First of all – congrats to all my peeps at PS of Sweden on winning another Hippson award! They are having a 15% celebration sale on everything in the store with the code vinnare14. Just enabling saying…

On to Henry things… since we’re fiiiinally having a stretch of good weather here (knock on wood) we’ve been able to get back to regular rides. No more of this once or twice a week thing that we’ve been doing pretty much since the end of November! Nothing super specific is going on yet. We did our XC school last weekend and we did a jump school on Monday night… definitely feeling rusty but hopefully things will start coming together again quickly.

And in even better news, my picture taking friend Amy was able to come back out! We haven’t been working on anything particularly exciting, but hey – pictures are pictures. There is solid proof that I do, in fact, still ride. And yes I’m wearing a sunshirt in these pics because it was 85 and sunny that day. Sorrynotsorry, northerners.

 

 

 

On Tuesday we had a fantastic hack out in the big front field. We worked on some tougher flatwork and he was really game and forward. I think he was just happy to be out in a nice big open space again… it’s been a while. After he gave me a little stretchy trot I let him gallop a big lap around the field as a fun reward for his efforts. Of course, it was pretty warm so by that point he was already a bit tired and sweaty so it wasn’t that exciting. But he did get his first hose-down of the year, which I found incredibly exciting. Him, not so much.

He also lost a shoe somewhere in the field but luckily the farrier was coming the next day so he only had to go shoeless overnight. Good timing.

For the rest of the month I’m hoping to fit in a couple dressage lessons (better yet – have the dressage trainer RIDE him!) and on the 28th we’re tentatively planning a sj/xc semi-private at a venue a couple hours away with course designer and trainer Carsten Meyer. For now, I’m just so happy to be back in the saddle with good weather and good rides!

Tracy of Fly On Over posted this last week and I thought it was such a good idea, so I’m glad she turned it into a blog hop! It’s interesting to see what a typical day in everyone else’s life is like, especially since we all share in the same struggle of trying to balance horses, work, and life. Here’s what a typical day for me looks like:

6:08am – (not kidding, on the dot every morning) Wake up and try to determine from the level of darkness what time it is. Wonder why it’s so impossible for me to actually sleep all the way to my 7am alarm.

6:10 – Give up on guessing the time, sit halfway up and look over SO to see the clock. Flop back down and wonder if it’s possible to fall asleep again. This movement alerts the dogs, who climb into bed for morning cuddles and inevitably press their cold wet noses into my face.

6:45 – Decide I’m bored waiting for the alarm to go off and get up to let the dogs out and get ready for work. I also pack a bag with everything I’ll need for the day’s activities then head out the door for my 10 minute commute to work.

7:30 – Plop down at my desk with some cereal and start updating the status of all the orders and repairs in the queue before my first meeting. Weed through my emails and make sure no “fires” have started since the day before that need immediate attention.

8:00 – Meeting. Erry day.

8:30 – Meeting. Erry day.

9:30 – Answer all the emails and phone calls I missed while I was in my meetings and then try to get some actual work done.

10:30 – Decide I’m going crazy in my tiny box of an office and wander to the break room for refreshments. Stare longingly at the cookies and candy, but grab an apple or banana or orange and a water instead. Grumble about it for at least 10 minutes.

11:30 – Try really hard not to kill anyone while thinking about how much I want the pizza buffet.

11:32 – Briefly consider just how many people I’d be willing to kill in exchange for a free trip through the pizza buffet…

12:00 – Eat a Clif bar and some almonds at my desk instead because there’s just no time for a lunch break. Still continue to fantasize about the pizza buffet.

1:00 – put out whatever inevitable “fire” has sprung up during the day.

2:00 – Ponder how bad life could possibly be as a vagrant. Remember the horse costs money, therefore I have to have a job. Daydream about being independently wealthy instead. Eat my feelings by way of more cereal or fruit.

3:30 – Look at the giant pile of work that still remains and decide to stay an extra hour.

4:30 – Leap out of my chair and drive to the barn, cursing stupid drivers the whole way. This could also be considered a time where I’m trying really hard not to kill anyone.

5:15 – On the horse. Finally my happy place. Suddenly I have no more desire to kill anyone.

