Truthful Tuesday

 

I stayed up super late last night trying to finish holiday shopping. And you know what? I didn't actually accomplish anything I needed to. Not for lack of trying, I was just struggling to find the right things for the right people. Usually something jumps out at me, but it hasn't happened yet. I'll try again tonight. But that's not my whole confession. My confession is that when I finally did head towards bed, I kept trying to take out my contacts only to finally realize I wasn't wearing them. I had worn glasses yesterday since I didn't ride. Imagine that? Being so tired you don't realize you're literally poking yourself in the eyeball? Sheesh. 

Anyone else ever do this? Also, if you have suggestions for the man who has everything and has literally zero hobbies and doesn't drink, please send those my way. My dad is impossible to shop for. Last year I commissioned a painting of his boat and I think that was peak gift giving right there.

Thursday's Threads: Tropical Edition

 

This week will be the first of my spirit week outfits. I'm going to go in order, so today's outfit is from Tropical Tuesday. Shiny even dressed up for this day (she skipped color wars day) so lots to share today. 

Here's what Eros and I wore:

It's better when you see it up close. Trust me. Let's look! I didn't get a pic with Shiny, but I'll show you her stuff too. 

Bridles: Joseph Sterling

Browbands: made by me

I was able to find a dog leash that matched our Lettia saddle pads nearly exactly so obviously I had to make some browbands. 

Saddle pads: Lettia (Eros' is a baby pad, Shiny's is a regular pad)
Half Pad: Stephens

Saddles: Eros-Butet, Shiny-Custom Saddlery 

Boots and Wraps:

Eros- HKM adorned with stickers from Amazon

Shiny- No name polos adorned with some duct tape

Okay, now for my ridiculous outfit. And guys, it's RIDICULOUS.

Told ya. 

Helmet: Harry's Horse

I added some decor... Like that sunglasses hair clip that I found in my bathroom and those stickers again from Amazon. The collar that came with the dog leash had a bow tie so I stuck that to the helmet, because why not? And then ya know. Scrunchie. Cause they're back. 

Sweatshirt: Amazon

I got this from a very nice independent seller on Amazon who rushed it for me so I'd have it in time... This is the silliest thing I've ever owned. I'm pretty sure anyway.

Belt: Ebay

Figured I should go with the palm tree belt. Closest match I had for this outfit.

Breeches: Equine Couture

They're almost a perfect match to that silly hoodie. Plus I already owned them, so that's a win. The grass skirt had to come off part way through my ride because it was very noisy and was spooking the horses... Lol. Oops. 

Boots: Celeris UK

Any excuse I can find to bust out the pink boots, I will find it. This seemed like the perfect time to me! Probably the only time I'll wear them at the boarding barn. But you never know. Maybe not. 

So that's it for Tropical Tuesday! Any favorites? Isn't it ridiculous?! Wait till next week when you'll see Color Wars Thursday. There's a small sneak peak on my instagram story if you can't wait.... 

What's Up Wednesday

 

I forgot how bad I am about taking any sort of photos when I'm at the boarding barn... This post will be light on media I'm afraid. I'll try and do better going forward.

So let's see... when we last left off, I had moved the ponies over to the boarding barn. They have settled in just fine thankfully. I already talked about Shiny's clinic session, and so far that's the only day that she has jumped over there. I have a lesson scheduled for tomorrow morning. It's a private, so we can do exactly what she needs to get her feeling good about her job again. Should be fun! 

Eros has been wonderful, and is feeling pretty good too. So I'm feeling positive that he'll get to start doing fun things again soon as well. The vet will be out Friday, so he's having a recheck. I'll let you all know how that goes! 

Friday is a big day for Pammon too. He's having his first ultrasound since May when he moved out to the field. Cross all of your crossables that it's good news for him. He needs to get back to work! I haven't been grooming him the last couple of weeks as his field is a muddy mess, and neither of us is interested in it. Now that it's cool out, I think he'd rather keep his sheet on. Or something. He doesn't seem to want me to catch him. Punk! Regardless of everything, he'll be moving back in December 1st as they want to close the fields for the winter. Okay by me anyway, hopefully he'll be rehabbing at that point. 

I feel like I should have lots to write about since moving the horses is a big change and all, but honestly, not that much exciting is happening. I'm sure content will pick up once Shiny is in regular lessons and whatever else goes on with the boys. 

