Outfit Day!!! By the title I imagine you can guess what we wore today... Al is our model because he's the only one with the complete outfit. Also, my drink ware for the day matched our outfit. I know. I'm super weird. I love being in my forties because I'm comfortable being a total weirdo.
Anyway, here's what Al had on today:
Note the lack of draw reins. We're weaning off of them. But still using a loose martingale just in case.
Bridle: Joseph Sterling Brow Band: Homemade
Not the best angle to showcase our cow print brow band. but look at his cute face! How could I NOT use this photo??
Boots: Celeris UK
Al and I have matching boots. And they're both amazing!
I like these baby pads a lot. They're shaped well so they stay put, which is always an area of concern with baby pads. Not as much on Al who doesn't use himself that well, but on Eros, many pads bunch up. These do not. Unfortunately, Hopeful Equestrian has closed up shop so I can't get more.
That's what Al wore this week, and here's what I had on:
All the cow print! ALL OF IT! I really can't explain it, but I've always loved cow print. I had some cow print things in college that I gave away later in my twenties thinking I'd never wear them again. And I miss them. Embrace what you love my friends, and hang on to it! Otherwise you'll end up rebuying it later.
Helmet: One K MIPS
I covered the plain black pieces this helmet came with using some vinyl. I didn't do a very good job... It's pretty wrinkly. But it serves the purpose. I paired those pieces with the hunter green rails to match my boots.
Shirt: No brand
I stumbled upon this top on Amazon, and it just said generic, no brand. So I assume it was made in China. But I couldn't find anything similar here in the good old USA so I got this one. It's actually a lovely shirt for summer. Very light weight, nice and stretchy. Big fan!
Belt: Rebecca Ray
I snagged this guy on sale quite a few years ago. And quite a few pounds ago. Add to that, the rise on our pants was lower back then too and I had to punch holes in it to wear today. Al thought it smelled weird. He's probably not wrong. I didn't sniff it to see. Regardless, it's a really nice belt. Rebecca Ray makes the nicest things.
Breeches: RJ Classics Harper
The Harper's are my favorite of the RJ pants, and you've all seen these a million times. Clearly a fan of these! Plus the shade of green is fab.
Boots: Celeris UK
Sometimes I feel a little sad that these are a little big for me these days, but honestly, what difference does it make? They don't rub or anything, and they still look amazing. I think these are my favorite boots. They're SO SOFT and ridiculously fun.
That's it for today! Any favorites? Are you waiting to see a particular theme for Thursday's Threads? Let me know in the comments!
It was a bit of a quieter week for the horses this past week, but just due to being busy in other parts of life. You all know how that goes! I got to see friends and family so many times though! Or at least, so many times for me who rarely leaves the property. Haha!
Dinner in my friend's rose garden Friday night!
Last week we didn't get much jumping done at all. You may recall, I had to abort mission last Wednesday when Shiny wouldn't come forward and then Al was pretty spooky. The way things worked out, I just didn't find a good day for jumpies again after that last week. It happens. I don't think any of them are any worse for the wear having a mostly just flatting week though. Some weeks are just like that.
Eros having a good map while Doc works his magic.
Doc had a cancellation and was able to come out to finish up Eros' maintenance on Friday, and then I had dinner plans, so I was mad rushing to get them finished that day. And then they ended up having Sunday off because it was Father's Day and by the time I finished chores, I had just enough time to shower and head off to the boat for lunch and a tender ride. Twas a lovely day! But ran out of daylight for horsing. I went back and forth on whether to ride Monday which is usually their day off, but had a few appointments scheduled so finally just gave them that day off too. The farrier came, so it was a good day for an extra vacation day at least.
I was going to use a cute photo of Al napping in front of the fan, but let's be real. Most of the time he's pawing.