6:30 – Stuff horse full of cookies and bid him farewell.

7:00 – Drive into the parking lot at the gym and immediately give up on finding a parking spot, so drive around the back and park at another business instead. It’s ok, I’ve had my horse therapy.

7:15 – In the pool.

8:00 – In the shower.

8:30 – Finally home. Stare at the contents of fridge/pantry as if they will magically put themselves together for dinner. Finally just give up and throw together whatever is quick and easy and not terribly unhealthy (unless we’ve both had a really bad day, then we eat macaroni and cheese, don’t make eye contact, and never speak of it again).

9:30 – Climb into bed to relax and read. Usually fall asleep before 10:30 still holding my Kindle. Glare at SO and dogs when they come to bed and wake me up. Roll over and congratulate myself on another successful day of not killing anyone before drifting back off to sleep.

Sometimes the times shift a little if I have to be at spin class by 6, or if I’m just too tired for a barn/gym double, or if it’s too wet to ride. But in general – that’s my life. Reading this makes me think we should all pool together and buy a crapton of lottery tickets so we don’t have do to that pesky work thing. It really gets in the way of riding…

When you’re shopping for something specific or trying to find a good deal, sometimes shopping overseas can give you more bang for your buck or open up your options for more unusual items. Of course the flip side of the coin is that buying from a foreign shop or person can be a little bit nerve-wracking and intimidating. In this post I covered the basic ins and outs of how to go about buying from overseas.

I had many requests asking which websites I would recommend, so here is a list of some that I have had positive experiences with. Or at least the ones I can remember… some transactions were so long ago I’ll probably never find my way back to them.

England:

Equestrian clearance

Aztec diamond

Amira equi

Just riding

Red Post Equestrian

Selwood Equine (hint: join their mailing list for sale coupons)

 

The Netherlands:

Divoza (they also have regular coupon codes if you’re on their mailing list)

 

Germany:

Calevo

 

France:

Padd

Kval Boutique

http://www.selle-expert.com/selles-occasion.php Used saddles – inventory comes and goes pretty quickly but they’re well priced.

https://annonces.ffe.com/annonces-selles Used saddle classifieds

https://annonces.ffe.com/index.php?a=5&b=999&seller=1949 – direct link to Thierry de Verdelhan’s listings, the used saddle reseller I bought my CWD from. His inventory also comes and goes quickly, I would message him if you’re looking for something specific.

http://www.chevalannonce.com/annonces/fr/selle-a-vendre-occasion/ more used saddle classifieds

 

Sweden:

PS of Sweden

Also – never underestimate the power of another country’s eBay. It might take a little work on your part, as far as translating, contacting the seller to see if they’ll ship, figuring out payment, etc, but sometimes the savings can be worth it. The easiest way to find each eBay is to just go to Google and type “eBay France” or whatever country. Usually I hit the UK, France and Germany for sure, and sometimes Italy, Poland, Netherlands, Sweden if I’m really scraping or think I have a better chance of finding a certain product there. Whatever item you’re looking for, it helps to know where the company is based and start there. Usually the easiest thing to do is search for a certain brand since that’s universal across all languages (ie Devoucoux, Animo, etc) but if you’re searching for a more general object, learn the word for it in whatever language you need. For instance, it’s really easy to hit up google translate and figure out that sattel, selle, sella, silla, sadel mean saddle. If it’s a more specific item google might not be of help, but usually with a little bit of sleuthing you can figure it out.

This can be summed up really quickly and easily…

Highs: XC Schooling

Lows: Feeling like utter poop

I’ve been feeling a little meh since I got back from Philly but Sunday it seemed to move from annoying allergy like symptoms to full blown My Lungs are Broken with all kinds of interesting fluids leaking from my face. Of course I have way too much work to do to take an actual sick day (ha, I even worked half a day on Sunday) so I’ve just quarantined myself in my office. Maybe if I cough loudly enough people will leave me alone. I almost never get sick so surely it’ll go away soon. I hope so, I have a lesson tonight.

Enough whining, back to the fun stuff.

