Never a dull moment around here, man. Last Wednesday morning Mina, the most stoic and hardy of shelter-turned-barn dogs, had a randomly very swollen head. When we went out to feed around 7 she looked normal, and then an hour later I got up from my computer to go put riding clothes on and she looked like this:

The whole right side of her head was visibly swollen and she had some hives on her head. I had no idea what she got into… could have been anything. She’s usually pretty smart and doesn’t go into heavily weeded areas or the pond or anything, but she does have pretty much free rein of the farm. I couldn’t see any signs of a bite, but she was holding her head funny, almost like something was in her ear. The most alarming thing about it to me was how fast it swelled up. I decided to just run her up to her vet (I take her to the University of Florida site at WEC) and have her properly looked at.

Which turned out to be a good decision because her head just got bigger and angrier looking as we went.

GAH

Since we didn’t have an appointment we had to sit there and wait for a while, but luckily it didn’t get any worse in that time, although she did pop up with a few more hives other places on her body. They checked temperature, looked for any signs of a bite, and checked in her ear, but nada. I was pretty convinced they’d find something in her ear, so I’m glad that wasn’t the case.

A couple hours later we were on our way back home, her with a dex shot and a Benadryl shot on board, and me with a lighter wallet. I’m glad I took her in though, it was alarming how fast it swelled. I still have no idea what caused it – knock on wood she’s been totally fine since then.

Thursday was Strax’s second puppy vaccinations appointment.

I felt bad for him this time. He was excited to be there, wagging his tail at everyone and overjoyed to climb awkwardly onto the scale (11.5 lbs!). When the tech came to get him he was DELIGHTED to see her and happy to leave with her. He’s a really happy guy.

And then I heard him screaming bloody murder from the back. I figured that was for his shots.

Alas, no, he screamed and tried to vacate the premises like a miniature grizzly bear when they stuck the thermometer in his butt to take his temperature. He’s really sensitive about things like that. He didn’t care about his shots though, so… there’s that? Strax was a sad little ball of corgi fluff when they brought him back out.

Friday was farrier day, and our vet was also there to take xrays of Hillary’s new mare’s feet so the farrier could use them as a baseline and the vet/farrier could discuss what changes to make with her shoeing. It was a whole thing though, having both of them there at once. A whole expensive thing, but moreso for Hillary than me, for once. Presto did get to graduate to a wider shoe though, so there’s that!

Otherwise it’s been same-old same-old as far as riding and stuff goes. I’ve been working on some content creation stuff so I’m drowning in photo editing at the moment, plus making a website, and working on pedigree reports. Plenty to do! Yesterday I took Presto over to Majestic early in the morning just to jump around a course in the ring… he was feral. The yeehaws were aplenty. He was jumping great though.

I can’t remember if I posted about it or not but he finished his very first Adequan series a couple weeks ago, and I’m pretty sure all that lube just went right to his brain to make it extra smooth. Super. There was no particular reason for the Adequan other than he’s a giant 6yo doing a hard sport and we all felt like it certainly couldn’t hurt. I don’t feel or see any difference other than he’s been a little more yeehaw lately, but hopefully the magic juice does it job and helps support his big boy joints.

Otherwise, nothing particularly fun to report here. I’m selling my gray Romitelli boots if y’all know anyone that might be interested.

They’re charcoal gray with silver accents (top, foot, and toe piping) in a 38 SA, which is their slim tall. Their footbed runs slightly large IME, normally I’m a wear a 39 but I’m a 38 in Romitelli. I thought I would wear the gray more than I do… I think I’ve worn them 8 or 10 times at the very most. They’d look really good with a gray coat, which I don’t have and definitely should not buy.

Hope everybody is having a good week! Gonna try to get some fresh new baby pics (including the weanlings) for y’all this week too.

I think shortly after I decided that Presto’s XC color was going to be black, some kind of switch flipped in me when it came to colors for the other phases. I’ve always had fairly sedate coats… navy, dark gray, hunter green, brown, black. Granted, that’s all that was available for a long time. As soon as USEF released the DQ’s to don whatever colors their little Type A hearts desired, it really became game-on with the clothing companies. Jumper riders have become bolder too… that burgundy Motionlite that caused so much drama in the h/j world must have been the gateway drug.

Either way, the past couple years we’ve seen a really massive increase in the variety of colors available when it comes to show coats. Nowadays I think you could find just about anything you can imagine, and I gotta be honest: I’m here for it. I loved wearing my light blue Laguso coat (that I got as a birthday present last year) all winter for the shows, and got multiple compliments on it from judges. For as wild and crazy as eventers can be with their XC colors, I gotta say I think we’re the last discipline to really hop on board the fun colored coat trend in the other two phases… it’s still almost exclusively navy or black. Yawn. I’m not here to blend in, have y’all seen my helmet? It’s both glossy AND glittery. I’ve got a standout horse (IMO anyway… granted maybe sometimes for the wrong reason…), gimme a standout outfit.

