Favorite time of Year

I can't help it - I love clipping. Yes, it takes forever, you get hair literally everywhere (I found some in my teeth even!), but I think it's super fun.

I mentioned that I wanted to do something similar to what I did last time I clipped and I didn't realize how similar the clip was! Basically I did the same thing, with less hair on the neck, than last time so it's a modified blanket clip. I'm super happy with how it turned out!

So shinyy

Also, I've been wanting to buy some Snaks 5th Avenchew treats for a while now, so I finally ordered a cute Halloween cookie set and the unicorn crunch cups. You can give them to both dogs and horses and Kaida loves them! I've given her some of the crunch cups and she really likes them even though they're very hard and she had to figure out how to crunch them up with her soft mouth. 

Noms

 Jetta was a little less sure about her cookies, especially as they're pretty big. Once she figured out how to eat them she really liked them. They're just so adorable, I will definitely buy them again for special occasions (they're a little spendy), but they'd make perfect gifts.

A monster cookie for my monster pony

Fall (basically all of October) and Halloween have to be some of my favorites. Love this time of year <3

What an Ordeal

We went for a trail ride yesterday which was AWESOME. I finally made it to WM park which was closed last time I tried. This time I scrutinized the website and didn't see anything about closures so off we went. The ride was great. We went around 8 miles, didn't see a single person, did a little swimming. Super fun.

The drive home was not super fun. About halfway home on the interstate the trailer started wobbling and I looked in the rear view mirror to see pieces of tire flying. A couple people frantically waved at me from their vehicles (which I appreciated! I'm always nervous I won't notice if I blow a tire - but it was super obvious). I made it almost another mile to an off ramp and parked on the side and got to work changing out the tire.

Giant wheat field

I was set for this - I am an independent horse woman and I can change a tire! Except, it was super hot. Like not in the 90s anymore, but it was at least 86 degrees with no shade. And I couldn't get the last dang lug nut undone and all these guys in jacked up trucks were driving past me without stopping while I was kicking and throwing all my body weight on the stupid tire iron to get it to turn.

My dork blowing bubbles

I was about to give up and throw the stupid tire iron away but finally got it off. Of course at that moment a guy in a little Ford Focus pulled over (car twins!) and asked if I was ok or needed help. At that point I was covered in dirt from getting on the ground and absolutely dripping sweat - it was basically a river of sweat at that point - and I desperately needed a water break so I said sure and he helpfully put my spare tire on for me. He said that I'd already done the hard part, which I agreed, he'd shown up just a couple minutes too late! I was so thankful for him stopping, I really, really appreciated it!

I thought these plants looked kinda prehistoric lol

I cheerfully got back on the interstate only to look in the rear view at a giant cloud of smoke coming from the spare tire. I am equipped to change a tire, I am not equipped to deal with a fire on the horse trailer! I quickly pulled to the side of the highway and was at a loss for what to do. I called Les Schwab since they have a roadside tire repair thing, but they charge a $48 service charge, then $105 an hour, plus the amount that the tire costs. And I had 30 minutes to decide if I needed them because they don't take calls after 5pm (of course, right when they are needed) and they were worried I had something wrong with my trailer axle since the spare wasn't working.

Pickin' blackberries

I ended up calling my barn owner because I couldn't think of anyone who would be available and have access to a horse trailer and truck. By some miracle she wasn't working and agreed to come get Jetta so I could figure out what to do. By that point I was starting to have a panic attack - I didn't know how to get my trailer home on 3 tires, AAA wouldn't help me because I didn't have RV coverage and refused to upgrade me because I had a current roadside claim, it was after 5pm, and I needed to unload my horse on the side of a very busy I-5. And my phone was dying. I frantically called the BF who magically was also just getting off work and he drove out.

I am so, so lucky to have great friends and support network!

