Author: Amanda C

Remember when I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was coveting a tent for my new truck? Guess what SO surprised me with last weekend?

Of all the things I ever thought I’d get ridiculously excited over, a tent isn’t really one of them, but I love this thing. Mostly because I’m both cheap and poor, so any alternative to paying for a hotel room at horse shows is welcome.

I have a 6.5 foot truck bed, and the tent goes all the way to the end of the tailgate, making it about 8′ long total. Plenty of sleeping space. It’s about 5′ tall on the inside, so while I can’t stand all the way up, I can stand up well enough to get dressed. There are also cool storage compartments and a shelf inside of the tent for lights and stuff. It took a little bit of trial and error to figure out the best way to put it up, but it’s really pretty simple once I got it. It’ll be harder to do with one person of course, but do-able. It was SUPER easy to take down and fold back into it’s carrying bag.

The SO also bought me the truck bed air mattress that blows up via a rechargeable battery pack that plugs into one end. It inflates/deflates on it’s own and is a regular queen size bed. Fancy. And mesmerizing to watch.

I’m not sure when I’ll actually get the chance to use it for the first time… my spring show season is going to be pretty sparse since I’m saving up for Coconino. BUT – Bobby did get to use his this past weekend. Yes, he bought one too. Because he’s a copy cat in every way, shape, and form. Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery though right? Figures, he’s obsessed with me.

His truck is smaller and his bed is shorter but with the tailgate down it still gave him enough sleeping room. He said it was awesome! We’re totally glamping now. I can’t wait to make a little tent city at shows.

Next step: This.

 

I feel like I spent most of last year complaining about the weather. In my defense, it wasn’t just my imagination- it was our wettest year ever on record. Although the wet weather pattern was predicted to continue through winter, so far this January has been nothing short of awesome. Thank you Texas, because I was about to lose my damn mind.

That’s not to say that we’re dry… we’ve been so saturated with rain that I’m pretty sure we will never be truly dry ever again, but at least we’ve been able to ride for more than a couple days at a time. It’s glorious.

You can even ride in shorts, if you’re Bobby.

Last week I stole my neighbor’s Christmas tree so that I could take it to the barn and use it as jump filler. Henry was not impressed in the least (are you jealous of his ability to take off and land at the same time? mad skills.) but I’m totally down with the fact that I’m jumping a Christmas tree in January in a tank top.

Someone remind me of this next month when it starts raining again.

You know when you’re like “I finally have a semi-free weekend, I’m gonna do all the things!” and next thing you know you’ve massively overcommitted?  Oops.

Originally my trailer was supposed to go to the painter on Saturday but the guy flaked out, thus I found myself at the barn early on Saturday morning with nothing to do. So I started WD-40ing every nook and cranny of the trailer, then organized her, cut off some screw ends leftover from the roof repair, siliconed lots of stuff, took a wire brush and got all the flaking paint and general funk off the inside, then pulled up the mats and swept it all out. I originally wasn’t going to repaint the inside but now I’m thinking I will after all, since she looks a lot better after a thorough de-flaking.

I started trying to figure out how I was going to hang the new wall mats and pads that I bought, but luckily the barn owner took pity on me at that point and said he’d do it. He’s the best. Or he just doesn’t want me to break things. Probably both.

After the trailer TLC I took my CWD home so I could dye it. Doing a brown saddle was definitely a slightly different experience than the black dressage saddle, but I’m pretty thrilled with how it came out.

 

If anyone wants another step-by-step tutorial I can do a version 2.0 for a brown saddle but I kinda felt like I’ve exhausted this subject a bit already. If there’s enough interest I could be persuaded, so if you want more detailed info let me know.

On the way home from the barn on Saturday I stopped at Hobby Lobby to see if I could get ideas on what to use to bling my own spur straps. I LOVE the straps that came with my Signature Spurs so I don’t want to buy other ones, and I thought I could try my hand at DIYing these to make them fancier instead of paying $30 for someone else to do it. Luckily I stumbled upon exactly the right thing on a clearance rack, and for $3 I transformed plain into fancy. Plus they’re fully removeable if I ever want to just take them off.

On Sunday I was up early to drive out and watch Bobby in his first Training CT (he kicked ass, naturally) and then volunteer, but when I got home I finished the saddle. She’s so much prettier!

I wish I’d done this years ago, but I think I’m a little DIY’d out for a while.

Now that the actual hauling of the trailer seems imminent, I’ve started to look into “extras”. I’m getting new tires for the trailer on Saturday, have gotten several quotes for trailer painting, and just have a little bit of finishing work left on the inside before she’s truly road ready.

Being that this is an older trailer, I’m a little bit extra paranoid about the possibility of things going wrong while hauling. I know several friends that have USRider, so when an email popped into my inbox the other day with a “New Year Offer” to waive the activation fee, I started looking into a bit more.

From what I’ve researched online, the reviews seem to be a bit of a mixed bag. Some have used them several times with no problems, others have been left stranded on the side of the road all day waiting for help. Of course, USRider really has the market cornered. Even AAA will not tow your trailer with your horses in it, so good luck to you if you get stuck somewhere while actually hauling a horse.

While USRider isn’t really expensive ($139 annually, plus the $29 activation fee which is waived until 1/19), it isn’t super cheap for someone that’s on a tight budget right now either. I will say, I like that you get discounts to tack shops, car rental places, hotels, etc. That could potentially “pay me back” a little bit for the membership.

The real question is… is it worth it?

Obviously re-dying a saddle is probably the biggest and scariest project I can imagine, but I have become emboldened by it’s success and am now working my way through the rest of my tack. I bought my girth used on ETT for $25 about a year and a half ago, and it’s always looked a little janky at the top on each side where the color has been rubbed away.

I’ve never really cared that much about the color, but it finally occurred to me while I was tacking up one day that I could actually fix this myself now!

Dyeing the girth was significantly easier than dyeing my saddle. First of all, the leather wasn’t coated so there was no need to deglaze. I just rubbed it down with a wet rag to clean it off, slapped on a coat of dye with a rag, rubbed it in, waited a minute, slapped on another coat of dye, rubbed that in, and voila – even color.

I opted for Tan-Kote as a top finish for this piece and did a very light coat of that, rubbing in quick circles. Start to finish it took me all of 15 minutes to do this and $0, since I already had all the supplies. Now my girth is back to beautiful again! It looks better than when I bought it.

Seriously considering dyeing my CWD this chocolate color. Poor saddle is pretty unevenly colored and its always been very reddish, which is now fading with age to look kind of orange and gross. I mean… why not, right? I’d basically be dyeing the whole thing to match the darkest parts in the middle.

In case anyone is wondering how the Childeric’s dye job is holding up, it still looks gorgeous. I never had a single bit of dye leech, no bleeding on my breeches, etc even in the rain. Still super happy with how it turned out!