The first time I did this post was January 2015, and since then I’ve done a blog move in which I lost most of my old pictures (including all the ones in that post) plus I have a mostly different line up of breeches. I figured it was time for a Volume 2. Granted, I just sold 3 pairs a few weeks ago so this probably would have been better to do before that, but… uh… I didn’t think about it til now.

The only breeches that I still have from Volume 1 are the navy Animo and the two pairs of Aztec Diamond’s. Those are staples. Aside from those, the current wardrobe includes RJ Classics, Winston, Renard et Cheval, Tailored Sportsman, QHP, La Valencio, and two models of Devon-Aire. For the sake of being thorough I’m gonna re-post the Animo and Aztec Diamond at the bottom of this volume too.

As for me, I’m 5’6″ and about as averagely built as one person can get. I wear a 36″ show shirt and a 30 breech, pretty much across the board. The only real fit issue I usually run into is that I’m a bit small in the waist and bigger in the hip/thigh, so things can tend to be either a little gappy in the waist or a little tight in the thigh.

Strap yourself in, because here we go. Sorry about the pics… I did them last minute and SO was grumpy about me interrupting his show to take a million pictures. Also Quinn helped.

RJ Classics

 

1 pair of the Gulf model in merlot size 30, front zip, low rise, euro seat. Retail approx $145

Winston Equestrian

 

1 pair of white size 30, front zip, low rise, euro seat. Retail approx $300

Features:
sock bottom
euro seat
front pockets
silver piping at front pockets

Fair warning, I’ve only worn these around the house so far, to get a feel for them. I won’t really test them out until the next show, so if I couldn’t give an answer to the below questions I left it blank. I’ll review them in better detail after I’ve worn them some.

Tailored Sportsman

 

1 pair of white Professional model size 30, side zip, low rise. Retail approx $235

Renard et Cheval

 

1 pair of tan size 30, front zip, low rise. Can’t even find these online so I have no idea what retail is, I think I bought them on eBay.

Stain resistant (on a scale of 1 – 5, with 1 being least resistant and 5 being most resistant): 2
Do they stretch out with wear: Yes
Are they stiff or soft out of the wash: Soft
Do they dry quickly: Fairly
Are they thick or thin: Thin
# of wears (approx): maybe 10? Usually at shows.
Is there any fading? Yes
Is there any pilling? No
How well do they hide thigh cheese: Not very well
Any fit issues: These are actually a little big on me in general, and they stretch out pretty quickly through the day. If I had them in a smaller size the proportions would probably work for me. The most annoying thing about these is that the pockets are really deep/big and the fabric scrunches up, which looks a bit sloppy. They’re really comfortable though.

QHP

 

1 pair of white Rose model size EU-42, front zip, low rise. Retail approx 100 Euros from Divoza.

Stain resistant (on a scale of 1 – 5, with 1 being least resistant and 5 being most resistant):
Do they stretch out with wear: A little
Are they stiff or soft out of the wash:
Do they dry quickly:
Are they thick or thin: Average
# of wears (approx):
Is there any fading?
Is there any pilling?
How well do they hide thigh cheese: Not particularly well
Any fit issues: These fit well in the waist but are a bit tight in the thigh – more a straight cut than a curvy cut. Also just a touch long and big in the lower leg.

La Valencio

 

1 pair of whites size EU-42, don’t remember the model, front zip, low rise. Retail approx 90 Euros from Divoza.

Fabric: Cotton 62%, Nylon 32%, Spandex 6%

Measurements:
Waist: 15″
Hips: 18″
Rise: 10″
Inseam to bottom: 28″
Belt loop size – 1 7/8″

Features:

Stretch panel on lower leg

Front and back pockets
euro seat

silicone grips at knees

 

Stain resistant (on a scale of 1 – 5, with 1 being least resistant and 5 being most resistant): 2

Do they stretch out with wear: No
Are they stiff or soft out of the wash: A bit stiff
Do they dry quickly: Fairly
Are they thick or thin: Thicker
# of wears (approx): Around 15
Is there any fading? No
Is there any pilling? No
How well do they hide thigh cheese: Surprisingly well
Any fit issues: These are a teeny bit long on me too, but I like these breeches and wish I’d bought more than one pair. They’re starting to look a bit off-white after a year of showing.

Devon-Aire Signature

 

1 pair of navy with white piping size 30, front zip, low rise. Retail approx $90.

Devon-Aire Madrid

 

1 pair of navy size 30, front zip, low rise. Retail approx $100

We all have those random things that make us twitchy. Especially when it comes to horses… bunch of kinda weird, passionate, and opinionated people… it’s inevitable. There are plenty of things that get my eyes rolling, but for some reason there are a few things in particular that send me through the roof faster than anything else. In honor of breeding season we’ll call this one Pet Peeves: Breeding Edition.

RPSI vs Rhinelander

A horse that is registered RPSI (Rheinland Pfalz-Saar International) is not a Rhinelander (Rheinisches Pferdestammbuch). A little confusing to most, but they’re totally different registries. This would probably bother me a lot less if I didn’t have a horse – Sadie – that is registered RPSI. On her passport her breed says Zweibrucken, which is what RPSI horses used to be called. Now they’re Deutsches Sportferd (still not Rhinelander).

From RPSI:

As many of you have heard, in Germany the Rhineland Studbook, located in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, has merged with the Hanoverian verband there, and is also now represented in North America as a branch of the American Hanoverian Society. The Rhineland organization is separate from the Rheinland Pfalz-Saar International, and no, we have not merged with the Hanoverians! Our passports are still produced in Germany at our World Breeding Federation member verband the Pferdezuchtverband Rheinland-Pfalz- Saar, we still offer UELN (Unique Equine Life Numbers) and Permanent Identification (Microchip and Brand), follow German rules and regulations, and offer the same extensive North American keuring tour, as we have since 1995.