Jetta is A SAINT. She earned herself so many cookies yesterday - as much as I complain about her I am so lucky to have her. She was the most perfect angel possible and I am so glad I instilled a good trailering ability with her. If your horses don't load well I really, really urge you to teach them (or find someone else to do so!) to self load regardless of the situation and practice on trailers that aren't yours. It is an invaluable skill. Jetta stood perfectly still in the trailer for the 2ish hours that we changed tires and then waited for help. When my BO got there to help, I was so worried. Especially because Jetta had never used a ramp for a trailer. I marched Jetta up to the ramp, she snorted at it, I circled her back and marched her right onto the trailer. Easy peasy (minus the fact that I was literally shaking I was so nervous).

That taken care of, we assessed the situation and decided to try a new tire and see what happened. Of course it was now after 6pm by that point so the only place we could find with my tire in stock was Wal-Mart tire center. My wonderful BF drove over and got the tire only to find that there was a 3 hour waiting time just to take 5 minutes to put the tire on the wheel... he called around and found another tire shop that was still open for another 30 minutes and hightailed it over there across town and they whipped the tire on in under 4 minutes! What an awesome place.

New tire on, it worked perfectly and I was able to get the trailer home safe and sound. What. A. Day. I really hope I never have to do that again.

I am now upgrading my trailering supplies to include a fire extinguisher because who knows when that might come in handy. I'm getting a new spare tire that will actually work. And I will never trailer without my phone charger (and/or possibly a plug-in battery charger) again because if I get stranded without a phone I am screwed. I sat on the side of I-5 for almost 3 hours with not a single person stopping. I get that it's a busy highway, but I was a tiny bit surprised that no one stopped.

If you don't have a TrailerAid I highly, HIGHLY recommend you get one. I can't think of a better $40 spent. Seriously.

Such a lifesaver!

Does anyone else have any trailering supplies they consider a requirement for when they haul horses? And I'm considering getting US Rider coverage since AAA is absolutely worthless. Has anyone used them and what was your experience?

Rose Gold Obsession

I have always been a "silver person". I don't like gold. I hate brass fittings. I had a hard time with Jetta's show halter having a brass nameplate (yuk). I want silver everything. I've always thought that rose gold was pretty, but more of in a way like "that's a shame I only like silver" because it's a fairly nice color.

I follow an eventer on instagram that has the cutest eventing buckskin and a while back she posted a picture of her horse in a rose gold browband. It looked good. Really good. And you know... I have a buckskin now.

And thus the rose gold obsession began.

For whatever reason I have now decided that rose gold will be Maisie's color. Most of the horse's I've owned have had "a color". Grady was red, Jazz was blue, Patches was dark green, Katy was purple. But Jetta's never really had a color. She gets purple and aqua and navy and gray and plum, etc. So who knows why I've decided to revive my assignment of colors to a horse but I love the look of rose gold on a buckskin.

So far the only thing I've splurged on is a rose gold and grey halter by Eskadron. This was definitely a splurge - I've never spent this much on a halter ($60). Halters are made to be worn lots, get dirty, and occasionally broken so I've never wanted to spend much on them because it doesn't make sense. Eskadron's rose gold collection is from last year, so they're slowly selling out, so I bought the last rose gold and gray full sized halter that was available to be shipped to the US.

*swoon*

Here's what else is on my rose gold wish list:

The first thing I actually put on my wish list is this stunning Equiture rose gold browband. I LOVE it. When they first debuted it I was sad that I didn't need or want a rose gold browband. But now I do! I think it will look amazing on Maisie once she wears a bridle. I will definitely be purchasing this one next time they have a good sale!

Rose gold stirrup irons. This is kind of a silly want item. I have stirrup irons. I have no need of other stirrup irons, especially ones that cost over $90. But they're beautiful.

Maisie of course needs dressage boots. And what better boots then a pair of rose gold ones from HKM?