Saturday four of us from the barn loaded up and headed a couple hours down the road to XC school. We haven’t been out XC since our event last November, so it was good to knock some of the dust off. Henry started off a little behind the leg but found his groove and popped right over everything. We kept it pretty easy and simple especially considering that with all the rain in the past few months we’ve hardly jumped much, period. Or ridden much, period.

I’m kind of reconsidering my spring show plan too, but feeling indecisive about exactly what to do. I don’t think I’m really ready to think about it, I feel so behind the ball at this point from the lack of consistent riding. At least the weather for the past week has been good, and the next week looks great too, so maybe things will finally start to smooth out.

I’m also strongly considering buying the PS of Sweden hackamore bridle and switching the regular mechanical hackamore sides for either star hackamore rings

or Orbitless rings

I still really prefer jumping him bitless, but the mechanical hackamore is too much leverage and the sidepull isn’t enough whoa for XC. I was thinking maybe something like this would be a good in between option since it’s got a little bit of leverage but not a lot. Thoughts?

Also – if anyone out there would be interested in trading a dressage Ogilvy for one of my jumper Ogilvy’s, let me know! Otherwise, darn it, I guess I’ll just have to buy another one…

 

 

And her name is Makila. Devoucoux Makila.

First of all, this is 110% Beka’s fault. Remember her “Sugar Momma” blog hop when she asked “If you could buy anything for your horse, what you buy?” Yeah, well, let me explain.

When I drafted that post it was late one evening when I was home alone without much to do. After I drafted it I played around on the internet, looking longingly at all the things I’d put on my wishlist and pondering just how much good fortune it would take to make any of them happen. Then I was sitting there thinking about what an amazing deal I got on my CWD by buying from overseas, and figured I’d scope out all my favorite french used saddle sites and the various european countries’ eBays, just to get an idea of what kind of money I’d really be looking at for my coveted Devoucoux dressage saddle (either a Milady or a Makila). As I was scrolling oh so innocently through the German eBay, I happened upon a Makila that only had a few hours left on the bidding and had gotten no love. No surprise really, the Germans really love their own tack more than the French stuff.

The price was amazing, so just for grins I fired off a message to the seller asking if they’d ship to the US. Having been through the buying a saddle from overseas process before, usually the answer to that question is no, if you get an answer at all. But within an hour she answered back and said yes, she would ship to the US for an additional 48 Euro. We went back and forth a bit, I asked her some questions, did some quick comparisons of the panel configuration against what my CWD has, and it actually is a pretty darn close match. Well then. I pondered it for a little while and remembered that in addition to our profit sharing bonus, which is my show money for the year, I was also going to get another $750 bonus for my 10 year work anniversary, money that I’d totally forgotten about. I figured I could probably get around $500 from selling my Frank Baines, so add that together and the magic number is $1250. The saddle was $1255. Coincidence, I think not. So I bid at the last minute, remained the only bidder, and won the saddle.

I know it’s a little crazy to buy something from overseas without a trial, but a) I figure if it doesn’t work I can always re-sell it, and b) it worked out so amazingly for me last time with my CWD. Am I nuts for hoping lightning strikes twice? Probably, but I’m willing to try. The Frank Baines is fine but neither of us love it, so I find myself not riding in it very much. Henry and I both seem to be fans of a French saddle, and who am I to deny him?

On another note – ever tried to get an international wire transfer? I got quizzed like CRAZY while the company made very sure that I was not a terrorist. I had to explain why I was buying this item from a foreign country instead of stateside, and the honest answer of “I’m cheap, opportunistic, and nuts” isn’t really what they’re looking for so I had to find another more eloquent way to word it. It took a few days of back and forth to get approved for the transfer, then it took a while to go through on my side, then a few more days to go through on her side, so it’s been about 2 weeks and the saddle is just now finally on it’s way to me. I didn’t want to say anything until it was actually in the mail just in case it fell through (which almost happened a couple of times). Of course, it’s coming DHL Paket which is notorious for being sloooooow, so it could be somewhere between a week and month before it shows up. Let me tell you how unsatisfactory the obsessive tracking process is about to become.

Cross all your crossables that it arrives in one piece, fits the pony, and we like it. Risky? Yep, absolutely. Hopefully it will go the same way the CWD went and be a case of “with great risk comes great reward”.