Not. The. Same.

 

“Out” of stallion

You see this one all the time… “I have a horse out of Popeye K!”. No you don’t. Horses are BY stallions and OUT of mares. Pretty sure Popeye K ain’t squeezing a foal OUT of his boy parts.

 

Stud

This is the other one you see all the time “I love this stud!”. A stud is a place where stallions are kept. A breeding stallion is a stallion. Maybe a sire. Not a stud.

Ahhh… that feels better. I’m not the only one with these kind of weird pet peeves, right?

I’ve been pretty nose-to-the-grindstone since we got back from Holly Hill. Coconino is the big bright neon sign on our radar this year, and I have a one track mind (as I’m sure everyone has noticed). But then I got some reminder emails about schooling shows between now and then, and that one track mind went on a slight detour. Normally I wouldn’t enter anything in Texas after the beginning of June, it’s just way too damn hot/humid/miserable.

Henry has been doing fairly well with our extraordinarily awful humidity so far though; definitely much better than the past two summers. I don’t know if it’s the Lung EQ or just the fact that he’s much fitter than he’s ever been, or both. He still huffs and puffs on really humid days but it takes him much longer to get to that point and his respiratory rate returns to normal much faster. He doesn’t feel dull or lethargic at all (well… not when he’s pointed at a jump anyway) and he’s still sweating like a champ. At this point it seems more like something to be aware of rather than a reason to coddle him.

We had two schooling HT options: Pine Hill on July 3, or MeadowCreek on June 18. They’re both about the same distance, close to the same price, and they both use the same courses for schooling shows as they do for recognized. He’s jumped around about half of each venue’s Training course already.

Basically, they’re equal on paper. But considering we’re hitting the road for Coconino on July 6, I didn’t feel right about having him run a full HT in the heat just a few days before we leave for 2 weeks of showing. MeadowCreek it is.

So he’s entered at Training level with Trainer on board to give him a run around the level and let them get better acquainted (since she’s only sat on him twice) before we get to Coconino. Plus MeadowCreek has this giant ledge of a down bank with a downhill landing that I’m not particularly eager to jump Henny the Rocket Launcher off of. She can do the honors of being the first one to experience that particular over-exuberance.

It’s a legit T course, probably harder than Coco’s, so if he can jump around there he’ll be extra ready for the recognized at Coco. Hopefully between keeping the warm-ups minimal and me following him around with a bucket of ice water and a sweatscraper, he’ll be able to manage the heat just fine for the day. If not, we can withdraw without really caring. Yay for schooling shows!

 

No, literally… THE RUB. Fair warning, this is probably way TMI, but the struggle is real.

Ever since I’ve been upping the length of Henry’s conditioning rides, I’ve been having a problem. Not with the horse, he’s a gem. Not with my tack, that’s all fine. Not with my ability to trot for 45mins straight without losing my mind, although it’s been close a few times. No… my issue is, ahem… chafing. Of the… er… lady bits. Especially now that it’s hot/humid and I’m sweating like a faucet.

I’ve tried just about everything in my arsenal. Being a cylist, I have a drawer full of creams and powders meant to reduce chafing. None of those really helped. Being a lover of a sale, I have a drawer full of underwear in different styles and fabrics. Some are better than others (oh god, the time I didn’t plan ahead and wore lace for conditioning day there was so much screaming in the shower it sounded like a remake of Psycho) but still none of them really help either. I even tried raising and lowering my stirrups and dressage saddle vs jump saddle. There has been no magic bullet.

So, endurance riders and fellow eventers, what’s the secret? I think the elderly lady is tired of watching me fidget with my underwear while I trot around her hay field.

 

A couple years ago when Henry was re-learning how to be ridden in a bit, I tried carrying a whip. That was well before we started eventing, so it was just a short little jumping bat, but after almost a month of carrying it every ride he still wouldn’t relax about it, so I gave up. Later on I started carrying one on XC but really he’s so pumped to be running XC that you could carry a grenade launcher and he wouldn’t notice.

Last year when we really started delving into dressage, I tried carrying a dressage whip a few times to help me a bit with those trailing haunches in the lateral work, but he was unfocused and way over-reactive (borderline belligerent, really) whenever I carried it, so I opted not to push the issue.

But over the last 6 months he’s really started to calm down and settle into the dressage work a lot more. As soon as it started getting hot and humid I found myself working WAY too hard to get him forward and engaged, so instead of surgically embedding my spurs into his ribs I thought I’d try the dressage whip again. Or as Henry calls it, the Electric Death Stick.

The first ride with it was borderline. He was rideable, but he was still tense and worried about what I might do with that thing. Because I beat him so much, apparently? Henny logic. I ended up dropping the whip after we cantered that day, since by that point he was plenty forward and I didn’t want it to turn into a meltdown. Then I carried it again the next dressage ride, which was on a very very humid and hot day. I ended up having to tap him with the whip FOUR times that ride, to really get him forward off my leg. The first time he was a little shocked, but I immediately let him go into stretchy circle (aka Henny Brain Recovery Zone) and he settled. He respected the whip after that, but didn’t get upset if I used it.

Then yesterday, another dressage ride, another few taps with the whip. Now instead of getting the very offended “OMG DEATH STICK” response, I get a “Yes ma’am” response. It took two years, but finally, finally I can carry a dressage whip, use it when I need to, and Henry won’t have a come-apart. Weird milestone, but a milestone none the less.