Belated Black Friday

I'm back from the dead! I have been so incredibly busy lately I've hardly had time to do much more than eat, sleep, and go to school. I'm sure not many people read this blog much any more, but I enjoy posting regardless so I'm going to attempt to get back into it.

I had quite the Black Friday shopping extravaganza. I finally sold one of my fancy western show saddles that I haven't used in ages so I actually had some money by the time Black Friday rolled around. I love hearing about what people scored so here's my list of the horse-related items I got!

Riding Warehouse:

Jetta trying her best to model

Horze Venice Bridle - for Maisie. I had one of these for Jetta and I quite liked it for the price. Obviously cheaply made, but for something that is only going to be used temporarily until it's outgrown... perfect! A grand total of $40.

Asmar long sleeved tee - I've heard great things about these shirts and I love this color, so I had to try it.

Chestnut bay show shirt - I've been wanting a show shirt in this style for some time and these were the perfect colors! I got a navy and a gray. I can't wait to show in them, they are so comfy and cute. I'll do a review on them eventually (hopefully).


Horze

This was an interesting experience. I'm not really sure I want to shop at Horze again - or at least not directly through them since it was not a good experience. Basically, they said they had a blanket in stock. I bought it. 3 days later they emailed me to say that they didn't have it any more and that they had "no other option but to refund my money and send me the other items in my order". When, in fact, they could have asked me if I'd like another color (of which there are 4 other colors available in that same size blanket). I emailed them back saying I still wanted the blanket in another size, provided it was the same price as the previous one. Three days later (again - no fast responses here) I got an email saying they could provide me with coupons if I wanted to go that route. I responded that I did and got yet another email with a coupon code, you guessed it, three days later. But, the problem was they only provided me with one coupon, not the two that I previously used so it wasn't even close to the same price. Plus, they were slowly selling out of the blanket it the size I wanted, so by the time I probably would get all the coupons I needed, they'd probably all be gone. So I gave up. If they're going to be that difficult to work with, I don't need to give them my money.

Andi Technical Shirt - I did really love this shirt! It's in one of my favorite colors, it's super comfy, it fits well, it has thumb holes AND pockets!

Equiture

Maisie also got her first sparkly browband! I can't wait until it arrives. They rarely have sales and at most it's typically only 10% off, which is not enough to entice me to buy things I don't really need. However, this year they had 20% off which was awesome!

I definitely spent more than I needed to, but definitely worth it for the deals I got ;)

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

WEG Part 2

Like I mentioned in the last post, everything on Sunday got moved to Monday so there was nothing for us to do that day. We had a lazy morning and ordered pizza to our room for lunch (a novelty for us because we both live out in the country where food doesn't deliver to). We tried to buy wine at the grocery store down the street but discovered we couldn't because it was Sunday. Crushed, we decided to do some exploring even though very few businesses were open on a Sunday.

We ended up finding Overmountain Winery pretty much right down the street from the TIEC. The owner was super nice and she had tents erected for the rain so that people could sit outside. We had a nice time wine tasting there, talking with the owner and eating brussel sprouts from the food truck on-site. One thing I love about the Carolinas - you can get brussel sprouts EVERYWHERE and they're delicious. If I could only pick one veggie for the rest of my life it would be brussel sprouts lol.

Noms

After that we made it out to Farmhouse Tack. They had a nice store with a great variety of tack. I didn't find anything I had to have, but it was nice to see it in person. On the way back to our hotel we passed a little shop called Horse of Course (I think) and it was adorable. I almost bought some artwork but that would have required I ship it home which would have been a little bit too much work for me.

Everything horse themed

We went to a great taco place for dinner - Willy Taco. Highly recommend for people in the area this week!

Such good tacos

Monday we got to the TIEC early again since it worked out so well last time with zero wait time to get on a shuttle and into the grounds. They moved the parking so we didn't have to worry about our tiny rental car having to get towed out of the mud at the original parking site.  The organization was a little better - they had the metal detectors set up and were screening people but still not checking tickets. Again, no one was open even at 9 o'clock so we headed to the arena to get our seats for jumping. We were crushed that musical freestyle was canceled, especially my mom who is not a horse person and really only wanted to see the "dancing ponies". But luckily stadium was just as fun to watch!