And a matching saddle pad of course. The only problem is that these things are spendy and while I have spent $$$ on pretty saddle pads before, it's still hard to stomach $80+ on one. Eskadron is going to be the death of me because they just released a navy/aqua floral line that I love and Jetta would look amazing in. I have a problem.

Option #1

Option #2

And this gorgeous Kask helmet with rose gold. I'm obsessed. This is a problem. I don't have enough money for all of these things...

 Please send help.

Weekly Update

You may recall in January how I posted I was going to use some christmas money to buy some awesome aqua colored leather gloves. I was super excited to get them... well it only took 5 months but they finally arrived!
 

Seriously the worst experience I have ever had buying something. Ever. I cannot believe the poor customer service, but I'm just happy I finally got them!

They are actually a brand of golfing gloves, called GFore, not made for horses so I'm not sure how long they're going to last since they're not actually made for the demand of riding. But I'm still in love with them! They're kind of difficult to get - if you order them from a golfing store (NOT the equestrian store I went through), you have to find a left and a right glove and order them individually. Pretty much no store had both a left and a right, in a size small, in the aqua color. Hence why I impatiently waited 5 months for them to come from the place I ordered them.

I can't recommend them yet since I've only ridden in them twice and I'm kinda just waiting for them to unravel... but they are butter soft and the most beautiful and perfect color. I love them!

Perfect #rootd

In other news, just a PSA. I found this super cute Joules Welly boot bag for over half off and it seemed about the right size to fit my Dubarry boots, so I bought it... and they fit inside perfectly! It is the cutest bag with a nice wide opening, so if you ever find yourself wanting a cute boot bag for your Dubarry or Faux-berry's these are perfect!

In other news, Jetta is still very pregnant and I have baby fever. My roommates' horse just had her baby on Tuesday and she is PRECIOUS. I love her. I sure hope Jetta doesn't make me wait that long though... she was at 361 days pregnant. Holy smokes, I might die if she is pregnant for that long!

Hard to get a non-blurry picture of the little ginger

Baby belly!

Fresh out of the oven

And finally, I have still been riding Vante three days a week. He has been a little fireball the past three rides. I pulled him out on Friday and tacked him up. He was a little hyper, but nothing unusual. I got him to the arena and went to tighten the girth and he exploded and reared and tried to take off. So we went and got a lunge line and he had a grand time leaping and bucking and rearing and running around. I had never seen him so full of it! He was very good for our ride, especially being in front of my leg.

I ordered some cob-sized cheek pieces (it was super hard to find one with rounded buckles to match my bridle) that arrived last week and now my bridle fits him perfectly. So much better.

Monday and Tuesday I rode him and he was still a little fireball but not as bad. We lunged first and he was ok under saddle. Monday was incredibly windy and the entire barn rattled and he was quite on edge the whole time. Tuesday he just couldn't handle the distractions - one other horse being ridden and a person on the ground watering the arena. He wanted to stop and say hi to everyone! And the left lead canter was just non-existant. He wouldn't bend to the inside, he wouldn't give to the bit and just wanted to be a giraffe, and he didn't want to go at a normal speed, more of a hand-gallop. So that was a bit frustrating. Overall though, he's still learning very quickly and he's still fun!

Maybe we can get these neck muscles developed correctly one day!

30 Day Challenge - Wish List

Year end posts are in the works, but of course they are quite a bit more labor intensive, so have some more 30 Day Challenge posts in the meantime!

Day 6| Make a wish-list of the top 10 tack/riding clothes/horsey items you would buy if you were given an unlimited budget.

Ohh boy, here we go. 

1. CWD Custom Saddle. 

2. Dream brown boots, originally I was going to go with La Mundial but since they seem to be failing at customer service lately I'll need to figure out somewhere else to get them made

3. MORE BREECHES! Like I don't have enough... But I'd love another pair of FITS for schooling (Mink colored, yes please), a pair of jean breeches from Ariat, a pair of berry colored Tailored Sportsman and some aqua blue Annie's breeches. 



