Normally the vast majority of our XC schooling adventures take place at Pine Hill, or sometimes MeadowCreek. Neither of those facilities is particularly close to me – both are two hours, just in different directions – but they’re definitely the closest. Everything else is 3.5 hours or more, which makes it a bit more of a production. Sometimes a change of scenery, and jumps, is important though, especially for schooling. You can only jump through the same water complex so many times before you’re not getting a whole lot out of it anymore. So this past weekend we got up early, loaded up, and hit the highway to head north to Willow Draw near Fort Worth.

I loaded Henry up on omeprazole and gave him a nice fat haynet full of alfalfa, but apparently I need Regumate or something for his grump ass. He decided that he needed to out-estrogen the mare he was riding with (who never so much as even moved a muscle or made an ugly face at him at any point) and spent a lot of the time kicking and being a general turd. I have no idea why he sometimes does this. He did it in Bobby’s trailer while hauling with Halo a few times, albeit sporadically. Other times he rides with other horses just fine, so I thought maybe it was something about Bobby’s trailer (or Halo) that he was taking occasional objection to. Apparently not. I just own the most marish gelding on the planet. He rides like an angel in my trailer, and in fact had just been in mine a few days before to go to our dressage lesson. That day he kept his head buried in the hay net and I never heard a peep from him, which is his typical hauling demeanor. Guess maybe he just wants his own private chariot? I don’t know wtf his problem was on Saturday, but we got there and he had a fat left hind from all the kicking. Luckily he looked sound, so I decided to get on and see how he felt, and if anything he felt… great. Let the XC schooling commence.

One thing I was really wanting to work on was combinations. Lately we’ve jumped a lot of height, but nothing has been particularly technical. We have no problem galloping down to a big fence anymore, but we haven’t been able to practice much terrain or adjustability in combinations. And pretty much the very first combination we did proved why we needed the practice. It was a small N table, right turn to a half coffin, house to ditch. On the first attempt Henry landed from the table and totally flipped me the bird on the half halt and fought me the whole way down to the house, which… didn’t work. On the second attempt I had to get a bit more aggressive with the half halt than I would like, but he listened and jumped through it well both directions. After that he was much more obedient about whoaing when I said whoa, dammit.

We headed over to the first water complex, initially jumping just one down bank into the water by itself, then cantering out and coming back to the other down bank with a rollback in the water to a small bending line out of the water. I wasn’t sure how he’d be about jumping down into water, even as recently as last year he could be weird about it sometimes, and I for sure thought there was no way we’d make a good roll back to the bending line. That took a lot of organization and control. He really surprised me though, first by jumping down into the water pretty much textbook

and then by making the downbank to bending line rollback feel easy. I was able to just close my left leg as we were landing and he turned right around.

His typical down bank style has always been to take a flying leap off the damn thing, so I was particularly happy that he took a couple trot steps right at the base and balanced himself before dropping nicely down. It seems that he’s taking the time to think about them more, rather than just flinging himself off into space. We’ve been trying to get him to do that for literally years. Those flying banshee leaps start getting you into trouble when banks are part of a tricky combination, so I’m encouraged that the inclination seems to be lessening.

Then we went over to the stone tables and weldon’s walls, jumping the N ones first, then the T ones. These are gallop fences, Henny’s specialty. Easy peasy.

After that we went over to the combinations at the mounds, which I was really excited for. Their mounds are steep, with fences at the very top, and then Training and Prelim have bending lines to a corner at the bottom. It’s a very legit question for the level. I thought we might have an issue here. And we did, but it was with my inability to ride up the mound correctly, not with the jumps themselves or the downhill bending line to the corner. Derp. Henry had no issue with any of it. Once I got the idea of where was the right place to half-halt and where was the right place to push, everything rode great.

We hopped over the trakehner on our way over to the other water, which I’m pretty sure Henry doesn’t even register as anything more than a hanging log anymore. When we got to the other water we made a little course taking the N route through first (which was just cantering through the water and out over a coop), then looping back to a small bank down into the water, then coming back through the Training route, which was a log vertical, 6 bending strides up the island, two strides across to a drop back down into the water. Another really legit question for Training. The first couple times through I just wasn’t aggressive enough, and we kinda creeeepppttt through the combination. Henry humored me, because he is Henry, but it wasn’t smooth. Finally I remembered to use my damn leg and ta-da, just like that the distances all worked out great and the thing jumped super.

