Presto and I were back at it again last weekend (well really we went on Thursday and Friday, so last week)! Season is very much winding down to a close here in Florida, and Ocala International Festival of Eventing is basically considered the last event of the season. It’s also known for challenging courses and a lot more atmosphere, so we chose to do one more Training rather than make the move to Modified at this show. We’ve run several Training’s at the Florida Horse Park by now, so the goal was really to just have a very boring and ho-hum weekend. Spoiler alert: mission accomplished. Perhaps too thoroughly at times.

This show was set up different from every other one we’ve been to at the FHP. Our dressage was down on the polo field, and showjumping was up where the dressage rings normally are. I thought Presto might take exception to things being different, but really he didn’t care. Signs of maturity or is he lulling me into a false sense of security? Who knows with him, could be either really.

We were in the Training Horse division and our dressage was Thursday afternoon, so I braided him before lunch, stuck him on the trailer, and headed out. I put studs in him this time since we were on grass, and he had no trouble with the surface. He warmed up pretty well and then literally AS we were heading over to the ring he became convinced there was something in his ear and started shaking his head like crazy. He had a bonnet on, so I dunno if maybe he got some sweat in his ear or if he was just imagining things, but at that moment we couldn’t do much about it, so Steph just pulled his bonnet off and away we went with his wild mustang forelock leading the way.

He continued to slightly shake his head a few times through the test, which was frustrating and distracting, but it wasn’t too severe. Overall he was a little heavy/flat in the heat and I was slightly late with a couple of transitions. It wasn’t brilliant but it was decently good, and there were no yeehaws in the lengthenings, so I’ll take that. Boring… we like boring.

We scored a 26.7, which put us in second place only half a point behind the leader. As Presto’s breeder I will never not be proud of this horse finding his way to the top of the pro/horse divisions in Ocala… it’s literally all the good pros on their nice young horses, most of them imports, and he can hold his own even with an amateur on board.

After dressage we loaded up and headed back home where Presto was delighted to wallow in his sand pit that he’s created in the corner of his turnout.

Showjumping was early Friday morning, so were up early and at the Horse Park before 8. I was prepared for him to be a wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube man, since SJ warmup is his most favorite place for those shenanigans, and I thought having a “new/different” warmup from the usual place was just begging for antics. Color me very shocked when he was The Most Civilized animal in warmup. Like… so quiet it was suspicious. But we did our w/t/c, hopped over a few jumps, and then there was an open gate, so we went in a little early.

He definitely lit up a bit when we went in the ring, mostly looking around the outside edges at the bleachers, photographers, ring crew, etc. Normally when he’s in there it’s dressage courts, so that’s fair. We picked up the canter, came around to the first one, saw a good distance, and I literally felt him go “yeah yeah there’s a jump, but WHO IS THAT GUY OVER THERE” as he left the ground, and he whacked the everloving shit out of the first jump. Presto. My friend. Pick up your feets, bro. He’s super duper not impressed by the 1m anymore and when he’s bored his focus tends to stray pretty easily.

After having the first fence down he decided maybe he should pay attention, and he jumped the rest super, even when I got him to a bad spot into the first two stride. He did a real Good Boy job there. Otherwise it was a nice, very normal round. So ultimately we had one rail, from him just not paying attention, although honestly I deserved a rail at the two stride and he kept that up, so… we’ll call it even.

The scores were tightly packed enough that a rail dropped us from 2nd to 7th. Ouch. It ain’t over til it’s over, though, and we still had cross country left! Stay tuned…

Well, y’all, it’s official… we’ve got the cutest foal ever created on planet earth. I might be a little biased, but… no I’m not.

On Monday Chanel had THE MOST ADORABLE colt I think I have ever seen in my life. It was a quick and easy entrance into the world and he was up and trotting around in no time. This guy… be still my heart.

He’s kind of an interestingly bred little dude… his sire is the French pony jumper stallion Usandro Tilia Derlenn, and then of course Chanel is a Zangersheide showjumper mare. Usandro is 1/4 welsh and the rest warmblood, standing at 14.2h. Chanel is 16.1h and by a 1.60m showjumper stallion out of a mare who is also by a 1.60m showjumper stallion. Chanel had two foals in Europe before she was imported, one that’s shown to 1.50m and the other 1.45m. Chanel herself jumped to 1.40m. That makes this colt 1/8 welsh and the rest warmblood, and bred to JUMP.

Obviously Chanel is a friggin nice mare who has produced some really exceptional foals. Crossing her to Usandro was a bit of a “well let’s just see what we get” kind of thing, and I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say it was a roaring success. Who wouldn’t want one of these?