Love when riders are so excited about their rounds

My friend PR was doing a vet externship at the games so she met up with me to hang out and watch jumping

Horses were pulling poles left and right, time penalties everywhere, there was a refusal, one horse took off and his rider could not pull him up - he jumped some greenery decoration and plowed into the next rider's horse who was entering the arena. Oops. I was so crushed for Ingrid Klimke when she pulled a rail at the final fence but Ros Carter had a gorgeous round so she definitely deserved it.

My haul - PR even managed to snag me an autographed picture of Lynn Symansky and Donner - go TB's!

Monday was an absolutely gorgeous day

We FINALLY got to do our shopping after stadium was over. Pro tip - park your mom at a shady table and feed her alcoholic beverages so you can get all your shopping in. I managed to not do too much damage - Arista had some great sale items, including a whole rack of tops at $30 each so I got one of those, I got a non-official WEG shirt, a cool belt, a wine glass, and a hat. I drooled over the La Mundial boots and found out they have a rep in my area which is awesome! Now that they have supposedly fixed their production issues, I really want a pair, but we will see...

Yes please

*grabby hands*

Pretty new Le Mieux

I talked to Dubarry about my boots. They recently sprung a leak in the bottom of the boot somewhere which is a huge bummer. I was hoping these boots would last me forever. They're at least 6 years old at this point. Basically they told me that they couldn't fix it, it wasn't a defect that was their fault, the Goretex is still intact so it really is the bond between the rubber sole at the Goretex liner that is coming apart, and it was time to throw them away which made me sad. I was really hopeful for such an expensive product they would have something they could do for me since I really don't have any desire to drop $500 on a pair of non-riding boots, especially when I take care of them really well and they don't last me at least 10 years (I'm cheap and I want things to live forever!)

Otherwise I just had fun looking at cool products - I'm not a huge shopper because I want everything to be on sale but it's nice to feel things in person. I decided on which boots I want to buy Maisie now that I got to compare them all in person at the Dover store, I found some gorgeous new Tredstep boots that I want, etc.

So pretty

It was a really fun day and we ended it by going to a fancy restaurant called Level 10 overlooking the town from the 10th floor of a hotel. Then I dragged my mom to a brewery because that's what I do and it was really good! I always think it's hard to find good IPA's outside of my state but I loved all the ones I tried on this trip.

Gorgeous area

I had a great time at WEG - it was definitely a different experience than in 2010 but it was a gorgeous area and besides musical freestyle, everything worked out perfectly. I'm glad the hurricane weather didn't dampen our experience (pun intended) even if we did get a little wet. I did end up coming home with a sunburn after all.

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!

Oops

Oops, I did a thing. My poor bank account. Centerline Style had a sale for $30 off and I've been eyeballing a Lemieux outfit for Jetta (especially since Courage has been modeling the same one that I want and it looks stunning on him - another bay, blaze-faced TB!). Sooo... I bought it. It arrived Saturday (super fast shipping from Florida = awesome).

Then, Millbrook Leathers had a 35% off sale on their leathers which I wanted as soon as they came out. I always get bruises on my shins from my jumping leathers. Every time. So it seemed like a really neat concept to have thicker leathers to prevent that! They also say that they're supposed to make your leg more stable, but we'll see about that. I'm thinking that I need more strength building exercises than anything, but I'll take all I can get! (no extra charge for 2-day shipping from Colorado? impressive!)

All the pretties

So yeah. I'm STILL waiting on two of my orders that I made at the beginning of last month. One is because I went through the local farm store and they just take forever with special orders because that's how they roll. Sigh. Apparently I would have gotten the same deal through a Riding Warehouse sale as I'm getting stealing my BF's employee discount so... should've gone that route. I'm impatient.

