So… anyone who is friends with me on facebook or follows me on Insta already knows this, but I came home from Willow Tree with a new furkid. Because I am a total sucker. She was the runt in the litter of barn cats, and she is teeeeeeny tiny, but she’s so sweet and loves people.

She was not barn cat material, but she fits right in at our house.

Her name at Willow Tree was Tiny Nugget, but let’s be honest, she looks just like a Gremlin. Huge ears and mohawk and everything. Therefore she’s now known as Gremlin aka Gremy, and the dogs are all rightfully terrified of her.

Poor SO didn’t actually know that I was bringing her home until I texted and asked if he wanted to go to Petco with us or if we should just stop on our way home, to which he replied “Uhhh… what?”. I highly recommend this method of pet acquisition, by the way. It’s much easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, especially if you’re asking for forgiveness while holding a really adorable kitten.

At first he wasn’t so sure of her (neither of us typically like cats at all) but she quickly wormed her way into his affections. Yesterday she sat on his shoulder while he washed dishes and folded laundry. It’s hard not to love a tiny gremlin. She’s very people-oriented and follows us around everywhere, so I’m hoping she’s one of those cats that is a little more dog-like. Time will tell.

Other than the barn kittens, there was one more pretty adorable new addition at Willow Tree. Say hello to Murphy, the little bitty teeny tiny QH foal.

He’s easily half the size of Liam and Presto (he was a bit premature, plus QH instead of warmblood), but 100% sass and spunk. I don’t know anything about QH’s really, but he’s a grandson of Frenchman’s Guy, so apparently he’ll make a good barrel racer? I dunno. All I know is that he’s ridiculously adorable, is really quick with his teeth (little turd), and currently fits in a goat halter.

And that pretty much sums up the weekend at Willow Tree. Lots of Presto with a dash of Murphy and a healthy dose of kitten. And some pretty gorgeous double rainbows that provided a nice photo op.

We’ll see how Ms. Grem settles into her new life as an indoor cat with a bunch of dog brothers, but I think she’ll do just fine. It’s probably more of an adjustment for her humans, the professed “not cat people”, to get used to having a cat around. So far, so good?

Well that was a heck of a proper weekend.

I took off work on Friday, got a rental car (because that’s 625 miles I don’t really want to put on my truck), started up my German audio lessons on Audible, and made the 5hr trip up to Willow Tree. It’s been about a month and a half since I’d seen Presto, so my first stop when I got there was at the barn to say hi to him. Naturally, he was asleep and had no interest in getting up.

So we left the boys to their napping and started planning out details for the sBs inspection that Willow Tree is hosting this fall. Mostly layout, set-up, and small details. Then we played with the barn cats (that’s a story…), Presto got some in-hand lessons (mostly learning what clucking means, and how to walk next to the human instead of lagging behind at a 2mph walk which is a huge pet peeve of mine), then we pigged out on Mexican food. That is how you Friday.

On Saturday I slept in all the way til 6:15 (late for me!) then slowly got dressed and made my way outside. Presto and Liam were much more active in the cool early morning breeze, so I just sat and watched them for a while. It really is a privilege to see that boy enjoying himself and being a normal baby. He’s even caught up height-wise… Liam sticked at 13.2 up front and 13.3 behind, and Presto is 13.1 1/2 up front and 13.2 1/2 behind. Really really close now, height-wise. Of course, Liam is literally about twice as wide, but that’s to be expected from their breeding. Liam is going to be a big, wide, powerful chunk of a horse, whereas Presto is going to be much leaner and lighter across the ground. The difference in type is pretty stark.

We spent the morning doing a photo shoot with one of the 3yo’s, then in the afternoon Presto got some more lessons… first with his feet (he’s had his feet handled and he’s been trimmed but he’s not very good about it) and then with tying/grooming/patience. The first Feet lesson didn’t go so well… when we got to the hinds he kicked me TWICE, earning a much longer and more intense lesson. Once he was clear on the fact that kicking is Very Bad, he was actually quite good. He’s great about tying and grooming, and even had a fair amount of patience. For a 4 month old, anyway.

He had a few more feet+ very light rasping+grooming+leading sessions over the weekend, and by the time we were done he was pretty pro at going forward from clucking. He’s really quite smart (sometimes in a too-smart way, just like his mom) and catches on fast/retains things well. You can always see his gears turning.

