It was 106 and 107 this past weekend in Austin. Like, degrees. In the shade. We’ve already had 20+ days over 100 this year, making this a pretty miserable summer. Granted, this is Texas… miserable summers are it’s specialty. It feels like sticking your face in an oven, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I’ve been riding at the buttcrack of dawn, so I’m rarely out in the heat of the day anymore. Of course, my morning rides, while significantly cooler at more like 78ish degrees, are usually between 90-98% humidity. Moisture, I has it in spades. I slosh my way into work every morning, put all my stuff down at my desk, and head straight to the shower. It’s just gross. Still better than riding when it’s 100+ though, at least according to Henry the heavy breather.

Who, I’ve noticed over the past couple weeks, always seems to have a harder time breathing when the pollen count is high. Coincidentally, so do I. Austin is not a good place to live if your body has any kind of objections to pollen, or mold, or cedar, or pretty much anything that can possibly be considered an airborne allergen. This place is a Petri dish. And not just because of all the hipsters. Can anyone tell I’m really itching to be done with Texas?

But this week we’re having a “cold front”, if you can call it that. Our highs are now only in the 90’s, and the humidity is lower. Yesterday morning it was only 75 with 70% humidity, and this morning was 75 with 75% humidity. Sadly, that felt completely amazing. Henry has even been a bit wild, and spent this morning spooking at a rock, some poop, a hay bale, a fan, and a horse. For the record, he did not spook at the rabbit, the cat, or the coyote. I don’t understand Henny logic.

The high tomorrow is only 90, and then there are some rain chances in the forecast (omg sky moisture, I hear that’s a thing!) later in the week. Even though I know the triple digits will be back soon, this was a pretty nice mid-summer break.

Thank goodness, too, because today is opening day for our first horse trial of the fall! I was finding it really hard to be motivated to enter when I could barely peel myself out of my seat to walk out to the mailbox. Things are filled out now, though… which means it’ll probably shoot right back up into the 100’s and stay there until October, because Texas hates me back.

Today you get very few words and a whole lot of pictures, because guess who tested Rhodococcus-free???

Poor baby, he was literally sick, in some capacity, for pretty much all of his first 4 months. Granted, he seems to feel just fine these days.

And just in case anyone was wondering whether or not he’s as derpy as Uncle Henny… well…

He’s REALLY ITCHY,  y’all.

But otherwise, I think he’s pretty darn handsome when he wants to be.

And now he’s healthy, too. 🙂

Knock on wood.

Like, all of it.

So, I’ve had the Tucci’s for over two months now, and while I think it’s too soon to do a full review, I’ve had a lot of people ask me what I think of them.

Short answer: I love them, for lots of reasons. First, because they’re friggin beautiful. I wanted something that was a little different without being too outlandish, and I think these fit the bill perfectly. From far away they look like regular boots… it’s not until you get up close that you notice the navy tops and the wingtip toes. I also like the shape of the toe: square but not TOO square. I really don’t like the look of a rounded toe (ok I hate them), but sometimes when they’re too square it looks ridiculous. To me this shape is the perfect balance, lending even more to the modern and sleek look. A couple of people were dubious about having to keep all those little punched holes clean, but honestly I just added a toothbrush to my boot polishing kit and it takes all of 10 extra seconds to clean those out. Not a big deal at all. Totes worth it.

I’m lucky in that I did not require full customs to get a custom fit. I’m a fairly average size, plus Tucci has a TON of size combinations, so those two things combined saved me from having to go the full custom route. Mine are just considered semi-custom, since I ordered them with a navy top… they’re the Marilyn model, so the wingtip toe and the fancy punched top come standard on those. It was pretty simple to get fitted to figure out my size, and I then just ordered the standard Tucci Marilyn but with a navy top from Luxe EQ. I did order them quite tall on purpose, because I can’t stand a tall boot that’s even a hair too short. I have chunky thighs, super tall boots help my leg look longer and slimmer. Don’t judge.

 

The thing about Tucci’s is that they are pretty ruggedly made boots. If you like your boots Parlanti soft, almost glove-like, you won’t like these. They aren’t stiff, but the leather is legit, and it’s meant to take a beating and last a long time. I personally prefer this type of leather… not just for longevity, but also because it doesn’t wrinkle on the calf, which gives a much smoother look. It took me about a week to break them in and get them to drop enough to where I could actually snap them behind the knee, which I thought was reasonable break-in time. During all that, they were never uncomfortable to walk in, just a bit tight in the calf and over my instep. Both stretched perfectly, and now these things really fit like custom. My only complaint is that I think the strap behind the knee could be a smidge longer, maybe just 1/4″.

As far as practical design elements, I’m also super pleased. The elastic panel really helps give them that nice close fit. No stovepipe legs or cankles here! Fully lined is also a must for me these days, I’ve had much more luck with fully lined boots lasting a lot longer. It’s perhaps slightly less of a close feel than that of an unlined boot, but to me personally the difference is negligible, so I’d rather have the lining than not.

They’re made in Italy and the design features were obviously well thought out. My favorite feature is their snap system. Zippers that won’t stay up seems to be a pretty common problem with tall boots, especially as they get older. I’ve had a couple brands that had a little slot on the strap in the back to thread the zipper through, but 1) that takes effort, 2) it didn’t always work. The Tucci’s have a snap tab on the zipper that snaps to the strap at the back of the knee, locking everything securely in place. Snaps are a lot easier than threading stuff through a hole.

