Those of you in the Patreon group already know this, but a couple weeks ago Bobby lost his long-time partner and super OTTB, Halo.

If you’ve been reader here from the early days, you probably remember Halo featuring pretty prominently in Henry’s early days of eventing. Back then Bobby and I boarded at the same barn outside of Austin, rode with the same trainer, and Halo was kind of Henry’s “big brother” who showed him the ropes of this event horse stuff.

Here’s what Bobby had to say about Halo and what he meant to him, in his words:

Halo’s sweet soul is the reason I started riding competitively again – I was in a very bad car accident and while recovering, I knew I wanted to ride again. When I was mostly healed, I began my search, fortunately I didn’t have to look far. He got me back into eventing and brought us up through levels I’d never thought I’d do again… because I loved him and trusted him with my whole heart and knew trusted and loved me and that he would take care of me – and that he did, so many times. Halo went on to win the National Eventing Championships in 2015. Halo developed navicular in his later years so I switched him to dressage, as an OTTB, he needs a job. And he LOVED his job. Jenna said it best, I picture him like a school kid skipping off to school with lunch box in hand so excited to go to work. Halo, although not bred or made for dressage, proceeded to take us to the US Dressage Finals our first year – we were not competitive but we had the most special time. Anyone who’s met Halo knows what a special kind sweet gentle soul he is. Further shown by the friends that came to be here with him in his final moments. Halo left this earth literally surrounded by love, my friends, I will never have the words to express what your actions today meant to me. After 16 years together, it’s going to be really hard to picture it without you, Halo. The memories, the joy and the tears, you’ve left a hole in quite a few people’s hearts, but I know you are running around above me pneumonia free and begging for treats from the angels. RIP my sweet my boy, my first heart horse, my first best friend.

When I heard that Halo passed away, I was devastated for Bobby. Although he’s got another heart horse now in his boy Carlson, the first one always holds a special place. There are parallels to our stories in the Halo/Henry capacity, so I can really empathize with what he’s going through.

With a loss like this I knew I wanted to do something to memorialize Halo, but all the usual things just didn’t seem quite right. Either it didn’t fit THEM, or it just wasn’t enough to full encapsulate all that horse was and did for so many people. When I thought about Halo and what he really meant to Bobby, the thing that stuck out to me most was opportunity. That horse took him to his first AEC’s and his first US Dressage Finals. He showed Bobby what it’s like to have dreams come true, and then be able to build even bigger ones in their place.

So, I had an idea: The Halo Project.

What I’d like to do is crowdfund an annual scholarship fund called The Halo Project that gives X amount of money (however much we get, which I think could be a pretty decent chunk) to a rider on an OTTB to go toward the costs of participation at US Dressage Finals, AECs, or TIP Championships. Riders would apply with a short essay and photo, and Bobby/The Board would pick who the money goes to. It would be a way to honor Halo’s memory and the remarkable impact he had on Bobby’s life, while “paying it forward” to help give someone else the same experience.

In talking to my accountant friend, she suggested to try to partner with an existing 501c to do this, to make everything easier and more “above board” with the gub’ment. Plus it would be mutually beneficial, using our platforms to help bring attention the partnering charity. The reach is potentially pretty big, I think.

What I need from you guys is help finding a good match for who to partner with on this. A couple of charities have expressed interest but none have followed up, and I’m hot to trot. We’ve got people waiting to give money to the cause, and we’re ready to rock and roll and get this off the ground. I’d really prefer it to be an OTTB-centric charity since that makes the most sense with what we’re doing. Suggestions and connections strongly appreciated!

I’ve got a show recap to write but I’m stalling in hopes that photos or video will be posted so I have some media. In the meantime there’s still plenty to talk about, including my most adorable little ball of fluff and his first week here with us.

First of all, I love him so much. Like obsessed. I mean look at him.

But aside from just being cute, so far Strax has also been a really good puppy. He would prefer to go to the bathroom outside, and has had zero accidents on my watch (has had a few on SO’s watch tho, because he doesn’t pay quite as close attention to the signals that Strax has to go out). Granted, he’s murdering my sleep patterns because he wants to go out once or twice in the middle of the night and I’m a terrible sleeper anyway, but that’s alright. Worth it. I can sleep later.

He’s a pretty social little guy too, he loves to play with Hillary’s papillon puppy Max, and has even managed to win Mina over. I figured she would tolerate him fine, she’s a pretty submissive dog, but I didn’t think she’d really LOVE him because she’s mega attached and clingy to me.

It did take a few days, but now she plays with him, looks after him, and seems to have adopted him. Strax is Mina’s puppy now. It’s really cute.

It’s also working out well for his training, because he mimics what she does. He’s already mastered “sit” and is about 80% there about coming when you call his name and whistle. The other 20% is the selective hearing he has when he’s found a particularly good stick.

He’s scared of the horses, which I’m totally happy with. He’s a herding breed after all, and I’d really like for him to keep a healthy dose of fear when it comes to them. For now I keep him away from them as much as possible until he’s a little more trained with the recall and aware of his surroundings.

Overall though, he’s a sweet and playful and happy guy, and relatively chill for a puppy. He does love his naps, and true to his breed, he is EXTREMELY food motivated. I can work with that. So far so good!

We’re officially at that age and time of year when the babies are… well… they’re kinda boring. They eat more than they play, and it’s hot, so when they do play it doesn’t last for long. They’re starting to be more like horses than babies. Sad times.

Mostly they do a lot of standing around. Which doesn’t exactly make for riveting photos.

