WW: TC's Horrible Outfit

Well, almost wordless Wednesday. 

I realized that I needed new schooling saddle pads late last year when my last "good" one started showing some serious wear. I started looking to get some schooling pads but couldn't find anything I liked in the size I wanted so I kind of gave up. 

But then a girl at one of the barns I teach at put a couple of pads up for sale that she made and I was IN LOVE so I bought one and then picked the other one up for Kate. My pad has watermelons on it. It fits my saddle perfectly and it's adorable! I'm definitely letting the seller know that if she takes custom orders, I want like eight more pads. They're super well made! 

Is it not the cutest thing in the world?!

In my search though, I found my way over to Punk Ponies and while I couldn't find a pad I wanted to, I did find some horrendous holo boots. I just had to have them. I got them with the black fluff so that they'd really stand out on my gray horse. TC honestly looks really good in them, I was impressed. 

He doesn't think he looks all that good

I obviously rode in both (I got the pad on Monday and the boots on Tuesday lol) and I think TC is glad that it's a private property because no one had to see him. 

So, it looks like a nine year old got ahold of my credit card and dressed my horse for me but I just love it. 

He got to go out on pasture
after this so he probably
forgave me???

Eponia Frost

So fifteen and a half years ago, I was working at a tack store, like you do when you're a teenager and you ride horses, right? And I pretty much spent everything I made at the tack store... at the tack store, again like you do.

I was riding Larkin at the time in a very ugly bridle I'd dubbed the "trash bridle" because I literally found it covered in this green goopy stuff in the trash. I cleaned it (obviously) and rode in it. It even went to (and passed) a pony club rating!

Working at the tack store, I got to see nicer tack than my very cheap dressage saddle (that I'd likely get launched out of now given that it had no blocks and the seat was horrifically uncomfortable) and my trash bridle. It's one thing to see a nice bridle in a picture and it's quite another to put those bridles on a display and feel the quality of the leather.

The Vespucci

I fell in love with a Vespucci dressage bridle, so I saved my pennies and bought it with my employee discount. I took excellent care of it and it lasted me, well, fifteen and a half years.

I was looking at it the other day and realized that this thing was on its last legs. I mean, I already knew that. I'd gone through several sets of reins already. The noseband broke so I had swapped it out for my double noseband (which was newer at... ten years old). The crown piece had been chewed on by my trainer at the time's young horse (who she had.. nevermind, it's not worth it, but like, of all places to tie your horse, woman).

In all this time, it had looked ragged but not unsafe. Now it looked unsafe, the stitching was coming apart, it seemed to be disintegrating at some of the stress points. And on Rico, who cares, right? I can stop him even without a bridle. TC though, with TC I want a very strong, sturdy bridle that is 110% not going to break if I have to stop him quickly.

Bridle not necessary on the best horse

I'd already talked about buying a new bridle for several years and I finally had a good enough reason to bite the bullet and buy one. The timing worked out perfectly as I got a retro from my old job into my bank account last month. I did the adult thing and put the money in retirement and in savings, save for money for a bridle.

I knew exactly what I wanted because I had already looked at Austen's Eponia Gatsby and Peony's Eponia Whatever (not sure which one she had, I think the same one as I got). I opted for the Eponia Frost. It's the same as the Gatsby but with a different browband.

New bridle! 

See what I mean about the noseband? He has
a really thick nose I guess

So far I really like it! I'm not sure if it will last fifteen years like my last one will, but the leather feels really good and it fits TC very well given that his face is a bit weird. I think I want to eventually shift the crown piece back a bit on the noseband. We'll see.

I don't hate the browband even though I am extremely partial to v browbands and wanted to immediately change it. It does look really good on him!

This is my first big tack purchase in about ten years (when I bought my double), and I'm super excited about it!

Introducing the Double Bridle

With TC moving up to Second level this fall-ish, I figured that it was time to introduce the double bridle.

