What's Up Wednesday! (And my day at the Equine Affair)

I really miss having actual riding related things to talk about on What's Up Wednesday. While I am still riding, it's mostly in the dark on a very small portion of the ring because I don't have the energy for the spooking and running that occurs when I venture toward the dark side... The literal dark side. I only have lights on one end of my ring at the moment. But let's try and talk ponies anyway despite my doing zero actual REAL work with them.

 Jampy:
Jampy is currently being ridden 4-6 times per week. We work on not being a giraffe and trying not to run away from every little noise he doesn't actually hear but thinks he does. Riding him is a total chore, because he's just so worried the entire time. I can see why they took winters off with him when he lived in Europe. To loosely quote Anna Nalick, winter just isn't his season. But riding aside he's gotten really affectionate lately. Last night he literally kissed my face. With his lips. It was odd, but adorable. We haven't jumped anything in weeks and I'm starting to really miss it. I'm thinking about maybe taking a lesson once a week some place on a school horse just to try and keep going this winter. We'll see if I follow through on that.

Romey:
I've been REALLY inconsistent with Romey. He's being an absolute turd but I'm really not sure if it's because he's uncomfortable or he actually just needs a little tough love. I need to pick my vet's brain about him again and figure out a plan. I did have a nice ride on him Monday though. He only complained for a few strides about picking up the trot and then he actually KEPT TROTTING until I told him to walk. So that was a small miracle. It's really disheartening when your goal has become trot a circle. Literally. That's it. Just trot a damn circle. UGH. No more green horses for me. Lesson learned.

Rio:
Once I remembered how cold backed Rio gets when it's not summer, I decided we wouldn't ride any more until spring. We've been hand walking and doing some VERY LIGHT lunging instead. (He gets turned out everyday too of course.) He's pretty happy about all the extra time for grooming that makes for him.

I headed up to Equine Affair on Saturday. I had several things I wanted to research and had thought about catching some of Guy McLeans's clinic. Spoiler alert: I was so busy shopping and researching I missed that. Oops.
 I have been thinking for a long while about upgrading my trailer. I have a Sundowner two horse, straighload gooseneck with a tack room. I absolutely love it, but because of the needy children I have, I always need to have someone come along with me to help with loading and unloading. This gets expensive because no one wants to give up their day to hang out at a horse show for free. Or at least not anyone that I know. I've been contemplating the 2+1 size for awhile, but honestly it's much too big for me. I don't want to haul around a huge trailer. And I'm not a fan of slant loads. (Just my opinion, not judging them or anyone who loves them.) There is an option of a two horse trailer, gooseneck, straight load, with tack room that has a side ramp, but is smaller than the 2 plus 1. I have seen a few configurations from different companies, but I really couldn't get a sense of space from photos. I was hoping to see some in person over the weekend.

And I did! I got to see a few different versions, though none were exactly what I wanted. Which is good because I just bought a truck and therefore cannot also buy a trailer right this minute. But now I know exactly what I DO want, and I also found out that I can have it built for about the same price as an in stock model. So all good things. What did I see, and what do I want you ask? Most brands that had the side ramp along with a tack room, had a slanted wall between the horse area and the tack room area. I hated this. It gave a lot less room to the horse on the side not next to the ramp. Kingston however, had a nice roomy square area for the horses to walk through. So that's definitely what I would want. It does give less room to the tack room, but it's still absolutely big enough. I think it's still the same size as my current tack room. But I didn't like the Kingston trailer in general. The style was really dated on the inside, and it just lacked a lot of finishing touches I saw from other brands. I think when the time comes I'm going to go custom through 4 Star. There's a dealer within a reasonable driving distance from where I live, and they take trade-ins. I'm already getting itchy to place the order... Settle down Stacie.

I also wanted to pay a visit to Blue Saddles. They're a used saddle dealer specializing mostly in higher end saddles. While I'm really not excited to buy another saddle just for Romey, I do want him to be comfortable. And I also want me to be comfortable. The Del Grange I'm using on him now still doesn't fit him very well, despite his being happier in it than in the Hermes. It also doesn't fit me at all. Again, I didn't go up planning to purchase, just to research. And I behaved and did just that. (I know I'm shocked too.) I sat in a bunch of saddles and really didn't love any of them. I still think my choice for a saddle should I decide to get something would be the Voltaire Stuttgart. But they are expensive and kind of tough to find used. The Palm Beach model is the most popular, but I don't really like that one. I'm also not doing anything until I figure out what's going on with Romey's back. If heaven forbid he can't be ridden anymore, then it's silly to buy him a saddle.
Obviously I didn't walk away from Equine Affair empty handed of course. I still managed to spend my money. I got some new brushes for the boys (they each got their own because we don't like to share grooming tools). The Diva brush from Haas is pretty awesome. I'll probably do a review on it if I can get some good before and after photos using it. I also got a gold glitter crop because everyone needs one of those.

Diva brush, beastie brush, glitter stick. No need to photograph all the brushes since the others are the same.

The pugs even got some Himalayan chews which was nice because I hate to do for one set of kids and not the other, ya know? That was pretty much all I brought home with me. I would have been proud of me except that I did buy something else. But I'm not ready to admit it yet, so you'll have to wait until February to find out about my guilty purchase upon its arrival.
Waiting on my door step when I got home was my order from EC Equestrian.

Look how pretty! (And it all matches my green helmet!) The baby pads are awesome, and I will probably order some to keep in the trailer at some point if I ever start showing again. I like the half pad too, though I do wish the foam was little more dense. The horses seem to like it though, so what do I know? The polos I don't love. They're cute, but the fleece isn't my favorite. I won't order more of those. Customer service was fabulous and turn around time was really quick too! Especially since she ordered special velcro just for me for the wraps.

The pups have been really busy loafing around, but on Saturday morning my dad dropped off Juno for the week. My dad and step mom are at a trade show in Germany so Juno is hanging with the puggers.

The three of them having been causing all sorts of chaos, but only the best kind. And also little Juno rules the roost. P tried ONE TIME to get at Juno's food... let's just say that didn't happen a second time. Pia needs that once in awhile, she totally takes advantage of Artie.

That's what's up this Wednesday! What's up with you? Tell me about your week in the comments!