I bought a fly mask for him but… uh… he was pretty sure that was deadly, and I figured I’d tortured him enough for one weekend, so we’ll circle back around to that later.

Saturday evening it started storming so they all had to stay inside for the night, which worked out great. I could go in there for really short intervals and redo all of his lessons in small doses. He got better and better about everything as the weekend went on. He’s obviously well socialized and has been handled a lot, so just adding some more intense lessons is pretty easy. He’s got a great foundation to build on.

By the time the storms were over and they got to go back out on Sunday morning, they were super full of themselves. That always makes for some good entertainment.

It was a bit of a short trip, but we got a lot done and of course it was great to see him again. He just looks better and better as more time passes, and I’m really happy to see him out there playing and acting like a normal foal. Before you know it it’ll be weaning time!

 

I’ve been using a lot of hair-related products on Henry lately. Y’all might remember his episode of face funk that come on seemingly out of nowhere and left him with a couple of very attractive bald spots on his face. Yay summer. I’m happy to report that, just two weeks later, those are pretty much completely gone. This is the comparison photo from when we started and then one week later.

A WEEK!

Now the hair has filled in a lot more and you really can’t even tell there was ever a bald spot. Pretty damn miraculous, I must say. I was worried that it would just keep spreading, but luckily I was able to stop it in it’s tracks. That hair grew back a whole lot faster than I expected too, thank goodness, because I was having nightmares about all the hair falling off of his face. Seems reasonable.

And exactly what product is responsible for saving us from that?

My favorite (and as I’ve now figured out, summertime must-have) Zephyr’s Garden tea tree spray. I reviewed it last spring (remember that video where Bobby sprayed some in my mouth? It tastes TERRIBLE, do not recommend eating it.) and it proved super useful last summer to keep the leg crud at bay. I’ve been using it for the same purpose this summer, with much success, but man… it really blew me away with how well and how quickly it fixed that facial disaster.

Henry’s also been getting more soap bathsagain now that we’re in prime sweat season. I’ve kind of had my eye out for a new shampoo to try… something that smells really good, leaves them shiny, and is all natural. A lot of those are pretty pricey though, and I just have a hard time spending $25 s pop on a bottle on horse shampoo and conditioner. So when Teddy’s Tack Trunk (aka She Who Never Leads Me Astray) suggested the Espana line, I jumped on it.

I got the “bundle“, which includes the silk shampoo, conditioner, and a detangler/sunscreen spray plus the large size natural sea sponge for $52.50. Each of these things is available separately in the shop as well, with the shampoo and conditioner coming in at $13.95 each, the spray at $14.95, and the sponge at $14.95 (or the small sponge is $7.95, although for bathing I’d def stick with the large), so the bundle makes it about $5 cheaper. Either way, those prices are easier to stomach. Especially because their shipping is super cheap and crazy fast.

My two favorite things about the shampoo are the smell (it’s a really pleasant scent, not too floral and not too medicinal) and the fact that it rinsed out really easily. I hate having to rinse a thousand times to get all the shampoo out. I lathered him up with the sponge, washed his tail, put conditioner in his tail, and then rinsed everything. He was super clean, smelled amazing for days, and was really shiny when he dried. What more can you ask for from shampoo?

I was even more impressed with the conditioner. Normally when I dye his tail I save all the remnants in the conditioner packets (like a crazy packrat) because it’s the best I had found for detangling. Now I don’t have to worry about that, because this stuff is even BETTER.

I basically never brush Henry’s tail unless we’re at a show, so it tends to be pretty tangled. I just slathered the conditioner in there really well, let it sit for a few minutes, rinsed it, let him dry, and when I took the brush to it, the tangles just fell right out. Normally I have to carefully pick through his tail to get it detangled without breaking the hairs, but not so with this stuff. It definitely takes the prize spot in my bathing bucket.

Now Henny is so fresh and so clean-clean… AND he has hair on his face again! If you guys are interested in trying any of the bath products, TTT is going to run a sale on all bath-related stuff through Sunday.  Use coupon code GIVEMEABATH for 10% off!