The new wave of fun and colorful coats kind of coincided perfectly with my need to sell all my old coats that no longer fit and get a couple new ones. I sold four coats this year!

And I feel like a fun coat in two phases helps balance my more boring XC look maybe? I mean, my black is all VERY SPARKLY but it’s still black.

And then I saw a purple coat in a seconds sale with one left in my size and picked it up stupid cheap. It’s a little warmer purple than I’d prefer given the option, but it’s still really pretty. Like I was surprised by how much I actually love it. Those purple-wearing ladies are generally rabid about their color of choice (y’all know who you are) and I’ve never been the biggest purple lover, but this thing… it’s stunning y’all. I LOVE it.

And then while I was working in the tack shop in the spring I saw a couple European brands had come out with teal this season. I have never been a huge teal fan either (my personal favorite colors are all very dark) but they had a deep tone that I thought was pretty and would look good with my horse. I looked online overseas a few times but either didn’t find my size or didn’t find a deal good enough to warrant purchase, at least until a couple months ago.

I found it in a UK shop that literally JUST opened and was running a really good sale, and they only had one in my size. I put it in my cart but didn’t buy it because my one little iota of common sense prevailed, and then the owner of the shop TEXTED ME a few hours later to ask if I needed help with anything or had questions. And well, a conversation was had and it ended in me now having a teal coat. With that, I’m cutting myself off. Well, I need a shadbelly, but… I’m cut off from regular coats. Not sad about the options I have now tho.

Which gets me to the subject of coordinating browbands. This all ties together, I promise. Stay with me.

Back in the spring when we first started talking about making a 1* the goal for this year, I started looking at shadbellies. High off the fumes of delight from my light blue coat, though, I didn’t just want a regular navy or black one. But I also wasn’t in the right tax bracket to be buying a $1200+ custom one in whatever color I wanted. What a dilemma.

And then, thanks to recommendation of a fb group, I found a custom coat maker (well she mostly makes gowns) in South Africa with really REALLY reasonable prices, and her coats looked quite nice. When I reached out she did warn me that her dresses and gowns take priority, especially during wedding season, so it could take a while to get the coat. Considering the price I thought that was fine, and we started the process of designing a custom shad. And because I’m who I am as a person, I didn’t just write something up and send her a few pictures, I made a whole-ass INSPO BOARD. Luckily she thought it was great instead of crazy. Or she just privately thought it was crazy and didn’t say so. Either way.

I debated really hard between blue and dark purple… I knew I wanted one of those two. Something more fun than just black or navy, but not too too crazy. The maker already has a lightweight stretchy fabric in blue, so that one won.

We started the process months ago and we’ve gotten as far as measurements, but we haven’t made it to the muslin samples yet, so… it’s still a ways off. Hopefully I don’t get ripped off. We’ll see.

Anyway, that inspo board really sent me spiraling. I’ve been wanting a plaited browband from Dark Jewel for a long time and that was finally the push I needed… surely there had to be something special to go with the shad, right?

We ended up doing a few shades of blue, silver, and black, and I love how it turned out. Amelia even did me one better and got the browband made with black glitter padding. Which led to a conversation about how I’d been trying to find a particular noseband that I had envisioned. My poor abused Devoucoux bridle was literally on it’s last stitch, complete with a saggy droopy noseband that looked like shit and drove me crazy. I’d reached out to a couple bridle companies about having a noseband made but either they were super expensive (like $250-400 for just a noseband) or they didn’t respond at all. Dark Jewel was able to get her browband maker onboard with my vision for a MASSIVELY smaller amount of money and while it was an experiment for them, I love how it came out. It’s a crank with no flash, black glitter padding and grey glitter piping. I think it looks BOMB with the browband.

I must just have a thing going right now for the blue/black/silver combo because I also just realized that’s what I wore for the schooling show last weekend too.

Anyway, we’re not done yet, hang on.

Shortly after I ordered that plaited browband, Presto went on his summer vacation. I DIY spiraled (as one does) and made a browband. Did I need to know I could make a browband for under $30? Prolly not. That seems dangerous info to have. Anyway, the rhinestones were supposed to be a purple/teal shift type situation, but they ended up mostly teal. Which works now since I have the teal coat. I think it’ll look really good actually.

