Thursday's Threads

 

Outfit day again! This week is a little... uninspired. It happens! It's cold out. The horses wore the same outfits this week as last, so nothing to share there. But here's what I wore yesterday:

Pink! See? It's not navy nor green! I can switch things up!

Helmet: One K MIPS

Okay, well the helmet has green on it. I only have the two options over there! 

Sweater: I'm the worst, I forget the brand on this

Base layer: Akina

I'm making an effort to wear things other than hoodies on occasion. Now that winter is really doing it's thing with the temps around here, I've been wearing wool for a base layer more often. Highly recommend.

Belt: Mane Jane

I went with the light gray strap to match the stripes on the sweater (and my mask).

Breeches: Dover

Yep, I'm still sporting the corduroy trend over here. Even if it was a trend of years past... Ha. 

Boots: Tredstep

It was 26 degrees when I rode Pammon this morning and my feet did not get cold. These boots are the best thing to ever happen to winter.

And that's it. Short and sweet today! Any favorites?

What's Up Wednesday

 

So when we last left off, Shiny was refusing to canter and Eros was still noticeably off. Pammon at least was plugging away! This week seems to be turning a corner for everyone. Of course, in true New England winter fashion, it's probably going to be too cold to ride Friday and possibly Saturday... Sheesh. (I won't ride if it's colder than 20. Just seems pointless and hard on the lungs. Maybe just tack walks or hand walks.)

The princess has decided she will canter this week... but I really have to beg for it. And not currently with contact. Whatever, I'll take what I can get right now.  She's for sure less angsty then she was before getting vet work, so I do think she's feeling better. We certainly have a ways to go before she's back to "normal" though. Baby steps!

Eros has been spending 20 minutes trotting twice a week in the rig to see if he'll engage his hind end better without me to pull on. It seems to be helping, and he's feeling sounder this week. So still kind of wait and see, but hopefully we're on the right track. 

Pammon was surprised by the snow outside. 
He has a window in his stall, but I'm not sure he realizes it's the same view from the indoor.

Pammon was FABULOUS in our flat lesson last night. He was completely relaxed and also dialed in to me, which is rare. He's usually VERY interested in everything but me. So that was a nice change. We did some canter poles, alternating between 5 and 6 strides in between them. Last week he was not interested in shortening for the add, but this week he was soft and willing to do whatever. Makes me hopeful for our future! 

Not much else really happening. I took the weekend off from house projects other than laundry (finally caught up!). Though the blanket project took up a few hours on Saturday. Especially trying to access the trailer ones, they were all the way in the back of the peak. 

not those black tubs. No. BEHIND them.

And then Sunday I made some cupcakes. But from a box, I wasn't THAT motivated.

Full disclosure, I did them in the toaster oven and the reason they look different is that I have only one muffin pan that fits in the toaster. So I used the individual brownie pan too. Those are square and a little smaller. Still taste the same though! Problem with making cupcakes during a pandemic when you live alone? I now have to eat 18 cupcakes. Challenge accepted!

That's about it from here really. Winter isn't that exciting. How was your week? Horses good?

Truthful Tuesday

 

Geeze. You guys. This weekend, I was working on the Clothes Horse blog hop that Amanda started (I'm aiming to publish Friday, wish me luck) and well... It seems it may be time to admit that I have a problem. I was going through all the horse clothes. But it wasn't really ALL the horse clothes. Because I have tubs of them in storage too. Anyway. I added up all the horse clothing items that are somewhat in use. Final tally (at least I think it's the final, I keep remembering I have other stuff floating around) is 106. 106 pieces of horse clothes. That is insane. For 3 horses! Again. It doesn't include what's in storage. So yeah. Perhaps it's time to admit that I actually am a hoarder. Crap. Someone help. I need help. 

These are pretty though right?! They're 18 years old.

Here's my dilemma. When the horses moved home initially, I bought them all matching clothes. I was fortunate that Beval made fairly inexpensive very high quality blankets in my barn colors. I mean, that's impressive. AND they came in little Mow's size too, which could be a challenge. 

