I wasn't excited about color wars day because my quadrant was assigned red, which isn't really our color. I own two chestnuts after all, and red really isn't meant for them. The only red horse stuff I owned was buffalo plaid and I wanted to save that for Flannel Friday (spoiler alert for next week...). So I had to buy some stuff. Fortunately, I was able to find everything fairly inexpensively. Also, I had a BRILLIANT idea Thursday morning that resulted in this becoming my favorite outfit the week.
Hahaha! Yep. I made pompoms. I had bought some red yarn for Shiny's tail for the clinic in case there were any out of barners in our section that didn't know to avoid her backend. And I saw that red yarn in her locker that morning and was like oh yeah. I know what to do with that! As a side note, I have never appreciated knowing how to braid as much as I did on this day.
But that's not all... One of my team mates had red hair extensions for her horse's tail, and well, I had to borrow those too.
Amazing. I know. Now that you've seen the best parts, I guess I'll show you the entire outfit.
Gotta be honest. We owned Red. And now I'm very prepared for fourth of July next year. I forgot to take photos of all of Eros' stuff, but enjoy these sad little blown up screen shots instead.
Bridle: Joseph Sterling
Browband: repurposed by me
Yep, that's another former dog leash on my horse's head. Clearly, I have issues. But ya know... I like a matchy outfit, and this is one easy and inexpensive way to achieve that.
Saddle Pad: Professional Equine
Half Pad: Challenger
That half pad is just pile lined and I wouldn't use it more than once in awhile as I don't think it provides the comfort that my sheepskin half pads do. But he seemed happy enough in it for the one day. The saddle pad was surprisingly a lot nicer than I expected, especially for what I paid for it.
Polos: Horze Nest Combi bandages
I love using combi wraps when I need to polo, so I was excited to find some red ones available inexpensively from Horze. Their color is called Lipstick Red, but they do lean a little more orange than red. Served the purpose however. I made a really stupid mistake though, and ordered these twice. So if any of you out there like red, I'll have a set for sale at some point.
That's what Eros wore (you know, plus the pompoms and hair extensions). And here's what I had on:
Yeah. That's a lot of red.
Helmet: One K CCS Mips
The One K helmet came in real handy for spirit week. I'm not sure how much use I'll get out of these red inserts, but regardless, they helped make the outfit.
Top: Team 365
Red sunshirt from Walmart. Makes a good baselayer too. This will surely be worn, at least often enough to not feel guilty about buying.
Belt: Express
I've been mildly obsessed with this belt since I got it... when I was in college. Which makes it ridiculously old. Still holds up though. And was great for red day!
Breeches: Covalliero
I used to have a pretty great pair of red breeches from Horseware that I wore every fourth of July. Sadly, they had an unfortunate tearing incident and had to retire. I have been hunting for a decent, yet inexpensive, pair of red breeches for awhile and had settled on these. While they're very cute, they are also stupidly small, and I felt like a stuffed sausage all day in them. They will be for sale at some point too, when I find a replacement for them. They're probably more like a size 26. They had weird sizing and I think I guessed wrong.
Boots: Tuffrider Regal with duct tape embellishments
This is my spare pair of Regals that lives at the boarding barn. There's something not quite right about them, as they are sized completely differently than any of my other pairs. And I'm not quite sure what's happening with the tops... But they're okay for emergencies. They're also okay for defacing during spirit week. And also yes, those "spur straps" are made out of duct tape. No, they were not terribly functional. But they look good! (Well, that's a relative statement.)
Soooo... what do you think?? How about those pompoms?!