In the meantime, I'm hunting a mouse in my house and fighting with the pin on my trailer hitch which is still attached to my truck at the moment. Clearly, I'm not yet winning that battle... I will though! Lol. I'm nothing if not determined!

In other fun news, it's spirit week at the barn! I'm going to share three of the outfits over the next few weeks for Thursday's Threads. But I failed at snapping individual item photos today, so today's outfit won't be featured. Thus, it's the one and only photo I have for this post... 

Today's theme was Larimar Wednesday, so Eros and I dressed all in the farm's colors and logo. It was an easy one, since we wear the barn colors a lot anyway. Just not always all at the same time... The other themes are Tropical Tuesday, Color Wars Thursday, and Flannel Friday. Saturday is stall decorating but I think the lesson kids are going to do my stall so I have no plan for that. Thank goodness. I have lots of outfits, but I'm lacking in decor. The barn is shaped like an H so we have four quadrants and that's how the teams are broken up. I have horses in two quadrants, but can only compete for one team, so I picked Eros' quadrant. For color wars day, each quadrant was assigned color. Unfortunately for me, our color is red. Which, the only red I had was buffalo plaid which is perfect for Friday. So I had to make a few purchases. Happy to report we will be outfitted accordingly, even if Eros and I both look pretty terrible in red. Also, after color wars day, I will have some red stuff for sale if anyone's in need...

Lastly, I'm getting my covid booster right after Shiny's lesson tomorrow. I'm looking forward to being ultra vaxxed! Hopefully the side effects won't be too bad. Hoping to meet up with my book club friends for an outdoor gathering in the evening, but we'll have to see what Pfizer has to say about that... 

Did you all have a good week/weekend? What did you do???

Truthful Tuesday

 

This one is meaty and I have no media so bear with me... I'll break things up with old photos, promise! Soooo... This weekend Nona Garson was at the boarding barn doing clinics all day. Most people did both days, but they are two hour sessions which just seems like a lot to me, so I opted to just do one day with Shiny. 

We'll see what the Olympian thinks about... this pony. Lol!

Going in, I wasn't sure how she'd do with the long session. We generally ride for about 30 minutes a day, and that includes our walk portions. I probably should work on lengthening our rides... We arrived at the boarding barn last Wednesday, and the few days I had ridden there, she was a little tense. She never put a foot wrong, but she hadn't been the relaxed pony I have at home most days. Which honestly, might have been good since when she's relaxed it can be pretty tough to get her moving. 

We drew the short straw apparently and were scheduled for the 7:30 am session on Saturday. I was not excited given the forecast. 31 degrees at the start. Ugh. Brr. Fortunately, the outdoor was frozen so we were inside. That helped a little. I got on early to get Shiny moving. I was quite sure no clinician would be impressed by the Shiny Shuffle, so I made sure to get that out of the way before we started our session. 

I was SUPER proud of Shiny during the flat portion. We have spent all summer working on our flatwork and I think it's really paid off. Nona started us off nice and easy with loose reins, some half seat, etc. She really likes to let the horses stretch and move how they wish before putting them together for harder work. I also like that. She doesn't have us canter before before putting the trot together which isn't my preference, but since I had already moved Shiny around (including some light canter) prior to starting, it was fine. She had us do some leg yields what I call the easy way, from the quarter line to the rail. Shiny really only figured out lateral work about a month ago, so I felt really proud when Nona said Shiny performed the best with that exercise. Proud mom moment for sure!

The jumping part started out fine. Shiny hadn't jumped at the boarding barn yet this year, and while she's generally very honest to the jumps, she can get a little peaky when they're new or have shadows on them. Which just results in her jumping a little up and down instead of across the first time. But she was very good. Nona starts the jumping off just as easily and slowly and the flatwork which I really like. We start with one thing (in this case trotting a cross rail) and then just add something on with each turn. So everything builds up slowly. I like that. Setting up for success. 

So we trotted an X a few times each way, and then added another single and an outside line. The line was a slightly short 4 for horses (which is common for being in a small indoor. Horses naturally want to shorten their step a little in a smaller space, so we set the fences accordingly). So for Shiny we planned to do the five. I was surprised when we got down there and barely had room for the last step. My bad. I usually am pretty good about knowing where I am in a line, but the jump out was a little high for us, and we hadn't jumped it yet, so I think I was more focused on keeping her in front of my leg and over did it. It was fine though, she popped right over despite the chip. 