The other order... I'm not really sure what's going on. I keep getting different answers every time I talk to her, that is, IF she decides to answer my messages. She tends to take at least a week to reply to me, if at all. Frustrating to say the least. I kinda never want to order from this shop ever again because everything was supposedly in stock when I ordered it 5 weeks ago, but it's now coming in next week supposedly (I was told it was supposed to come in a week and a half ago, but it was backordered without her knowledge, so now the ETA at the shop is next week) meaning it'll probably be 2 more weeks before I see it... sigh. 

Super attractive picture, but look at that belly!

I had to have a ride to try everything out - it looks awesome on her! Hopefully I'll get to ride in the daylight soon and get a better picture of it. Sadly I ordered the wrong size ear bonnet (should have known that "regular" was not going to fit her mule ears!) so I need to exchange that... My bank account is now on lock down until further notice. But I guess that's why I'm still working two days a week during school!

The Princess and the Golden Bit

Retail therapy at its finest to deal with vet school? Check.

Pretty mare all decked out

I really wish I was posting more, but I'm still in the adjustment period getting into the swing of thing for the first term back of my second year of vet school! It still seems weird that I can now call myself a second year. But everything's going well despite my less than consistent riding schedule, including acing the first two midterms.

Jetta got a new browband to go on her PS bridle and I'm obsessed. It's the sparkliest thing I've ever seen, it's literally blinding in the sunshine. I love it. It looks near identical to the ones that PS of Sweden sells, minus the snaps, but it's half the price.

So sparkly

I think it looks like Jetta has a tiara with it on. She's my princess so I guess she deserved a crown finally!



The golden bit part... that's not quite as fun. I have never spent so much money on a bit before, it hurts me a little inside. After the last show I decided we really needed something different and this bit had been recommended to me by two different trainers and it has great online reviews so I decided to try it out. Jetta is a sensitive horse who can be heavy at times so it's tough to find a good bit that she a) listens to, b) doesn't throw a fit about being too "strong" and c) doesn't grind her teeth with. Too thin of a bit? We get head tossing and an open mouth. Too thick? We get teeth grinding and/or ignoring the bit (and yes, she very recently got her teeth done and they had no issues). Her two favorite bits are her HS mullen mouth ported loose ring (not dressage legal) and her D-ring waterford (also not dressage legal).

So I bought a Neue Schule verbindend snaffle. That thing better be made of literal 14k gold for the price! I scoured the internet for a year for one less than $100 used, but they were never the right size or type so a shiny new bit it was.

I'm still tentative at calling it a magic bit (which it should be for the price) but Jetta goes pretty well in it. She listens very well, but at the same time she takes a really nice contact. Obviously it hasn't fixed all of our connection issues, but I think it was a good purchase. After a little bit of fussing at the walk, she settles down and takes the perfect amount of contact, much better than she usually does, and she doesn't just bulldoze through it in transitions. So I guess we're keeping the golden bit!

And the last bit of retail therapy... the big bi-annual tack sale was last weekend and I haven't been in over a year so I decided to go. Jetta got a new turnout sheet, a fleece dressage girth to replace the one that just walked away, a new boot bag for my tall boots, another waterford bit to put on her "trail" bridle so I don't have to keep swapping it off her cross country bridle and a couple other odds and ends for friends. It was a pretty good haul!

Shopping is always the answer, right?

Dream Come True

Sunshine and palm trees!

Ok, well maybe calling it a "dream" is a little much, but I've ALWAYS wanted to go to a Dover store. There are none near me and when I was in San Diego over the weekend, it was the closest I've ever been. So my wonderful mother and I drove an hour to the Dover store. I was so excited! Talk about tack heaven.

I ended up mostly restraining myself (though I spent quite a bit of time drooling over a Dy'on Anatomic bridle and the saddle pads) and ended up buying a new pair of schooling gloves in my favorite color from Noble Equine, some Peddie socks and a hoof pick/bottle opener for some friends. So basically all Noble Equine purchases!

So many wants

 
Then my (again, awesome) mom bought me an Ariat sun shirt. I love it! I had a really hard time deciding between navy and turquoise, but eventually decided on the navy. I love that they were a good price, the material seems super light weight and the fit was really nice. I wish they had some Kastel's to compare to since I've always heard how nice those are!