We also kept cantering up the hill and jumped the very skinny Prelim log that has a hell of a downhill landing, which he was great about.

Overall I’m super happy with how he’s feeling on XC right now. He’s getting a little bit smarter and more clever, and looking really confident. I need to be faster and more assertive with my half-halts in some of the combinations, and I need to be more supportive with my leg in the ones that naturally back him off. So basically… ride better and smarter. Got it. Here’s the full video if anyone is so inclined… the gif maker was giving me trouble today:

He kicked a little bit more in the trailer on the way home, and I iced and poulticed it Saturday night. It looked better yesterday but still kinda puffy, so I iced and poulticed again. We’ll see how it looks today. He’s still sound, so I’m thinking (and hoping) that he just whacked the crap out of it but didn’t do any real damage.

Horses. 🙄

I don’t really have a particular occasion for this giveaway except that I have a few things I’d stashed away specifically to give away and a new year seems like as good a time as any. We’re gonna call this the Friends of Presto giveaway! You can gain entries by following certain Instagram or facebook pages (details on that below) belonging to just a few of the companies that are near and dear to us (because if I did them all there we’d be here all day), or by leaving a blog comment. Trying to keep it simple.

The prize package is small but mighty… the winner will get a hand dyed purple ombre lead rope from KJ Creations, a 2018 Presto calendar, and a $10 Riding Warehouse gift card!

It’s got his birthday marked, of course

Entering is super easy, you can do as many or as few of these as you’d like:

• follow Ponyforapony on Instagram
• follow KJCreations on Instagram
• follow Riding Warehouse on Instagram
• follow Lund Saddlery on Instagram
• check out Usandro Tilia Derlenn’s new facebook page (extra point if you “like” his page, and another extra point if you comment on a photo! for real, I spent a long time setting it up, humor me here…)
• leave a comment on this blog post telling me at least one subject that you’d like to see me write about in 2018

I think a lot of you probably already follow most of those companies so it could be as simple as just logging the entries on the form. Go here to do that (if you don’t do this part, I can’t see them!) :

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That’s it! The contest ends next Friday, so be sure to get those entries logged before then. Good luck!

Am I the only one who’s bank account starts looking a little ragged in January?

Christmas is always a bit of a blow. Especially because my job doesn’t do end of year bonuses, they do profit sharing, which (if we get it at all) comes at the end of January. Ya know… after you need it. Christmas has always been there though, and always makes a dent in the wallet. Not exactly unexpected. Yet somehow over the last few years the stars have aligned in such a way that A LOT of my other expenses seem to hit somewhere in December or January too.

First there’s the truck and trailer registration renewals – both due in December. With that comes the truck inspection, and I usually tack on an oil change while I’m in there because let’s face it, I put so many miles on that truck that I basically always need one. So kiss a couple hundred bucks goodbye here (assuming the inspection doesn’t find a problem that requires even more money to fix).

Then of course there are all the membership fees. USEA, USEF, and GHCTA for me. I did USEA in November, hoping to get a jump on the pain, but I haven’t done USEF or GHCTA yet. Bye $95 to USEA (membership plus $10 study donation). USEF and GHCTA can wait a little longer because for real I just don’t even want to think about giving more money away right now.

There’s also my USRider membership… I’ve never actually had to use USRider’s services yet, but I haul a lot, I usually haul alone, and I have an old trailer. I feel much better having it. Go ahead and tack on another $150 that’s due by February.

Henry’s insurance needed to be done, so I’m currently waiting on the invoice for that. I got a pretty good rate thanks to Blue Bridle, but still. There goes hundreds more dollars.

His shots, coggins, and teeth are due in January too. And technically his SI injection, but he feels pretty good right now so I’m opting to play it out and see if all the strengthening exercises we’ve been doing can help him go a bit longer between injections. Shots/coggins/teeth are expensive enough on their own, so throw a few hundred more into the fire. Oh, and I’m going to ask for an Adequan prescription, so yeah, add a few hundred more.

And just because I was already feeling light-headed, Henry has decided to very suddenly present with ulcer symptoms. Like for real, this horse had zero symptoms a few weeks ago. Then he had two minor “colic” episodes right after breakfast within one week of each other, decided he was girthy, and started grinding his teeth. I’m not shitting you, all that happened at once. Of course, he is the world’s least stoic horse, so all I can guess is that he’s just started feeling ulcery but clearly he thinks he’s dying. Because drama queen. And we all know how much ulcer meds are, right? Yeah… bye-bye to even more hundreds upon hundreds of dollars.

