We got the pics back from Gemma’s first photoshoot! Since she’s still got some weight to gain we went for mostly head shots, but I think they came out super cute. She’s a pretty photogenic mare, and I have to admit… that deep chestnut is growing on me a little bit more every day. We’ll have to do another shoot once she’s fully let down from the track and up to sporthorse weight, and slicked off in her summer coat. But for now, she’s got her first set of Glamour Shots… that’s how you know you’re officially in the fam.

Big thank you to Megan Carr Photography for getting these pics of our pretty girl!

So, I’ve had several people suggesting lately that I should look into getting a Patreon. To be honest, I know very little about Patreon. I do support one account on there (Eventing Nation) but other than that the extent of my knowledge is that Elisa Wallace has an active one that she’s always talking about, and that some podcasts put special episodes on Patreon. That’s it.

Clearly I have extremely little knowledge of or experience with it. I’m not necessarily against the idea, but I have a hard time imagining what kind of content anyone would actually be interested enough to pay for. And then, do I have the bandwidth to make said content actually be decent enough that it’s worth it to people, and then would enough people pay for it to make it worth my while to create it?

I’m certainly not Eventing Nation or Elisa Wallace (um, obviously) so like… what the heck could I possibly put on there that would be of interest or value? I’m not bringing you news, nor am I pro rider with training tips and stuff like that, and I definitely have no interest in doing anything remotely like that. I mean… I could explore the idea of a podcast I suppose… maybe me and Hillary with some Bobby and Michelle sprinkled in, or other bloggers as guests? I have no idea wtf anyone would want to hear us talk about, and probably would only be able to produce like 2 episodes a month. I’ve been on one podcast episode before as a guest and I’m not sure if I felt like I was very good with speaking… that was a couple years ago and I can’t seem to find the podcast anymore to re-analyze how I feel about it.

Vlogs are another idea, if I could think of things that people would actually want to watch on the regular, but again I would probably only be able to produce a couple a month because those are really time consuming to make too. Or I guess a mix of both? I’m not sure what else there is aside from merch and stuff that like, which… meh.

The breeding content is the stuff that, time-wise, has the most value (and it’s the only thing I feel qualified enough to make any kind of “educational” type stuff about), but I don’t know that it has enough interest for anyone to care much about extra content on the subject. Plus I may have something in the works with EN on that front so it would probably be a conflict of interest to have things on both places.

I don’t really want to take things away from the normal blog and force people to pay for Patreon just to get updates… that seems shit. I don’t want people to have to sign up and pay money just to follow along with the basics of what’s going on. So I’m trying to think of it more as bonus content, I’m just struggling to guess what anyone would care enough about to actually pay for that I don’t already say/do on here. And like… how much a month is any of this worth to anyone? Thoughts? Ideas? Yay or Nay to the idea? If I’m going to bother to do it at all I want to make sure it’s not lame. Feel free to tell me no.

Y’all know how much I like ponying. Presto was ponied anywhere and everywhere I could possibly take him for basically 3 years of his life, which I think was definitely helpful. He got to see and experience all kinds of things. There are lots of benefits besides just exercising two horses at once… you can also let a young one see things for the first time with a horse friend and without the stress or perhaps lack of confidence that they might have if they’re facing it on their own with a rider. If they want to be a bit naughty or spooky it’s also a lot easier (and less risky) to keep the exuberance under wraps while you’ve got them on a lead rope, you’re near their head, and you have the advantage of leverage. And the extra selling point of OTTB’s? They already are quite experienced with ponying – they come with that skill pre-installed.

So I decided last Friday that since Gemma had settled in well at the barn and with the other horses, we may as well take her on a little tour of the whole property. At that point she’d really only seen the barn and courtyard area, but she always wants to look at things so I thought she might enjoy a change of scenery. The weather was a bit chillier and windier than I may have preferred, but she’s very polite so I figured… meh why not. I put Henry in the crossties and got him ready, then grabbed Gemma and tied her next to him (she’s still learning about crossties) while I put on my helmet and Henry’s bridle. Then I hopped on Henry, untied Gemma, and away we went. Ponying is old hat to both of them so they knew the drill, the only minor issue was Henry’s attitude.

He’s pretty much all bark and no bite, but Gemma is fairly submissive, so when he would make his nasty faces she would immediately back away. Which then sent Henry on a power trip. His ego is… something. Once we left the courtyard and started exploring she stopped paying as much attention to him, because there were way better and cooler things to look at.

One of the things I really like about Gemma is how curious she is. She doesn’t have that brash bravado that Presto has, where he sees something, marches right up to it, and tries to smash it with his feet, but she definitely wants to see and understand things. She looks, then she touches it with her nose and sniffs it to figure it out. It’s a much quieter, less destructive type of curiosity, but I would definitely still classify her as a brave type of horse. She might want to pause for a second to think about it, but she always ultimately wants to go forward toward the “scary” thing. I hope that translates under saddle too.

