I’m most definitely not a vegan. I could live without meat, no problem, and don’t generally eat that much of it, but the dairy… it gives me life. There is no point in living if I can’t have queso. The SO kinda sorta pretends/tries to be vegan (he’s watched waaaaaaay too many netflix documentaries if you ask me), but he like eggs, so he’s not particularly successful. Mostly he’s vegetarian, although he will absolutely 100% finish whatever I don’t eat, even if it’s meat. Still though, sometimes he comes home from Whole Foods with some type of godawful vegan cheese hoping it will be the holy grail, which is always 100% insulting to me as a turophile. And our relationship almost didn’t survive the vegan bacon that was actually coconut flakes.

But, if you want to be vegan, I fully support that. You do you, I do me. I totally understand the appeal of the lifestyle. I have a few friends that are vegan, and as long as you don’t preach to me about the evils of cheese, we’re totally good. I do wonder though… how do vegan equestrians go about finding equipment? There are a lot of animal-based products involved in riding, particularly leather and sheepskin/wool. For a long time your only real option was Wintec saddles, other plastic type materials for strapgoods, fake fleece, and rubber boots. Cringey.

Robert Dover released his Robert Squared line of “luxury” vegan bridles last year, although they were mega expensive at $500+. It was advertised to be eco-friendly as well as vegan, but there’s no mention of what material is actually used. The bridles no longer seem to be available on their website, and they appear to have switched to making vegan riding boots instead. Which, there are some really decent vegan riding boot options these days, with several brands now offering non-leather options, including Fabbri. What they’re actually made of seems to vary, but… definitely a hell of a lot better than those clunky old rubber nightmares or the really bad synthetics that would start to crack and peel after a few months.

It seems like more and more of the bigger brands are starting to respond to the demand from the vegan equestrian market as well, as more non-leather options become available. Just this week Devoucoux dropped news of a new vegan option for any of their existing saddle models, the GT Option, which is made of… cork?

I don’t think it’s what I would choose personally, I love my french leather, but I am admittedly super intrigued by this. I’ve not seen anything like it before. How does it wear? Do you have to do any special care for the cork? Does it “break in” the way leather does?

Ironically the handbag I wrote about last week, that I got from Outfoxed, also has cork accents. It looks identical (aside from color) to the material on the Devoucoux. This of course led me to grab and examine the cork on my bag more closely, trying to picture it on a saddle. I can actually kinda see it. It’s almost got the appearance and feel of grain leather, although is missing some of the natural tackiness of leather.

I haven’t seen a price listed for the GT option yet, but from comments on social media it doesn’t sound like it will be significantly (if at all) cheaper. And while I don’t want one, my curiousity is hella piqued. A cork saddle is a new one for me. It’s not something I’ve ever seen before on a product like that, and I’m dying to know how it feels and holds up over time, particularly parts like billets. I fell down a major rabbit hole googling cork vs leather to learn more about it.

What do you think of the cork saddle? Are there any vegan equestrians out there that are using some of these leather alternative options?

While part of the weekend was spent getting paint for my jumps and riding Henry, I also made some time to mess with Presto and do some stalking. I have made a bit of a hobby of seeking out and following all the Mighty Magic offspring I can find, especially in the US, (because I’m a creeper) and this weekend there were 3 showing at Pine Top, with 2 of them doing their first Advanced. One finished 3rd and one finished 5th.

It’s fun to see their videos on social media (do I follow several people just because they have MM’s? Maybe…) and go look at my dorky little nugget in the backyard. I wonder what Presto would think of his brethren and all those big jumps.

Last week I bought a $16 roll of extra heavy resistance band to play around with, and I figured that my best option for guinea pig was Presto. He’s level headed and relatively unflappable, and has had enough desensitization to where I’m pretty sure I could wrap him up entirely in a tarp and he wouldn’t bat an eye. If I’m gonna be messing with flapping straps and tightening things around a horse’s butt, I trust him to stay chill about it more than Henry (side note: this is the beauty of having one you’ve raised yourself).

I brought Presto in, brushed him, tacked him up, and then started messing with the roll. Naturally I dropped it, unrolling it entirely underneath him, accidentally left one end flapping in the breeze, got it stuck wound around one hind leg… it was 6 yards of chaos. But Presto just stood there, unfazed, while I sorted my shit out, got it cut to size, and figured out how I wanted to attach it. Gold star for the baby horse.

I just had him walk around me on the lunge line while I made adjustments until I was satisfied with it, then I asked him to trot a few circles each way. He was, all in all, relatively unimpressed with my ghetto invention. I’ve got a feeling Henry will have many more opinions about it when I make his, but luckily now I have a better plan of attack at least.

After I was done tinkering with the band, I untacked Presto and took him back out to the front corner of the property where you can kinda see the cows that he had a meltdown about last weekend. He sat there staring out into the distance for a couple minutes, but quickly lost interest. I’m starting to think Henry fed him some kind of horsey ghost story about evil Moo Demons and that’s where the sudden bovinophobia came from, but I don’t have any proof of those allegations.

