First of all, there is a crapton of media in this post. I probably could have broken it up into two, but… happy Monday.
Second of all, Sadie is still over a month away from having her Diarado foal and she already looks like she’s going to explode. Laken’s milk test says that she’s gonna have hers within the next couple days, so BABIES ARE COMING.
Third of all, I haven’t seen Presto since last September, and he’s definitely transitioned from foal to baby horse in that time. He is lanky and long and has way more leg than he knows what to do with at the moment. One of the first things I did was string test him, since he’s almost a year old now and those tests should start being pretty accurate. They were totally accurate with Sadie, anyway, far more so than the general “add two hands to yearling height” method. I never believed her string tests, but lo and behold if she didn’t grow to exactly the height they predicted. So I grabbed some twine and a tape measure and decided to just go ahead and use the two methods that had predicted Sadie’s height so accurately. First, the measurement from the coronary band up to the middle of the knee (idea being that however many inches this is, that’s their final height – so like 16.25″ would be 16.1h, 16.5″ would be 16.2h, 16.75″ would be 16.3h, etc)…
I checked that 3 times to make sure I was definitely going from the right place to the right place, and yeah… it’s definitely 17″.
Then I did the other method, taking his elbow to ergot measurement, doubling it, and adding four. That got us this:
Yep, 17 again. They both agree. I was kinda hoping for more like 16.2h, but I guess Sadie likes to throw her elephant height. I did stick him and he’s only 14.2h, so if you use the “add two hands to yearling height” method, then that’s 16.2h. Granted, Sadie herself was 14h at yearling height and ended up 17h by 6 years old. It seems to be a slow-growing family. I guess time will tell! Either way, he’s definitely on track for 16.2h to 17h.
I banged his little tail, which really was just taking about 1″ of gross yellow ends off to make it sorta even, and then chopped off his mane. Long mane on scrawny yearling neck just is not at all attractive, trust me.
He was also really really really incredibly hairy.
I’m not sure I’ve seen a coat like that outside of a shetland or mini. It was thick, it was plush, and it was long. He literally had dreadlocks behind his elbows. I couldn’t tell how much of him was hair. I was mostly thinking “Is his head really that blocky or is it hair? I don’t remember it looking like that???”. I really didn’t want to body clip him, but even after an hour of grooming not much hair had come off. And it was 85 degrees. He was hot underneath all that. So we dragged him into the barn and sheared him like a sheep.
This is now the second body clip this horse has gotten in his lifetime. Apparently I should just get used to clipping all the time, because between him and Henry I think it’s going to be constant. Presto didn’t really mind the clipping part at all, but every few minutes he’d start screaming for his friends (being inside the barn alone is terrifying, y’all) and swing himself around. He gave up for a while, and then by the time I was on his legs he started losing his patience a lot more, so he got to keep his little legwarmers from the knee/hock down and his face hair because I don’t need to die over this, thanks.
He was feeling pretty fancy on his way back out, though, and all the mares had to come running over to check out his hair cut. He was more than happy to show it off.
His little QH friend Murphy was pretty fascinated by how we transformed his yak friend into a sleek giraffe.
We left him alone for the afternoon (he was quite done with me by this point, poor kid) and then got him back out that evening to take some pictures.
He basically went straight to the fenceline to trot back and forth in front of everyone in the paddocks.
Then he realized there was a really fun water puddle and he proceeded to first leap over it a couple times…
And then splash and stomp his way through it.
Then he had to take a few (screaming) victory laps.
Then we stuck Murphy out with him so they could be idiots together.
The next morning, of course, a cold front blew through. What was only supposed to be mid to upper sixties turned into mid 50’s with a ridiculous wind, so I dug through the barn to find an old pony blanket. I tossed it on him, let him run a few angry laps of his paddock, and then adjusted everything.
He was not a fan. At all. I sat up on the fence to watch him for a while and he mostly just stood there and glared at me. Every few minutes he’d reach down and try to pull it off, then Murphy would come up and pull on a strap. That just made Presto stand there looking mad again. Henny’s mare glare ain’t got nothing on Presto’s. I have a feeling he’ll be looking at me like that a lot.
Luckily (I guess?) It’ll be back up in the mid-upper 80’s by Wednesday, so he only has to tolerate the blanket for a couple days.
The tentative plan is that he’ll get gelded this week, and then I’ll come pick him up on my way back from Texas Rose at the end of the month. It’s not really on the way at all, but it just adds like 4 hours of extra journey instead of a whole extra 10-hour round trip, and he’ll have Henry in the trailer for.. um… emotional support?
So really, as long as all goes according to plan, just a few more weeks and he’ll be home! Then I can start torturing him on a daily basis. Poor kid.
breedrideevent.com 
He is so adorable! I love how he went splashing through the mud puddle, such a brave baby. He definitely looks like he’ll be well-suited for eventing, and good luck sitting his trot!
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I was proud of him for that! Murphy wanted absolutely nothing to do with getting his feet wet.
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The emo bangs just add to the glare.
But seriously, what a show off with that trot. Um, have fun riding that!
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The emo bangs really do round out the whole angsty teen look that he’s got going on.
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Haha poor Presto — that glare! Can’t wait until you have him home, I can’t wait to see his shenanigans on a regular basis 🙂
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I have a feeling the first month or so might be… interesting.
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Well duh, that’s why I’m excited to see it 😉 I’ll be sitting over here with my popcorn 😂
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Looks like you’ll have to learn to love full seat breeches 😂
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Or duct tape.
