Some of you may remember my post from a while back where I was considering buying a new body protector for cross country. Once I finally decided which one I wanted and what color I wanted, I was of course immediately unable to find the right size/color anywhere in the US. But I did notice that Riding Warehouse (my faves) carried the vest in black, so I figured I’d email and see if it was possible for them to special order it in navy, since they’ve done that for me before with other things.

They answered me quickly with an “absolutely, we’d love to” (they’re so nice I always want to poke them to see if they’re real), they put the order in for me, and we proceeded to wait. Having had items backordered from other companies before, I am always skeptical about arrival times, especially when they’re coming from overseas. I tend to order it and then forget it. But the projected timeline they gave me ended up being spot on, and I got a notification once they knew when it was expected to hit. When they received it they immediately (for real, within a day) had it on a truck to me, and it arrived 3 days later. Did I mention they had the best price of anyone in the US? Did I mention shipping was free?

I’m waiting to do a review/comparison post of the Airowear vs the Tipperary until I wear it a few times, but visually and structurally the difference is huge. I let SO play the “HIT ME” game with me wearing each vest and boy could I tell a difference. But more on that when my thoughts are more organized. Do y’all have input on what type of review you’d like to see? I can do pictures, as is typical, or I can do a video review like you see on a lot of tack shop websites. Maybe a mix of both? Anything in particular you really want to see about one or the other, or comparatively? If you have specific questions, get them to me and I’ll address them in the review.

I also ordered a few more things from Riding Warehouse (because happy early birthday to me?) one of which is my long-coveted navy DSB boots. Once again they had the best price and free shipping. They’re pretty and I love them.

I tried one more time to buy something from Smartpak a few weeks ago, mainly because they were one of the only shops left on the entire Internet that had still had a few of the now-discontinued shirt that I wanted. Once again the experience left me very very frustrated and required me getting pissed off before they offered to make it right. They resolved the situation and it ended satisfactorily, but I am officially done with them. I tried. I really tried. Riding Warehouse is just way better, and cheaper, and faster, and nicer, and has never once made me want to stab them in the eye. That’s saying something.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who took the time to read and comment on my thread last week about the KEP Italia incident. I was not at all prepared for the ensuing whirlwind that my post caused. Once it hit social media it just blew up, and is now sitting at 8,000 hits and still getting hundreds more by the day. For several days I was drowning in comments, private messages, and emails from people on both sides of the fence. Whether you agreed or disagreed with what I said, it led to a lot of good discussion and spurred a lot of subsequent research on my part. Most shocking (and honestly horrifying at times) to me was just how much absolute misinformation is out there in the general public. I encourage everyone interested to research safety standards and the testing that goes into helmets for all the different certifications (yes there are different ones, no they aren’t the same). It might surprise you.

I admit that after answering all those messages and talking about it for days straight, my brain was mush by the time Friday rolled around. My limit for intense discussion had been reached and surpassed by quite a ways. So I did what any normal person would do and soothed my psyche by obsessing over unicorn stuff and finding more ATC swag for our team.

I know what you’re thinking about that picture. “OMG Amanda, is that a unicorn tapestry rug?”… why yes, yes it is. Majestic AF, isn’t it? When I saw it on eBay I figured we really needed a rug in our tack stall at AEC, so I offered $9 for it and within minutes it was mine. I had the fleeting thought that maybe I was going a little overboard with the unicorn theme… was I taking it too far? Then I laughed, realized that wasn’t possible, and ordered us a rainbow fringe curtain for the tack stall door and some Always Be a Unicorn white and rainbow silicone bracelets. Once you’ve committed to a unicorn theme you’re kind of obligated to take it a few levels too far, right?

By “some” I mean 25. Sharing is caring. Thinking about doing some kind of contest for a unicorn swag prize pack… ideas on what kind of contest?

I barn/house/cat sat last week where I board while the owners were on vacation, so for several days in a row I fell into the habit of coming in from the barn and settling down at my laptop to peruse the interwebs for unicorn stuff. I found so much stuff that would be great, like this unicorn bust

but it’s $95 and I just don’t roll that deep.

I also thought this “Goth Unicorn Mohawk” had real potential, but Bobby wouldn’t agree to wear it. Way to be a buzzkill, Bobby.