Plus the cat just got spayed and the corgi got his teeth cleaned. I’m thankful that our small animal vet is very cheap, because that ended up only being a few hundred for both. Still, though. Byeeeeeeee money.

Oh right, guess who’s due for shoes in 2 weeks? What’s another $150 at this point?

January sucks. I’m not doing this right at all.

Yeah, I’m a little late with this one. Mostly because we weren’t home for Christmas and therefore did not tote presents across the country with us, and then when we got back home we both forgot about the presents for… a week. Oops. We kind of suck at this.

Usually I get myself something nice for Christmas, but I did that for my birthday when I bought myself the Devoucoux. There’s not much nice stuff left that I need at this point, which is a good place to be. Especially because December and January are absurdly expensive for me (more on that tomorrow). The fact that my collection of stuff is pretty solid right now is a good thing.

I got a little bit of cash for Christmas, which is always nice, because see above about Dec and Jan being expensive. I asked the SO for a Yeti cooler so that I can grab ice on the way to the horse show and still have enough actual ice left by the end to put in Henry’s ice boots. No more worrying about where to get ice from on the morning of XC! Oh and I guess I could put like… food in there too, if I ever actually remembered to bring food for myself to shows (this is always 50/50). The SO was even smart enough to get the pretty blue one.

And he got me a new ice cream scoop and a nice can opener because I’ve been bitching about those things for a long time. I don’t think kitchen stuff really counts though, does it? He also bought me socks with the corgi’s face on it, which was pretty funny considering I bought him socks with the cat’s face on it (which I ordered 7 weeks ago and they still aren’t here, don’t use Print Your Pet). Great minds think alike.

Hillary got me some fancy smelling soaps, which goes right along with the fancy soap kick that I’m on right now. I’ve hidden those, because I’m selfish and don’t want to share.

My brother and his wife got me a unicorn shirt and puzzle. Apparently I have created a reputation for being both the crazy unicorn lady AND a nerd. They’re not wrong.

Michelle of course painted me a Presto glass and a Henry glass… I showed y’all the Henry one already but here’s the Presto one. I LOVE THEM.

Along that same line, a blog reader started a business making crochet ponies and made one of Presto for me! I loved it so much that I promptly turned around and ordered one for Hillary’s upcoming kiddo. These things are so stinkin cute, y’all should follow her on Instagram @ponyforapony and order one. You won’t regret it.

Then I got a $100 Riding Warehouse gift card and spent several days trying to figure out how to use it. I had just stocked up on essentials in the Black Friday sale, so I figured it was a good opportunity to buy something I wanted but couldn’t talk myself into spending my own money on. Free splurge! The best kind! My first round through the site resulted in a $500 cart, so I went through and got rid of all the stuff I couldn’t really justify, which left me with a $40 cart. Polos, a horse sized rope halter for Presto (bc yes he already outgrew his Yearling size rainbow one), and another jar of poultice. What a sad splurge. I went back and forth forever before I decided to just bite the bullet and try the full seat Aqua X breeches. I’ve been saying for months that I want to try them, and they were $93 in the 20% off sale, which you can’t beat. I’m taking them for their test run in my dressage lesson this afternoon!

Normally I buy stuff for Henry and the dogs for Christmas, but having a kitten in the house this year meant that I decided to forego a tree and stockings. If she knocked down my tree and broke my Hamer & Clay ornaments I would have been forced to love her less, and no one wants that. Hopefully next year she’s calmed down enough to handle that kind of responsibility. But no stockings plus us being gone meant that I didn’t really get anything for the dogs, and Henry didn’t get anything either. Except treats. He literally has 6 different kinds of treats in my tack trunk right now. That’s kinda normal though, honestly, every day is Christmas when you’re Henny.

Oh, and not really related, but I had several people expressing interest in Presto calendars. While I can’t even wrap my head around the idea of printing a bunch or trying to coordinate that, I DID have a few small ones printed up and will have one leftover. Watch for a giveaway sometime in the next week or so – I’ve got a calendar, a pretty ombre lead rope, and a RW gift card up for grabs! I think we’ll also do another “Guess the foaling date/time and foal color/markings” type of contest this year with Willow Tree Warmbloods, too. It was fun last time. That probably won’t be until next month though… I gotta have some time to get prizes together!