Everything was really going pretty well until it wasn't anymore. For the last course, our first jump which had been the crossrail was raised to a vertical and it was 2'6" with a square rail. If you've been reading along here for any length of time, you know that we have only just started toying with the 2'6" and is really a bit out of our comfort zone. The out of the line was also 2'6" though, and things had been going fine, so I didn't speak up. I thought it would be okay. It was not, in fact, okay. Shiny cantered up to it and said no thank you. I re-approached and if I'm being really honest here (which is always my policy) I let her stop again. I cantered up to it, but was not assertive. I didn't really want to jump it either... I asked if we could put it down a hole, which Nona did, and then I got tough and got her over, I continued on to the diagonal line which the in was also at 2'6", but Shiny locked on, and I felt like we were going to be fine, but she quit again. We put that down as well, and then she finished the course. It wasn't pretty, but she jumped everything else, even if they were a little three legged some of the time. Unfortunately, that was our last course as time was up, but honestly Shiny was very tired, so I'm not sure I would have wanted to ask for more anyway.

I was feeling pretty shitty about how things went at the end there. Not because we had trouble, and I in no way think my pony was a bad girl. I am feeling shitty because I don't think I did my job as her human properly that day. I knew those jumps were big for where she is right now, and I knew that we had already been on a LONG time. I should have spoken up that the jumps were too big. Shiny wasn't trying to be bad (she never stopped dirty, she always kept her head up and kept me safely on her back). I just worry that now she's learned how to apply the breaks, which isn't something we've really dealt with. She has stopped once or twice in the past at something particularly spooky the first time. But never more than once. I really think she was just too tired and it was a little too hard. And it was my job to say something. 

She doesn't seem any worse for the wear in general. I flatted her lightly Sunday and she was her usual self, so I guess we'll see this week. I'm going to find a little kid lesson to join, just little crossrails or 18" verticals, and see how confident she's feeling. I'm sure we'll both be fine, but I'm really disappointed in myself for not being her advocate. I got caught up in the moment and got a little greedy. I feel like it's the same thing that happened with Eros with putting the jumps up to 2'9" and then he was lame. Both issues could have been avoided if I was a little bit better of a human in those moments. Hopefully I've learned my lessons, without doing too much damage to my poor pony. 

Thursday's Threads: Halloween Edition

 

I'm sharing my Halloween outfit today! You're probably all getting a little tired of my candy corn theme every Halloween, but listen... I own all this stuff and I intend to keep using it. So likely, it will be candy corn theme for years to come. Sorry. Anyway, here's what we wore this week!

I think next year I want to get a new pad for Shiny and sell that one. I'll have to keep my eyes out for a replacement. 

Bridles: M Toulousse

I had found these bridles on sale a few years ago, and then didn't really like them that much. So I was planning to sell them, but instead they were relegated to our Halloween bridles. The browbands I decorated myself, but they are originally the ones that came with my La Cense bitless bridles.

Saddles:

Eros- Butet, Shiny- Custom Saddlery

Halfpad:

Ippico

Saddle Pads:

Both of their pads were handmade from small businesses, but I have to apologize because I have no idea what stores they are from. Both are several years old at this point.

Shiny's pad was advertised as a jump pad, but it's not. It's shapped more for a dressage saddle, and probably would fit a 16" best. Clearly it's too small for this saddle!

Boots: Equinavia (formerly known as Horze)

This roll of candy corn print duct tape is probably the most useful roll of tape I've ever owned. I used it to decorate these boots and also my own boots. And my stick... You'll just have to keep reading to see everything I've used it for.

So anyway, that's what the horses wore! And here's what I had on:

I got lucky and we had a warmish day on Sunday for Halloween. So I got to wear a super cute long sleeve tee instead of a hoodie.

Helmet: One K CCS MIPS

Yep, you are correct. That is the duct tape on the helmet. This is the one you normally see with the rose gold accents. But for Halloween I popped those out and used plain black with a candy corn top. 

Top: Southern Hound

I found this last year via a google search, and had to have it! I mean, a candy corn patterned Pug?! Yes please.

Belt: C4

Honestly, I don't know what it is about candy corn pattern that I love so much. I'm not like super into eating candy corn. I mean, I like it fine, but only a few pieces. It's a lot. But this pattern is just so cute to me! I was super excited a few years back when C4 made a belt with it. Had to have it.

Breeches: Dover Wellesley 9000

Awhile back I found these glass candy corn beads but they were only available in bulk, so I wound up with a LOT of them. I made some bracelets, but still had a bunch left over. So then I had the brilliant idea to decorate some breeches with them. And well... I kind of love how they turned out! I lined the front pockets and then did all of the belt loops. Hopefully they survive the washer and dryer.