I've put in a lot of time thinking about the double bridle with him, whether it was even worth introducing to him with him being such a funny guy in the contact. In the end I decided that it was worth trying to eventually get him in it just because I think that selling a 3rd+ horse who can't be ridden in the double is just asking for some idiot to slap one on him and get flipped over on top of.

My plan then, is to take a long time to introduce him to it. Let him walk in it for 6-12 months, then do light hack rides just on the bradoon rein, then slowly pick up the curb rein after another 6 months, possibly longer.

He was a bit skeptical

So last week, I decided that on our "trail ride" day where we just wander around the ranch, I'd put the double on him.

I sold Rico's wheymouth to a client, so the only one I have is a medium port. This proved to be too much for Rico and I don't think it will be TC's eventual bit, but it's what I have right now. The bradoon is the one I used on Rico, a french link. Both bits are stainless steel.

In a perfect world, I'd want TC's bradoon to be the same as his snaffle, a KK ultra from Herm Sprenger, and his wheymouth to be Rico's old one, a mullen mouth curb. The problem is that the metals need to match, so I need to get a wheymouth from Herm Sprenger too. Hahaha. Those bits combnied will cost me probably $500. Worth it if I think he'll let me ride him in them. Not worth it if he'll rear if I ever touch the curb rein.

So for now he's in Rico's bits and will just be carrying them. I may see about borrowing some bits from my trainer to experiment with them, but for now I honestly have no idea how he'll respond to anything because it will be next summer before I even try to ride him in them for real!

Visiting the neighbor cows

On Thursday morning I hung both bridles up next to each other and adjusted the double bits to hang right where the snaffle bit does. That way I wasn't going to accidentally choke him with Rico's arrangement (actually I think it's been on several client horses since Rico I think... can't remember). I put the bridle on TC and he took the bits well, though immediately began messing with the wheymouth, which is normal.

I want the wheymouth up a about a half hole, but need to punch a hole. Lower is okay since it didn't hit his teeth or anything, and I obviously wasn't going to touch the reins. For now, he just needs to carry it.

He did a really good job with it though, we walked around the whole property before I took him back home. A great light day (I'm trying to give him more days of just walking since his workload when we do work has increased) and a really good first ride in the double. He'll probably start doing basic wtc rides in it next year and maybe we'll be showing in it in 2020! Or not, it's up to him.

Exceeding Expectations

I'm happy to report that the baby horse stepped of the trailer yesterday at his new home and I was SO glad to see him.  

Making friends! 

Hi pony!

TC was scheduled to come in around 8 so I was planning on leaving the house at 7. I get a text at 6:30 moving the time to 7:30 so I quickly zipped over to the barn, only to get a call as I was turning onto the road the barn was on saying that they were there, damn! Apparently to get to the barn by 7:15, their day started at 3:30. I'm glad that's not my job. They had five other horses going to the vet hospital about 1-2 hours south of the barn and their appointment was at 9 or 9:30. So we got an early start and I was glad for that.

TC unloaded super well and then spooked hard. The owner of the rehab center led him into his stall for me. He really didn't do much other than spook a few times and passage next to us when two horses went nuts in their paddocks right next to him. I thought that was pretty good!

Oooo a friend

So glad to have this face home

Once as the trailer left, I hung out with TC in his stall. He seemed super stoked about having a paddock, though didn't think much of his water trough. He lapped the water like a dog (wtf) and kept dragging his lips over the wire. His neighbor on one side (the other side is empty) is another young baby horse also there for brain installation so they reached over to touch noses. I like these stalls because the horses can reach out to touch noses but can't play very easily over the railing.

TC seemed SUPER happy to be there, but not all that interested in me at first. Oh well. I gave him some cookies and made sure he got food for breakfast.

After making sure he'd be okay, I ran some errands. I had thought I sent him with a pan for his food, but they didn't give me one and I also thought that he still had a salt lick, so both were picked up at the tack store up the road. I also got myself some breakfast since I had run out of the house that morning.

Weird

No more pawing his food!