While I feel like I could have done a better job with thinking through the actual POINT behind some of my 2017 goals, overall I thought it was a pretty successful year in a lot of ways. Mostly in that I really managed to find the FUN part of riding and showing again, by learning to relax a lot more. Granted, it took a lot of conscious effort to do that. I am an overly competitive person, so I realized that when I give myself grandious, very specific goals I tend to get so focused on them that I lose sight of everything else. I didn’t set any last year and I’m not setting any this year either.

Instead I’m going to focus more on doing things that a) make us better, b) enrich our relationship, c) are FUN. I’m not even gonna sit down and try to plot out a show season… we’ll go to whatever shows work out best, whichever and whenever those may be. It’s kinda liberating. But just because I’m taking that kind of stuff out doesn’t mean that I don’t still have some big goals for myself and/or Henry and/or Presto.

Improve the stadium – I don’t want to say “x number of clear rounds” because my clear rounds in 2017 were probably my worst-ridden. Luck shouldn’t count towards checking off a goal, and success can’t really be measured by what’s on paper. So really, I just want to smooth out the stadium, do more thinking instead of reacting, and help my horse out a bit more.

Do a couple Prelim CT’s – for funsies, right? Honestly though I just really like the new 2018 Prelim A dressage test and I wanna ride it. Who am I? I dunno.

More foxhunting – LOVED IT. MUST DO IT AGAIN. For real though, aside from just being fun, I think it’s really good conditioning for both me and Henry.

Attend another big horse event – Crossing off Bundeschampionate was awesome last year, so I’d like to cross off another one this year. My #1 choice is Lion d’Angers in France for the 6 and 7yo eventing world championships. If I can’t wrangle that, my second choice would be Fair Hill (YEH champs again?), then Kentucky or WEG.

Get my volunteer hat – our “home” (if you consider home to be a place that’s 2 hours away) venue has a really cool volunteer program that gives you perks as you accumulate work hours – key chain, hat, belt, cup, etc. It’s not really about the hat, it’s about the idea of giving back to the sport, but if I can put in enough hours to make it to the hat level, I’ll be satisfied with my time invested as a volunteer. Last year was the first year I’ve really made much effort to volunteer, and it really highlighted it’s importance to me. Our sport simply cannot exist without our volunteers, so I need to do my part.

Jump the stupid giant Texas Flag table at MCP – the wagon at Pine Hill was my “big scary” nemesis jump before, but now that we jumped that and lived to tell the tale, I’m shifting my focus to the even bigger, even scarier Texas flag table at MeadowCreek. It’s just Prelim, but it looks like a friggin house. It’s not really about the act of jumping the stupid thing, it’s about the confidence and ability that it takes to do it. I know there isn’t anything Prelim-sized that Henry can’t jump, so it’s about time to strap on the big girl panties and make that thing my bitch.

Move Presto closer to me – once he’s gelded, and assuming I can find somewhere budget-friendly yet still safe to put him. That’s been the real challenge. Board is stupid expensive around here. I really want to get him ponying off of Henry so he can start going on adventures, but first I have to actually GET HIM HERE, so we’ll make that one the real goal and worry about the rest later.

End 2018 as a better rider than I started 2018 – I thought about some of the things I want to improve, like keeping my shoulders back, or looking up, or keeping my wrists straight, or any of the endless list of things I’m constantly working on. But really the point of all of those things is to ride better, and every day I make an effort to do them, chipping away at the bad habits. I have no expectations of fixing all my flaws, that’s hilarious and delusional, but if I can end the year doing those things better on a consistent basis, I’ll be happy with that.

Keep running – I’ve been back into the running thing for a year and half now, but I feel like if I don’t put it here then I won’t keep doing it. I don’t actually like it, but it’s important, so I need to do it.

Enjoy the journey – No matter what we end up doing with horse shows or lessons or clinics or whatever, I really just want to have fun with my horses and enjoy them. Because of that, I’m not making any goals about attending X number of shows, or winning any ribbons, or qualifying for anything. Those things aren’t why I ride, so they shouldn’t be my focus. If they happen – bonus! If they don’t, I still get to enjoy the bestest horse in the world, and that’s a win in and of itself. I need to remember to always keep my perspective.