Mow and Rio modeling the Beval T/O sheets.

So they all had a full set of these clothes and all was well. But then Beval imploded and stopped making them. I don't have any of them in Shiny's size (nor did I have Ducky's size back when he was around). Most of the Beval blankets were still in use up until I lost Rio. Then the horses went to the boarding barn for the winter and had to wear those required blankets. And then Kentucky made the most luxurious blankets I've ever seen... So you can see how it spirals.

ANYWAY, all that rambling to say, I'm kind of attached to the Beval blankets which are still in good shape so they are packed away in storage (and not in my tally save for one or two). My decluttering self says I probably should sell them off, but my emotional self wants to hang on to them. They were Rio and Jampy's blankets. Mow's. The OG home horses. And they're really quite nice. So likely I'll keep them. I have the space to store them. And it remains to be seen how the current outfits will hold up. I may need them again! 

Do you have guys have anything like that? Something you're not really using but just can't seem to let go of? Am I total hoarding weirdo? (Maybe don't answer that.)

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

 

Guys. It's official. Hope for our country. Happy Inauguration Day! I mean, that's really what's up today amiright?

But you're not here for politics. (Obviously.) So let's chat about last week. Lots to discuss. You may remember that Eros and Shiny had a vet appointment on Friday. It was a good visit overall with some interesting developments. 

Pammon likes his new Monkey toy that I 
finally remembered to bring for him.

Pammon didn't have an appointment, but we did chat about him briefly. He has been given the green light to start jumping again, so that's good news! We'll take it slow, but since he's been jumping himself around during his free lunges and staying sound, hopefully things will go well. We did a line of poles in our flat lesson yesterday. It was... um... a little exciting. It was a four stride line when set as jumps, so we were aiming for five strides. The first time through he stayed nice and soft but we did six. So then I kicked up a little and from there on out it was pretty much a 4 each time. Pammon thought shortening for the five was incredibly offensive and literally was YANKING me out of the tack. It was aggressive. Made me remember why I rode him a slow twist before... that little french link loose ring was doing me zero favors. Lol. I think he was just excited though, and I appreciate his exuberance. We'll work on it.

When we last left off, Eros was a little lame. I was thinking it was probably the same front end issue we are always kind of dealing with, but Doc thought what I was feeling was coming from the back end. This was actually good news because we know Eros is overdue for some maintenance. His flexions went as expected give Doc's hypothesis, so we went ahead with hock injections and did his stifles as well. He got to have the weekend off with some cold hosing and hand walking. 

He also got his mane pulled, but it's still ridiculous. Ha. Maybe we'll do more next weekend. Anyway, I got him yesterday with a little ace (because perfect Eros is effing wild lately). He started out kind of the same, but actually felt better and better as we rode. So hopefully we're moving in the right direction. We'll see what I have a tonight. 

Shiny is where things get interesting. Her vet visit had two objectives. First was the easy one, have that check ligament looked at. Doc said whatever was going on with it has resolved and he couldn't find anything to be concerned about there. Phew. Good news. The second part was to see if we could figure out the tripping. We've run bloodwork for Lyme and EPM and both came back with low exposures. So very likely not the culprit. We decided this time to investigate the neck. And we found some interesting things. First, she has a disc problem up near her head. There is a narrowing in one of the spaces which does not change based on movement. It's very abnormal according to Doc, but there's not really anything we can do about because of it's location. He's not sure if it's really a problem for her or not. But it's something to keep in mind. The next finding was that there is some impingement around the middle of her neck. This does bother her and definitely shows up when you ask her to bend around. Since she's young, I wanted to explore options before injecting her with steroids. So we did ProStride instead. This is my first time trying it, it uses the horse's own blood, a PRP type therapy. Interesting. Since you can't rest a neck, she was able to work lightly all weekend. Necks can take up to a couple weeks to show improvement with injections, so I'm not sure yet if it will help or not. So far there is no change, but I'm hopeful. Because you have to be. 
Doc was also surprised by Shiny's attitude under saddle. She's been incredibly resistant, inconsistent in the contact (if she'll give it at all), and for a few days last week refused to canter entirely. Doc does not think all of this is from the neck issues. (The contact maybe, but not so much the other stuff.) He is concerned about her weight (she's put on lbs at the boarding barn, they have really rich hay) and thinks she's likely experiencing some insulin resistance. She did well on my less rich hay, but to keep things less confusing we're first going to try soaking the hay they have at the barn. If that doesn't prove helpful, I'll just bring my own hay over. Doc pulled blood to check her levels so we'll see what he finds. I'm not sure how I feel about all this, but it is what we have. So we just take it from here. This pony was bought to keep Rio company, and she did that job. So anything else I get to do with her is just icing on the cake. And if she's limited in what she can do, that's okay. She'll get whatever she needs. HOPEFULLY, all this is just manageable stuff and she'll be able to jump around and continue being super fun. One day at a time!