Other things I saw were just really confusing.

But I did order some glittery PrismFoil “I am a Unicorn” tattoos. Mostly because I couldn’t think of any good reason not to.

After I ran out of unicorn-related internet (sadly, it IS finite) I worked a little bit on the outline of our Course Walk idea, because it’s gonna be pretty elaborate. I decided a while back that we would tell a story throughout our series of pictures, and said story requires props and costumes and planning. Taking it too far? Neehhhh. This really just shows how deep my self control issues run.

 

 

Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself, so I can’t resist Zen Baby Horse‘s Everyday Fails blog hop. No one is perfect, we all make mistakes and do ridiculous things sometimes, not to mention that horses are the most humbling thing I’ve ever come across. But it’s ok to fail, because that’s how we learn. Why not celebrate our failures just as much as our successes? We all take this sport very seriously, but sometimes we have to embrace the fail moments and inject a little levity.

Did you know I’m basically a professional mane sniffer?

Sometimes you just gotta get down in there and take a nice deeeeeep whiff.

This one is called The I-Can’t-Commit-to-a-Distance. Poor Charlie was a saint. This photo proves that there’s a horsey heaven, and he’s in it.

Jezebel’s first open ditch produced quite the deer leap. Monsters.

I still don’t really know quite what happened here, but that’s about as derpy as you can get.

That time I tried to take NICE PICTURES with my two HORRIBLE DONKEYS

That time Kai kind of forgot how big 1.00m is and left me clinging to him like a monkey

and then the other time

and then the OTHER time.

Charlie’s (and my) first Training level event, when he tripped in the water and we both came inches away from taking an unexpected bath.

That time I really loved the long spot

and the other time

okay it’s basically all the time.

The early days of Henry, when he was obese and downhill and overbent and I remedied it with intense piano hands.

Remember that time I won a bridle for 2nd and Bobby won a rubber bracelet for 3rd? I remember. Oh boy do I ever remember. #bobbyfail

and of course, even though this is 16 years old, it’s still the best video ever…

It took less than 48 hours from when I posted last week about my plans for the rest of the year for things to go astray. I got a call on Thursday afternoon from the from the secretary of the dressage show I had planned for Sunday, telling me that they don’t offer Eventing tests, only USDF tests (despite the entry saying “Higher level USEF tests, Freestyle, Eventing, and Rider tests are welcome to be ridden Hors Concours (HC).”. Guess that line wasn’t supposed to be in the show bill? Boo. I didn’t really feel like trying to learn two new USDF tests last minute so I just opted out instead. Kinda bummed, because I thought we finally had a good little dressage show series that would let us do Eventing tests for cheap. But also not at all bummed, because I wasn’t really in the mood for a dressage show anyway.

So instead I packed the weekend with fun things that had absolutely nothing to do with dressage, because that’s way better. On Saturday myself and a couple folks from the barn went to Granger Lake again to trail ride.

We took our longest route yet, which led to some very unfortunate chafing to my lady bits by the time we were done, most of which went undiscovered until I got in the shower and the burning was very real. But it was worth it anyway for a nice relaxing ride with friends and a fun little canter. If your sound is on you get to hear me tell Henry “No bucking!” toward the end. He has no respect for my one-handed cell phone video attempt.

On Sunday I put the jumps up a couple holes and popped him over a few fences.

It was pretty hot already even at 10am so I kept it short but he jumped around happily and even saved my butt once when I failed to steer (which unfortunately was not caught on film to go in the Fail Vault). Bless you Henry. He’s starting to feel more comfortable and confident with bigger fences… it wasn’t too long ago that he would have said hell no instead of saving my ass. Maturity – he’s getting it. Or he’s just given up and resigned himself to a sad life of carting around a moron. Either way, props buddy.

I think my favorite thing ever is his face when he’s locked and loaded on a fence. His ears. His teeth. It’s too much. Pretty sure he was much happier with our Plan B weekend than he would have been with a “stuffy, boring, horrific” (his words) dressage show.

His forelock when I got off was pretty hilarious too. All of that badassery really does a number on one’s hair.

Sorrynotsorry dressage show. We didn’t miss you one bit.