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I can only assume that the Apocalypse is coming.

Because I had a dressage lesson on Tuesday night.

And I didn’t hate it.

In fact… it was almost… enjoyable.

Well not quite THAT enjoyable, but still… I didn’t hate it, and that scares me. A lot.

Also, I officially joined USEA. It’s happening.

I’ve had the chance to use the PS of Sweden bridle a bit more this week and I’m really digging it. I’ve finally gotten everything adjusted and configured exactly how I want it. The noseband snap already has me ruined for life… I keep trying to snap the nosebands on my other bridles now and feel sorely disappointed when I realize they don’t have one. However, I’m already really tired of having to switch my bit back and forth between bridles so if you have a Nathe or HS Duo bit for sale let me know!

 

I have made zero progress on 2pointober. I haven’t even worked on it, aside from our usual conditioning rides which I mostly do in 2point anyway. Is there an award for Least Improved? I might even backslide off my baseline time considering I’ll be out of town the whole last week of the month…

Yay for blog hops! This time Hand Gallop asked: What’s the origin of your horse’s show name and barn name?

Even though I don’t talk about Sadie much here since she’s leased out, I’ll cover both ponies.

I bred Sadie myself, so I picked her names from the beginning. Her sire is the stallion Westporte so I knew I wanted something with West. The finalists were Westbound and West Hollywood but I really prefer one word names, so Westbound won out. For a barn name I picked out a few, depending on sex. If it was a colt it was going to be Bodie, no questions asked. If it was a filly it was either going to be Stella or Sadie. I picked Bodie because it’s a gold-mining ghost town in Cali and you can’t get more “western” that that. Stella was a character from the series Rough Rider Weekly, and Sadie was the nickname of Wyatt Earp’s wife. Obviously I had way too much time to think about names while I was waiting for her to be born. Once she was here Stella didn’t really seem to fit her, so Sadie it was.

Henry was a little trickier. His registered name is He’salmostsweet, because he was born the day before Valentine’s Day. When I bought him his barn name was Jerry. I have nothing against all the Jerry’s in the world but I just don’t think it’s a good name for a horse, so for the first day or so his name was NotJerry. I thought there was something about his eyes that made him seem like a sweet old soul, so I looked through old fashioned men’s names and really liked Henry. I was going to tie that into a show name of Fairlane (like Henry Ford, Ford Fairlane… SO is a big classic car nut) but there were so many crazy circumstances that fell into place juuuust right when I bought him that Happenstance seemed more appropriate. It’s a more popular name but it fits the whole situation so well I just couldn’t pass it up.

Yeah, I know… I’m crazy. But sometimes it works out.

I’ve had my Mondoni Kingston boots for a while now, and I’ve been abusing the heck out of them. They were kind of a medium brown color to start with

But as they’ve worn they’ve faded a little in some spots, and my super powerful Texas-fueled sweat had left a slightly darker coloration in other spots. They looked great right after I polished them, but with the way I abuse boots they wouldn’t look great for long. So I decided to dye them a dark brown, hoping that would a) even the color back out a bit, and b) make them a little easier to keep looking nice.

Supplies:

Fiebing’s leather die (I used Chocolate)
Gloves
wool dauber
polish

I have some Resolene coming that I will use as a top finish, but I haven’t done that yet and you really don’t HAVE to do it if you don’t want to. It just acts as a nice water resistant top coat.

If your boots have a top coat or thick finish, you probably want to use deglazer on them first. Mine did not, so I skipped that part. Instead i just wiped them down with a rag that had a little bit of Dawn dish soap on it, then a plain wet rag to clean off any residue. Then I let them dry thoroughly (I put mine in front a space heater because I’m impatient).

After that I went to work. There’s really no technique or science to this… you just basically paint them with dye. I did two coats just to help cover everything more evenly. Yes, I still managed to get dye all over myself despite the gloves. Luckily it washes off pretty well with soap and water if you do it immediately.

Then I let them dry again, put a light coat of polish on top, and voila! Chocolate brown boots.

Before:

 

After:

 

This was so much easier than I imagined it to be in my head, and really gave new life to my boots. I’m super happy with the color too!

I noticed this weekend that my dressage saddle could really use a touch up… it’s got some rubs and scrapes on the front of the flaps and cantle that just aren’t really improved with conditioner. So I bought some black dye and will tackle that next. That one will probably require deglazer and will definitely require Resolene, so it’s a bit more of a project, but I’m curious (and brazen) enough to try it out.

Now I keep looking around for more things to dye. I’ve got most of a bottle of chocolate dye left!

I figure it’s probably time to upgrade from my 15 year old brushing boots. After much internet research I think I’m down to the Majyk Boyd Martin boots or the Premier Equine boots.

http://www.ridingwarehouse.com/Majyk_Equipe_Boyd_Martin_Cross-Country_Hind_Boots/descpage-MBMH.html

https://www.smartpakequine.com/premier-equine-air-cooled-boots-9026p

 

Input on either? Is there another brand I should give a serious look at? Would like to stay under $200 for the full set. Horse is pretty typical medium TB build, if anything his cannons are a bit on the shorter side.

First: GUESS WHAT FINALLY CAME YESTERDAY?!?!?

More about that next week. For now, on to the blog hop.

Blog Shoes and Boat Shoes asked: What are some quirks, naughty or nice, that your horse has and do you love or hate them?

Everyone knows that my horse is a weirdo. Eccentric doesn’t really begin to cover it. He’s never really particularly naughty (although he isn’t shy to express his opinion, so if he’s bored he’ll paw a little or if you’ve done something to irritate him he might pretend nip at you) but he’s an oddball. He’s plays with his tongue/mouth obsessively, pretty much all the time.

Henryxties from amanda chance on Vimeo.

He’s not a very touchy feel lovey dovey type of horse, but he is highly food motivated. Give him plenty of treats and you’re golden. No treats and he’s a little bit like a grumpy old school horse. I don’t mind any of that, I just keep the treats flowing. Love via bribery is still love.

Otherwise he’s just your typical sensitive horse. Treat him fairly and he’s perfect. Treat him unfairly and he will certainly tell you how he feels about that. Hmmm… that actually makes him sound like a mare… 😉