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Been waiting for this post all weekend 🙂 Presto!! LOL he looks great and so much more like a horse now that you clipped him 🙂 Cant wait till you get him home with you!! And Henry can partake his wise ways on him on the way back to Austin. 🙂
I bet you wanted to stuff him in your truck to bring home with you this weekend.
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No, if I’d stuffed him in my truck he’d have just screamed my ear off and tried to kill me. Henry can deal with that, that’s his job.
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poor Henry 🙂
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Quite the transformation from yak to baby horse. He looks pretty elegant, if still very gangly. Oh my, that trot… I hope the come up with seatbelts until it´s time to start him.
But hey, your dressage scores might be better simply because the judges are completely starry eyed from watching him move…
And I know I am repeating myself but you do have *the* most expressive animals.
I saw the vid of him trying to get the blanket off on instagram yesterday. He is certainly not hiding his opinion….
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All of my horses are really opinionated and none of them are shy about it! I guess I deserve it. LOL
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Oh and – he and Henny together in a trailer for a few hours?? Can you put a camera in there because that sounds like comedy-worthy material..
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I can see them through the front windows of the trailer, so at least I’ll be able to watch and re-tell the story later!
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Those are some honking knees. He be big
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I know. His whole lower legs in general look disproportionately large.
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Yak like baby horse looks so smooth now. He looked so proud of himself afterward too. 17H!! All you people and your monster horses 🙂 He is going to be a fun one to ride once he grows up.
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In my defense, I really thought that a slightly smaller stallion might bring the height down a notch! LOL. He just isn’t that much smaller. And Sadie is huge. But her dam was only 16h so Sadie is the one who started this elephant thing.
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Wow from yak to fancy ass eventer pony in one post!
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It’s amazing what removing a hundred lbs of hair will do for a kid. 😉
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Man, LOOK AT ALL THAT HAIR!
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Those legs! Holy moly are they long!
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HE IS SO CUTE ERMAGERD!!!! Also my 11 year old doesn’t let me near him with clippers so you should be very proud of your brave baby horse.
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He’s only bothered by dumb silly things, not by OBVIOUSLY SCARY things. 😉
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Damnit, Sadie, throwing the elephant gene into the mix! And I don’t think you’ll be riding per se so much as floating, hovering, and flying by the looks of things! Should get you through each phase though…dressage likes floaty horses, you can hover through stadium, and then fly across XC?
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Yeah I’ll probably be flopping around like a sack of potatoes, honestly…
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That trot! Are you sure you didn’t accidentally breed a hunter?
He really looks great! So excited for you!
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He’s got a little too much knee for a hunter I think (which, like, is a GOOD thing for me) but Sadie definitely throws her big floaty movement. Both colts so far have had nice
trots. I think the Diarado foal could potentially be a “real deal” hunter. It’s definitely going to be interesting to try to pick stallions that will bring to the table what she needs (refinement, elegance, more scope), but ones that she can also give her good qualities (movement, rideability, size) to as well. That’s what’s so hard about breeding the hunters. I’m glad I’m not the one having to make those decisions!
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He looks like a totally different horse without all that hair. He’s going to clean up at FEH.
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His RF still has a slight deviation below the knee that hasn’t totally straightened yet (at this age they should still toe out a little since the chest hasn’t “sprung”, but the RF toes out a bit more than the left). It’s improved TONS since he was a foal, and I don’t think most people would notice it, but a FEH judge will. I think the fact that he was so sick for the first 4 months kind of prevented it from straightening as much as it would have on it’s own. We’ll see what it does over the next 6 months. I have a good farrier here so I’m hoping that if there’s any improvement left to be made, he can make it. It’s slight enough to not be an actual issue (both of Henry’s front legs are WAY more crooked than this), but it could prove to be a problem for a confo-based class like FEH. Just depends on the judge I think, and how they feel about it/how noticeable it is on that particular day. Luckily I don’t see it come through in his movement at all, he moves straight and true (unlike Henry). Just when he’s standing there you see it.
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Damn. I didn’t see the knee issue, but I’m sure you’re right and a judge will. I hope it straightens out. He looks great moving.
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It’s just a little toe-out on the RF. We’ll see how much it continues to improve over time. I don’t really mind if he’s not a FEH champion. 😉
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PRESTO! With all the other bloggers with baby horses that have grown insanely huge, I think Presto and Joey are the most similar height wise…though I still haven’t put a stick on Joey lately. Ain’t no doubt my boy weighs the most. 😉 He looks SO good body clipped. Even with the little hair you left on his face, you can still tell he’s going to have a nice head.
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Really? How big is his pasturemate? I was guessing from pics that Joey was around 13.2ish (bigger than Murphy), but I’m not sure how tall you are or how tall the horses he lives with are. I know that I’m 16.2h at the top of my head, and Presto’s withers are above my boobs (very scientific point of measurement) so I was guessing 14.2-14.3 at the withers and was close. The stick never lies though! I’m really glad he isn’t bigger, the temper tantrums would be a lot worse. LOL. And yes Joey probably outweighs him by double. 😛 Who are these other bloggers with giant yearlings? YIKES!
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Awww he’s adorable! And I love how he is already taller at just under a year than my Morgan hahaha. At 5′ with stubby legs I could never ride a 17h horse, but he’s clearly got the trot and the puddle jumping of a great event horse down already for you! 😉
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Holey moley Presto (on both height and appearance fronts)! Yea, 17 is waay out of my realm, but glad you’ll (hopefully, seatbelt willing) be able to ride that gorgeous trot! 😉
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OMG his leg warmers make me die. Love it! He is going to be such a nice horse! Certainly looks like he will be tall to me. All legs!
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