I figured this week we should focus on the two younger ones, our small but mighty colt contingent for this year. Especially since Randell has gotten to go outside this week!

He has found himself with the nickname Andy, mostly because he reminds me a whole lot of the character Andy from Parks and Rec. He is sweet and happy and bold, but he’s already rocking that total derp derp gelding vibe.

It’s been fun to see him out and about this week though. He loves to gallop and has pretty admirable mastery over those long spider legs of his already. He’s balanced and well-proportioned, and it shows in how he moves.

He’s also interested in people and pretty independent, I think largely because of Vee’s parenting style. She is a disciplinarian, not the doting type, so he’s already got a pretty strong sense of manners. She feeds him and takes care of him like she’s supposed to, but she also banishes him to the corner when she’s eating her meals and doesn’t tolerate any kind of extreme shenanigans on or near her. She’s raising a respectful kiddo.

Which is the exact opposite parenting style of Chanel, with Rhett.

She believes that he hung the moon and the stars in the sky, that he is the best thing to ever wear four hooves, and he certainly can do no wrong.

However, that has given Rhett the same opinion of himself that she has, and thus he is a bit of a lawless child. He does what he wants, when he wants, with his Mom’s full support, no matter how naughty it is. He’s climbing all over her like she’s a walking jungle gym, biting her ears, and she’s just like “isn’t he precious”?

His ego is off the charts and so is his sass. It’s a good thing he’s squishy and adorable.

Despite the best efforts of Spirit Airlines, I made it back from LRK3DE. Our flight leaving Florida was delayed almost 4 hours, and our flight coming back was cancelled, rebooked for 10 hours later, and then two and half hours delayed. Fun times. It’s one of those things where you keep repeating “at least it was cheap” a few hundred times in your head.

This year’s trip was largely for business, I had several various odd jobs to do, including some content creation stuff and meeting with a few brands regarding sponsorships on behalf of a couple ULR’s. We arrived at KHP on Friday morning, and much of the day was spent doing the latter. It was a lot of talking to people, but it was also nice to see some old friends again and put faces with the names of some newer contacts. It also gave me a chance to scope out some of the new products from various brands, or see some things in person for the first time. More on that later.

On Friday evening we had our second annual Kentucky tattoo appointment… well maybe our first actual appointment, since last year we did a walk in for those spur of the moment Pat Your Horse tattoos. This year we actually planned ahead, had drawings, and made an actual appointment at an actual nice place. My left forearm is now sporting a most-cute Presto face, complete with emo forelock.

After that we stopped by the Ride iQ happy hour to say hi to that group and grab a snack. Or rather, I couldn’t get to the snack table without rudely crashing through a couple conversations, so I texted Kyle Carter and asked him to pass me a cookie, and he chunked it so hard that if it had made contact I would have died. I ducked and it hit the ground behind me instead. Note to self, Kyle’s got an arm on him. (also please note that I know Kyle and we banter all the time, he was joking, not being mean, in case that isn’t obvious in the re-telling of this Near Death Cookie Experience story). I’m not sure anyone knew why I got a cookie randomly chunked at me, but I did eat the cookie anyway except for the part that had some mud on it. It all worked out.

Saturday morning we sat and waited for approximately 900 years for the crepe guy to open (he’s never open before 9am and it kills me every time, but the crepes are so damn good) while I mapped out my strategy for the day. I had riders that I needed to get XC content of for brands, so I needed to figure out where I needed to be and when, and draw up a schedule accordingly. My first one was out on course early, but I had decent gaps in between, so we spent much of the day traipsing around the 4* course and the 5* course, trying to cover as much of it as possible.

And you know what came in hella-handy? My amazing telescoping stool. We had to do like 25 demonstrations of them to various people, they were a big hit. Also 10 out of 10 for having a stool, my back was much less angry by the end of the day this year than it was last year. Very convenient to have a place to sit no matter where we were, especially since it spat rain on and off all day. Mine had LED lights too, which makes for a fun party trick. The stools were the absolute MVP of the day, will never do Kentucky XC day without one again.

On Saturday after XC we had our Patreon group get-together at our campground spot and it was awesome. I remain completely blown away by that community of people, they’re cool AF and really fun and easy to talk to. Our get-togethers are a real highlight of the trip for me!

Sunday morning I really wanted to see the jog because there were a couple horses I was interested to see up close (for breeding reasons, I like their sires). Plus, ya know, never gonna pass up a chance to stalk Mason up close and personal.