And yes, he’s finally wearing the fancy navy leather halter I bought for him over a year ago. At first it was so big that the crown ended up sliding like halfway down his neck, even on the tightest holes. Just to get it on him this weekend I had to let it out a hole on each side. He looks cute in it though, even if you can’t really tell that it’s navy.

After we were done ogling the cows I put him back out with his friend, did a little bit of in-hand stuff with JB, and then went to clean the barn. As I was stuffing baling twine in a trash bag I had a stroke of genius (or maybe just a stroke) and had an idea for a new toy for Presto. I know that historically he’s been a fan of jugs, especially if they have a few rocks in the them for extra noise. And I know that he also loves holding onto ropes, since he puts every lead rope, crosstie, and lunge line in his mouth. I decided to try braiding the baling twine into a rope around the handle of the jug. It was literally a toy made of trash, plus a few pebbles for chaos.

But did he like it? Well… judge for yourself.

OF COURSE HE LIKED IT. He loves trash, he loves noise… there’s no world in which it was possible that he wouldn’t like it. He made a game out of dropping it over the fence and then pulling it back in. Naturally the other horses all hate it, although they generally find it less offensive than the ball.

I probably need to stop buying/making toys for the baby horse, this is a slippery slope. It’s just… far more entertaining than it should be.

First of all – thanks to everyone who weighed in last week about the idea of a monthly vlog for Presto. The results were overwhelmingly “yea” with 318 votes to the 10 “nay” votes. 97% of you have spoken. I’ve started outlining his first intro vlog, and I can already see that this is maybe more work than I thought. There’s just so much to say about him when it comes to summarizing his first 3 years! If there are any specific topics or questions you’d like to me to address in the first vlog, drop me a note. 

Aside from working on Presto’s vlog, it was a nice weekend around the farm. The weather has been doing this thing where it’s cold and wet during the week but nice on the weekends, which is frustrating from a horse-keeping perspective but definitely convenient otherwise. I got some stuff cleaned up and reorganized, and nabbed a couple more colors of Oops paint at Lowes (burgundy and gray – $1.25 each!). They’re small containers, but definitely enough to put stripes on poles. And last week at Walmart I found THE BEST STORAGE BIN EVER CREATED and it’s now holding a bunch of crap in my trailer. 

I mean how serendipitous is that? It’s got Presto’s motto on it and everything. If only it was navy it would be 100% perfect. Granted, if it was navy I probably would have bought like 10 of them. Living proof that I should not be left unattended in a Walmart ever. Just be glad I talked myself out of the unicorn lamp. For now. But I did also buy like a 50 gallon bag of sour gummies because I think that’s what you’re supposed to do at Walmart?

Aside from reorganizing and painting (and eating gummies) I also got lots of horse time in. Yesterday specifically was one of those days where I started messing with the first horse at 12:30 and next thing you knew it was 5:15. The famous equestrian “barn time” where 5 hours is actually only 1 hour. But I did get two good rides in on Henry this weekend. On Saturday we did flatwork, and he’s definitely feeling stronger and stronger pretty much every ride. He’s holding the counter canter pretty easily again now, and his canter squares are getting quite sharp again. He’s not quite as good in the contact as he had been last summer, we’re kind of having to re-cover some ground there (if only I could do all of his flatwork in his sidepull, we’d both be happy), but bit by bit he’s returning back to normal after his extended time off. 

On Sunday we did a short jump school, and things are really clicking again over fences too. He’s jumping well and being really rideable, and always hunting for the next jump. It’s really fun to be back in our element, and I think the time off really did him some good. He seems really happy to be back to work. And my eye is starting to return to normal too… which… it isn’t GREAT, but at least I can sort of see some kind of distance most of the time.

To help with that I’ve been cantering a lot of poles and doing my favorite “crazy eights” exercise. Basically you start at 1, and when you’re one stride out from the pole you say “one”, then 2, count down from two strides out, then 3, count down from 3 strides out. On and on up to eight, and going both directions. I usually just start at 3 and work up to 8 to save some time. Oh, and you can’t cheat and change the canter to fit what you called out, you have to keep the same rhythm and stride length all the way to the pole. If you’re wrong you try again. It’s my favorite game.

Henry is also – knock on wood – continuing to handle his new friendship well. He gets along really well with his mare friend Quinnie, but I haven’t had any problems separating them when it’s time to ride. Quinnie will immediately run off to go find the babies across the fence, and Henry will calmly watch her, but there have been no histrionics from either of them. They are actually quite hilarious to watch, because they’re basically the exact same horse. One’s just a 20-something ex broodmare and the other is a 13yo TB gelding. Henry has settled into more a level friendship with her rather than being her devoted slave like he was in the beginning, but they’re almost always joined at the hip. It’s so nice to see him finally have a real friend. 

Presto also had quite a busy weekend, too, but we’ll talk about that tomorrow!

I’m not much of a girly girl. I’m always wearing jeans or leggings, my nails are very au naturale, it takes me about 10 minutes to get ready for work in the morning, and I get a haircut like once a year. For a long time I never even carried a purse, then finally caved and had something very tiny. Somehow over the years, as things tend to do, that purse has gotten bigger and bigger, and more filled with junk. My last purse, a Kohl’s special that I bought like 6 years ago, had to have weighed like 15lbs and contained just about everything but the kitchen sink. 