4. New truck. I love my truck, but it's getting older and has a bit of trouble hauling my little two-horse up a hill with two horses inside. 



5. An Ogilvy pad because why not. Plus all the pretty color combinations



6. And because of course I need even MORE saddle pads, I've wanted this purple OTTB pad for a while. And now I have a pretty purple bonnet that needs a matching saddle pad!

7. Since this is far fetched enough, why not a trailer with living quarters. I really love my little two horse bumper pull, and really don't mind sleeping in the bed of the truck with the camper shell, but having living quarters would be quite the luxury. And I have always wanted a Trails West trailer...



8. I guess this kind of qualifies as a "horsey item"... but I'd love to breed Jetta. Top two stallion picks are Mirabeau and Diamond Hit, so with an unlimited budget I'd buy a breeding to one of them.



9. A Mark Todd anatomic bridle, or one with the similar design but perhaps not the price tag.



 
10. Ummm, this was actually harder than I thought it would be... Weirdly enough I can't come up with a tenth item that I want. Strange.

Monogram All the Things

I've been pretty happy with the new barn I'm at. Well, "new" since I've been there 7 months now... Anyways.

Super attractive picture

Not so happy today. Little things just keep piling up and really bothering my. Sigh. First it was my treats disappearing. I had a large bag of treats that was divided up into small baggies. I went to grab one of the 10 different little bagfuls and found... 10 empty bags. That I had not opened. Not amused.

I still had a little plastic treat container that had a few crumbs in it sitting on my drawers which I always refilled. Then I came to the barn and found... all the crumbs dumped out onto the top of my drawers and the plastic container gone. Grr.

Then my dressage schooling whip went missing. Yes, it was bleached and frayed and grosss... but still. I need that thing.

Then I went to give the horses a bath and couldn't find my shampoo. Later I found it in someone else's bath bucket.

I've also had bags of bedding pellets go missing. And my sharpie that I've been using to obsessively label nearly everything is also gone. Sigh. I'm about ready to just lock everything in my trailer just to contain it all.

But something more happy - I am having an "attack of the horsey I-wants" so I decided I need to relieve some of my stress via a tiny bit of retail therapy, aka I bought a sticker for my helmet in order to join the ranks of all the cool people that have these.

Love

Personally Preppy Helmet Monogram

I really like it! I should have measured the gap in my helmet for the sticker because I probably would've gotten a 1.5" instead of a 2" but at least it fits (barely). I love it though. So classy looking. I really want to buy a decal for my show whip now (and maybe even my schooling helmet) to keep it from walking away since things of mine keep disappearing...

Blog Hop: Our Commercial Moment

Blog hop from L over at Viva Carlos!

"So fellow bloggers, What are you buying next? Not your "Wish I could" list but your actual practical pony shopping list. And if its a high ticket item you are saving for what is it and when do you expect to order/get it?"

So, I have pretty much just recently (as in the last couple days) bought everything that would go on this list, so I'm just going to put that:

• Canter Mane & Tail Detangler Spray
• Rubber Bands for braiding
• Short Sleeve show shirt
• Smartpak Piper full seat breeches

I'm trying to decide what my next big purchase is going to be. Saving for at least one, maybe two out of these three items:

• Set of portable corral panels
• La Mundial boots
• Oglivy pad

Ultimate Christmas List

First of all, yes you did read the title correctly. This does indeed say "Christmas List" and I never got around to posting this before, so I guess I should have renamed it something else (probably "Impractical Wish List"), but oh well. This is basically my "extreme" want list. Aka what I would buy or ask for if money was no option. There's really not a ton of things I'm feeling an extreme "need" for right now, so this is going way a tad overboard. But a girl can dream, right?!

