I know that lately there has been a lot of talk among our equestrian blogging group about advertising, making money off of your blog, product exchanges, etc. In light of an email I was sent yesterday I felt like now was the perfect time to clarify something here for my readers.

*Before anyone gets upset, I’m not saying that my particular stance on this issue is better than anyone else’s, or that people should see things my way. I totally understand those who don’t. I merely want it to be clear where I in particular stand on this issue, because I feel pretty strongly about it.*

I was contacted yesterday by Horze, with the following email:

“Dear Amanda,

 Horze Equestrian is a European horse company that is now based in the United States and also all around the world.  Our company sells a wide range of equine tack and riding apparel that are great quality products.  You can browse our website [removed link] to see what we offer to customers as an equine company.

We were wondering if we can add a link from your blog towards [removed link].  You can either make a pure text link or use one of these badges:

[removed link]

Once you have added the link to your site, please reach back to me again, and I will verify it and send you compensation coupon for adding our website link to your website.

 If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to ask!

Thank you! Have a great day!”

First – of course I am flattered to some degree when any company contacts me. But I have to say, and I feel like it’s important for everyone to know, I am not for sale and neither is this blog’s ad space. This was my email response:

“Thank you for your interest. I am very particular about which companies I choose to link on my blog and unfortunately I do not place advertisements for companies that I’m not 100% familiar with and 100% comfortable backing. I have no experience with Horze or it’s products so I cannot in good conscience place an advertisement for you on my blog. I try to maintain a very good reputation for reliability of opinion, so I’m sure you can understand my hesitation to recommend a brand that I am unfamiliar with. If at some point in the future I am able to use some Horze products and find them to be of excellent quality I would possibly re-consider, but at this time that is not the case.

Thank you again,

Amanda”

And their reply

“Hi Amanda,

 Your [sic] very welcome!  Thank you for your response and we understand what you are saying.  Please let us know if you have re-considered our offer.“

I’m not trying to be bitchy or preachy or holier-than-thou here, but I want to have a reputation for only representing companies that I can stand behind 100%. My view is that if I choose to put something on my page then I am representing it, and I have to be able to stand behind it – ads included. If you’ll notice, there are only TWO companies linked on this blog’s sidebar, with a third coming soon. These are companies who I feel offer superior products, superior service, are appreciative of/understand just how much bloggers can impact their business, and have proven worthy of the ad space. I quite enjoy the partnerships with these businesses, mostly because I feel 100% confident recommending them to readers. First and foremost, I’m a fan: I was a customer before they ever made it onto my blog, and I remain a customer to this day. You will NEVER find ads from companies that do not meet that criteria on this blog. I will not blindly represent something that I know nothing about. There will never be ad space sold here. All of the reviews that you read are and always will be my uncensored opinion and all recommendations are and always will be without ulterior motive.

I care a lot more about being trustworthy and having people feel like my opinions on products are unswayed by personal benefit or profit. I felt it was important to bring this up both for the sake of the readers and any companies who might consider contacting me in the future. If you really want to team up and I’m not already a customer, lets talk about product reviews or demos of some kind. Sell your company and your products to me, make me believe in them, make me want to recommend them to others… don’t try to buy my ad space with a coupon! But be forewarned: I’m picky and have high expectations. You have to EARN your way onto this blog, you can’t buy it.

Today’s blog entry marks my 100th post. I’m not sure if I should apologize to y’all for making you read that much of my endless ranting/whining or get down and kiss everyone’s feet for continuing to come back here day after day and slog through my monotony. Coincidentally, yesterday was also a record setting day with the most views ever to date. I figured the best way to celebrate was with pictures of pretty things and less words from me than usual. Therefore – enjoy the official debut of the Mango Bay F/W 2014 collection!

Turkish belts: $28

Wide belt lovers, your wishes have been granted. These new 2″ belts fit perfectly into the wider loops of Trophy Hunters and the patterns are just beautiful. I have two of these already (the french blue “Denim Tapestry” in the middle and the black “Fall Blossoms” toward the right) and absolutely love them. Pretty sure the pink “Geranium Blossom” is a NEED too. They’re backed with webbing to add more strength and have a keeper on the flap end to prevent the excess from flapping around. These are just so pretty, pictures don’t even do them justice.