I remain convinced that he is the most attractive animal in all the land, and he looked fit and happy and was very well-presented.

Which is more than I can say for a couple other people. If you ever find yourself at a trot-up, I advise standing over where the horses come up and leave, rather than watching the actual jog strip itself. You see some real hinky shit over there. Like… people who clearly know the horse is lame but are trying their level best to hide it. And then riders pitching a fit about it. Very high profile people. It was gross.

After the jog we went back to the trade fair for a while, to get one last perusal in and chat with a couple more people. I was on a tight budget this year but I did get this super cute bracelet ($20 and they engrave it on the spot, I mean come on I was targeted), a shirt, and some horse boots. I felt like there were more deals this year than last year, although not on a lot of things I really needed, which is probably for the best.

There were several things in the trade fair that caught my eye though, so I figured they’re worth mentioning. Majyk Equipe always unveils some kind of new product at LRK3DE, and this year they actually had several. A new line of showjumping boots that I thought were STUNNING

Plus a new color combo of their XC boots, gray with blue vents, and new boot bags and backpacks. The prices on all of it was super reasonable too. I didn’t have room in my luggage for the boot bag, but I will be getting one STAT. It’s got a helmet compartment that comes off and the bottom of it is waterproof. It was only like $80, too, which I thought was quite nice compared to similar products, especially considering how well-made it is and how many features it has.

I also got to see the Eventing Nation pads in person… I helped design those! One side has an EN logo patch and the other side has a #goeventing patch. They look great, and so do the new Ecogold Breeze pads. They’re a lot lighter-weight and thinner than the standard Ecogold.

Last but not least, if we’re talking about innovation and fun new products to keep an eye on, my vote goes to ARRO helmets. They’re a new brand from New Zealand, just now starting full production, but the features on these things are really amazing, I’ve not seen anything quite like it. They’ve got MIPS, they’re SNELL rated, the brims easily come on and off (so one helmet can be a skull cap, have a regular brim, or have a wide brim, depending on your needs at the time), the buckle is like nothing I’ve seen before, the shell is super high quality and strong, and they have a ton of lining options to help customize fit. There’s even an option to attach a face guard. They’re just really really cool and I’m looking forward to seeing more from this company, you can tell it was designed by riders for riders.

We had similar seats for showjumping as last time, which were great, at least right up until the wind picked up and it started raining. Y’all, I was cold. I have gone full Florida lizard and even with 3 jackets on I was an absolute popsicle. That’s alright though, we survived. Plus all 4 horses on my Eventing Manager team finished in the top 15 (sometimes it works out to pick all your sentimental favorites based on their breeding. Not often, but sometimes.) so I won two of my leagues. Heck yeah.

All in all it was another great trip to Kentucky (and a very fruitful one I think, I got a lot done!) and I can’t wait to head back again next year.

I really wanted to wait to do this little dude’s introduction until after we’d gotten some pictures of him outside, but with Kentucky happening this week and me having to draft this post early, new pics didn’t happen. Man apologies. I’ll make it up to you next week. But I did debate delaying his intro another week and decided that would be cruel, so you’re welcome for at least not doing that. Compromise.

Anyway, say hello to Vee’s very first foal, Randell WTW.

He’s named after one of Michelle’s vet friends that was instrumental in helping Vee through some late term complications and making sure that mom and baby made it to full term safe and sound.

And they did! This dude is huge, and with Vee being a maiden she really had to push hard to get him out, but she did a great job with just a little assistance. Although he did go face first into the water tub during his initial attempts to stand up and I literally had to full-body lift him out of it like an equine lifeguard. Lil Randy might not ever live that one down.

In all seriousness though, this lil dude is leggy and tall and very elegant, and he seems to have gotten Vee’s absolutely gorgeous face, complete with an adorable little marking. His curly mane is giving me life too, even though it won’t stay like that for long.

Some of you may remember that this is also the foal who was the product of combining two half-doses of frozen semen, some from Araldik and some from Lingo. We’re in the process of getting his DNA kit done so we can determine exactly who’s the baby daddy, but for now it’s a very hotly debated topic around here. Who do you think the sire is?

We’ve now only got one more foal left for the year, and it’s due pretty much any day now. For those keeping tabs, we’re now at 2 bay colts and 2 bay fillies! Can’t wait to see this last one, it’s probably the one I’ve been anticipating the most.

Happy Friday!

Welcome to what is always the best part. Settle in.

