Wordless Wednesday

A Fool and her money are quickly parted

Now that I have my nice new Western saddle, all that I can think about is buying an English saddle!!

Tack sales just drive me crazy! Is anyone else like that? Please say yes! lol

Two big fat sales flyers came in the mail a couple of weeks ago and I read and re-read them a bunch of times.

Stubben English bridle - 50% off! Wow. I like Stubben. Wait a second - I already have 2 English bridles at home and I don't even have an English saddle!

Fancy wool half pads - 60% off! What a great deal! Oh wait. I don't have an English saddle anymore. But, if I buy a nice saddle pad on sale, I'll have it for later!

Tons of English saddles - 20-40% off! Cool! Oh wait - Rusty is super hard to fit and I only ride 3x a week as it is. When would I ride English?

And it goes on and on. I don't NEED any more tack, but man do I WANT more! How silly is that? I'm trying really hard to save money, so that I can pay off some debt and put away some money for the future. All of these tack sales aren't helping! Why is it that horse ownership leads itself to buying so much stuff?

Seeing as how my board is going up $50 in a few days, I have been able to resist even setting foot in one of these tack shops - I can't guarantee that I will survive though. One tack shop's sale lasts for a month! How cruel is that???

I need to keep thinking of that old saying: "The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket..." Although, it doesn't really seem to apply to horse ownership - it is a costly hobby!

Finally, the wait is over...

I got my new western saddle on Thursday at lunch. I had to wait until Friday night to go try it out...

And...guess what??

It fits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was trying not to get my hopes up, because I've had such a hard time with english and western saddles on old Rusty. I rode last night and again this morning. And the best part about the saddle? It fits BOTH of us. I find it comfortable and secure, as well as balanced. It even has short little fenders for my stubby little legs! :-) What a novel feeling!

Now I have no excuse for not getting out and riding more.

A head shot of Rusty in his new bridle. I bought the bridle about a month ago. It is about a 90% match for colour with the saddle - not bad in my opinion. The tooling on the bridle is slightly different than the saddle, but you would have to look really closely to notice. Rusty is patiently putting up with me taking his picture, but he has one ear on the mare in the paddock to his left who was pacing and calling out.
Attempted close-up shot. The brand is Rocking R and was made in Alabama. So far, I'm happy with the quality of the leather and stitching. The guy that owns the shop I bought it from makes his own custom saddles. They cost about 3x what this one did, so I couldn't afford to buy local this time around...

The saddle looks a little small from this angle, but I thought I would post it anyway. It is a cute shot of Rusty and his little poof ball of a forelock. I've been tempted to steal a bit of hair from the other horses to make him a forelock, but haven't gotten around to it yet!

So, the great saddle search of '09 comes to an end. I'm riding again tomorrow and we have a farrier appointment as well. Rusty may even get a bath since it is so hot out now. Happy trails everyone!

Thursday update

We had 2 sunny days (not in a row, however) this past long weekend, so I made sure to get some riding in. I dragged my hubby out to the barn on Monday morning. I ride alone about 80% of the time, so it was nice to have someone else around. I rode in the ring to warm up for about 30 minutes and then we ventured out on the road. My hubby walked and I rode. Not a bad deal!

Rusty is a very broke horse, so he was fine on the road. We were passed by 10 cars (yes, I counted!) and 9/10 get a gold star. They slowed down and pulled over to the other lane to give us lots of room. One truck and trailer didn't really slow down, but Rusty was fine with it. We were also passed by several cyclists and all Rusty did was flick his ear back when he heard them approach. I am happy to know that Rusty is so reliable out on the road. I was pretty sure he would be good, but you just never know. We didn't meet any animals besides horses and one yappy dog, so I don't know how he would be with sheep or llamas or something. I'm guessing he will be fine, since he is pretty lazy!

I had two problems on that ride - I brought my camera to take some pictures of my adventure for you guys - but the batteries were dead! Bad blogger!!! The second is that Rusty's feet are pretty tender on gravel. That is a bummer. We walked on the edge of the pavement 95% of the way and he was fine. I'm not sure what is going on there - I'll have to ask my farrier at my next appointment in a week or so.

Do you guys have any insight on that? Will a horse's feet toughen up a bit if you carefully get them used to gravel? Can some horses just not handle it? I would like to ride out on the roads a bit more, but I really don't want to have to put shoes on... Something to ponder anyway. Nothing is ever very simple with horses, it seems.

Good news - my new western saddle is in! It arrived in the shop last Friday. The owner is getting it ready and oiling it for me. I'm going out of town tomorrow for a few days so I won't be able to pick it up until next week! I'm really hoping that it fits. The store owner is a saddle maker/fitter and he came out and sized Rusty up. So, that gives me some confidence. I have been taking it easy riding-wise with Rusty until we get the saddle fit issues sorted out. After his little vacation this weekend, he'd better be ready to get back to work!

Well, that is it for me for a few days - probably won't be online much. It is my Mom's 60th birthday this weekend, so we are heading down south for a visit. I'm planning on taking a bit of time to dig through my Mom's boxes of memorabilia from when I was young. My Dad kept a notebook on my horses to keep track of hay and things that we bought for them. I've been feeling nostalgic for my childhood lately (I'm blaming that on my birthday coming up next month!) so it will be fun to see if I can find some of those old files.

Happy trails!