He’s got THE CUTEST FACE, and he’s so correct and nicely put together. Like… wow. So much quality in this guy. He’s a super mover, really athletic, and bold. He ticks all the boxes (except Michelle’s, where she wants them to be fillies so she can keep them).

He’s bigger than I expected, I’m guessing he’ll probably be somewhere around the 15.2h mark – perfect hony size. He’s is gonna be a hell of a little sportscar athlete, that’s for sure.

He was sold within two days, without advertising him at all. Because again: LOOK AT HIM. His name is Rhetorical WTW, barn name most likely Rhett. Welcome to the fam, little dude!

We also had another one join us late this week, but I’m gonna wait to formally introduce him until next week once we get some photos of him outside. Until then:

Yes hi hello, my presence is very spotty right now because it’s almost Kentucky week (and then Badminton) and I’ve had about 9000 writing assignments and spreadsheets and the like. I think this is the busiest time of year to be involved in equestrian media. I’m definitely not upset about it, but I’ve been typing my little fingers off. That’s a lie, they’re not little, I wear a size 8.5 glove.

Anyway, things are speeding right along around here. Last Wednesday Presto and I were entered in our first Modified CT. The dressage went okay… he got a little bit riled about some imaginary monsters in the trees while we were warming up and had to opine about it. For the test he had moments of brilliance (got an 8 for one of the leg yields!) but also decided to yeehaw through one of the canter lengthenings (STOP DOING THAT, IT’S ONLY PARTIALLY FUNNY) so we ended up with a 31.

It was Modified Test B and I actually REALLY like that test for him, it’s my favorite we’ve done so far. There’s a lot to do in there and things go rapid fire, especially with turns and transitions, but I think for Presto there’s actually enough to keep him busy and the way it flows plays to his strengths. Looking forward to taking another stab at that one after we’ve actually had a chance to work on parts of it in a lesson… the show was my first time riding it all the way through. Still, we were sitting in 2nd after dressage.

I ended up scratching before SJ (which wasn’t until almost 5:30) because after spending all day walking around the show my ankle was starting to get mad. Steph wrapped it up in KT tape but she and Hillary both said it looked like a zombie foot (they’re not wrong, it had a greenish pallor). We were supposed to go XC schooling the next day, which was higher up on my list of priorities than a showjump round, so it seemed prudent to not jump around a 3’5″ course on an extravagant young horse if I wanted my ankle to actually be useable the next morning. I hate scratching and I really wanted to jump the course because it looked super and so completely in our wheelhouse, but… I’m trying to do a better job of taking care of myself.

Scratching was definitely the right decision, because even though my ankle felt a lot better the next morning, by the end of XC schooling it was starting to get irritated. I don’t think I would have had many jumps in me at all if I’d done the showjump round the evening before. I mean I’m still annoyed about having to scratch, but it was the right call, as grumpy as it made me.

Anyway, we went to Rocking Horse to school, because 1) they’re never open to the public for schooling and they made it available by appointment only for just a few days last week 2) they have so many recognized shows there during the winter and still had all the courses up from their last show 3) the Modified at Rocking Horse has a ditch wall that I hate because I made the mistake of walking up to it on foot once and seeing how deep it was and made direct eye contact with the big gouge marks down the front that made it look like someone definitely met their death inside of it.

Don’t make me explain why I hate ditch walls so much, there’s not really a rhyme or reason, I just do. I’d rather jump pretty much anything else.

The cool thing though, is that Presto literally gives no fucks. I think you could put the Grand Canyon underneath a jump and set it on fire and he’d be like WOW COOL. He’s just brave as hell and this is all a fun game to him. It gives you a lot of confidence to be sat on a horse like that. Henry was the goodest egg but didn’t have a huge depth of talent… this horse has the most talent of anything I’ve ever personally sat on. It’s just so easy for him, he’s not even having to try or think that hard yet. Steph thinks he could be an Advanced horse and she might be right. The rideability is the part that takes more work with him.

I mean, I did think I was gonna die there for a second when a cow made an appearance in the pasture next door, but… details. We jumped a bunch of Modified stuff including the skinny brush wedge to corner combo, the skinny wedges combo, the water to water combo (there are two waters right next to each other a couple strides apart, so the first water had a rolltop in the water, then you cantered out and dropped down into the second water, with a skinny just on the other side), the coffin, the trakehner, and a few other randoms. He was exceptional. Sometimes he thinks he knows best, which is where his age and inexperience shows, but it’s all just so ho-hum for him. It makes him really freakin fun.

