Show Motivation

Sorry for the continued blog silence. I miss writing posts more often but I still can't seem to find the time! I still have kept caught up on everyone's blogs, I still have enough down time for that it seems :)

I've been struggling a lot with motivation to ride lately. Not only do I never seem to find the time, but when I do, I just don't feel like riding. Last week I was really fed up with it, so I paid to have my stalls cleaned for an entire week (such luxury!) and managed to go out and ride three days. Three entire days! What a miracle.

But what better motivation to get my butt in the saddle than to set my sights on a couple shows? There's a couple of the university's equestrian team shows coming up. The event team hosts a jumper schooling show on the 12th of April and the dressage team hosts a dressage league show on the 26th of April. I'm dead set on going to the dressage show and super excited about it. This is the show that I ran for the last four years and I'm really excited to actually be able to ride in it for once! And the club seems to be doing really well without me, it's like it's all grown up. *Sniffle*

I'm not sure I'll be quite ready for the jumper show since I haven't jumped in.... Months? But maybe I can school Misty a couple times and we can do some 2' or maybe some 2'6" classes if I'm feeling crazy.

Speaking of motivation, I decided some new schooling breeches were in order. I love my Smartpak Piper's and since I only have one pair of full seats, I really wanted a second pair. But now, Perfect Sit of Sweden is having a sale and I completely blame SprinklerBandit and Amanda for making me want one. Grr. I could get such a neat bridle for a good price! And a cool clippy martingale thingy. Not that I could even decide what color to get it in...

**Grabby hands**

I have all the wants and not enough of the monies. Sigh.

Review: Horze Venice Bridle

I have a thing about bridles. I want them all. I do not need them, but I want them. I have a ton of them... I think all counted I have 5 english bridles and 3 western bridles? For two horses. Shameful.

Anways. I decided that I "needed" a new bridle and I have been eyeing this bridle FOREVER. Seriously. I actually bought one last year but they sent me the wrong size (pony size which will decidedly not fit Jetta's monster head). Interestingly, I thought the quality was pretty bad on that bridle. You could definitely tell that it was an under $100 bridle because the leather just felt "cardboard-y".

Fast forward a year and I found this bridle at the feed store and fell in love again. The quality was much better than the previous bridle I had seen in person. I have very particular things I like in a bridle. Padded crowns have become mandatory for me. I absolutely adore rounded buckles. Wide noses look particularly nice on Jetta's long, narrow nose. I don't like stiff nosebands that take forever to break in, which seems pretty standard with dressage bridles and crank nosebands. This bridle fit all of those requirements.

Jetta will never be a bridle model. 90% of my pictures looked like this

Horze Venice Bridle

MSRP:$79.95

My price: $46.95 - I managed to snag this wonderful deal which made it all the more amazing!

Pros:

• Everything I previously stated - wide nose, rounded buckles and padded crown. 
• Plus lovely white stitching and super soft padding. 
• The leather quality isn't "amazing" but it's still quite good for the price. I think with some oiling it will be perfect. I also have a Smartpak Plymouth Elite Dressage Bridle and I think the quality is pretty similar. The leather is a little more supple and thick with the Smartpak bridle, but the price is also slightly higher. 
• While the noseband is a crank (I prefer French cavessons), it's not such a thick and stiff piece of leather like a lot of others I've seen. It's very soft and conforms nicely to Jetta's nose.

Cons:

• It's brown. And I don't do brown dressage tack. I do love brown dressage tack and would love to one day own a brown dressage saddle, but that's a pretty far off dream. I wish this bridle came in black with the same pretty white stitching. I probably would have paid full price for this bridle in black. 
• Also, the reins aren't my favorite. They're leather reins with handstops. I would have preferred webbed or rubberized web reins honestly. Hopefully they're break in well because as of now, the hand stops are sharp, but then again I rarely use the reins that come with bridles. 
• Lastly, it was a tad big on Jetta so I had to punch a few holes, but honestly that happens with all bridles. She's much too large to fit into a cob bridle, but is always on the last holes for horse size. The crank noseband had to have a couple more holes to keep it from flopping around and so did the flash.

Overall, I give this bridle an A. For the price, it's a fantastic bridle. All the small details make me happy and since I'm using it for Jetta's other bit (which is not dressage legal) the fact that it's brown doesn't actually matter except for my own sense of "MUST HAVE MATCHING TACK AT ALL TIMES".