While doc was out for Eros, I talked to him about Al again, because that's a forever ongoing conversation... Ha. We revisited a couple of treatments we'd talked about, namely getting him on something for hind gut ulcers and also restarting some EPM meds for him. We did both of those things, and I'm not sure if it's the fact that it is now pretty hot and humid, or the meds, but I seem to have a significantly more willing horse on my hands this week. I wasn't sure what I would have Tuesday after he had a couple days off, but I was able to hop on without a lunge, and while he did produce some dragon breaths, he didn't once spook. We're working a little easy this week since our first dose of heat and humidity this summer, and he was still pretty behind my leg, but I'll take that for the moment.
I think we're almost ready to start jumping a lil bigger!
Today was more of the same. Hopped right on, did a very short warm up, had a little walk break, and then we popped over the little jumps in the ring. It was a huge non event. Was he too slow and behind my leg? Yes. Yes he was. But he didn't try to break like he had been. And he didn't spook! Not once the entire ride. That's two days in a row if anyone is keeping track. I like to be a little extra careful with him in the heat as he's not the greatest sweater and he's a dark horse. So we did very little. But he was getting better and better as we went along, starting to come more forward. What I liked most is that I finished up wanting to do more. It's been a long while since I've had that feeling. Normally I'm pretty relieved when our ride is over. Which I realize is not what you want for a horse you own... But I still think it's worth working through. And hopefully we're on the right path these days. Boy am I grateful for modern medicine and a vet that listens to me. I'm not sure if we've found the magic answer, and likely we'll still have good and bad days. But I'm starting to see more good ones than bad ones. And the bad ones are significantly less bad than they used to be.
Look at him! All round and stepping up under himself.
Things are going pretty great with Eros. I've been trying to time his rides so they happen while the heat index not orange so he can get his full rehab rides in. I just want to keep progressing with that! So Friday he had the rest of his maintenance addressed which meant that he had several days off. (Friday through Monday which was an extra day more than is called for, but no harm done.) I was both excited and mildly nervous about getting on him Tuesday. Excited to hopefully feel lots of improvements after his maintenance and nervous that he might be a lil wild after four days off. Which was silly. He was not wild. He feels great though! More willing to come forward, though I'm not letting him do any extension work yet. I feel like the canter needs some work still, but I think that will come as we get to doing more of it. We're up to about 7 minutes total of canter, but I have it split it up right now, so it's not really enough minutes to really influence it yet. We do three laps each way right when we start and that's just a loose canter to let him stretch and get warmed up. Then we do three laps each way later in the ride. I'm starting to use those laps to ask him to come together and use his body better, but it's a work in progress. He just doesn't have the strength yet. All in good time though! Once we get to ten minutes of canter, that's normally when we can start introducing some raised cavalletti and little bitty jumps so I'm hopeful that will be the case this time around too. I'll check in with Doc when I get to that point. Anyway, I'm really pleased with him these days!
Shiny is doing pretty well too. I think last week she was feeling that EPM med she's on and also was feeling a certain sort of way about her new diet. But this week she's coming around. Getting her feet trimmed has also helped immensely. They all grew a TON of foot this cycle and could have been trimmed after four weeks but my farrier was at Spruce Meadows so we had to wait. She's much less trippy this week mostly due to the feet, and maybe partially the EPM meds. We hopped over a few jumps today and once I convinced her to carry her own body, she was fantastic. As with Al, we kept it very short due to weather. I was wanting to keep going, I was having so much fun with her! But I didn't because she's fat, and fat horses need to be careful in hot weather when they aren't used to it. I do think she's dropped a few pounds finally though! Looking forward very much to the day when she's a healthy weight and we can stop soaking hay... It's not a hard thing to do, but it's definitely a pain in the bum.
I suppose I should discourage this behavior. But it really makes me giggle every time. Also, it's functional. Once she does this she's like a whole new willing pony.
I have to say, her buck of annoyance when I insist on more forward when she doesn't want to has gotten a lot more power behind it. I still don't feel like I'd come off or anything, but she is getting me to come forward a bit when she does it now. Guess I gotta work on my core now that her hind end is working better... haha. I love this pony so much!
That's about it from here this week. Hope you all are staying cool and enjoying the summer with your horses!