Back at the barn, it was nice and warm. I hadn't wanted to try anything with him until the fog burned off, setting ourselves up for success, you know.  My goal for the day was to keep absolutely no pressure on either of us. If we sat in the stall all day, we sat in the stall all day.

So we started in the stall with some work on the ground. He was super good and seemed so happy to have something to do. The horse loves to be told what he should do.

I grabbed my groundwork weapon stick, his sports medicine boots, and the rope halter and cautiously led him over to the cross ties. He was fine. He snorted at a trash can so we looked at that for a second, but it was generally uneventful.

Finally got the fly mask on

We spent a while in the cross ties, which he hasn't been in since December. I was answering the phone a lot, talking to recruiters, clients, and my mom, who wanted to know what was going on. TC would very carefully paw whenever I wasn't paying attention to him. When I was paying attention to him, he looked at me the way Tormund looked at Brienne. I felt like his pet, or maybe his own personal entertainer. He was so excited to have me doing anything with him, even pulling the shit out of his mane.

I mostly used the solo comb (and wore out the blade), but did thin it a bit with the pulling comb. He was fine but I didn't want to push it. I got it short enough but over the week and weekend I'll be trying to thin it out a bit more. It's so poofy!

He was super good about a few things that he used to be terrible about. First, he doesn't yank his feet out of your hands anymore. Woohoo! Second, he seems a LOT less attached to other horses. I think 7.5 months in a box stall where he had no direct contact with other horses did that. He only whinnied at another horse twice and didn't care about horses coming near him and then walking away. Third, he doesn't paw nearly as much as he used to. He still does, but it's not the crazy pounding it once was. Apparently he also doesn't paw in the trailer anymore since he had to be on it all day whenever he had a vet check. Progress!!

Before

After!

After getting his mane under control, we went on a walk. My goal was just to go as far as we could without being stupid, then turn around and come back to the cross ties. If that's all we did, great.

We wandered out toward the round pen first since he had been ridden in there a lot the last time he was at the barn and he had already been led by it on the way in from the trailer. He was fine. He wanted to walk on top of me and did spook hard at nothing once, but other than that it was no problem. Once as we did some ground work though, both of those behaviors stopped. He was fine walking out to the round pen, so we did some work in there. Just turns on the forehand and reining back. He is SO good at his ground work and so in tune with me. I just love it.

After being in there for about five minutes, we wandered back to the cross ties and then out to the covered arena. I really want that to be a safe place for him and it was completely open so we headed in. We did more ground work and looked at the mirrors. He was totally fine. I had a moment where a car passed us and I wondered if he was going to lose it. Not sure why he would, but still. I just put him to work and it was fine. I gotta trust him a bit more!

He's so cute!

Cones are fun!

We went back to the cross ties and he stood with one foot rested, just watching everything. He was so good in hand that I decided to keep going! I went out to the tack locker and got his saddle and bridle. I also grabbed longeing and riding stuff just in case. No pressure, but I wanted to be prepared.

The saddle surprisingly fits him quite well! I'm not sure if we'll even need to have the fitter do much to it. I played around with the balance, I'd rather it toss me in the back seat than the front. The bridle obviously still fits, and I got to put his bridle tag on it! He accepted the bit easily and I kicked myself for forgetting sugar. He got a cookie instead. No need to worry about him.

He stood there fine while I was messing with him. I banged the stirrups around on him and fixed the pad. With him being so good, I put side reins on the saddle, grabbed a longe line and my helmet/back brace and off we went to the round pen!

Tack fits!

Once again I just wanted to see what he did. If we just walked in a circle, great! If we actually longed, even better! Side note here: I was super proud of myself for putting zero pressure on us, that's very unlike me.

We started by leading around the outside of the round pen doing ground work because someone was riding inside. When they left, we did some ground work inside the round pen too. Longeing went well, I had him walk for a while, working on the whoa aid since I want him to think that we do a lot of stopping and turning in on the longe line just in case.