This week we’ve got Ocala International, running the Training again, and we’ll see how that goes before we determine the next move!

Oh, also, my purple coat came in.

The color is very pleasing. It might be too hot here this week to wear it, but we’ll see…

The mares and foals got to move out into a new bigger pasture this week, switching places with the 3 mares that are still due to foal (all within the next couple weeks!). They all found that very exciting, for a variety of reasons. The mares basically put their noses down to the grass and have barely looked up since… the grass in that pasture is really nice and plentiful compared to the smaller paddocks they had been in.

The fillies, Rue and Rihanna, born a month apart, are in two very different and distinct growth phases at the moment. Rue is still in the “WOW I HAVE FOUR LEGS AND I CAN ZOOM SO FAST, WATCH ME FLY” phase.

Rihanna, bless her… she’s in a bit of a fatass couch potato phase. She thinks the world is delicious and she wants to taste all of it.

Rue, in all of her bubbly happy sweetness, tries her best to get Rihanna to run around with her. Every once in a while it works. Usually it doesn’t. Most of the time Rue just ends up running circles around Ri. Literally.

Round and round and round Rue goes. Bless her. It’s not for lack of trying. It’s just that Ri’s favorite hobbies these days tend to be such titillating things as:

and

Rue won’t give up though, she cheerfully keeps up her attempts to play with her (only, at the moment) friend.

But ya know… every once in a while, it works. At least for a minute or two.

I would say Happy Monday but I have been informed that it’s actually Tuesday. Whoops. Anyway, lets catch you up on the goings-on up in these parts.

On Saturday we had our first jump lesson in a couple weeks… our schedule had been interrupted the week before by TerraNova, so we missed our usual weekly lesson/jump school that week. It was also the first lesson back since I said something about how I need to jump a little bigger again before we start looking at a move-up, because we’ve kinda just been cruising through season keeping the fences lower. And, well, be careful what you ask for.

Trainer was like lol hold my beer (coffee?) and cranked a couple of those bitches right on up. Don’t ask me how big, I dunno. Big? Then she has the audacity to be like “now the Modified definitely won’t look big.”. She’s probably not wrong.

Jokes aside, Presto was really good and every once in a while it seems to benefit him to jack the jumps up a little bit. He’s a blasé, lazy, minimalistic sort of dude so if you don’t challenge him once in a while he really doesn’t ever try that hard. He whacked the oxer once and then was no-touchie after that, and jumped around the whole course with much more focus.

The next day I planned to just give him a nice loose stretchy ride and all was going quite well until I decided to canter a couple poles. Well ok, the first pole went totally fine. Loped around to jump it again, the distance was spot on, and WHAM – Presto fell down. Like pretty hard. He floundered for a few strides trying to catch himself, scraping his head along the ground so hard that his browband will never be the same again, then hit the deck on his left side and skidded a ways.

My lower leg was pinned under him during the skid, but the only thing that really took any damage was my ankle. It’s got a minor sprain. The scary part was that he didn’t get up right away, he just laid there sternal, groaning, then took a couple bites of grass before he finally got up. I was convinced he’d broken all 4 legs. I had to stand there for a few seconds for the initial wave of pain to subside to make sure my leg was okay. Poor Hillary saw the whole thing and I think she’s scarred for life… her face was something else. Presto seemed ok though so I got back on and trotted him a bit to see how he felt, and he was miraculously fine.

Luckily my ankle really does seem minor. I’ve been icing and wrapping it and I can walk fine. I rode yesterday and that was ok too. I’ll keep icing and wrapping it for a bit.

Presto still seems fine, I buted him and have put the BEMER on him a couple times, and this morning his bodyworker came and worked on him for a while. Other than some tightness in his neck and left gaskin she said he felt great. Yesterday when I rode him he was trotting around like a wild arabian with his tail in the air, so yeah… I’d say he feels fine. That was a scary one kiddo, please keep all 4 feet underneath you. Figures that he can jump like 4′ on Saturday with no problem and then eat shit entirely over a canter pole on Sunday. Horses, man.

In better news, a couple days ago I texted the vet that did the majority of Presto’s care while he was in the clinic as a newborn. I haven’t reached out to her in a couple years, so I sent her some recent pics of him and let her know how he was doing, and thanked her again (there aren’t enough thanks in the world for this woman). Her response was really cute.

She’s the best. ❤

In also more fun news my custom whip that I ordered a couple weeks ago is finished, and it’s awesome.

@breed.ride.event

The most satisfying 🖤✨⚡️💜 #equestrian #eventer #horsegirl #equestrianlife #eventing #ocala

♬ HER – Laura Wizman