it and get it totally dry before we had to go. As much as I hate Dover, they’re the only gig in town and I needed it RIGHT NOW, so down I schlepped to see what they had. Really I wanted one like this one, but their selection is always a little hit or miss.

Yeah no. What they had was a buttload of slow feed nets, in about 10 different varieties. After standing there staring at them grumpily for a few minutes, I just picked the sturdiest-looking one with the biggest openings (that wasn’t a hideous plaid) , hoping Henry could figure it out.

I also unwittingly stumbled into a big seasonal sale, which caused me to temporarily lose sanity and somehow that trip into the store for a hay net turned into a hay bag, show shirt, horse treats, belt, ornament, and U7 paste. Sigh.

Anyway, I was out of time so I tossed the hay in the bag, tossed the horse in the trailer, and hoped he’d figure it out on the way.

Yeah no, we got about 2 hours in before I could see him pawing and smashing his head against the bag. I needed gas anyway so I turned into the next gas station and started pulling chunks of hay partway through all the gaps in the webbing, hoping it would get him started. That did help, but this horse is not winning any awards anytime soon for his brains. In a 4 hour trailer ride he managed to eat maybe half a flake of hay. And he was pissed.

When we got there I decided to leave the hay in the bag and hang it up in his stall, hoping that if it was his only option overnight he would have no choice but to figure the stupid thing out. When I came back a couple hours later to check on him, he had indeed made a lot of progress.

Granted, every few minutes he would pin his ears and try to smash the shit out of the bag in frustration, but he was still eating out of it. No retreating to the corner to sulk, like he did with the slow feed net.

By morning he’d eaten almost all the hay that was in there, and on the trailer ride home he spent pretty much the whole ride sneaking little bites out of it. It wasn’t a consistent or coordinated effort, but no more getting mad and pawing, at least. I’m hesitant to say for sure that he’s definitely figured it out, but at least there was progress. I do like the fact that there was almost no hay wasted in the floor of the trailer, and the hay actually lasted through the trip.

Will this hay bag get to stick around for the long haul? That is yet to be seen, but maybe. I need to use it a few more times to see if he keeps figuring it out or if he just gives up.

Poor Henny. Life is hard, but it’s even harder when you’re not that bright.

I finally had a chat with the barn owner the other day where we formally finalized the details of bringing Presto down. Well… ish. I still don’t know exactly when he’s coming, but we narrowed it down to a general time frame, picked out his stall, whiddled his turnout pasture options down to 2, and settled on a price. All the basic stuff.

Of course, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a yearling in my care. 10 years, to be precise. I’ve had to really wrack my brain to figure out what, if anything, I will need for him that I don’t already have.

He doesn’t need tack yet, of course, so it’s really just a halter and lead rope. I’ve got a rope halter sitting aside waiting for him for everyday use, and I’ve got about a million and one lead ropes scattered around various trunks because I’m one of those people that thinks there’s no such thing as too many. All of the thick-cotton-with-bolt-snap variety, naturally, because yeah I’m picky about lead ropes too. I thought about buying him his own new lead rope in whatever color I pick for him but I couldn’t decide. Will he continue the navy theme from Henry? I don’t know. Am I putting waaaay too much thought into a lead rope for a yearling, which will probably end up broken or lost? Omg yes. So for now he uses the spares.

I do plan on ponying him from Henry, though, and for that I really want him to wear boots. I’m pretty certain that all of Henry’s will be too big for him right now so I figured I’d just grab him some cheap used cob-size brushing boots and calling it a day. I still haven’t come across just the right set, though. For now he is bootless.

I did pick up a used surcingle, because I’ll need that eventually. Side reins can come later. All of that stuff is a couple years away still.

He already has his own brushes, plus Henry has about a billion.

I mean, really… what else does a baby horse need?

Oh, I did go ahead and get his Future Event Horse outfits together. I bought the halter and bridle last fall during Black Friday sales – a black Kavalkade Ivy halter and brown Kavalkade Ivy bridle. Naturally I had to buy leather lead shanks to go with these because we are not showing up at FEH with a non-leather shank… if he’s going to look like a mule he’s at least going to be a well-dressed mule, dammit. I had an amazon gift card to spend anyway, so I picked up a black and chrome plain leather shank (I already have a chrome chain if he needs one) to match the halter and a brown newmarket shank to match the bridle. All of these things are currently sitting in the guest bedroom, looking adorable.

The only part I’m still really hung up on and completely indecisive about is what to feed him. I spent a while waffling back and forth between a ration balancer plus alfalfa pellets vs a commercial feed, but I think commercial feed makes more sense for our situation. I think he’ll need the calories, and at a big boarding barn it’s just a lot easier if there is a) one feed, b) it doesn’t require soaking. So now I’m debating between Triple Crown Growth and Bluebonnet Intensify Growth and Development. I’ve even started a spreadsheet to compare them. Who am I, Olivia???

Right now he’s also on Stride Transform, a supplement that I love and would like to keep him on but holy god it is expensive. There’s just no way I can justify another $100 a month for a supplement on top of everything else. So I need to see what all the feed will cover, and if I need to try to find another supplement that can fill in for the Transform. Or not, if he doesn’t need it. Currently driving myself completely crazy over this, trying to figure out the best choices that also aren’t stupid expensive. I just… I know he got a bad start in life and I know he’s still probably not quite 100% up to where a normal yearling would be, so I’m finding it to be of crucial importance that I get his nutrition right. I am absolutely going to analyze this part of things six ways to Sunday.

As far as stuff goes, I think he’s almost set. Unless I’m forgetting something? The food part, I’m still nerding out about and probably will be for a while.