He was totally fine so I asked him to trot. And he exploded. But only a little. He mostly really wanted to put his head on the ground and shake it. Then he'd just porpoise. I sort of made a bad decision at that point. If he hadn't been on rehab I would have smacked him forward, but I halted him. Then we tried again. He got better and better with each transition and was eventually fine trotting each way. But looking back I probably should have just pushed him forward, he was just excited.

I put his outside side rein on and he was even better! The inside one came on shortly after and we did a lot more trotting in each direction. Only once did we have head shaking and bronc bucking but I sent him forward that time and it was much better. I'm so worried both on him and off that if I send him forward, things will get worse, but with the side reins giving him a place to go, it got so much better.

A little lazy but so fancy

If he was any more over his back he'd be a fucking beach ball

Just a bit of sass

After trotting I just really really wanted to sit on him. But I knew better. Hah. No I didn't. So I put my stirrups up (forgetting that Emma was the last one to sit in the saddle and we had to raise them a couple holes woops) and brought him over to the mounting block.

He stood fine as I banged the stirrups around again, leaned over him, and shifted the saddle around a bit. I just wanted to make sure that none of that was going to result in a problem before I jumped on him. Nothing phased him. I got on. That was fine. He stood for me to take a behind the ears picture. And then off we were in walk.

My first thoughts were these:

OMG I AM RIDING MY PONY
Hmmm no one is here to scrape me off the ground
Is he going to kill me?
I guess not
Damn he's lazy
I should have worn spurs
I want my whip
Ugh he's over bending
Ugh I'm nagging with my leg
Damn these stirrups are short, need to fix them
Okay that's better
Probably shouldn't have dropped the reins when fixing them
Ugh he is SO LAZY 

The fact that those were my first thoughts shows you how good he was! He was super behind my leg, a bit short in the neck, and kept popping his shoulder, but there were absolutely no incidents. None. Even though a horse across the property (we could see them) was rearing in hand and the horses in turnout next to us were moving around. We did some figure-8s and I nagged him the whole time, trying to remember to sit in the back seat. Whatever. I can fix all that later.

I got annoyed that he was so lazy that I asked him to trot. He immediately threw his head down, shook it, and did one bronc buck before I stopped him. I asked again and he just shook his head and then trotted the world's smallest trot. I smacked him with the end of the reins (who the fuck am I?) and we got a half circle of trotting in before I decided not to push it anymore.

YESSSS

But the day was perfect. He walked quietly back to the cross ties, stood quietly while I sat on the mounting block posting on instagram, and stayed relaxed while I untacked him. He even went into the wash rack and got a little hose down. No pawing, no obnoxious behavior, barely a spook in him. Just quiet, relaxing, super fun baby horse!

I couldn't have asked for a better first day. Fingers crossed today goes well, it's our first lesson with BRH trainer and I'm hoping for me to get him more forward without bucks and maybe for him to pop on to walk the pony around the ranch a bit.

But we're in no hurry. So happy to have him back!!

Loves to Work

Thursday morning I got out to the barn a little later than planned and it was already hot. Yuck. Although he came up to me in the pasture pretty quickly and happily, I could tell that TC wasn't quite in the mood for work.

This may change as he gets older, but when TC doesn't want to do something, he's very subtle and not very passionate about it. He moves a little bit when the saddle is being put on. He resists bridling for a split second. He walks slightly slower to the arena. I could even be reading into it too much. He's never had a tantrum or a meltdown about work (or anything actually, the closest we've been was that one show at Woodside down the corridor of doom), he just has days where he says "actually I'd prefer not to work that much today" and I say "well you have to" and he's like "okay, I changed my mind then, work is fun!" Still though, I can kind of tell now when he isn't too enthused.

Forever hungry, also look what he's wearing!

We got into the arena and I thought we were going to have our first real meltdown because he dragged me to the center of the arena and stood still. Before I could get after him though, I felt him square up and get all ready for something. He was totally focused on me and seemed to be waiting for me to do something... something like a turn on the forehand, which we did a lot of the other day.

