I always keep photos in my phone so I remember to circle back or mention stuff in blog posts, and then sometimes that never actually happens. I have no way of even going back now and making it cohesive so we’re just gonna dump all this stuff from the past couple weeks into one post with some mini-updates and call it done.

First, all the Black Friday stuff has arrived. I don’t have full opinions on everything yet – I haven’t even used everything yet – but it’s all accounted for at least, even the overseas stuff. I’ve worn the sunshirts from Urban Stride, definitely a good buy. They’re a great weight and really cute. I love the sleeve detail.

I’ve also worn the Pomme breeches, which I definitely like, but don’t quite love as much as my Quur. I don’t love anything as much as those right now. The Pomme have a nice higher rise, and I think they’re fairly flattering, but just a couple fit tweaks would make them better for me personally (more booty space, less knee space). They’re comfy though, and I’ll definitely wear them. I think the styling of them is really cute too.

I think my favorite detail is how the knee patch is little silver silicone letters of their brand name.

I also got the ROM breastplate which just came a couple days ago. The shape of it isn’t quite right to the horse’s anatomy, it’s a bit too square in the collar, but it still sat fine enough on Grace. We’ll see if maybe it improves a bit as it breaks in. Likely I’ll probably use this one at home and save my custom one for special occasions. I do like that the ROM comes with a girth strap and running attachment, so you can just put that on to use a running with it rather than having to use a different breastplate entirely.

The other big thing was Henry’s nebulizer, which I have yet to even take out of the packaging. This isn’t the time of year when he needs it, and my brain just cannot handle having to think too hard about this right now. We’ll play with it in a few months when the weather gets hot again and I (maybe) have more brain capacity.

Speaking of weather, Texas has been doing it’s usual Drunk December thing. For the most part it’s been warmer than usual (it’s been… really nice actually? which just makes me nervous, I don’t trust it…) but last weekend it went a bit off the rails for precisely 24 hours.

It’s the kind of forecast I think every horse person fears the most, going from 85 to 30 and then back to 80 in a short period of time. I soaked everyone’s dinner and added extra salt to make sure everyone stayed hydrated. Quinnie said I ruined her meals and thus her entire life and called me some rude names. Henry and Grace both seemed to like their mushy meals, slurping it all up and licking their bowls clean. We all escaped the weather swing in one piece, at least.

Well, ok, the human was cold. I think I’m still traumatized from the Snowpocalypse in February, I am NOT A FAN. I put on a lot of layers, including my ski pants, and my hands were still so cold they hurt. I might bitch a lot about the heat, but at least it doesn’t make my hands hurt. Cold is the worst.

Other than that one day it’s been pretty warm and humid though, so… I guess I can’t complain too much yet. I’m glad I clipped the horses last week because they were both getting sweaty even just in turnout, and Henry especially had a ton of hair.

Grace was definitely the better behaved of the two, Henry is just so dramatic that he’s twitching before you even touch him with the clippers. Plus I was really having to play musical clipper blades because the 10W I got SUCKED, I forgot how bad the finish is on the Oster blades, so I was having to use the last bit of sharpness in all my old T-10’s. The current T-10 shortage is a real problem. I was able to use my new blade sharpening kit (remember that silly black friday purchase? It actually WORKED. It was a PITA, but it did work) to bring a couple of them back to life well enough to get both horses clipped.

I mean, did I make my hands bleed in two places while trying to sharpen the blades? Maybe. Minor details. It worked out in the end.

As for Presto, he’s been granted turnout access again, which he immediately seized the opportunity to be his naughty, trouble-making self.

Luckily he didn’t run around or anything, thank goodness, but he did free himself and a bunch of other horses so quietly that the people in the barn didn’t realize what was happening until he’d accrued his own little herd. Typical.