We made a lap each way of the front field, stopping near the neighbors fence line so we could watch and listen to their rickety old metal shed flapping in the wind. Henry spooked at it pretty hard, and his spooking spooked her, but she was less upset about the noise than he was.

Then we walked around and into the dressage arena (pausing to sniff the dressage letters and the arena wall, of course) and then through the jump field. I had a couple poles set out so we walked over those too, which was no biggie. She was looking around and very interested in everything, but not upset or worried. We made another lap of the front field and then went back to the barn, completing her first successful farm exploration session. Once she’s cleared to return to under saddle work I think she’ll have a really good time hacking.

I was relieved that we didn’t encounter the rogue cow — omg wait I forgot to tell y’all the story of the rogue cow. Hold up. Screeching halt for one sec.

So a couple weeks ago I was up in the barn doing stalls and at one point I could have sworn I saw a cow way out in the back pasture. We don’t have cows, but the neighbors do, so I was like uh oh is the fence down? By the time I finished what I was doing and walked down there, there wasn’t a cow in sight. I walked the entire fenceline just to make sure there wasn’t a breach and couldn’t find anything at all. We have no-climb back there, so it’s not like it’s an easy fence to get past. I was like well ok I am pretty tired, maybe I just… hallucinated the cow. Maybe it was a deer. The incident became a joke about me being in such a weird headspace that I was hallucinating cows. Fast forward to a few days ago and I’m in the jump field setting jumps for Hillary when low and behold AGAIN I see a cow in the back pasture. I look at Hillary, I look at the cow, and I whisper “do you see the cow?”. She turns and looks and confirms that yes indeed she sees the cow too. Great, I’m not hallucinating. Off we go through the fields to the back pasture, come around the corner of the hacking trail and boom – BIG ASS WHITE COW just standing there alone in the back pasture like he owns the place. We got about 30′ away from him, Mina having now spotted him and started barking, and he very casually looks at us, turns around, and jumps back over the fence like it’s nothing. I was like HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT. Ok #1 that is a pretty scopy cow, but #2 HOLY SHIT that cow just jumped right over the fence! Upon further examination of the ground in that area he’s clearly been doing that a lot. I’m so glad Hillary was there to witness or no one ever would have believed me but yeah… we have a rogue, very scopy, tres athletic, fence-jumping neighbor cow.

ANYWAY – luckily we didn’t encounter the cow that day I was ponying Gemma. I don’t know what she would have made of that.

Is there any point in saying “last week was busy” anymore? Let us just assume that all weeks are busy until proven otherwise. Right now at least I am listening to the glorious sound of RAIN on my roof (and ok, some thunder rattling the house) for the first time in forever. The horses are stuck inside for the day, which is more work for me, but boy does the ground and the grass ever need the moisture. I am certainly far less excited about the freezing temps and frozen precip that they’re projecting for later this week though. I swear to god ERCOT, if you do me dirty again we’re gonna throw hands. They’re projecting almost the same energy usage as last year’s event, but… please no. No more Little House on the Prairie experiences for me thanks. I cannot.

In better news, Gemma got a major pen upgrade. She’s supposed to be on small paddock/quiet turnout or stall rest, and since we didn’t know her temperament when we got her, we went with a pretty small pen, about the size of a double stall. She’s proven herself to be quite sensible though and I wanted her to have a bit more room to walk around and get her blood/gut moving, so we moved all the round pen panels (what a fun task THAT is) out to the front pasture to give her a corner out there that’s more the size of a true small paddock.

Still too small for her to build up any speed or get running, but enough for her to move around a bit more easily, and about 4-5x bigger than the pen before. That corner is also basically the only place left on the property at this point with green grass, and I’m pretty sure she barely lifted her head once yesterday. Far more interested in stuffing her face than anything else. That front pasture has a 3 slot shed in it, so we set her pen up to include one of the slots, and then Henry and Quinnie have the rest of that pasture and the other two slots. So she can still see them at all times, and everyone has access to shelter if need be (although they don’t get to go out there today because lightning is a big no thanks for me).

Moving horses to new turnouts is always fun (insert human sarcasm) and the low 30’s temps yesterday morning made it even better. When they’re turned out in the middle pasture I just let Henry and Quinnie out of their stalls and they walk out themselves, and then I would lead Gemma to her pen. But to get to the front pasture we have to go around the house, which requires leading them a ways away. And with 3 horses if you take them individually you end up leaving someone alone somewhere at some point, which is pure chaos fuel, so I opted to just lead them all out together.

Quinnie, on the right, pranced and snorted the entire way out. Henry, in the middle, kept trying to weave around one or the other mares and bite them on the butt. Gemma, on my left, kept looking around to try to find what the hell Quinnie was snorting about while also trying to stay far enough away to dodge Henry’s teeth. Once I got them all in the pasture and turned around and shut the gate, I let Quinnie go first. She cantered a few circles but then settled down to eat. I waited a minute and then let Henry go. Which was… something. He ran, he leaped, he snorted like a wild Arabian stallion in a Disney movie, he bucked, he farted. For a 15yo horse that gets ridden a lot it was pretty impressive.