So we did them and it was clear that he was not being a brat, he just wanted to show me these things (now I'm probably anthropomorphising, but I don't care). He was so much better than he was a couple days ago, this horse loves to practice. He was easy in both directions until he got himself tied in a knot off the right leg. He just leans on the left shoulder so much that he loses a little bit of balance and then can't move his haunches over.

We did our leg yields too, they were good but slow off my aid. I think they'll be slow for a while, but the point is that he is doing them and allowing me to sit properly and use my weight/calf rather than contort my body and use my spur/heel.

This bridle his hideous but it was the only one
I had for now

Let me just say now that I love this hackamore! I've only ridden him in it once so I can't speak to the long term effects or how it is on the trail/in dire circumstances where I need breaks, but it's the perfect amount of leverage (almost none) for TC. TC actually went round in it! BUT I can't say that the hackamore necessarily was the cause of that, he was starting to go round in my makeshift side pull too and it could be that he's just learning.

I did find that I definitely have less breaks in this hackamore than I do in the snaffle bridle, but TC did scoot away from a dog at a pretty fast canter and I was able to stop him. However, he was already stopping by the time I noticed he was running away though so again, it could be him and not the hackamore.

I'm trying to be too much of an experimenter here- it worked really well and I'm happy with it. Highly recommended so far, the noseband is pretty soft (it's all synthetic) and for a sensitive horse, I'd probably recommend one of those fluffy/squishy padded things for the curb strap since it has no padding. The only major con right now is that it looks kind of stupid on him. I just am not used to having a big metal flower with an additional pedal on his face.

Such a weird flower bridle

Due to the helpful hackamore, we were able to actually work on the trot and canter. His trot feels good, he was kind of leaning on the right rein rather than the left, which was a welcome change, not sure if that was the hackamore or just where we're going in terms of connection. I had to dodge someone and we made a really nice square turn to the right, which was pretty amazing considering that I usually lose his left shoulder.

At the trot we worked on prompt transitions on the bit ("bit") and the difference between cutting across the arena (think 2-1 trot pattern without the shoulder-in or collection, or that Novice test, can't remember if it's A or B) and making circles at A and C (short court). The transitions were awesome, he figured out quickly that I wasn't going to let him trot with his mane in my face so started to come over his back int he upwards. The downwards are always pretty good, but I worked on doing them more off of my leg and using minimal rein.

Waiting for a dog to walk by

The canter was better than it's been all week having to ride bitless. He keeps going without me nagging (now to work on the trot- new trainer has her hands full) and feels pretty balanced both ways. I can't wait to get him back in the bigger neighbor arena.

After our ride, TC got his first fly mask! He is the weirdest horse, he doesn't seem to be bothered by flies at all. He won't shake his head or itch his face or swish his tail when they're around him. He never bites them off of him. But it makes me feel better for him to have a fly mask. It's like when a mom tells their kid "put your jacket on" and the kid is like "I'm not cold" and the mom says "well I am, put on your jacket." The flies bother me more than they bother him!

First fly mask ever!

Rico and I are officially going to the beach on Saturday (and then wine tasting on Sunday, but Rico isn't invited to that). I can't wait! One last big adventure with him before I move. I will try to get down on weekends sometimes to ride him, I'm going to miss him.

I actually considered finding someone to lease him up at the barn if I like it, but I feel like he'd prefer not to be plucked from his pasture and ridden at a low level. Plus, he was so expensive to maintain soundness-wise, that I don't know if it's fair to do that to him when he is so sound on pasture now. I would hate to put more wear on him and prevent him from living out his years sound just because I missed him. So Rico stays at my parents' ranch and I'll see him over Thanksgiving (probably before then).

Blog Hop: Bit of Luck

Hannah asked us about what bits we use and I'm always happy to jump on the blog hop train! Even though this post is super super boring because I don't use any cool bits.