It’s also got a spur guard strap at the bottom, which I like to help stabilize and protect both the zippers and the spurs, and spur rests on each side of the zipper.

Underneath that, on the inside of the zipper, it has a lightly padded heel guard to protect the back of your ankles from rubbing or pressing from the zipper. This feature is a MUST HAVE for me with boots these days… so far every pair I’ve had with them have been significantly more comfortable to wear for long periods of time.

And, comfort-wise, I haven’t been disappointed. Once they dropped a bit and molded to my legs, they were super comfortable and have remained that way. I’ve worn them aaaaallll day for lessons and shows, even walked XC in them, and never had a blister or sore spot.

So far, I’m really happy with them. Aesthetically they’re everything I wanted, and they’re giving me the impression that they’ll be super durable. Time will tell in that department. For now though, I have no complaints! Except now I want a brown pair…

I’d like to think that I’m fairly pragmatic most of the time when it comes to my horses. I generally don’t anthropomorphize them, I understand that they’re horses, and I know that we’re not majikal mystical BFF’s. But there’s one thing I’ve always been a bit of a mush about… greeting me at the gate.

I dunno why exactly, I think it just makes me feel better that they don’t see me coming and go “oh god, it’s HER again” and make for the hills. Granted, I’m sure that Henry knows I’m good for at least 2 cookies, so the fact that he comes up to the gate when he sees me coming is most assuredly because he’s a fattypotamus that wants a treat. Shhh… let’s ignore that. At least when they come to greet me, it makes me think that they don’t totally hate their work or their human.

I’ve really only had one horse that was hard to catch, and the others mostly just stayed where they were until I walked out to get them. A few have always been gate-greeters though, especially Sadie and Henry. Presto is generally a greeter too (unless he’s sleeping, which is a lot) but he’s a baby and most babies are like that. Things are still fresh and new and fun to them, and they never actually have to work. We’ll see how things go as he gets older.

Every once in a while, usually when we’ve had a lot of hard dressage days, Henry will give me a long hard look and then walk a few feet away, making me come to him. I swear that’s the horse version of flipping a human the bird. Not gonna lie, it kinda hurts my feeling (singular) and usually earns him a couple of fun easy hack or trail ride days. Yes, I’m a pushover like that. But 99% of the time, voila, suddenly he’s back to being a gate greeter after he’s had a bit of a mental break.

Am I the only one that places far too much emotional emphasis on the whole greeting the human at the gate thing?

If it’s possible to use the internet to stalk the internet, that’s exactly what happened here.

 

I was really sad when I had to send back the saddle I had on trial. I loved it, the price was right, and it was pretty (well ok except for those green calf blocks, but I could have fixed that). But a lot of good came out of trying that saddle, since I was able to figure out exactly what panel specs Henry needs and exactly what flap specs and sizing I needed. The hunt was on! Shouldn’t be too hard, right?

Ha.

If I had needed the 4P panel, with the built up front, I would have been in business. Or if I needed a regular forward flap instead of the extra forward. Finding our exact mixture of specs was like searching for a needle in the Devoucoux haystack. I immediately added another $500 to my budget, just to open up my options as much as possible, but it wasn’t really the budget that was the problem. It was finding one. I stalked every french saddle site, french classifieds, US high end saddle sites, ebay, instagram, facebook… you name it, every single day I was checking. Facebook yielded the most results by far. Every morning I searched “Devoucoux Chiberta”, sorted the results by date, and shuffled through all the new posts.

And finally, after a couple weeks of stalking the hell out of the internet, a particularly promising one popped up in my facebook results. It had been posted in a UK eventing group just a few hours before. Because of course it’s not in America, why would it possibly be that simple? I asked for a photo of the serial number, and lo and behold, it was exactly what I needed. And waaaaay under budget. Thanks Brexit!

But the tricky thing with buying stuff internationally is that a lot of people don’t want to bother with the hassle. I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t either. Luckily this woman was super nice, took tons more pictures for me, and said she would get me a shipping quote. A couple days later I had paid her via Paypal, the saddle was dropped off at DHL Express, and the Devoucoux was on it’s way home to me. DHL did try to jack up the price from what they had originally quoted her, but she stood her ground and they honored the price. So, for less than I had spent on the first trial saddle, I now have a new Devoucoux in my tack room.

But how does it fit, you ask? This is the fun part of buying something from overseas with no trial. You have to be REALLY sure of what you’re getting. I was confident that a saddle with these specs would fit him, based on our experiences with the brand, and luckily it does. It fits me perfectly, too. Yay for standardization of sizing and fit. It feels just as magical as the others, too, especially when we’re galloping. I just can’t get over how good the balance of this thing is. It makes everything feel much easier.

The saddle is a bit older than I was wanting, a 2012 model, but 1) it’s in great shape, 2) it was cheap. I’m plenty satisfied with the purchase. I’ll probably end up having the billets replaced within the next year or so, but they’re really the only part of the saddle that shows much wear. It’s obviously been well taken care of over the years.

And with that, the saddle hunt comes to an end. Thank goodness. I was getting tired of stalking the internet. But considering how much Grem loves the box and wrapping, it kind of made the whole thing worth it.