Overall it was a fun day and I spent way too long just walking around in circles and looking at everything at least a couple times. Oh, and trying on the $300 breeches was pretty entertaining (and dangerous!)

Saddles, and clothes, and C4 belts...

New Show Clothes

I'm getting all ready for the show this weekend. Lots of stuff to do getting ready since I work Saturday and I literally have almost the first ride on Sunday morning. 8:07am. Ugh. They're running the classes really out of order so Intro goes last and training 3 basically goes first. Sigh.

Today is clean and pack the truck and trailer day. My little checklist:

• Fill gas in truck
• Fill air in trailer tires
• Clean back of trailer
• Fill hay bag
• Load tack in trailer
• Clean tack
• Ride Misty
• Wash Misty
• Print out my tests (Training 3 and First 1)

The only thing I've done so for is get all my show clothes cleaned and ready. So thinking about show clothes... what are your favorite breeches/shirts/coats for showing?

I'm super excited to use my new show coat and shirt this weekend. Amanda (she gets allll the blame for making me blow my budgeting) posted about a Luxe Eq sale and I ended up buying a new coat and shirt. My super nice black show coat is too tight now, no sports bra could squish me enough to fit in it nicely even though everything else fits perfectly :(

So new show coat it was. I got an Esperado Parade jacket in black with a cream trim on the collar. I was super nervous about buying this because I'd never heard of this brand, I couldn't find ANY  information whatsoever about sizing, so I just went for a large. After I bought it, I searched a bit more and then got even more nervous when I found them on ebay (new) for not much more than the sale price I paid. I was worried it wouldn't be very nice quality - all I ever seem to like are show coats in the $300-700 range (which is way, way out of my budget).

But I must say I'm super in love with it. It fits perfectly and is very nice quality. And for $99, I could not have gone wrong. Plus the cute bit accent is adorable and unique.

It even goes perfectly with the shirt I bought. I got the Equiline Fae show shirt. I've always admired the shirt but the price tag was ridiculous for my budget for just a shirt. I was, again, tentative about the sizing (a 46 = XL) and really a large would've been better. It's a tad bit large, but also it's going under a coat and I didn't want it to be too fitted anyways. I was also nervous about the coloring - it's an "off-white" - but it actually works out perfect because of the cream stripe on my show coat plus the fact that I wear light grey breeches instead of white. The collar's a bit loose and was a bit stained (it was a demo item I believe) but washed up perfectly. The material is super silky and I'm so in love with the mesh floral design. And it couldn't have been at a better price than $50.

So for the normal price of $597, I got them for $150 total = a saving of $447. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Dang. Spendy

Then these will go perfectly with my favorite show breeches, my dove gray FITS full seats. I love, love, love them. Also another sale price purchase on a demo pair for $90. What can I say, I really do love some sale prices!

FITS Breeches

Good excuse to share old pictures!

Other favorite show clothes include:

Pikeur Skarlett show shirt - navy with black velvet collar. I love how this jacket fits except for the shoulder pads are excessive and I may end up getting it tailored to remove those. Yay for yet another cheap ebay purchase.

Romfh Tempo short sleeve show shirt. I love this shirt and it is definitely my favorite. Again, bought off a sale rack for $30 (it's on sale at Smartpak currently!) in the white/mint, since the mint is close to my favorite color of aqua blue. It's a nice material, not thick and heavy, not too thin and see through. While it's certainly not as silky as the Equiline shirt, it's still a nice quality for the price. And I'm in love with the magnetic collar. I love magnets. (Dunno why I do, but I also have a horse cooler with a magnet closure and a raincoat with magnet buttons. Love magnets).

I have some various other show shirts that I use on occasion (RHC, tailored sportsman, essex classics) but they don't get used too often.

TS breeches

I have two other pairs of show breeches that I love. My pewter Tailored Sportsman for cross country and tan Ariat Olympias for H/J shows.

Ariat Olympia breeches

And then all of my polo shirts are from Aeropostale. They only have teen sizing, but if you can fit in them, you can get them usually for a few dollars a piece when they go on sale (which happens often).

What are your favorite show clothes?