Thursday's Threads: Throwing it back a little further...

 

I know what you're thinking... Stacie, what could you possibly still be riding in that's older than your chaps? But guys, I'm OLD. So I have lots of old stuff! And you know, in the old days, when you bought quality things, they LASTED. Today's vintage item is Al's saddle pad. Which admittedly you've seen before. But this time I paired it with my full chaps which is a whole different, ULTRA VINTAGE experience. Unfortunately, I didn't have anyone around to snap a pic of everything together from afar. So you'll have to use your imagination a little. All that said. We'll start with Al's outfit so as not to leave you hanging too long.

Bridle: Joseph Sterling
Brow band: Dark Jewel Designs

See that stretched out nose? It was on its way over to accost me. He loves me like that.

Saddle: Butet
Saddle Pad: Personalized Products
Half Pad: Mattes

There it is! Isn't it beautiful? I love these pads. I have two, this one and one that's a few years newer that says Moo-moo. The underside is similar to the white pads we show hunters in, but is a natural color like sheepskin. This pad here I got at Harrisburg when I was showing Bud in the juniors. I'm not 100% sure which year, but I think it was probably '95. Which would make this pad 29 years old. You can see a little wear on the piping at the back, but like, that's pretty good for its age. I actually want to reach out to Personalized Products and see about getting a few of these made in solid colors. You know... bring them into this century. Ha!

Boots: Eskadron

Yeah, we're still using these. They match our outfit!

That's what Al wore this week, and here's what I had on:

The inner layers:

And the outer layers:

Winter, am I right? When you can wear an outfit that no one even sees. Also though, these breeches were a poor choice to wear with chaps... It kinda looks like I have no pants on. Not my best choice. 

Helmet: Samshield

This is a very unflattering selfie I took whilst on Al. Like why is my helmet so high?

Sweater: Old Navy

I picked this sweater up in this color and a camel color because they were crazy cheap and washable. I like them, they're warm, and super soft. I'm not sure they'll have a long life though. The quality is about what you expect for the price point. 

Belt: Noble Outfitters

This belt was pretty much an exact match to green of the sweater AND the shade of tan to the breeches. You almost can't see the piping it's so close. Which is impressive because these breeches are kind of a weird shade. Weird in a good way. But still weird. 

Breeches: Romfh 

The camera really wants to wash the color out on these. The actual color is most similar to the photo of the belt. I'd call it a cognac color. Whatever the shade, I like the pants a lot. They're really comfortable and the length is just right.

Chaps: Journeyman
Paddock Boots: Celeris UK

Yes, same as last week. I've been living in my chaps lately. I'm SO happy I resurrected them. They're really starting to soften back up to their former glory and are also smelling better. They were pretty musty when I first rescued them from my mom's garage. 

Here are the chaps and pad together. Can you believe I've stuck with the same barn colors for all of these years?! Also, how vintage and amazing are they together? 

Thursday's Threads

 

Outfit Day! Thank goodness we're wearing green these days so I can pretend like this is a St Patrick's day outfit. It isn't... but we'll pretend it is.
Here's what I wore:

Yes! It was warm enough for a light sweater. Loving this spring like weather so much!

Helmet: One K CCS MIPS

Yep, I'm still wearing this one. I might need to invest in the new green helmet that Horze is releasing though... It's not MIPS, so I'm not sold yet. But it's so pretty! (An aside: wouldn't it be nice if all helmets moving forward had MIPS technology?)

Top: Alessandro Albanese

I can't remember exactly when or wear I got this top. I do know it was on super final sale closeout so it was very inexpensive. I like a nice tan top to pair with green breeches.

Belt: Christian Dior

I found this vintage Dior belt on Ebay a few years ago, and it's definitely one of my favorite belts. It's super soft, and the leather is so nice that despite its age, there is no cracking at all. You can see a little wear mark on another hole, but it's not cracked, just a little dent.

Breeches: RJ Classic

For the longest time I thought I didn't like how RJ breeches fit. But it turns out, I was just wearing entirely the wrong size. Now that I have the correct size, I like them very much!

Boots: De Niro

It happened! I have non winter boots on! Granted they're the navy Salentinos and not something super fun and exciting because I had these at the barn already. But still! Regular boots! YAY!