Paisley fabric belts – $28

Also a new design for Mango Bay this season is the fabric belt. This style is 1 3/4″ wide so should work with a variety of belt loop sizes, and comes in three colors. There are lots of fabric belts on the market now but the unique part of the Mango Bay design is that the core is webbing, which helps them maintain their shape well and be more durable.

Canvas belts (new width!) – $19

And of course – new patterns for their classic canvas belts! These too are a little bit wider than previous designs, on 1.5″ canvas. At only $19 you can’t beat the price on these guys… they’re so versatile and you can wear them with just about anything.

Belt buckles – $20-28

Besides awesome new belts Mango Bay is now offering belt buckles. There’s something here for everyone, from super simple to super ornate. Definitely a must have item.

Hope you guys like the new collection as much as I do. Don’t forget that Christmas is just around the corner and these make fantastic presents at a great value. And thanks again for sticking with me through the first 100! Here’s to many more.

Last night was my first dressage lesson in about 10 years. My feelings toward it have not changed but it’s something that has to be done. So, I sucked it up with only a minimal (for me) amount of whining.

After a little warmup we started by trotting on a circle over a fan of groundpoles in both directions. That really helped give me and Henry the feeling of lifting and pushing with the inside hind. Similar to this diagram but a little tighter spaced and another pole or two. Great exercise. I need this in my life all the time.

Then we got to work. First I rode my test through once (for Saturday it’s BN Test A, which I didn’t actually bother to fully learn before my lesson because pfffft preperation smesheration. Sorry Lisa.) then we talked about things to improve and I rode it through again. It was much better the second time but there were still a few movements (mostly the medium walk-free walk-medium walk, the trot to canter transition and canter circle to the right, and the last turn up centerline) that needed a lot of work. We spent some time on just those specific movements, with much improvement. Putting it together is still pretty difficult and I definitely have my work cut out for me on Saturday. It’s amazing how much harder it is to do things in a 20m x 40m space. I feel much better prepared though and have tons of things to work on over the next few months. The good moments were enough to give me hope for both of us.

My brain was super fried when I was done, so as soon as I got off I jotted down some notes in my phone lest I forget. These were the main points that stuck with me.

– Don’t be afraid to be bold when coming down centerline. Make an entrance.
– Half halt. No really: half halt.
– Tempo tempo tempo. Even and calm, don’t rush.
– On the 20m trot circles think “leg yield”. It helps shape his body around the circle.
– Light easy aids into canter, don’t be in a hurry.
– Always be thinking one movement ahead and BE ACCURATE.
– Make sure to have an obvious change of rein length from medium walk to free walk and back to medium.
– Trust the free walk, open hips and thighs to follow the motion and breathe.
– To the right when he falls heavy on his inside shoulder, lift the inside hand and my own shoulder (we both lean this way).
– Horse needs more shoulder fore work in general.
– Make sure to give plenty of outside rein when making turns onto centerline to allow him to really bend through the turn.
– Halt at X. Hey idiot self, X was back there! Every… damn… time. They really should mark that with spray paint or something. Just sayin. A big red X would help me a lot. Or maybe just a stop sign?

Not a bad collection of notes for a little over half an hour of lesson. Obviously we have work to do!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be sitting in the corner rocking back and forth in fetal position until my brain recovers, which quite honestly could be never.

Stories from the Saddle‘s first blog hop topic is a good one: Why do you do what you do?

Before I get into what I do and why, I feel like I should probably recount all the things I’ve done so that you understand more about where I’m coming from. I started riding in a Pony Club barn, but since I didn’t have my own horse I wasn’t actually in Pony Club. Still, it was mainly an eventing barn. I only took lessons once a week for two years before we moved away, so really I was just a beginner kid on lesson horses learning how to ride and jump.

When we moved to Texas I called all the barns in the phone book (ah, the good ol’ days) that said they offered lessons and left a message. Only one of those called me back so tada – that’s where I started riding. It was a h/j barn so that’s what I did. I started in the hunters but moved pretty quickly over to the jumpers, which was definitely my preference.