Since I’m downsizing everything else in my life, I really thought it was past time to downsize the bag as well. Plus the cats had made a game out of playing with the tassels on the old purse, so that thing was… looking rough. Even for me. So when Outfoxed, a small company that makes handbags, stock ties, and a variety of other things, had a Valentine’s sale, I jumped on it. 

As you may guess from the name, Outfoxed does have a lot of foxhunting themed items mixed into their collection. In the handbags especially, there are a lot of really cool prints built into their bags. They also have a lot of other prints too, both equestrian-themed and not. They do a lot of custom work, and can make basically anything you dream up, but they also keep a stock of pre-made items for sale in a variety of styles. Totes, larger handbags, crossbody, wristlet, wallet… you name it, they make it. 

Since I was looking for something small I was thinking either a crossbody or a larger wristlet, and as I paged through the sale items one in particular really caught my eye – a mid-size wristlet in a vintage-looking foxhunting print with hunter green cork accents and a touch of rose gold. Into the Etsy cart it went. I deliberated over a couple others, because it was really hard to choose, but in the end I really liked the size and the colors of this one, so it was the winner.

The construction is really nice and it’s quite well-made. The inside has a zipper pocket and an open pocket, and it definitely looks like it could take abuse. I think the size is pretty perfect: small enough to be easy to carry, but still big enough to fit all the necessities. 

The first step was dumping everything out of my old purse, which was… relatively embarrassing. It contained:

• gum
• a package of plastic buckle snaps
• a usb to wall plug converter
• triple antibiotic ointment
• bandaids
• ibuprofen and aspirin
• alcohol wipes
• sunglasses
• 3 rolls of elastic wrap/tape
• 4 carabiners
• a roll of exercise band
• braiding wax
• two yellow sharpies, a highlighter, two pens, and a Tide pen
• lottery tickets
• omeprazole paste
• a latex glove
• a dog poo bag
• rubber bands
• a tape measure
• a unicorn pin
• a bracelet
• two wallets
• a tootsie roll
• three peppermints
• one spur
• a pack of needles
• a dover gift certificate
• a few old dressage tests, health certificates, and copies of coggins
• lots of stickers
• a Mr Rogers postage stamp
• a hoof pick
• a noseband gauge
• a pulling comb
• two tubes of chapstick
• proof of insurance
• checkbook

This is why I can’t have a big purse. I’m a walking dumpster.

The only things that made the cut into the new bag were one wallet, the chapstick, the gum, the tape measure, the hoof pick, the gift certificate, the proof of insurance, the checkbook, and the bandaid/alcohol wipes/antibiotics/painkillers. Oh, and the tootsie roll. For emergencies. 

Everything fits perfectly, and the new bag is way cuter than the old one. Much easier to carry too, now that I don’t have tons of junk.

I think my favorite thing about the new bag, though, is that it comes from a small business and was handmade with love by a fellow equestrian. It’s so professionally made, and much more unique than anything you’d buy at a big box store. All of those things make me love it even more. I think I may need a crossbody bag too, for when I travel. 

If you’re looking for a gift or a new bag (or a stock tie) or have been thinking about something custom, I highly recommend Outfoxed! To follow along or get in touch with them, you can check out their website, Etsy, facebook page, or Instagram. The Valentine’s day sale is still going on, too, so check out the sale section for even better deals!

As I’ve said many times on here before, I am a big fan of the US Event Horse Futurity. Not just the idea behind it (promoting US breeders and helping bridge the gap between breeders and trainers/riders) but also the execution – they post monthly vlogs of each entry so you can learn about them and follow along with their training. I found last year’s vlogs to be super educational, particularly Maya Black’s and Doug Payne’s, seeing how they introduced these young horses to new things and how they handled any issues that arose. It was also fun to see the horses progress from month to month, and how different they all were.

The introductory vlogs for the new 2020 Futurity class (which I also love, because the intro ones are done by the horse’s breeder and they explain their reasoning for the breeding and take us through the horse’s baby years) have started hitting the facebook page, and I’ve been eating them up. It also got me thinking… would anyone have any interest if I did something like this for Presto? He won’t be doing the Futurity next year unless a) I win the lottery b) Maya offers to take him for free (hahahahahahahaha), but I do get people asking me questions all the time about him and his training.

If I made a monthly training vlog, would anyone watch? He’s not a 4yo, obviously, so he’s not going to be doing anything super exciting, but he’s about to get started under saddle so maybe some people might find that interesting? I was thinking it would probably include a lot of stuff I mention doing with him here on the blog, but with videos and a lot more detail.  I would do an intro one first (this is a good example of an intro vlog), and then monthly updates thereafter, showing where he’s at and telling you what he’s been doing.

It’s something I would obviously be interested in watching with other people’s horses, but I know I’m an extreme baby horse nerd and relatively atypical, and maybe I’d be the only one who cared. So before I devote hours into making videos, I want to get a gauge for how many people would actually be interested in watching something like that. If so, any specifics on what you’d want to see, or questions you’d want answered? If not, is there something else you’d like to see instead?