Okay, that's what I wore. This week Eros is our equine model. Here's what he wore:

Bridle: Joseph Sterling

Browband: Dark Jewel Designs

Eros wasn't feeling that excited about photos this week. And also it looks like he'd already rubbed his face all over me since the cheek part of the noseband is all disheveled.... What can I say. An influencer with perfect photos is not who I am! Lol! Regardless, he's adorable, and I love this bridle on him. 

Saddle: Butet
Saddle Pad: Equine Outfitters (formerly Personalized Products)

Half Pad: Mattes

This pad is REALLY old. Like I got it way back in my junior hunter days. Probably 1996 ish.... It says Bud because it was Bud's pad. It's THAT old. And I still love it immensely. It has faux sheepskin lining the entire other side. I kind of want to see if they'll make me more of these, maybe in solid green. They're perfect for winter when the horses want to get rubs everywhere. I have one other one that was Cosmo's and Al is wearing that one this week. 

Boots: Eskadron

They look just as fab on Eros as they did on Shiny last week! Everyone got a pair of these, so they are all sporting them this week and looking amazing. I'm just excited that I finally found a pair of dark green boots in everyone's size. I like the Punk Ponies hunter green a lot, but this color here is my FAVORITE. 

And that's it for today! Any favorites?

Thursday's Threads

 

Happy Outfit Day! It's gotten cold here which I guess it's supposed to do in the winter. But still. Yuck. I wish winter was shorter. Anyway... Let's see what Eros and I wore last night to ride in the tundra! We'll start with Eros. I didn't share his bridle since he just has the one at the boarding barn and it didn't match our outfit.

Saddle: Butet
Saddle Pad: Personalized Products

Half Pad: Mattes
Quarter Sheet: Kentucky Horsewear 

I have a real love for this saddle pad. I have two, one that was Bud's (my junior hunter) and one that was Cosmo's (my jumper I had in college). So they are both monogrammed with horse names from the past, but honestly, I kind of love that about them. They're lined on the underneath with faux sheepskin and are just so perfect for winter riding.

Boots: Equestroom

I had actually planned to use the cute boots I got from Epplejack, but I ordered all the wrong sizes. Oops. Shiny's are way too small, and then the medium size I got for the boys are too skinny for Eros. I'm hoping they'll fit Pammon though, his legs are slimmer. Eros is a weird boot size. He has thick warmblood legs, but short cannons. So I usually get him medium boots but occasionally they aren't wide enough. As is the case with the Epplejack ones. So I figured green glitter boots would work fine too. I mean, glitter IS my favorite color!

And here's what I wore:

Obviously I had a giant winter coat on too. But this was under that.

Helmet: One K MIPS

Mask: Vera Bradley

Yep, that mask has puppies ALL OVER IT! It's the cutest. Now if only VB would make me some green ones...

Sweater: PS of Sweden

I think I got this sweater the winter before last? Not positive. I love a nice cable knit sweater for horsing. I mostly wear hoodies in the winter, but it's nice to wear something a little classier now and then. Plus I had a zoom training for work yesterday so wanted to look a little nicer for that.

Belt: Ralph Lauren

I keep most of my belt collection in the laundry room, so part of that project meant weeding through the belts. I found so many gems that had gotten buried and was super excited to see this one again. Easily one of my favorites. I stumbled across this one on Ebay a long while ago and had to have it. 

Breeches: Horseware

I know. You're probably getting bored with my breeches choices. Sorry guys. It's cold out.

Boots: Tredstep

Same deal here. My feet are warm in these, and I won't wear anything else until it's above 50 degrees. I miss my other boots though. Maybe I'll have to get a pair of Celeris with the sheepskin lining for next winter... 

That's it for today! Any favorites?

What's Up Wednesday

We're riding some kind of crazy weather roller coast here in the northeast. One minute it's raining, the next it's snowing, and very rarely, the sun might pop out. This weekend was pretty much all of the above.
But before we get into the weekend, enjoy these photos from my braiding job Thursday night. I hadn't done any braiding in quite awhile, so was really happy these turned out so nicely. Helps to have a great horse with a nice mane to work on.

 Also, check out this crazy piece of wonderful I found at the craft store this weekend:

It's a folding seam ripper! No more losing the cap and stabbing myself! Any of you that have to take out braids should definitely consider getting one of these. So smart!
Ok, now on to the weekend...
Saturday morning I got all the errands run early so I could do something with the horses and clean out the trailer. The ring was a sloppy mess, so riding wasn't really likely. But the one corner that gets the most sun was usable for lunging. It was still pretty wet, but it wasn't frozen at all, and the footing wasn't slippery or sticky. I think the horses were channeling their inner four year old splashing around in the puddles.