Heh... This post is going to be chock full of silly confessions. First is that I never thought to check that the horses' fans were all working until today when we had our first fan weather of the season. And of course Eros' fan was not working. This is not shocking because he abuses the hell out of that fan when it's not on. Spins it around. Bites it. He's really terribly behaved with that fan. Thankfully, all the others were functioning. I was getting ready to order a new one from Amazon when I remembered that I had a spare. The fans came in packs of two, and I had bought four for the barn, and three to keep in the trailer, meaning there was a spare someplace. I found it pretty quickly, and then had to figure out the best way to install the replacement. In an effort to minimize the number of holes in the stall wall, we bolted Shiny's fan and Eros' fan together with the wall in between. Which seemed brilliant until I had to swap one out. So I started fighting with the bolts, only to realize I didn't need to remove the bracket. (That's confession two, I was delayed on the critical thinking there...) The fans were the exact same, so I could remove the new bracket, and just use that old one on the wall already for the new fan.
This is the old fan once I realized it was easier to remove the fan than the bracket.
But then the screws on the fan fell inside it while I was trying to mount the damn thing. So next I needed to open the fan to get to the screws. I couldn't open it all the way, because there was a teeny tiny screw holding it on in place that I didn't have a small enough screw driver for. But it swiveled enough to access what I needed. Of course, then with it swiveled like that, it's super top heavy so I did manage to drop the whole thing on my head... twice. Good thing I already had my helmet on! Anyway, eventually I got the new fan installed and now everyone has lovely air flow in their stalls.
Tada! New fan all up and running!
My last confession is that when the horses are home, stuff like this happens all the time, and I end up with the worst time management skills. Due to this little unplanned project, I wound up being in the barn for like nine and a half hours. I only have three horses to ride... Lol! Where does the time go?
Outfit Day!!! We're continuing with pastels because it's summer and it's appropriate. And it's fun. Shiny looks best in this color scheme so she's our model today. And this is what we wore:
Doesn't she look cute in lavender?? The boys' pads have baby pink trim so my outfit matched a little better with them. But it still works with Shiny's too.
Can't say I see a difference in her weight yet, but she's only been on the diet a week. I have the same ridiculous expectations when I try to diet too. Haha!
Bridle: Nunn Finer Brow band: Dark Jewel Designs Bit: cheeks are Punk Ponies and mouth is sweet billy's
I really don't love this bridle, but I can't justify replacing it when we don't really use it all that much. It looks fine, just the leather is cheap feeling. And I hate how thick the throat latch piece is.
Boots: Eskadron
I'm a big fan of the Eskadron boots. We have many iterations of them.
I've had this tie dye pad for a very long time. It used to be Rio's in fact. I've nearly put it in the saddle pile a few times, but it works nicely with my boots so I decided to keep it.
That's what Shiny wore this week, and here's what I had on:
Lavender and rose gold (ish)! And gray. Also some gray. I love pastels!
Helmet: One K
Horseloverz had this gray mips helmet on sale last summer and I had been wanting to replace the old gray one I had with a not expired MIPS model. The price was right so I did! And then I had to have the lavender inserts for it. Of course, they didn't have this color here in the US, but Fundis got me hooked up. You can't really see in this photo (sorry) but I have the rose gold rails in there too.
Top: Luyaa
I know, I know. I wear the same shirt nearly every day in different colors. When you like something, you get it in all the colors, okay?
Belt: Zazzle
I wear these belts a lot too. Same reason. Plus they're so cute! This one features me jumping all of the horses, but run through an app that makes them look like pencil drawings. And yes, I waste a lot of time playing with photos and apps.
Breeches: Tailored Sportsman
I snagged these from consignment I think last year? Yearh before maybe? And I was SHOCKED that they had no stains. I'm not sure they were ever worn before I had them. I can assure you, they know have lots of stains. But I love the color!
Boots: Celeris UK
These aren't leaching color as badly as the mint ones anymore. I even wore them on all the horses and my saddles came away just fine! Of my custom boots, only three of them are my current measurements, and this pair is one of them. It's nice to wear boots that actually fit me now and then! But they aren't fully broken in just yet, so my ankles were a little bothered by them. I need to wear them more.