We are no strangers to Training at the Horse Park by now, with this being our 4th run at the venue. As usual the course was 100% entirely different from any other time before, and our goal here was to have an easy, boring round to put a nice little deposit in the confidence bank before we attempt to tackle Modified.

While the courses for Festival are listed as “Challenging”, I think pretty much every Training at FHP is on the challenging end of the scale. In truth, I thought this one was overall a little softer than a couple of the ones we’ve done here before. They gave you a lot of inviting single fences to get going before hitting you with the first combo (unlike last time where there was a pretty intense bank combo starting at fence 3) and there were several nice long gallop stretches to get into your flow or regroup in between things (unlike another previous time where it was jump turn jump turn jump).

That’s not to say that it was easy though, because it definitely wasn’t. It had pretty much everything you can possibly have on a Training course, including their trademark coffin, a jump in the water, skinnies, an ABCD sunken road combo that was pretty big, and two waters. Welcome to Ocala.

My concern for the first 5 jumps is that it wouldn’t be interesting enough to catch his attention and he would start looking for fun things to spook at. That’s one of his favorite pastimes. So we left the box with intention, and I asked him to really get out in front of my leg and pay attention, no sightseeing. He was great over 1, strongly considered pretending to spook at the videographer next to 2 (but didn’t), pretended to mini-spook at a big rock on the way to 3 (just like I knew he would when I saw it when we walked) and then made the turn to hop over the steeplechase at 4. All that was an easy peasy lope-over experience. He thinks he’s a big boy now.

Fence 5 was a cabin, after which we hung a hard right to our first combo, 6AB. This was a hanging log on the edge of the crater, 8 strides through the crater and out over a skinny wedge. Super good boy through here, very professional.

After that we had a nice gallop stretch to 7, a table, which he loped over so casually that it was honestly insulting. Then we made the right turn to the coffin at 8ABC – MIM rail, two strides to a ditch, 6 slightly bending strides to a corner that was snugged up to a tree. When we walked the course the afternoon before I didn’t think about how the sun would be in that combo the following morning… the shade from the tree put the entire corner in shadow. Presto really didn’t see it until the last stride, but he was a genuine boy there and went anyway.

After that we had another long gallop stretch to the first water. Here we had a steeplechase brush fence set about a stride before the water, with a slightly bending line to a skinny-ish rolltop. Some of you may remember that a couple of shows ago is where we encountered our first jump in the water, which Presto did not understand and we very nearly parted ways. We’ve since schooled those a couple times to make sure he got it, so it was a different story this time – he locked on and went straight to the rolltop with no problem.

Then we had another little short stretch, crossing back through the tree line and hanging a right over the MIM oxer, then a rollback left over another table. He’s to the point now where I really can just let him keep coming to these and not have to help him with his balance anymore. He’s matured so much in his strength and and his style since last fall.

After that it was another little gallop stretch across the field to the most challenging question on course – 13ABCD. It’s not often you see a D element on a Training course! This combo was a ramp, four strides to a pretty decent drop, 4 strides to an up bank, and then 3 strides to a slightly angled skinny table. Trainer’s instructions were to ride it like a gymnastic at home. My concern was that Presto might rocket launch himself off the bank and make the 4 strides to to upbank difficult to get. And while the 4 did ride slightly tight, he was quite mature here and didn’t do anything particularly extravagant. He marched through that combo straight as an arrow and looking for the flags.

Getting through that one felt a little bit like “home free” but there were still a few more left. Next up we came to the second water, which had a house a stride before the water and a skinny house out of the water. Presto is Pro at these by now, no problem. Then it was a nice ping over the wagon…

at which point I realized I had ample time left, so I just let him coast the rest of the way home and over the last jump.

Ultimately we came in 16 seconds under time, which I was happy with… Modified speed is about 40mpm above Training speed, so I wanted to open him up a bit more on this one and just let him flow more. And in reality, it didn’t feel fast in the slightest, or like I was having to push him. He’s much more balanced and confident jumping out of stride than he used to be, so less set-up time equals a faster round even when you aren’t actually adding much speed between the jumps. Just a few months ago I was still having to help him a lot and we’d have a couple time penalties but his last 3 rounds have been easily double clear, with time getting easier and easier to make. Every time out he’s shown improvement.

Our double clear helped move us back up the leaderboard to end up 5th on our 30.7 score, although if not for that stinkin rail we would have won. That was a little painful to realize. Still though, it was the quiet, chill horse show we were looking for in order to get the green light for Modified next month at Majestic!

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…