Sometimes they stand by themselves.

Sometimes they stand together.

But it’s just… a whole lot of standing. Or walking. Wow. So fun to watch and take pictures of.

I even try to go out at the coolest times of the day, closer to dawn or dusk, but no dice. They’re just hardcore existing right now, and I don’t have to heart to chase them around. The only one that seems particularly interested in my bullshit is Andy…

But honestly I think he’s just using me for the butt scratches.

It won’t be long now until we’re in weaning territory, which will definitely shake things up a bit. Until then, I guess we should enjoy the boring stage.

My birthday was a busy day, y’all! I had to tell you about Strax first because he was a real highlight, but I did jump out of chronological order to do that. Let’s back up to earlier in the day, where we went to a horse show!

This was our first time out since scratching at Stable View a couple months ago, and the lead up rides were not great. Our jump schools were just not in sync and my flat ride the day before was one of the worst I’ve had with him in a long time. Things just were not clicking, ya know? And I couldn’t really figure out what I was missing, so I was hella frustrated. Like wanted to scratch and hide in my house frustrated. But I knew I had to do the CT at Majestic, because the following weekend we were entered in the Modified at Ocala, and I sure didn’t want to go into a recognized HT off a lead-up like that with no smaller pre-outing to at least see where we were at.

To compound matters, when I got to the in-gate to check in, they said I was in ring 3. Which was fine except ring 3 was a short court, and the omnibus had definitely said we were doing Test C, which is in a long court. So I asked for clarification, and they said we were doing Test B. Which I have never done or learned. Super. So I start frantically trying to learn that during my warm-up time, and the first person in our division goes in. She is also very confused about what test she’s supposed to be doing, having learned C. As she was talking to the judge (who was also confused) another lady in our division trotted up and said she’d talked to someone at the office and we were supposed to be doing C, as listed in the omnibus, and they should move us over to the long court at Ring 4. This was a cluster of epic proportions. They did finally figure it all out and get the judge moved over to 4, but by then I’d learned most of Test B and my brain was exploding.

So I went in with most of C still in my head, but bits of B kept popping up. I got to the 3rd movement where we were supposed to turn up centerline and leg yield, and turned up quarterline instead (like you do in test A and test B). I was mega freaking annoyed by that point. I’d learned C so thoroughly so I could ride everything well, and it all went caput. But once the judge rang the bell and got me back on track I remembered the rest of it just fine. Still. Annoying breach of focus.

We still got a 31 with the error to take the lead in the division. I just wanted some better scores on parts I know he can do well. But given how bad our flat ride had been the day before, a 31 was one of those “I’ll definitely take it” kind of things. Especially because last time this judge saw us she was not as generous with her marks or comments.

After that we had about an hour to kill back at the trailer before showjumping. Which was basically just enough time to start drying all the sweat before we had to put the sweaty things back on again so we could go sweat some more. It was so hot already, even at 9am.

But since it was gonna be so hot they were eager to get rolling and started the SJ early. I got on early so I could try to get in there whenever they would let me. I ended up by myself in warmup, which was a treat. We kept it really minimal, jumped maybe 5 jumps and then headed over to the ring. Presto was feeling back to his normal dude self. I will say – he can be a real toolbag at home sometimes, but the horse has been mega-consistent and focused at shows. He knows and likes his job.

He went in and jumped a solid round and was super rideable. He had been not at all very rideable at home the last times we jumped, but I guess he decided that this was Serious Business so maybe he should pretend to be broke. Thanks buddy.

Presto hopped around the Modified like it was easy peasy boring AF for a nice clear round, giving us the win for the combined test.

So ya know… was I having a complete existential crisis on Friday and then get a win on Saturday? Yes. Don’t mind me.

In reality I think he’s feeling really good and strong in his body and a bit bored in his work, and it’s coming out as him perhaps not being his best self at home. It’s time to step it up a notch and ask for a bit more again in all of his work. We’ve got some lessons this week and my trainer is going to sit on him too. Which honestly he’s probably long overdue for a trainer ride again, I don’t think she’s ridden him since last summer? He’s an entirely different animal now.

This weekend we’ve got Ocala, which I’m feeling much better about now after Majestic. Hopefully it won’t be so hot though!

I have a lot of stuff to update on, but today we’re gonna start with the most important… I got a corgi puppy for my birthday!

It was kind of a big birthday – the four oh – and Rob and Michelle coordinated to get him for me as a surprise. I’ve been wanting another corgi since we lost Quinn a couple years ago, but the timing was never quite right.

His original name was Chewbacca, but I have always said that I wanted my next corgi to be named Strax, after the potato-esque Doctor Who character. So here he is, Commander Strax at your service. If you’re not nerdy enough to have watched Doctor Who, here’s a summary of the character.

So far he’s settled in well. Mina still isn’t quite sure if she likes him or not… she plays tag with him outside but inside she’s a little less enthusiastic. He’s smart though, and doesn’t push her too far. I think he’ll be submissive to her, which is a good thing.

He’s met the horses but thinks they’re scary, which again… good thing. He seems pretty smart, so we’ll see how he figures things out as a farm dog. Right now he’s just stinkin cute. Like a rabbit and a bear had a bebe.

He’s got kind of a partial tail, which is his natural tail. It’s almost exactly the same length Stewie’s was, so it seems like kismet. He is a chonky sturdy little boy, already 8 pounds. He’s gonna be hefty I think!

I absolutely love him. I mean how could you not? He’s adorable. Best birthday present ever!