And that's it for today! I sometimes think the pastels look a little weird on horses, but then I decide I don't care because they are pretty. Haha! I'm not sure I'd ever be brave enough to wear them out riding in public though. Neons too. Some things are meant for at home.
It was a quieter horse week since our day off was later than usual. So we only got in one day of jumpies. I could have jumped again over the weekend, but honestly, doing chores on the weekends leaves me kinda tired and I like to be not excessively tired when we jump. Right now especially since we're still re-acclimating to jumping on our own. My helper caught some kind of bug over the weekend too and had to take Monday off. So I had an extra chore day. Made up for the lack of jumpies! Haha!
Anyway, we jumped on Thursday so enjoy revisiting my Thursday's Threads outfit from last week. We also planned to jump today, but the horses were zero percent into that endeavor. So we may try again tomorrow. So let's talk ponies!
Things are plugging along with Al. He still has good days and less good days, but those less good days continue to be less tense and angst ridden. So I'm still considering it progress. I can no longer say he hasn't spun since being on the Ulcer Guard... But...
We both got smacked in the face with a pebble-y dust cloud
In his defense, I had the old Pivo set up at that end of the ring, and it blew over as we were walking at it. So it was a justified startle. I would like for these reactions to be a bit smaller... But hey. baby steps. At lease we're having them less! What I was most proud of though, was that once he collected himself, he let me walk him right up to the now tipped over Pivo, and he gave it a good sniff. And then it was over. Even though Pivo looked way scary laying on the ground like that, he went back to work and even jumped around a little. We didn't quite string together courses yet, but we did hop over almost everything in the ring. I was proud of him.
This was a challenging day in the ring because (as evidenced by Pivo) it was pretty windy which is really something Al struggles with. All those trees blowing around and the shadows that move... Terrifying. But he wanted to be a good boy despite all that. I kept the fences tiny, not because Al cares about height or jumps really at all. But I figured keeping the fences small enough to hop over made it easier for me to feel confident and help us work on refilling our trust bank. I don't even think that little spin incident took anything out of it! So that's a huge thing for Al and me.
He did give me a giggle though when he jumped up extra high over this little oxer. He didn't seem like he was peaking at it, but mid air he boinged his little knees up extra high. I think he thought the little bees on the ice cream cones were real.
Scary bees!
But then he came back around and jumped it nicely, so obviously he figured out they wouldn't sting him.
I was reading over my Al notes today and noticed I had a few days this past week where I called our ride wonderful. I haven't been able to say that in a very long time. Yesterday, he was pretty perfect. He moved off my leg when I asked, he did some lateral work, he didn't spook the whole ride I don't think! Unfortunately, today was very windy again and he just wasn't into it. He felt a little funny to me today, not lame, just kind of off his game, so I figured we would chalk today up to being an off day and see what we have tomorrow. But what I want to note, is that while he wasn't great today, he still wasn't a mess. He didn't actually spook while I was on him, though he was throwing stink eye all over. He just was really behind my leg and was a little extra angsty today. But really only at the waving trees. Which I know he struggles with. So no NEW scaries, and he did keep his poo together for the most part. Even bad days can have parts that were good.
Shiny was great for our jump school last week, though she's been a little extra trippy. We have her on the Rebalance which if it's actually doing something can make them a little extra epm-y for a little bit. My guess is that's what's happening. But last week she jumped around great and did the full course. Some jumps were 2' and some were a little smaller, but it all felt really easy for her. Once we work out the tripping and get her trimmed (they all have grown a ridiculous amount of hoof in the last four weeks!) I think we can start putting the jumps up a little for her. Maybe. We'll see. But look how cute she jumped that day:
This one is my favorite
A little clip montage for your viewing pleasure. I didn't add music. I'm lazy.
