Sorry, literature fans, this post has nothing to do with The Little Prince. Although now I want to go back and read it for like the 200th time…

The subject of the day is sheepskin. Specifically sheepskin saddle pads. Extra-specifically saddle pads with sheepskin lining underneath the top half.

Shocker: Henry is a sensitive, delicate flower. Sometimes his coat decides that something in the universe has rubbed him the wrong way, and hair will start to fall out. Usually this is around the back edge of the saddle pad, several inches below his spine, although no area is immune. It’s worse in some pads (the spur rub pad that I use when he decides that my legs – sans spurs, I might add – are rubbing him the wrong way OF COURSE seems to be the pad that his back finds particularly offensive) and better in others, but none of them seem completely exempt. I control the progression of the rubs by using an assortment of powders and lubes, but still, at any given time there’s probably a rub on that horse SOMEWHERE from SOMETHING.

I had a real problem with this at Coconino, where he had a bite mark on one side that sat right under my leg, so I had to use my spur rub pad to keep it from progressing. In turn, the spur rub pad itself rubbed a bunch of hair off of both sides of his barrel along the back edge of the pad, because Henny. And once it started, even switching to the Ogilvy pads (which are what I’ve had the most luck with for him) couldn’t stop it. I tend to play this game of musical saddle pads in the winter too, when he’s body clipped and therefore anything that touches him is a good reason for a rub. It’s why he has to wear HUG blankets. It’s a little ridiculous.

Every time the rubs occur, I feel like I have a bit of a gap in my arsenal of equipment. This was especially true at Coconino, when trying to stop one rub resulted in 3 more. At that point it became a battle to keep as much hair on him as possible, especially when I was riding him twice a day. I really found myself needing some good old fashioned sheepskin, something that I used to own but don’t anymore. It was kind of a PITA to own and maintain. Especially in Texas where it’s hot AF. But it is the best thing for the delicate flowers, and I think I’m at the point where I need something, some kind of sheepskin option to use when the random rubs try to emerge, even if I don’t use it all the time. Naturally, I started googling and quickly fell down a rabbit hole.

I like the contoured shape under my jump saddle, more like a cross country pad. The situation is a little complicated by the fact that I have two different types of saddles. I ride him more in the jump saddle (and I use that saddle for our longer conditioning rides, where he’s more likely to get rubs), but… would I need a dressage version too, to cover my bases? Anything sheepskin is expensive, naturally, although finding a dressage one isn’t as hard and they’re not as pricey.

The cheapest solution is to just get a sheepskin half pad and use it under the regular pads. I have some concerns about that setup sitting well on him, though, and ending up too bulky, or fitting well under one saddle but not the other. Both of those scenarios are a potential recipe for more rubs or maybe even backsoreness, which defeats the purpose. But maybe I’m being too paranoid and it would be fine? I guess I could just use the half pad by itself if I had to, although I don’t particularly want to.

So basically I think my options are:

1. Buy just a sheepskin-lined jump pad (there are so many options, my eyes started to cross, so I quit googling. Which are your favorite contoured ones?) and hope that’s enough to curb the issue
2. Buy a sheepskin-lined jump pad AND dressage pad, to cover all my bases (again, suggestions welcome on which ones)
3. Buy a sheepskin half pad (dressage shape, I guess?) to use underneath the pads I’ve already got, and hope that doesn’t cause additional/different issues.

And the follow-up question to any of those – do I want them to be shimmable? I currently don’t have anything shimmable, so it would be a nice option to have with Presto coming up the pipeline since my saddles are fit to Henry, not to him. I don’t know that it’s totally necessary though.

I am a little overwhelmed with possibilities. I don’t really want to spend a lot of money on this, but I will if it keeps my horse happy and covered in the appropriate amount of hair. I could also just wait and see what I find while we’re in Europe next month. I dunno.

Help, the indecision is crippling.

Remember a few months ago when I confessed that I had been nabbed by an Instagram ad? The situation has continued to worsen. Facebook must have stepped up their creeper algorithms or something, because lately they’ve been inundating me with amazing things. Or at least, that’s what my morning brain thinks.

See, I seem to be at my weakest before 8am. I’m an early riser, and I get to work before 6:30. Even on the weekends you’ll find me awake in my living room, probably on my computer, well before 6am. That, it seems, is my own personal witching hour.

As the day wears on and the more practical parts of my brain start to wake up, I can talk myself out of just about anything. But before those parts are firing on all cylinders, if you throw an ad for something AMAZING at me, the odds are much higher that I’ll buy it. Especially if there’s a sale or a coupon code involved, because apparently even my morning brain is a sucker for a deal.

I also tend to make these small purchases and promptly forget about them, which makes the mail really fun a week or so later when I’m like ooooo what is THIS fun surprise??? Highly recommend buying gifts for yourself this way.