And then last month I was looking for new sheepskin-lined open fronts for Presto (the scar on his leg from the Stable View Trailer Leaping Incident sits DIRECTLY on the edge of an open front, which is a problem for any open front boot that isn’t fluffy. THANKS PRESTO.) I saw some on sale and was literally clicking “add to cart” on the black pair when I saw that they came in a purple that looked awfully close to the purple of my coat. And then I also noticed that there was a matching browband from the same company for like $30. Who am I to argue with fate, man?

So now, somehow, the queen of black and navy and the biggest hater of Matchy Matchy is looking awfully colorful and matchy all the sudden… for me anyway. It’s taken a whole year to accrue all of this, and I’ve definitely cut myself off now, but wow… much color. So matchy. You’ll never get me to show in anything but a white saddle pad, though. Back off, PS of Sweden.

What a week it’s been, y’all. It feels like it flew by, there was a whole lot going on. Let’s do a quick recap of the most noteworthy bits…

Last Tuesday Hillary and I took Presto and Henry over to Sweet Dixie for a conditioning day. It was for Presto really, he needed to gallop and they have a primo hill… Henry was mostly tagging along for fun and so he could get to go somewhere and be a complete feral dolphin. He was delighted.

Presto and Henry were both feral, really. The guy mowing got a front row seat to the rodeo as those two morons yee’d and haw’d their way across the property. The boys were absolute delighted with themselves though, so we thought it was pretty damn entertaining. Henry always has quite the swagger in his step for a few days after he gets to completely fuck right off with someone. That’s my boy. Henry sat most of the cantering parts out since he’s not in the best of shape at the moment, and by the end of Presto’s gallops the hump in Presto’s back had finally settled down. They are ridiculous animals, but it’s never a bad thing when they’re both feeling good.

On Wednesday we headed down to Orlando for the night to see Bad Omens in concert. I am generally not a big fan of concerts because I don’t love crowds, or staying up late, or super loud noises, but I made an exception for this band because they’re my absolute favorite. I’d heard they’re stellar live and they for sure did not disappoint – best concert I’ve ever been to.

It’s been like 8 years since I’ve been to a concert I think (pretty sure Rancid was the last one) and man it did my soul a lot of good. Bad Omens absolutely cemented themselves as my favorite. It was also kind of nice to get away from the farm/horses in general and be a normal person, even if it was only for like 18 hours. The horses are a 24/7 thing for me since I live on the farm, and it’s been a real real real real long time since I did anything “away” from home that wasn’t with the horses or horse related. Being a normal human being for a little while was nice.

Anyway – fantastic concert, had such a good time, I was 100% absolutely feral the entire time and was hoarse, no regrets, will absolutely do again. It was Hillary’s first metal show and dare I say she liked it?

Oh yeah, and we stopped on our way out of Orlando and got a 10 pack of Chicken Minis that we absolutely annihilated, so what more does anyone need.

Then this weekend I had signed up for a combined test at the schooling show at Florida Horse Park. More practice in the ring is never a bad thing, and since we don’t have any other shows before Stable View, I thought it might be a good idea.

Presto was kind of a distracted dingaling in dressage warmup, which is weird for him. Normally that’s the place where he’s always best behaved and most focused. Our ring was running early so I didn’t do a whole lot, maybe 10-15 minutes, and it was super hot and I was already mega dehydrated so I was like screw it, let’s just go in. I was gonna vomit or pass out if I got much hotter.

Once Presto got in there he got right to work and was super good. Just a little bobble in the second half of the free walk where he saw a horse out running XC and was like “WOW CROSS COUNTRY” and stuck his head straight up in the air like a giraffe. The tension that created kind of carried over into the next trot transition too. Otherwise though, he was quite good and scored a 28.

SJ was… kind of easy to be honest. Or not EASY but ya know where it just feels like a non-event almost? We jumped four warmup jumps then went in the ring, did the thing, and were done. He was really good, rideable, everything came up nicely (except the outside 6-stride line which was riding SO TIGHT all day). If it had been less hot and I had been less dizzy we would have stayed and done a Prelim round but meh… we’ve got time for that on a day with better conditions. To be honest though I feel like we could have just skipped the Modified and done a Prelim round instead.

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That also makes Presto 5 for 5 clear rounds at Modified. It’s funny, he was a one rail kind of guy at BN and N, then started having like half clear rounds and half one rail at T, but as they’re getting bigger he’s jumping better. It prob has to do more with improved strength and rideability, but it’s neat to see that progression in black and white on his record.

It was a good day, and nice to get some laid-back practice where things feel quite easy and boring!