Then after high school I went to be a working student at an eventing barn (partly because those are the barns with more working student opportunities, and party because I felt ready to learn something new). I came back from that experience with a lot of enthusiasm for my new sport and kept at it for a few years afterward.

A couple horses later I found myself with a pretty nice young horse off the track who showed an aptitude for hunters, so back I went into that. It only took a couple years though for me to get majorly burned out. That horse was sold and I went as opposite as possible – a little QH with some reining experience. I had a good time with her just learning to ride western and remembering how to have fun again, then eventually sold her and bought another TB. At that time I also had my young mare, who was bred to be a hunter (I bred her in the midst of my hunter phase). But not long after getting her started I remembered that I actually hated the hunters (sorry) and leased a jumper as well. Once I was back in the jumper ring I knew that’s where I was happiest. At one point Sadie was actually for sale. Then we figured out that she too was happier as a jumper so I decided to keep her.

I bought Henry specifically looking for a jumper. I have zero desire to do the hunters (only exception being hunter derbies) ever again. I also have a major hatred for dressage. Tons of respect for it, it’s super hard, but I just find it as dull as humanly possible. It’s really the only thing that keeps eventing from being my perfect sport.

The point of all this rambling is to illustrate that I don’t really have a sport. I’ve always been a wanderer I suppose… I do whatever a) suits the horse b) suits my mood at the time c) looks fun. If you made me claim one it’d definitely be jumpers first and foremost. Mainly because it’s so technical but still fun and so much of it (at least past a certain level) depends on rider skill. Even though you’re competing against other people, in a way it always feels like you’re competing against yourself. Making better decisions, better turns, thinking ahead to where you can save time, always trying to make your round as fast and clean as possible. That appeals to me a lot more than having the fanciest horse who jumps or moves the best and trying to find 8 jumps, and to be honest I’m very bothered by the measures taken to get a lot of top hunters to the ring these days. I just can’t get on board with that.

Eventing would be my second choice. I will say that above a certain level I think it’s just crazy stupid. I have a hell of a lot of respect for fences that don’t fall down and my interest wanes past Training level. But I think of all the horse sports eventers generally tend to have the best sportsmanship, best horsemanship, and best general all around base of knowledge. Sure they’re a little yahoo sometimes and good god someone teach them to use a hairnet properly (jk I love you guys. But really: hairnet) but at the end of the day they’re the crowd I like to hang out with most. Their sport is one of the hardest but also one of the most fun. I mean come on – who doesn’t want to gallop around and jump fences out in a field? Just take that pesky dressage crap out. 😉

Considering the massive amount of rain we got last week, I was pretty sure that the weekend was a lost cause for riding. And on Saturday I was right… we spent an hour handwalking (the turnouts have been too wet for over a week) and grazing and grooming, but that was about it. The dogs had quite a fun time hunting mice though.

 

I also got a pretty awesome haul of new One Horse Designs shirts in the mail on Saturday. Ordered on Wednesday, arrived on Saturday! Can’t beat that. I love them. In fact, I’m wearing one right now (the blue one with the horse head).

By Sunday everything miraculously dried out and the footing was perfect in all the rings and fields. Turnouts are still pretty wet, so Henry hadn’t been turned out in over a week and hadn’t been ridden since our XC school last weekend, but I just got right on. He was exactly the same as he always is… there’s a lot to be said for a horse that can sit for a while and not be a nut. How I got lucky enough to own two of those is anyone’s guess.

We did practice a little dressage test. Why? Because I think I’ve decided I’m gonna go ahead and try to do the eventing derby this weekend. Why the hell not. The hunter derby is a maybe… I probably won’t decide on that one until the day of. I did discover that our ability to dressage is worse than I thought, so I have a dressage lesson tomorrow. My least favorite thing in the world. Yippee. But it has to be done.

After my ride I joined in the group of eventers at the barn to watch Sylvester (one of the very few horse movies I hadn’t seen yet) and talk a little about eventing in general. Let me tell you, there are many worse ways to while away a Sunday afternoon.

This morning I have jury duty. Ugh.