So that's where we are! Plugging along, doing what we can do. Have any of you dealt with neck stuff? Any advice? I'm thinking I'll try putting the back on track on her before we ride and see if that makes any difference. How was your week/weekend?

Truthful Tuesday: The One with the Breeches

 

So I've been plugging away reclaiming my laundry room from the piles of everything that had taken it over. It's going to be a bit ongoing I think until I have the time to go through literally all of my clothing, but I'm making good progress. This room has goldenrod Formica countertops and shelves, and they are... straight up 70's chic. Since it's just a laundry room though, I don't want to spend money renovating in there. So I'm embracing the goldenrod. In fact, I found some storage cabinets (lockers actually) that match almost exactly. 

Impressive, huh? Who knew they still produced anything in that color. Once this project is finally complete I'll share the whole room with you guys. But for now, let's talk about today's confession... It's breeches. You guys. I have so many. I even filled a bag with ones to sell/donate. But still. SO MANY BREECHES. Here. I'll show you:

And full disclosure... there are probably 3-4 pair not shown between the dirty laundry and the pair I have on. How many are there? I'm not sure. I didn't count. I didn't want to know. Clearly, there's a lot. I have them sorted in a fairly sensical manner though:

Top Row:

show breeches on the left, next are mid weight random brands, then all the ones that are kind of outfit specific (neons, prints, etc), then on the right are the summer weight breeches.

Middle Row:

Tailored sportsman and RJ Classics in the first pile, second is Romfh, Ariat, and Horze, third is mostly Hadley and Pipers, but a few Dover, and the last pile is all Dover.
Bottom Row: Winter weight and Corduroy

And yes, I have a stool handy for easy access to all breeches. Anyway, if you guys hear me mention anything about new breeches, can you please text this photo to me. There isn't room for any more. NO MORE BREECHES. I mean... unless it's a color I don't have. OR if I replace a pair with a new one. That would be allowed... 

Thursday's Threads

 Outfit Day! It's a short one today, just a riding outfit to share. The horses didn't dress to match this time.

I've been cleaning out the laundry room and some closets and I've discovered all kinds of treasures. Including these tops that still had tags on them...

Helmet: One K CCS MIPS

Went with the green inserts to match my outfit.

Top and Vest: Le Mieux

I got these at the end of last season on sale and proceeded to tuck them away and forget all about them. Glad I discovered them now so I can actually wear them. I'm not always into orange, but I like just a little with the olive.

Belt: Mane Jane

I wish I had thought to wear my orange ostrich strap! It would have looked fab with this outfit... but alas, I didn't think of it. Next time! Instead I went with this olive strap. Also a good choice!

Breeches: Horseware

I wore regular breeches the other day instead of corduroy... and boy are these a lot warmer! 

Boots: Tredstep

Not silly enough to wear any other boots this time of year though! Seriously. I love these. So very much. I've occasionally toyed with the idea of sheepskin lined Celeris boots... but I think I'm sticking with these.

That's it for today! Any favorites? What have you been wearing to ride?