Sometimes when we go out to take foal pictures we bring “motivational” items with us to get their attention. Because, as anyone who has tried to photograph a horse knows, sometimes they just stand there like blobs and stare at you like you’re stupid. That’s not the best Foal Friday content.

It’s been a while since we’ve gotten the ball out, so for the last photo session we took the ball in the pasture with us, thinking that if we tossed it around a bit, that might be enough to get the babies trotting around for pictures. And it did work on most of them. Well all of them really, except one mare and foal in particular.

Bless him, he’s such a dude. Don’t get me wrong, when he gets the wild hair in him, he’s the one leading the pack, but he’s definitely not so easily stirred up by “scary” things or by his friends running around. He just spectated for this entire session.

Andy genuinely could not figure out what the fuss was all about. We brought the ball to him and tried kicking it all around him, but he wasn’t impressed with that either.

Hillary even tried to shoo him a bit. Also unsuccessful, he just walked slowly around to the other side of his mom.

In the end we gave up. While everyone else ran around and gave us some cute shots, this was the most athletic contribution from Andy:

Never change, kid.

As you probably figured out from the Foal Friday post, we weathered the hurricane just fine. It ticked a little more west than originally predicted, which worked in our favor here in Ocala, so we just had about 8 hours of wind and on again/off again rain. We had a few small branches down but otherwise that was it… didn’t lose power or anything. Very lucky, thank goodness, it ended up being a real non-event for us, which I will never complain about.

On Friday Presto had another training ride. I originally asked her to ride him a little bit because I felt like he was REALLY REALLY CLOSE to having some big a-ha moments but I just couldn’t quite be clear enough or have good enough timing with my aids to help him get it. This was her third time on him in the past few weeks, with each ride being very short and to the point – as soon as he shows signs of understanding, we stop, so I don’t think a single ride has been longer than 20 minutes. Presto is SO smart and tries really hard to figure out what you want, and he retains it really really well… Trainer and I both think that he genuinely likes to learn.

On Friday the skies absolutely opened up on them right when she got on though, and generally he is not a fan of getting rained on. He wasn’t the most please but he trucked right on through it anyway, and gave her some really good work. He’s getting so much stronger. And I can get on the next time and replicate the majority of what she showed him, so I think this was definitely the right move for where he’s at at the moment. Trainer rides for the win, it helps the horses so much.

On Saturday we came back over to her place, this time for grid day. There’s always some element of gymnastic work in her courses (bounces especially) but it’s been a real hot minute since we had just an actual grid day. Like… December I think. Feeling the difference in him through the grid now vs what he felt like then was a huge difference. In December he was still kind of having to think and work a lot through the bounce elements and I had to really help him keep the energy and power through the grid line.

This time he really took me through it with his own energy and I played more of a supporting role. He has a lot more power.

After we were done she had me get off and go stand by the oxer so I could get a full eyeball of how big it was, so that I wouldn’t be thinking anything on our courses looks that big. It’s a good tactic, because jumps in lessons always look small from on top of Presto… the perspective gets skewed. Props to the kiddo, he’s really been showing up and trying hard in all of our work lately. I do think he quite enjoys his job, even when it’s hard.

I also managed to watch Burghley cross country on Saturday, which is always a highlight for me. Burghley is my favorite event of the year, and it was extra fun this year since Mason was attending for the first time. As self-appointed President of the Mama’s Magic Way fan club, I was delighted to watch him hop around there like it was easy. What a cool freakin horse.

Also I feel like we gotta give props to Derek di Grazia for his course design there. Burghley has an reputation for making horses hit the ground, and I feel like it was truly awful to watch when CMP was designing. SO many scary horse falls. This year only one horse fell and it was not the fault of the course or the design at all, so it seemed refreshing. There were a lot of 20’s and missed flags,, and a few riders popping off here and there, which is as it should be at 5* level, IMO, but there was no mass carnage. I also liked that they pulled up TWO riders for blood near the end of the course, eliminating one and letting the other one restart after a vet had a look. Those are the right calls. XC still managed to be incredibly influential to the competition, but we didn’t have to watch a bunch of falling horses. They got Burghley right this year, I think.

On Sunday Hillary and I were braiding and grooming for the local KWPN inspection, which was… a day. A couple 3yo stallions who had never been off the farm, some foals (two of which really wanted to murder us), and some others to bathe and braid and groom. My cuticles are destroyed and I’ve got a foal hoof-shaped bruise on my shin, but we survived. I actually really like grooming, just not so much braiding.

Today is a Presto gallop day and then I’ve got an interview this afternoon, and tomorrow I’m off to Orlando for the Bad Omens concert! Busy week around here.