I have a decent collection of bits and have used many bits in the past but I always find that bitting, in my personal experience, doesn't matter as much as my riding does. I mean I wouldn't put TC in some thin single jointed bit because he'd probably flip over, but I also don't think that the really expensive bits are all that they're cracked up to be. So when I was bringing Rico back into work and looking into bits, I decided that $200 was much better spent on two lessons with Tracey.

Because of this mentality, my bits are boring and cheap.

Rico has gone in many bits in my attempts at finding some magic cure for my poor riding. I've tried mylers, bouchers, rubber bits, happy mouths, loose rings, double joints, single joints, french links, Dr Bristols, and I have a couple of Sprenger bits (only one I paid full price for though). Most of them I found at tack sales or people gave me. I have a pretty decent bit collection.

This one I paid full price for because it's the one Rico was
going in when I bought him

For his snaffle bit over the last few years, I literally just look at what is currently on my snaffle bridle and go "eh, sure" and he goes in it. I tend to grab a thinner loose ring single joint if there's nothing on my snaffle bridle. I have a Sprenger version that I use sometimes, mostly because I paid a lot of money for it when I bought him and I think I should use it to get the cost-per-ride down. Other times it's just a normal stainless steel one. He literally goes the same in every single snaffle bit- he will try to lean and you say no, and it's a bit of a conversation before he lightens up. No bit has ever fixed that.

When I was piecing together his double, my rule was to keep my bits as cheap as possible. He goes in a french link loose ring bradoon and a mullen mouth weymouth. Both are stainless steel, both together cost me less than $75. There are some weymouths that cost over $200. No thanks! I didn't even want to TRY those weymouths just in case they actually were magic (they had BETTER be for that price tag, since two lessons with my trainer is magic).

Rico's bradoon

Rico's weymouth (which is now being borrowed by
a student, lucky Rico I don't have my double together)

TC goes in a fat KK knockoff (although I cleaned it the other day and it seems to BE an old KK because it has the letters KK on it but not in the normal spot and it doesn't have that arrow on the side). I got it for like ten dollars at a tack sale and then found out that it was too narrow for Rico. He fits a 5.25 and this bit seems to be a 5, and actually it's kind of almost too narrow for TC, the second it pinches him, he's going in something else. I've ridden TC in the equivalent stainless steel bit and don't find that there is much difference in how he goes.

TC's looks like this but a little fatter and not as shiny

I do find that he goes better when I ride better but I refuse to believe that's any kind of cause-and-effect type thing going on. We all know that correlation merely suggests causation.

Blog Hop: Everyday Tack Set Up

Woo I love blog hops! Thanks to Hand Gallop for the excellent hop, which led me to yet another really awesome blog.

My tack is boring. It's all very old or very used (most of it is both), which is a really nice thing when you're riding a four year old who is still learning that he can't rub my bridle all over wood posts or chew on my reins or fling himself against a fence while my saddle is on (!!!). So for this reason and because I'm not a fun eventer and only have one setup, I'll tell you what I'll be replacing a few key pieces with eventually. Like once as this idiot grows up and stops trying to destroy all my tack.

All tacked up this winter- he was so much scrawnier back then

Snaffle Bride: My bridle is a Vespucci snaffle bridle that I bought brand new in 2003. It's nasty. I condition and clean it regularly but there's only so much pretty that a 12 year old bridle that has been used/chewed on babies for years can look. The reins were destroyed years ago so the reins that are on it now are reins that my former boss gave me, these are being destroyed now too because TC grabs them all the time. I have another pair waiting (former boss threw like three pairs at me one day and said "I hate these" so I kept them).

Snaffle Bit: The bit I'm using on TC is a KK knockoff (it's thicker than a normal KK but the material looks similar) that I bought for like 10 dollars about ten years ago.

Bonus- Double Bridle: Obviously TC isn't in the double. I bought the double, which is a Passier, in 2009 and it has remained in good condition because NO ONE touches it but Rico and Rico doesn't destroy things anymore. I did have to replace the noseband because the one it came with was too thin- I think the noseband is an Otto Schumacher.