Flying Jampy!

Rio... definitely not flying.

They were WILD. Like bronco wild. Glad I opted to lunge and didn't decide to do a tack walk instead. Spring fever has arrived... in February. Maybe by April they'll be civilized?!

After lunging ponies, it was time to tackle the trailer tack room project. I already bored you all with those details yesterday so we'll just gloss over that... I did find this gem though:

This was my junior hunter's cooler. It has an interesting story. I saved up my money for a long while to buy this custom cooler (well not this exact one... you'll see why keep reading) when I got to Harrisburg for the first time. Back then these cost around $200. Well, I got this beauty at Harrisburg and sent it along with my horse and trainer to Washington while I went back home to go to school for a few days. Bud showed in the pro divisions as well as in my junior classes, so he always got to go ahead of me. Anyway, trainer was flatting Bud in the ring one night and someone grabbed the cooler from the rail. We never saw it again. I owned it for a grand total of a week and a half. All that hard saved money for nothing! (Listen, when you're 14 with no job, that's a lot of money!) I saved all year to get a new one at Harrisburg the next year. Only they had gone up in price to $350. I only had $200. I was telling the story to the nice owner at Personalized Products (where I'd bought it) and she felt so badly, she offered to sell me the new cooler at the old price. I thought that was really nice of her. Years later, this cooler got caught by the tractor and dragged through the mud. Thankfully it didn't rip or anything, but I had to have it dry cleaned. It shrunk from a size 80 to a 76. Womp womp. I keep it around because it's fit some of the little horses like Ducky and even Romey. I mean, this cooler and I have so much history, I could never get rid of it! Plus I lost Bud in college so his stuff is all pretty special to me. (Such a sap.)
Sorry for the tangent... back to the weekend! I was pretty pooped by the time I finished the trailer stuff. So I spent the rest of the evening hanging with the Pugs and watching the Olympics.

They were clearly excited about the games!

And then Sunday looked like this:

Gross. Fortunately it was pretty warm during the day, so the melting started immediately. Not fast enough to be able to do fun horsey things in the ring, but I'll take what I can get. Plus that actually left me the entire day to finish up the great closet purge of 2018. I tried on so many pairs of pants, I actually got chaffed. (Maybe they're all a little snug. shut up.) So many pants. It took the whole day. But it's DONE! I still have a dresser to go through, but the closet part is over at least. Thank goodness! I have the Veterans coming Tuesday to take all of the old stuff away. It feels so good to get stuff out of the house and support a great charity.
Monday it rained. Which was gross, but it helps get rid of the snow, so that part is nice. Of course it leaves mud. So much mud. Thankfully? It was super windy over night which helped dry things up. And yesterday? We had this:

Yep. 62 degrees! It took everything in me to go back to work after lunch. I wanted to stay home and work ponies. The ring was still pretty gross though, so I decided to adult responsibly and go back to work. When I got home it was still really sloppy, but I lunged them each a little in the one corner. Jampy was great, and not overly nuts. Rio looked pretty lame but I kind of think he was trying to avoid the puddles. He's so awkward that it's hard to tell when he's actually lame and when he's just confused as to where his feet should land. He also may still be a bit sore from his weekend antics. At 21, that stuff takes a toll!
Know what else happened last night? My Fama boots arrived! I wasn't expecting them because the tracking hasn't worked. I was in touch with them about it, and she was working on tracking them down. And then they just arrived! Woohoo!

The fit is a lot better this time. They're a bit snug, but they'll stretch, so I'm not worried about that. I think they could have been a smidge taller, but they're just fine. My only real complaint is that they did the toe wrong. I realized when they sent me pics that they hadn't put the tan crocodile leather on them, but I overlooked it because they're gorgeous. What I couldn't tell from the photos was that they made the toe pointy instead of square. I don't really like the pointy toe.

But seeing as to how they made these half price after the not fitting debacle, I'm not going to complain about it. They're gorgeous despite the toe, and the fit is so much better than last time. Plus, that green! Ah! SO PRETTY! They even started to soften up just in the few minutes I wore them around the house. I think they'll break in pretty quickly.

That's about it from here. What's up with  you this week? Did you get to ride? Show? Something else? Did you get new boots?! (I can't be the only one, can I?)