So the weekend before last an ad for Yes Custom popped up on my feed with something like this:

The memory, it is vague. But according to my receipt the shirts were on sale for $12. Therefore I can totally understand what had happened next.

My morning brain, being a cheeky little bastard, was like “omg, we should get one of these with HENRY’S face all over it! It would be EFFING EPIC!”. So naturally, I ordered one, at 6:41am. And naturally, I completely forgot about it. Until yesterday when it showed up in the mail.

Morning brain was right – it is EFFING EPIC.

Your eyes do not deceive you. That is Henry’s patented cracked-out-dolphin cross country face, plastered on a shirt over and over and over again. Of all the Henry faces, that one is my favorite, so it makes perfect sense. Morning brain really hit this one out of the park.

This time I have absolutely no regrets about my morning brain purchase. It was worth every penny of the $12, and quite honestly it might be the best piece of clothing I own. Do I look like an absolute nutter wearing it? Oh hell yeah. Do I care? Oh hell no.

Nothing says “I am obsessed with my horse to the point of being insane” quite like this shirt. And that’s accurate, so why not fly that freak flag proudly.

I will 110% be rocking this thing on the regular. Friends, you have been warned. And yes, it’ll definitely be paired with the matching Henry socks that I already owned. It’s all about the outfit, y’all.

Last week Willow Tree Warmbloods hosted their first Oldenburg inspection! Michelle decided to present the pony foal Nunez WTW to them so that he could get his Weser-Ems (Oldenburg’s pony book) papers. He’s officially a German Riding Pony, y’all.

The inspection was on a Monday, so I couldn’t be there this time, but Michelle looks to have done a great job of managing everything on her own. Inspections can be quite the production between getting the farm ready, setting everything up, and primping all the horses. Luckily she has other friends around that are willing to lend a helping hand.

Their efforts were well rewarded when Nunez showed himself off really well and got great scores, earning himself a Premium designation! He is really beautiful and athletic with tons of presence, so I’m not surprised.

His sire Nuno is on a roll, all of his foals have been Premium this year. Sebastian, the inspector, really loved his dam Stormie as well, giving her good scores and encouraging Michelle to continue using her for pony breeding. Clearly she is a great producer! Seeing how well Nunez turned out is making everyone even more excited for Stormie’s 2020 Usandro foal.

If the pony foal isn’t enough cuteness to satisfy you, Michelle also let a friend’s daughter present her favorite mare, Hanna. Hanna is a 24 year old Selle Francais mare who started her career doing the jumpers in Belgium before being imported and turned into a junior hunter. She’s taught a lot of kids how to ride, and now – with the help of Michelle and Sebastian – she’s turned one of them into basically a pro handler. Handling and presenting horses in hand is definitely an art, and we don’t have many people in this country that are good at it. Kid is pretty good already, she seems like a natural!

Michelle presented some of the other mares as well, some for inspection and some just to get the inspector’s overall opinion on the program. He quite liked Peyton, the TB mare, commenting that she is exactly the type of thoroughbred that should be used in sporthorse breeding. It was nice to have him agree with us, since we spent forever finding juuuuuust the right TB mare to add to the program.

While I was sad I couldn’t be there this time, all in all it looks like my favorite breeder and favorite mares all had a great day. I think Nunez has been going around telling everyone on the farm that he’s officially F.A.N.C.Y. – as if his ego wasn’t big enough already.

Whoever buys this kid will definitely have one heck of a pony!

I talked a lot last week about the subject of gratitude, the power of saying thank you, and how much it really enhanced my Coconino experience. My horse, my coach, my friends, my family… I mentioned how important all of them are in this whole crazy endeavor. But there’s someone else, who, while might not directly impact the experience, is often there to document it. And we all know just how true “pics or it didn’t happen” really is.

If you’ve paid attention to any of my picture captions here or on Instagram, you’ve seen the name Dusty Brown. He’s not a horse professional or a show photographer, he’s a horse show husband to barnmate Julie and and horse show dad to barnmate Kate. He hauls the horses, fixes whatever is broken in whoever’s living quarters, and, my particular favorite: he takes pictures. And not just pictures, but like… AWESOME pictures.

Dusty is super dedicated to doing a good job. He doesn’t wander aimlessly around and stumble upon lucky shots, he’s got a list of ride times (which in our group is lengthy), a plan of action, and he’s out there way in advance plotting all of his angles and what jumps he wants to get. He even has this badass 360 camera thing that he sets up so it can get really cool video like this.

 

He’s got a great eye, and for some reason he seems to not mind sitting in the woods all day, taking pictures of rider after rider. He is a better person than I, in that regard. Dusty also has the uncanny ability to remain in the background of whatever is going on, which allows him to get fantastic candid shots. I never even see him, I’m pretty sure he’s got an invisibility cloak or something. He’s also great about capturing whatever he sees along the way that he thinks might make a cool picture. He’s pretty much always right.

