Even a “boring” weekend at home will always be anything but, whenever Henry and Presto are involved. These two boys… they keep things interesting.

I’m in the middle of a long barnsitting stint, so I hadn’t really seen the boys all week aside from a quick visit on Wednesday. Several more packages had arrived in the meantime (continued sorry’s to the mailman, also I ordered a couple more things over the weekend omg SORRY), which meant that I headed out to the barn armed with all kinds of new goodies. The most exciting box was from Majyk Equipe… Henry got one of their new Impact pads

and Presto got some of the super fancy limited edition white with turquoise dressage boots.

They’re Smalls, which at this point barely fit him because Giramoose, but they sure do look cute. Or they did before he slobbered all over them, anyway. Now they’re sporting some lime green highlights. That’s ok, it’ll wash out. I’m pretty pro at cleaning white ME boots at this point, since I’ve been using white ones on Henry for XC for years. Lots of people have already asked me and yes, I will definitely be reviewing the Impact Pad once I get to use it a bit more. So far I like it A LOT and it has some really cool features that I’ve had a hard time finding all in one pad before. They did a good job with design.

Presto’s Nathe bit also came in, which I was probably more excited about than he was. I’ve just had such great luck with this bit for babies, from learning to wear a bit all the way through starting w/t/c. We worked more on bridling (with some molasses, you’re welcome kid!) and he wore his bridle Saturday and Sunday while we ponied.

He seems pretty happy with the bit. He does chomp a little for the first few minutes that he’s wearing the bridle, but stops as soon as he’s distracted by something else. What he’s more persistent about is trying to rub the bridle off. He’s kind of dramatic about it, like omg he’s dying of face itchies someone halp.

While the bridle doesn’t fit him that well, I do think he looks quite cute in it. Now I’m kinda waffling on whether I want to show him in a halter or a bridle for FEH. I need to work him more in hand in the bridle and see what kind of difference there is, if any.

Presto has also decided to start shedding like crazy, like waaaaay more than I’ve ever been able to get him to shed in his life, and the coat underneath is so shiny and silky and dark. Maybe he’s FINALLY getting a bloom on him, for literally the first time ever? Between his food and his lifestyle and his groomies, I’m definitely trying hard, that’s for sure.

On Saturday while we were walking in the back of the hilly field, Henry decided to use the noise of the nail guns from the nearby construction site as an excuse to be a total moron. He’s heard it plenty of times before, but THIS DAY he just Could Not. He’s officially done with vacation, because it took me 10 minutes to get him to stop jigging and walk in a straight line. Even Presto was looking at him like “Dude, WTF?”. Time to start adding some trot sets back in and get Henry legged back up, because he is officially wild. He got 4 weeks “off”, anyway, that’s a pretty good vacation.

So on Sunday after a long walk I tied Presto to his Post of Knowledge and did 8 minutes of trotting with Henry.

Henry seemed REALLY happy to back doing something, and decided to break out his fancy trot. Whether it was the time off or the new pad or a combination of both, he sure seemed to be feeling good. After his trot we grabbed Presto (who was very preoccupied with trying to figure out how to chew his mouthful of grass with that pesky bit in the way), did another 10 minutes of walking, and then headed back toward the barn. On the way we came across a hay tarp that had blown loose and was now strewn across our path. Naturally Henry’s first reaction was to stop and snort, whereas Presto’s first reaction was to march straight towards it. Once I convinced Henry to walk up and sniff it he relaxed, at least until Presto decided to pick it up.

 

Poor Henry. He’s by far the spookier horse of the two, and Presto just about gave him a heart attack with that thing. I feel kind of sorry for Henry sometimes with all the shit he has to put up with, so I just make up for it by giving him a lot of cookies.

Both boys also got a bath. Henry is still so freaking itchy, and Presto is a filth magnet, so baths happen a lot around here these days. I still have another week of barnsitting left, so I won’t get to play with them much until the weekend, but it’s amazing how much fun we can have just from easy “boring” days like these. Presto is in such a fun stage, he soaks everything up like a sponge, and having Henry there as a role model (um, most of the time anyway) is fantastic.

Hope you guys had a good weekend too!