#1 - Aqua breeches. I'm sure many of you might cringe in horror at the thought of electric blue breeches, but I love them! Aqua is my cross country color and while it is slowing becoming more popular, I still have a lot of trouble finding things in my shade. While I've certainly seen pictures of breeches made by US companies  in this color, I cannot find them for sale anywhere. But they have all sorts in Europe apparently! Now if only I could find them from a shop that ships to the US...

Harrys Horse breeches

#2 - Really neat patterned open front boots. I'm pretty sure I might buy these for Jetta. I just think they'd look super cool.

Palermo Tendon boots

#3 - This jacket. OMG. I don't know if I'd be brave enough to wear this in the ring (ok, actually I probably would for jumpers) but if it was available in my size, I just might have bought it. Originally I saw it on Pinterest** with a bunch of other matching tack which is now unfortunately discontinued, but there were even standing combo wraps in this floral print. Too cute!

Floral competition jacket

#4 - More aqua. I really love this saddle pad. I've found two different companies that make aqua saddle pads, but they're very... plain. I just love square as opposed to round corners (it's the little things I tell you) so I wish I could get this pad, but it looks like it might have been discontinued?

Scapa sports aqua saddle pad

#5 - Plaid show shirt. Again, for showing in jumpers when I decide not to wear a jacket. This shirt is just too cute. It combines two of my favorite colors - pink and aqua. I also adore large print florals (I'm just a little obsessed). It's got everything I love! Except the price tag.

Middy N Me Sweet Virginia Shirt

#6 - Camo breeches. Ok, this is a little weird, but I have to say that I actually really like these breeches! They're funky and fun for schooling.

Accademia Italiana camo breeches

#7 - Ariat Heritage Fashion Quilted Knee Patch Breech. This is something that's actually on my REAL want list. I love the mulled wine color - I've recently been on a plum/wine/burgundy kick and this fits the bill! I need more schooling breeches.

Ariat Heritage Fashion Quilted breeches

#8 - Joules Creme Floral Printed Polo. Again with the floral pattern. Love it.

Joules Creme Floral polo

#9 - Tara Kiwi Gaits of the Horse sweatshirt. So, this would never make it around horses because it would instantly become filthy, but I think it's super cute for wearing places other than the barn!

Cavalcade sweatshirt

#10 - Lister Star Clippers (in either Turquoise or Purple, I can't decide). I've finally decided to get real body clippers. These have gotten good reviews so this is on my real want list. I think it may be something I'll buy myself as a present soon, lol.

OMG so amazing.

#11 - Jumps. I only have plastic jump blocks and barrels so in the spirit of my "do it yourself" at home kind of thing we've got going on, bigger/nicer jumps would be awesome. I'd like a panel or gate of some kind, a roll top (of the stadium and cross country variety), maybe a cross country log while we're at it, and some of these neat oxer jump standards. And of course I'd need new poles to go with it, preferably striped ones.

Found on this blog

#12 - Tall Brown Boots for schooling. I'm hoping these are a "someday soon" purchase, maybe after selling Misty? But I'm just in love with these Mundial's and I need something to ride in besides my Dubarry's and my show boots.

#13 - I'd really like to get a pearl browband for the double bridle that I hope to someday show Jetta in, despite how far off that seems right now. I like how classy pearls look. People on Horses and Vespucci (pictured) both make a really nice pearl one.

Vespucci double pearl browband

#14 - A GoPro Helmet camera. I think this would be awesome to record some of our trail rides and cross country runs!

Have to do more research, but I'm assuming something like this

#15 - Aqua blue biothane breastplate. Gotta complete our endurance outfit!

Found on ebay

#16 - Rider International Exquisite Dressage Pad in gray with turquoise and purple braid trim. Love this.

So many good colors in this pad

I could probably go on and on and on... But there you have it, a few of the things I'd buy or ask for as presents if money was no option ;)

**As a side note, I don't know how many of you use Pinterest, but I'm obsessed with it and I'd love to follow other horsey people if you have one! If you want to follow me, I'm here. I have equestrian/barn boards in addition to other random boards. Just a thought!