Shiny has officially started her crash diet prescribed by her doc. She hates it. I also kind of hate it, because weighing and soaking hay is annoying. But it's worth it if I can her more healthy. Also, we now have a hay tree. I know it's not ideal to pre-soak hay, but I do the morning portions the night before to make it easier for my helper. He doesn't have an extra 30 minutes to soak hay in the morning, and honestly, the horses expect to eat when we walk in the barn in the morning. So far, it's working fine. Shiny would let me know if it was inedible. Trust me.
As for our attempted jump school today... I think the cut back in calories is affecting her energy levels. I could NOT get her moving off my leg today. FOR THE LIFE OF ME! I tried everything I know and she was like, no mom, this is fast enough. (It was not, in fact, fast enough. At all.) We did pop (chip) over a few little jumps, but I decided to scrap that plan for today and just worked on the flat trying to get her to move along a little more. I imagine it will take her a little time to adjust to the change in diet and also it's possible she's feeling that other med a little bit too. We'll see what tomorrow brings. She didn't seem uncomfortable or like anything was wrong, she just was pokey to the fullest extent. But eh, we all have those days don't we?
Eros is plugging along with his rehab. He's feeling SO MUCH better since getting his neck done. I still think he'll feel even more improved once we work on the hind end too. But I'm happy with where we are at the moment. We are still cantering to start, but I've split off a few of our laps. So we do three laps each way to start, then we do a bunch of trot work (ten minutes) then we do a couple more canter laps each way, but this time it's more of a collected canter, getting him to lift his belly and use his bum. The early canter is on a loose rein and he can be very up and down and hollow. But I don't think it's fair at that point in the ride to try and put him together. So this is working nicely. After our second canter we do another 8 minutes of trot (4 each way) and finish with a nice walk. It ends up being a pretty long ride, and he's starting to feel pretty fit! I, however, am not feeling that fit, so I've started using some of our trot work (on the non windy/spooky days) to do some no stirrup work.
Working on that fitness. But what am I looking down at?
I imagine after our next recheck and maintenance it might be time to start popping over some cavaletti. We shall see! I hope so. I think E misses jumping. He's been a little sassy lately and I think he's bored.
In other news, it's been busy around here getting the farm in shape. The plumber was here Monday, but he'll be back next week to finish things up. Hopefully my barn bathroom will be functioning again soon! That toilet hasn't worked in like two years. Also on Monday, the pool got opened!
And this year it cleared up right away which has NEVER EVER happened before. Not ever.
It's always taken weeks to get it safe for swimming. What a difference it makes to have a really capable team working on it. Now I just need the new heater to get installed so I can actually go in it. The water is currently around 65 degrees in there, and that is not Stacie temperature. Not in the least. Haha!
This is my favorite time of year. It feels like new beginnings. The start of a brand new season. Now I just need our trainer to get home so we can really get to work!
I like these baby pads a lot. They're shaped well so they stay put, which is always an area of concern with baby pads. Not as much on Al who doesn't use himself that well, but on Eros, many pads bunch up. These do not. Unfortunately, Hopeful Equestrian has closed up shop so I can't get more.
I covered the plain black pieces this helmet came with using some vinyl. I didn't do a very good job... It's pretty wrinkly. But it serves the purpose. I paired those pieces with the hunter green rails to match my boots.
I stumbled upon this top on Amazon, and it just said generic, no brand. So I assume it was made in China. But I couldn't find anything similar here in the good old USA so I got this one. It's actually a lovely shirt for summer. Very light weight, nice and stretchy. Big fan!
I snagged this guy on sale quite a few years ago. And quite a few pounds ago. Add to that, the rise on our pants was lower back then too and I had to punch holes in it to wear today. Al thought it smelled weird. He's probably not wrong. I didn't sniff it to see. Regardless, it's a really nice belt. Rebecca Ray makes the nicest things.
The Harper's are my favorite of the RJ pants, and you've all seen these a million times. Clearly a fan of these! Plus the shade of green is fab.
Sometimes I feel a little sad that these are a little big for me these days, but honestly, what difference does it make? They don't rub or anything, and they still look amazing. I think these are my favorite boots. They're SO SOFT and ridiculously fun. 
