Himbo

Fuego is all good to go! Stitches are out, and he's moving like nothing ever happened. Not sure how he'll be about loading now, but that's an issue for another day.

I wasn't in any rush to get back to work with him. We spent a week or so just hanging out, plodding around, not doing anything too serious. Despite being inside for a full four weeks, his skin somehow broke out into . . . something. I'm guessing it's bugs only because he's had multiple fungal treatments recently, and it hasn't made a difference. The whole thing is just doing its rounds. Other than being a little itchy at the top of his neck, he's feeling fine.

From now on, I'm integrating the bridleless work into our rides. Believe me when I say it's for me, not for him, but by extension, it does benefit him. When we finally had a lesson this past weekend, I was shockingly much much much softer with my hands, therefore he was much much softer in his jaw. Literally, this high strung horse came back from four weeks of no work like nothing happened. He's been a bit of a bulldozer on the ground, but that'll dissipate in due time.

It's funny to think about, but I feel like his work ethic now is worse than it was earlier this year. I got really excited when we first started stringing courses together because he took me to everything. I got used to taking strides out. I won't lie, it was a little scary sometimes. What kept me going was the very clear mental progress. He was so much more confident, straighter, knew where to put his feet, and started taking longer spots on his own. These days, it all that, plus he's so much easier to ride, and he's consistently blase about most things. There's still some anticipation, but the horse is fully in his dad bod, hunter mode phase. And he's made it clear that he's not exiting that phase anytime soon.

Would you believe me if I told you I had to add a ton of leg through this gymnastic?

You do you, Eggo.

We kept the jumps very small for this first ride back, mostly 2'-0" and under. We warmed up over a bending line that was incredibly underwhelming. We added on a very long approach to a second bending line of three fences that I absolutely crapped my way through the first time. Second time, I got it together. Trainer T popped the last two fences up to around 3'-0". I can't really tell how high things are; everything is starting to look small.

Truth be told, this write up is several weeks old while these pictures are more recent.
Here he is popping over 3'-0" or 3'-3" easy peasy.

For the first time in a long time, I feel like I can actively take credit for something. I have produced this horse. Not alone, obviously, but a significant portion of his progress is due to the fact that I stayed consistent. And truthfully, I could have said no at any point. I am ultimately a client of Trainer T, and I was well within my right to refuse to ride him. I had nothing to lose by finding a different horse, nor did I even expect him to be my main mount. This all just kind of . . . happened. And within that, I had to be hard on myself and be disciplined about how I rode him in order to prevent overloading him.

I never thought he'd go to a show. When showing became a possibility in my mind, we were all certain that he would not be a hunter. I had to convince myself to give up any medal goals for the time being because it wouldn't have been fair to him. Now I have a potential derby horse and don't know what to do with myself. His value has approximately tripled since I took him on.

Potential *local derby horse lmao

He's got this weekend off since I'll be at the Maryland 5*, but he's so deserving of it. I'm glad I didn't quit. He was worth it, and I hope he stays.