 

You guys know that I’m a, shall we call it, “young horse enthusiast”. Anything to do with breeding, development, and especially getting them started in their career is super interesting to me. Therefore I always read pretty much every article or show recap having to do with YEH and FEH, word for word. So when I was reading the recap of the YEH classes at Rebecca Farm this week, one particular quote from the judge really stood out to me:

If you talk to breeders, one of their biggest (or at least most consistent) complaints is how difficult it is to find good young-horse trainers in this country. In Europe it’s fairly common to have people that specialize in bringing up the babies, but here they are much fewer and farther between. And while a lot of big name pro riders are good with young horses as well, just as many of them are not.

Some of that I think is due to what Katie Prudent pointed out last week, about many of our best young riders only always sitting exclusively on the best horses. Many of our most talented younger riders that we’re producing these days just don’t spend a lot of time on greenies. I think that’s less common in eventing, but something that still probably contributes to the issue.

This was especially obvious to me last year at YEH Championships, since we got to sit there all day each day and watch pretty much everyone. Maybe they were just having a bad week, but there were a few that were borderline cringeworthy. Tip: don’t bring the baby horse to YEH Championships in an elevator, especially if you never plan on letting go of it’s mouth. They REALLY don’t like that.

It’s probably no surprise that the ones who stood out for particularly GOOD riding were ones that have been involved in YEH classes for a while. Because beyond just knowing the basics of how to properly bring a nice young horse along, the YEH classes themselves are different from a regular event. The judging is different, they’re looking for different things, and they should be presented with that in mind. It seemed like many riders didn’t quite understand how the classes were really judged, or what exactly the judges were looking for. I think that’s the other big issue.

From watching a few YEH classes just in Area V, this kind of thing was even more obvious (because, duh, it’s not Championships). Many seem unprepared, or brought horses that really weren’t what the YEH program is meant for. See what’s written in the General Impression box on the scoresheet? “Potential as a successful 3*/4* event horse”. As a low level amateur, I personally would probably not not try do the YEH stuff myself… but if I had a horse that I thought was potential upper level material AND it was mature enough mentally and physically, I’d absolutely send one through the program with a pro.

Hopefully now with all of the YEH and FEH seminars and clinics that are starting to pop up (they’re doing another one at Championships on both coasts this year – highly recommend going if you can!), people who are interested will take advantage of them and go learn more about it. And hopefully some trainers will participate and help grow the ICP Young Horse Certification Program as well. I think if we can produce better young horse trainers, we can, in turn, produce better young horses. Which, if you think about it, could quite possibly be a big step toward making the US more competitive again on the world stage. Imagine if we could get really good at producing more of our own top quality horses instead of trying to buy them from somewhere else…

The first sign that something is amiss in Henryland is when the quality of his canter goes down the tubes. Normally his canter is his best gait, but as I’ve now learned, as soon as it starts to feel stiff and/or it starts wanting to have 4 beats instead of 3, we have a problem. Typically an SI problem.

This was exactly the issue that prompted me to have his SI done a couple weeks ago. Over the past month or so his canter had gone from stiff to occasionally losing the rhythm to pretty consistently four-beat. No bueno. Looked gross, felt even worse. It makes perfect sense when you think about it… sore SI, no longer wants to sit and push. But mostly I know that his canter is not naturally like that, so as soon as we lose that 3-beat purity, it’s a big red flag. Granted, on a naturally tense horse, it’s sometimes hard to tell which is “sore” stiffness and which is “tense” stiffness.

This week I’ve finally bumped his workload back up to normal, which means adding the canter back in. The difference is night and day; Henry magically has 3 beats again. When I get my new jump saddle (oh hey btw, I did a thing yesterday) I can’t wait to jump him again and see how he feels.

Although on one particularly wild day this past weekend we did jump over a natural ditch in the field a few times and then go for a quick gallop, because you can put the eventer in a dressage saddle for a month, but you can’t really take the eventer spirit away. The lady bits were mostly unscathed, so #noregrets.

Henry still has a couple more weeks of his “lighter” summer schedule before we start ramping back up again to prepare for the fall. Conditioning rides will get longer, lessons will start happening again with some regular frequency, and we have a ride-a-test/jumper rounds weekend on the calendar before I go to Germany. We’re only 2 weeks away from opening date for the first fall show. Finally! Hopefully now he’s back to feeling 100% and ready to cart my butt around some fancy Training courses.