And then, after he spends all that time trudging around the show, taking pictures of all of us, he edits and uploads the best ones into an album. This is no small feat considering we had 19 horses with us in our group this time and there were thousands of photos to go through. Dusty also somehow manages to always get in a completely different position or at different jumps from the show photographer, so you end up with totally different pictures. As a blogger who always needs media, it’s just as exciting to have him at a lesson or XC schooling, too. I don’t know WHY he does it, but I’m really appreciative of the fact that he does.

He even does special photo shoots for sale horses, snagging some beautiful pictures. We all know how much those matter, yet how much of a pain in the ass it can be to get them.

 

Three cheers for anyone who’s willing to stand around (or run back and forth from ring to ring) all day and take pictures or video. It’s not the most glamorous part of this whole thing, but if you ask me, it’s one of the most important. After all, once it’s all said and done, all we really have left are the memories and the media. Thanks for being there to help capture it.

It is entirely possible that I have a wee bit of a riding shirt problem. I few weeks ago I reorganized my closet (ie gave it some semblance of order with work clothes on one side and riding clothes on the other) and was amazed at how many shirts I have. Show shirts, sun shirts, polos, cross country shirts, shirts with my trainer’s business name on them… I have a lot. I just love shirts, ok? Like… did I take 14 riding shirts with me to Coconino even though I knew we’d be doing laundry and I really only needed 5? MAYBE.

But when it comes to show shirts, I like something that’s just a little bit different. A little bit unique. A little bit fun. Just a plain white shirt with nothing on it? Nah, fam. Nah. I left the hunter world a long time ago, I don’t need that boring nonsense.

Of course, I’m also cheap. Love you, Cavalleria Toscana, but I’m not paying over $75 for a shirt. It’s just not happening.

This love for all things unique and yet also budget-friendly has led me down some perhaps slightly less well-beaten paths. It seems as though I find my best things overseas, with smaller brands that maybe haven’t made the jump over to the mainstream US market yet. So I follow a lot of these smaller overseas brands on Instagram, which always gets me into trouble, yet I have no regrets. That’s how I find the good stuff.

I’ve been really into that whole laser cut, perforated athletic clothing trend lately. It’s a subtle but interesting detail, my favorite thing, and it has that whole benefit of added ventilation. Biiiiiig plus when you live in Texas. I couldn’t really find anything in that style that was affordable, though, until I was scrolling through Instagram one day and saw the above post from Australian company Black Horse Clothing. I’ve been watching them for a while because they have a lot of cute breeches and tops, and the prices are good, but that perforated shirt – called the “Shannan” – really stopped me in my tracks. I needed it.

I loved the look of the contrasting white collar and cuffs, the piping, the zip top, the little Australian flag on the back, and of course – the perforations. And the best part? It was only $69 USD. This wasn’t my first time ordering a shirt from Australia, so I knew my size (their size charts are spot on, too!). The only real hesitation I had was figuring out what color to get. Talk about crippling indecision.

White was appealing because of it’s ability to go under any color show coat, of course, but with all the details of this shirt I was really thinking that I also wanted something I could wear for lessons, schooling shows, or when jackets were waived. I’m not into the StayPuff look of all-white, so that narrowed me down to navy and gray. I figured gray could fill all of the above purposes, while still looking good under my navy or hunter green jackets. Plus I have a lot of navy, but not a lot of gray.

Then I did what any good friend would do and talked Hillary into buying the navy.

But in my defense, the navy shirt looks AMAZING on her gray horse with a pair of whites, she wore it at Coconino and got about 1 trillion compliments. Plus since we ordered together we got to split shipping. Win-win.

I also wore my gray one at Coconino, in the jumper rounds.

I really like these shirts a lot. They’re stretchy and comfortable, and close-fitting without being super tight or clingy. I LOVE the pop of contrast of the white cuff and collar against the gray and navy. Yes, it was dirty by the end of the day, but it washed up really well and is nice and white again. Dress it up with whites and you’re good for a show day – either zip up the collar and put a jacket over it, or unzip the collar and wear it by itself. Dress it down with colored breeches and you’re good for a clinic or lessons. It’s super versatile. I do think that if you’re very tall or have a very long torso or very long arms, you might find that it fits a little short. I’m 100% average in my build, 5’6″ tall, and the sleeves and torso length are perfect on me.

If you’re scared of ordering from Australia – don’t be. Our shirts only took 6 business days to get to us, better than some US-based shops can do. The transaction was easy and simple (I paid via Paypal) and I had tracking information the next day.

While the Shannan top is my favorite, Black Horse has a good variety of shirts, breeches, sweaters, gloves, jackets, and accessories as well. They even have a men’s line! I’ve already plotted my next purchases, whenever my budget allows. Odds are good you can find enough stuff to offset the $20 USD shipping charge, or just be evil like me and rope someone else into ordering with you and splitting it. Worth it.