Bonus- Wheymouth Bit: My wheymouth is a stainless steel mullen mouth curb that I bought for $45. I refuse to have horses that require fancy bits.

Bonus- Bradoon Bit: My bradoon is a stainless steel loose ring french link. I think it was $20-30. I can't find the link to it!

Rico's pretty double bridle

Dressage Saddle: I love my saddle, it's a very old Custom saddlery monoflap saddle (I think a Versailles). It has been repaired 4 times in the last two years that I've had it. It has what I can only describe as bite marks on the cantle. And I'm in a constant battle with it to keep it from turning green. I paid $650 for it (including tax) and am never getting rid of it. TC has run it into several posts, has smashed it against a fence, and continuously grabs the billets and tries to pull it off of him.

Stirrup Leathers: I have no idea what kind of stirrup leathers I have. They are old and turning green as well. But they're even... well, even-ish.

Stirrups: I ride in normal fillis stirrups that I bought probably fifteen years ago at a used tack sale. I've used other stirrups in the past, but I never felt a difference so I ended up selling my Sprengers to a client and my MDC stirrups are on my jumping saddle just because they've always been on that saddle.

Dressage Pad: I have a few- black, white, the black one with the daisies, the tan striped one (currently being used by my cat as a bed, woops), and the new blue and cream one. My favorite pads are the Classics II by Toklat. My saddle is a 17" and very small, so it looks ridiculous with huge pads. I find that those are small enough.

My newest saddle pad

Half Pad: I only have the one half pad since I sold my old one to a student. It's a cheap insert pad. It cost me under $100. I had to cut up yoga mats to put in it because the foam inserts it came with didn't do shit.

Girth: I have an old Albion girth that came with my old Albion saddle and I've been using that on TC because it's too small for Rico. For Rico I use one of those Smartpak neoprene ones.

Boots: On TC I use my old Dover dressage boots left over from Rico. Bought in 2005. They're all ripped up and nasty but when the baby horse goes back and forth between kicking them off and chewing them off, I'd rather not have nice boots for him just yet.

Bonus- Rico's Boots: Rico has Premier Equine Cross Country boots that I ride in every time I ride him. I love these things. They're breathable and have a strike guard. Because obviously dressage horses need that. But he fell a couple of years ago and cut up his legs so I decided that I can never be too careful when my horse is THAT injury prone.

Dressage horses obviously need intense cross country boots for
fancy prancing... 

Over the next several years, especially as the baby horse grows out of his destroy-all-the-things phase, I want to replace some of my old nasty stuff. Here is what I have on my list!

Snaffle Bridle: I really need a new snaffle bridle if I want to show in a rated show. I'm currently in love with the Passier Apollo bridle. I still can't decide if I like the shiny leather noseband, and that awful Salvador Dali browband would be replaced by something else, but I do like it. I love thick nosebands and I want a padded crownpiece. At this point, I'm not using a flash on TC so I will have to make a decision on my next bridle whether to either have the flash removed or find one without a flash. I'm not opposed to putting a flash on him just for the look of it. And maybe one day he will need one.

Half Pad: I'd really like a thinline fleece half pad. My saddle will always be a bit too wide for TC just based on his conformation- he's just not a very wide horse. And I'm not planning on replacing my saddle any time soon (well, see below). I used one a while ago while I was jumping and I really liked it. Whatever I get needs to be pretty thick to make up for the slightly-too-wide tree.

Saddle: Eventually I will replace my old dying saddle. If I had my choice (I won't since I will try to go used again), I would get a Custom again. The seat is just so comfortable, it's like sitting on a cloud. I'm not sure which one, probably one of the Icons, I like the monoflaps. Not for any normal reason, I like that there is less leather to clean. And my current saddle will be Rico's saddle once again, which will be convenient when the horses are not so close to each other.  I guess if I replace the saddle, I'll have to replace the leathers. I have another pair of fillis irons though so no worries there! Except that I'm kind of in love with SB's blue irons.