I was still holding Gemma, waiting for Henry to settle so I could walk her past them and over to her paddock. To her immense credit, she didn’t even flinch the whole time Henry performed his various theatrics. She just stood there grazing, quietly watching him act a fool. Smart girl. Once Henry and Quinnie settled down I took Gemma over and let her go. She wandered one slow lap of her perimeter, then immediately started stuffing her face. Not even so much as a snort. Best behaved horse of the day award goes to the 5yo fresh of the track mare that’s been on rest for a month.

Since Henry was so batshit he got to go for a long gallop with Hillary yesterday, which I think he needed. He came back much less full of himself, at least. And Hillary’s pics came in from the schooling jumper rounds the previous weekend… how friggin CUTE are these two?

She’s always hard on herself and critical, I think we all are, but in all actuality she’s figuring him out so quickly, and he seems to really enjoy having a new person to manipulate, er, torment, er, teach things to. I think it’s working out well for all of us. It makes me very happy to see my best boy teaching someone else, she’s getting to do some bigger stuff and stay sharp while Lex is away at training, and Henry has got her so very thoroughly wrapped around his little hoof at this point that his cookie quota has basically quadrupled. Plus he gets to lash someone else in the eyeball with his tail along with all the various other “cool tricks” in his repertoire. Perks all around. Hopefully they’ll get to leave the start box together at some point soon, if the weather ever cooperates.

Let’s see, what else has happened in the past week… oh yeah, Grace update! When we last left off I had taken her up to the breeding specialist’s clinic early because I had a hunch that she was getting ready to start cycling. My hunch was correct – she indeed was starting her transitional cycle, and they were able to collect 15 oocytes from her for ICSI (there’s a video explaining ICSI here if you’re unfamiliar with the process, or here’s an article with the basics). 15 is quite a good number, higher than average, and of those they had 10 that were viable enough to inject with the sperm… average is 5-7. Getting in there on the transitional cycle often yields a higher amount like that, so the timing was superb. Now we wait to see how many grow into viable embryos! They average about 30% typically, so we’ll see. Would be great if we could get 3 to transplant into recipients and have a better shot at getting actual live foal(s).

And who was the lucky suitor to provide said swimmers?

Ireland-based stallion Jackaroo, who is 96% TB and full brother to very successful 5* horses Mandiba and High Kingdom. His pedigree is impeccable for eventing, and putting the Master Imp xx/Chair Lift xx lines on a Q/Cavalier Royale/Clover Hill mare is an extremely proven and very Irish nick. Jackaroo himself doesn’t have a lot of foals on the ground yet, but the ones he does have look promising as youngsters. I think this could potentially be a very good match. Fingers crossed for a baby or three!

On the subject of mares, I also added a new design to the Barn Dog store this weekend. Couldn’t resist. I’m quite enjoying being a mare owner again finally, in case you couldn’t tell. I mean I feel like in spirit Henry definitely counts as a mare, but, ya know. Not officially.

And last but not least, my top 10 songs of January, because I always seem to find common ground with someone over music. Did the Loveless cover of Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever just come out a week ago? Yes. Was it still my most listened to song of the month because I’ve had it on repeat since it came out? Also yes.

Hope everyone had a good weekend! Happy Monday?

Busy morning today, but I wanted to pop in real quick just to say thanks for all the messages and comments from yesterday’s Presto post. As usual he’s got a lot of people in his corner, and that counts for a lot. His Osteon arrived yesterday and his “team” in Midland is figuring out what his schedule will be for his therapies, so it’s very relieving to finally have some answers, a positive prognosis, and be moving forward with a plan. Very appreciative of how many people care about him and are invested in his success/future/life in general. It’s definitely lessened the weight on my shoulders. He’s lucky he’s cute.

A few people yesterday also asked for some Presto/Willow Tree Warmbloods swag. At this point I feel like Presto really is a WTW ambassador of sorts, so in my mind Presto swag and WTW swag are one in the same. He is the first WTW horse to hit the show ring after all, and part of the oldest crop. He reps his program (and thus his people) all the time wherever he goes, from his name to his saddle pad to his scrim sheet to his ring bag, and naturally my life revolves around WTW as well since I’ll soon be a resident of WTW East. So for those that were interested, I added some WTW stuff to the Barn Dog Apparel store… womens tees, unisex tees, long sleeves, hoodies, stickers, and a wine tumbler (if I was a drinker I would def be needing that wine tumbler right about now). Just scroll to the bottom of the storefront on the main page… I tried to give lots of color options too.

For everyone who asked about the BEMER I’m happy to put you in touch with Hillary, who is a distributor, just shoot me a PM. I’ve been meaning to do a BEMER post since we’ve been using it regularly on the horses at home… maybe next week! Also trying my best to finally get that “Where are they now” Foal Friday update post ready for y’all next week. I swear I haven’t forgotten, just… things. Things and stuff. I have a pretty exciting Grace update too! It feels like I can breathe a little bit again now at least… and perhaps not stuff all my emotions into Little Debbies (or not as many/as often, anyway…).

Happy Friday!