Socks: Dreamers and Schemers

Shoes: Amazon

Dreamers and Schemers made me stupid happy when they had these socks available. They also made gaitors and masks which I bought because I have no self control. Thankfully, I don't need to use either of those when riding at home. But I am prepared just in case!

Boots: Tuffrider Regals

This pair of boots is old, and was going to be tossed, until I decided to decorate them with duct tape. And now they will live on for years to come as my Halloween boots. I realized something was missing though... spur straps! So I made these with the duct tape too. Seriously. You can make literally anything out of duct tape. ANYTHING!

Stick: unbranded

Funny story about this stick. First off, it was really ugly. It was like beige and black and in really rough shape. I found it a million years ago when I was moving into a stall at a horse show. Someone had left it behind, probably because it was passed it's prime. I held onto it as a spare for many years. And then decided to bring it new life with the duct tape. I think it's fun!

Watch Band: Amazon

I had to. Sorry. Couldn't help it. 

Pia joined in the fun too!

Her outfit is from Target and her collar I think came from Amazon. I forget, I got it last year. 

And that my friends, is every possible item of candy corn I could come up with to share. I'll be putting the candy corn away until next year. 

What's Up Wednesday

 

Phew, late to the party today! It was moving day for Eros and Shiny, so I spent the day getting them settled at the boarding barn for the winter. And then rode them both. I think they were happy to not be out in the wind for our rides today. Back outside tomorrow though because Shiny is doing a clinic with Nona Garson this weekend, and it will be outside. At 7:30 am. Ugh. Talk about drawing the short straw. Time to bust out the winter clothes!

This past week/weekend was a little inconsistent as we've been getting a lot of rain. Shiny only jumped once last week, but it was a fun day. It took a little bit to get her going, but once she was moving along, she jumped around nicely. 

I even put the oxer out of the line up to 2'6", which was a big deal to me. I mean... I made it as narrow as I possibly could.... But it still counts! 

She probably won't jump again until this weekend in the clinic. Hopefully it goes okay. I'm a little nervous... But sometimes you just have to do the thing nervous. 

Eros is doing well. He actually felt a bit better today in the fancy footing at the barn, so I'm hopeful he'll be back to real work soon. Our vet will be out the end of next week so if he has time, I'll have him re check Eros. Pammon is getting scanned too, so it's a big day. Fingers crossed it all goes positively. 

Bellino and Fefe headed back to Florida on Sunday, but I got to ride them both on Saturday before they left which was nice. I had my Thursday lesson on B, and while it started off REALLY well, it went kind of downhill. We were jumping inside and I don't think that's his jam. He warmed up fine, and our first course was pretty perfect. I even commented to my instructor that he felt different than usual, but in a good way. Unfortunately, after that he didn't want to play anymore. That's what I get for complimenting him I guess. He didn't want to go forward, and kept throwing his head up and trying to plant his feet. Naughty behavior. I decided not to push the jumping, as I didn't want to open a can of worms before he left. He would have a training ride the next day to fix him. But I also didn't want him to finish getting his way, so I did make him go back to work on the flat. He hated it and protested, but I kept him moving until he gave up the nonsense. He was good for his training ride the next day, and fine for me on Saturday too, so no harm no foul. Just a bad day I guess. Bummer it was our last lesson, but what can you do?

Not much else to report really. How was your week/weekend? Do anything fun and exciting? 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Fun fact about me. I am 10 thousand times more awkward than normal when something isn't right in my world. Like today for example. I'm currently hanging in my kitchen writing this blog post waiting for my eyes to un dilate from my eye appointment earlier. But prior to being in my kitchen, I saw my barn helper outside (he's usually gone by now, so that was different in and of itself) and I was totally awkward to him. He had his wife with him and they were watching something on their phone, so I was relieved not to have to converse. Because you know, awkward human plus dilated eyeballs... So he asked if I wasn't riding today since I popped into the barn to feed lunch, but then was walking out to go in the house for a bit. I was all "oh I am, just a little later" but was like totally not stopping to chat. And then I was thinking sheesh, I'm so rude, and why am I like this?! But my eyeballs are all weird, and I just wanted to hide. 

So like... am I the only awkward turtle around here, or can any of you relate? And let's be real, would I have been just as weird seeing him unexpectedly without my eyeballs dilated? I mean... probably. 

Awkward Turtle.