The Nightmare Before Halloween (?)

If you follow me on social media (aka are not a cave troll EMMA), you probably saw this beautiful, beautiful picture last week. 

all the pretties

I've never had much in grey before, but I was clicking around the Riding Warehouse site (danger Will Robinson) and I found that the Noble Outfitters cowl neck shirt I've wanted forever. I try not to buy black shirts because I normally buy blue (or blue) everything, so I got it in grey. But that was only $27! And free shipping at $50! 

So then I looked at Roeckl gloves and they had black, dark brown, light tan, and grey. I didn't want the first two colors because my biggest problem with gloves is losing them and I have nothing tan but omg there's a grey shirt in my cart! 

And of course, now that I had two grey things, there were visions of this perfect dressage queen outfit dancing in my head. All I need was grey polos. I already have a black pad with grey trim! And black bridles! And omg my iridescent stirrups would be the perfect color pop. Found some grey polos, chucked them in the cart, got a $10 off coupon, and waited 48 hours for my prizes to show up. 

When they did, I noticed that the polos were labelled "grey ombre", which seemed cool. Ombre is super in right now I think (isn't it?). In my head, they were going to be gorgeous--a subtle fade from black to grey up the leg. Omg. Can you even? I cannot. 

Cough.

And I promptly skipped out to the barn to put them on. Which was when I found out that for no very good reason, the "ombre" was simply a 12" pattern of black to greyish... and when you wrap it...

nooooooooo

You get a freaking Tim Burton zebra, not an understated-but-edgy, deeply sophisticated interpretation of traditional dressage style.

Yeah I'll say it again. Tim. Burton. Zebra. 

It was horrifying. It was also dusk, so I thought maybe if I threw him on the lunge and took pictures, the god-awful stripes would sort of blend into a uniform steel grey or something. 

I took a gorgeous silhouetted shot of Courage cantering past the sunset, and yeah, all I can see is his freaking zebra legs.

still nope

I tried to hold off making a decision on them, but the next day when I came out the the barn and had to choose between neatly-rolled TBZ grey polos and re-rolling a gross, dirty brownish set of supposedly white polos that needed a wash desperately, I didn't even hesitate. And I was at the barn alone with no one to impress.

he's embarrassed

So uh. It's a good thing Alyssa is a Tim Burton fan because these are definitely not staying in the collection. 

Dressage Sport Boots Review

It's time to review my set of DSB originals or Dressage Sport Boots. I have the navy with white fleece model. They offer sizes small through XL and are widely available online. I've now had these boots a little under a year and it's high time to do a review.

Full disclosure: while I bought these boots because they are pretty, Courage does interfere especially behind. He's a very narrow horse and I know he's going to destroy everything eventually because he puts a lot more wear on boots than a horse who has them only for aesthetics.

Construction: 

These boots feature a faux-sheepskin lining that is easy to rinse out when it's dirty. The exterior is (per the website) "puncture and abrasion resistant heavy-duty vinyl with a strike plate". The elastic is heavy duty and shows no signs of wear even after 10 months of being used 1-2x a week on average. The velcro sticks great.

I'm really picky about elastic straps on boots--I hate when it's too stretchy because then it can be overtightened and I hate when there's no give because then it's hard to get the fit right. These boots strikes a nice balance--the elastic gives a little but hasn't worn out and is in great shape.

Fit:

Courage has really average horse-sized legs. Like most really average horses, he goes in a medium boot in front and a large boot behind. I bought these without having the opportunity to try them on, but it was totally fine. The edges of the boots meet with no gaping or overlap and the elastic is the correct length to close the boots securely without overlaping. The boots fit his medium-bone legs perfectly and I have no complaints.

Durability:

I boot up my horse so that when he does interfere, the wear is taken out on the boot and not on his skin. Thus, these boots do have wear. I'm ok with that. Courage primarily interferes low on his hind legs. As such, that's where the wear is on these boots--the strike plate is still in good shape, the fleece is plenty poofy and not dead or gross looking, and the elastic and velcro are holding up great.

The exterior stitching where Courage interferes is starting to rub out. The boots are still holding together fine and I fully expect to get another year or two out of them without further maintenance. In fact, if I were to have them restitched, it's possible they'd last even longer. (Now that I think about it, this seems like a pretty good idea.)

Value:

I purchased my Dressage Sport Boots through Riding Warehouse in the early fall of 2015. They're listed at $42/pair with a discount for buying two or more pairs. I'm pretty sure I also had a coupon code when I ordered, so my total for a full set of four attractive navy boots was a little under $80.

not kidding about narrow behind

As I mentioned, I've already had and used these boots for nearly a year and I expect to have them a good deal longer. To me, this is an excellent value for boots. They're still more expensive than polos, to be sure, but they are dramatically easier to use and wash (hint: hose and hang dry. Ivory soap if you're picky). I have had zero trouble with Courage reacting to the boots and he can be VERY picky.  I have even recommended these boots to friends, which is something I'm pretty careful about.

Dislikes: 

I'd be hard pressed to come up with something I don't like about these boots--they're pretty classy looking. Let's face it: basically all fleece lined boots in any price bracket looks the same, so not much sense in paying $275+ for Mattes sheepskin boots when these will do the job. If I have to nit pick, I'd say I don't like to ride through the stickers and weeds in these boots because the fleece can pick up seeds and stickers, but that's sort of a universal fleece thing and that's why we have non-fleece boots for riding in weeds sooooooo.

In general, my only objection to these boots is that I prefer how polos look. That's not a negative about the boots, simply a comment on my personal preferences and amount of free time.

Conclusion: 

If you need a good all-purpose boots that offers superior protection and can be used and abused without guilt and still look great, this is the boot  for you. Easy to use, easy to clean, easy to store, easy to find.

Riding Warehouse: The Rumors are True

LOOK AT MY HORSE MY HORSE IS SO CUTE

Truth be told, I almost never buy things new from retailers these days (we'll exclude PS of Sweden from this discussion). I mean, I price check on websites, yeah, but beyond that? Not really my thing. I'm all about bargain hunting, back-door deals, and buying used.

So when bloggers started reviewing Riding Warehouse like it was the latest, greatest thing, I was like "meh" and didn't really look in to it.

But you all know I've been on a hunt for novelty stirrups. What you don't know is that despite my Ho status, I am a confirmed tightwad and the idea of paying more than $125 shipped for lil platforms to put my feet on was giving me absolute stitches.

And then for some random reason, I ran over to Riding Warehouse's website on a whim. (Never do this, apparently.)

They had composite flex Royal Riders (NOT the knock offs) on clearance for $125. And free shipping over $50. And I had a 15% coupon code THAT THEY LET ME STACK ON TOP OF THE CLEARANCE PRICE.

my pretties

Um can I get a HELLZ YEAH?

Thank you. That was late Monday afternoon. I snagged the last set of clearance stirrups, a pair of white bell boots I'd been wanting (for like 50% off), and hit order. The whole shebang shipped (FREE!) to me and arrived on my porch by Thursday afternoon.

To reiterate: I just got $180 stirrups and $30 bell boots with two day shipping via UPS for $122. BRAND SPANKING NEW.

I will definitely be a repeat customer.

PS: I was going to use my sweet Canadian bell boots in our clinic last weekend, but when it's 28f while I'm tacking up, I am NOT taking pull ons off.