Back from Congress - Part 2 - The shopping!!!

Ok – so the shopping at Congress is pretty awesome.  Most major horse product and western clothing retailers are there with a booth/store.  I had a list about a mile long of stuff that I wanted to buy for my show season next year.  I found a lot of that stuff and a few extra things!  

Note: I didn't take many photos as it was tricky to manage a camera and all of my bags of stuff!  Next time I go, I'll take my big camera and try and get some nice shots.

My new Justins

I bought jewelry, boots, a hat, a show bridle, a show saddle pad and a new show shirt.  Not to mention 2 new sets of heavy leather reins, spurs, spur straps and some new clothes!  I may have gone just a bit overboard, but when in Rome…  ;-)  I come from a family of shoppers and everyone always jokes that I was raised in a mall! Lol  I don’t shop much at home, but when I am away on a shopping trip, I can get a bit carried away.

Buying the hat was quite fun, as most of the retailers have a “hat bar” where you can get your hat shaped. I’d never seen anyone do that before, so it was neat.  I bought a cheaper hat, because I don’t wear it much and I don’t have the budget for a super fancy one.  Some of the nicer felt hats start around $600 and can go up well over $1000!  Yikes!  Luckily the guys at Rod’s took the time to shape my low budget hat, just like they would for a fancier one. 

Hat steaming and shaping - photo from Rod's blog

Finding a show headstall was my big goal and the one thing I really wanted to purchase. I must have gone to 25 places searching for the right one. There were lots of super expensive ones, but I was trying to find the sweet spot for quality and price, without breaking the bank. I drooled over the Kathy’s and the Harris ones, but at approx. $1200, they were way out of my price range. I looked at some more “budget” options, but the silver was all yellowed and chipped.  *sigh* 

I did use my iphone camera to take pictures and notes on headstalls. I'm sure people thought I was weird, but it was the only way to keep everything straight!

I ended up finding a really nice Circle Y headstall and my friend was able to negotiate a nice price on it  because she bought a fancy saddle from the same store last year! So, I ended up with a quality headstall and stayed well within my budget!

I haven't even tried it on Spencer yet, since he is all hairy and dirty!  

My friends also knew a few vendors, since they have all been coming to Congress for years. A lot of the vendors have also been there for many years, in the same booth location.  One booth had nice southwestern designed clothing and two friends spent a lot of time and money there.  While we were waiting for the girls to try on hundreds (or so it seemed!) of outfits, I spent time with the vendor's cute Boston terrier and drinking a cold beer!  

Not too shabby!  :-)

There was also several tons of bling for sale on the grounds. It was a bit overwhelming and not really to my style.  There were cheap bling belts and necklaces and lots of very expensive stuff as well.  

I spent a bit of time looking at this place that sold tack that you could customize with conchos. I probably went by the booth 4 times over the weekend, but ended up not buying anything...this year.

concho central!

 There were all kinds of leather products - handmade stuff was popular...

 Clothes, belts, bling - there was lots of it - in any colour you could think of!

I really liked this one place - they had really neat frames, mirrors and furniture. I can't remember the name of the store, but their stuff was really nice and not too badly priced. I probably would have brought something home if we had enough room in the car!  But, it was also good to leave a few things to buy on future visits!