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. 

Hoarders: Tack Trunk Edition

Most of you saw and/or participated in the "what's in your tack trunk" blog hop that was going around. Y'all had tidy little inventories of useful things and it was cute.

I was over here like "I have no goddamn clue what's in that giant abyss and I don't really want to find out". As Lindsey can tell you, I've been promising to go through it for like... a month. And hadn't. Oh and yes, it was/is my daily driver. I'd just sort of sit on the lid to squish it down and latch it each day.

But due to some unforeseen circumstances the other day,  I finally had time to go through it. Here's what I found:

bridle rack above

jumbled mess below

 I tried to make a bet with friends that there were 8+ sets of polos in there, but no one would take those odds.

stuff

This photo shows 7 full sets of polos in various states of cleanliness. There are also 3 pairs of polos and there was another full set ready for put on C-rage. That doesn't include two full sets of bandage liners or two full sets of boots.

I also had:

two sad pairs of bell boots

Two whips and a lunge line

eight bonnets

Plus there was this pile:

STUFF

So yeah, that's a quarter sheet, saddle cover, ogilvy pad, mattes shims, and you can just see the tboots. All good things, but possibly not things that actually fit in said trunk. This list actually isn't comprehensive. I had my CO sparkle helmet in a bag with a spare hat and gloves, plus my beater Ovation helmet and winter gloves, plus a couple of mismatched gloves and of course my brush box.

In my defense, I cleaned out the brush box a few weeks back to make room for fancy new brushes, so that part actually wasn't terrible.

I took everything out of the trunk, sorted it by whether it needed to be thrown away, given away, washed and put away, or washed and brought back. Then I threw away the trash, anonymously shoved shit to give away in barnmates' stuff, and tossed the other piles in the back of my car.

WE MUST REBUILD.

Obviously, an empty trunk helps no one, so it was time to start over. 

all I need is one cooler HAHAHA no

Here you see the bottom section of the carefully restocked tack trunk.

That's better

We started with a cooler, then added in the fancy CO for clinics and spur-of-the-moment photoshoots, included the tack cleaning kit (oh yeah, that was in there too), stowed the "bad boy" halter, the lunge line, and a dressage whip. My full set of DSBs (the only acceptable princess boot), one set of liners, and one clean-ish set of polos (much preferred to DSBs), and my mattes half pad. 

And look at that. You can still see open space in case I need to add something else. I do plan to keep two sets of polos and liners in there eventually, but laundry needs to happen first. 

 Add in the brush box and life is looking good.

o0o0o0o0o

 A couple caveats here--Courage's blankets live in an oversized rubbermaid tub outside his stall. You can barely see my wash bucket in the bottom right corner of the picture above--it also doesn't live in the trunk. I have an extensive horse-shit-organization system at home in my garage (which it looks like I'll be going through and cleaning asap).

Oh and I cleaned ALL the leather tack at the barn and reorganized. Now it looks like this:

three bridles, one martingale, one drop

I will admit that it's rather refreshing to actually know what I have around. Plus maybe now I look less like a hoarder? Just try not to think about how all that shit is now somewhere else. (such as in my car. hush you.)

Polos, Boots, and Leg Protection

so fancy in white polos

As you may have noticed from literally every picture ever taken of my horse, I am a big fan of leg protection and rarely ride without it. What might surprise you is how much thought actually goes in to the whole process for me.

First off, I use leg protection on Courage for two primary reasons. The biggest one is that conformationally, Courage is VERY narrow behind. I tell people that his back legs pretty much come out of the same hole, and I'm actually not joking. Because of how close his hind legs are, interference is a fact of life for us. I think letting my horse interfere and hurt himself is a shitty thing to do, so he wears leg protection.

dressage: the bootless sport!

However, the second reason I use leg protection is a bit more universal--whether jumping or doing dressage, I'm asking him to do things with his legs that he wouldn't normally do on his own and the last thing I want to have happen is for him to sting himself and learn that obedience hurts.

Bear in mind--some noted professionals (Lucinda Green comes to mind) absolutely refuse to use leg protection and there are studies indicating that hear buildup is the number one indicator surrounding lower-limb injuries in horses. To those objections I say:
'1) If I could ride like Lucinda Green, especially on the caliber of horses that LG rides, HAHA well I can't. Just remember that far more noted pros boot up than do not.
2) This is a very valid concern, especially if you live in a hot place. I avoid riding in the heat of the day (flexible job ftw) and make my own value judgments. Your mileage may vary.

contrasting color polos for sportsball

You'll notice I haven't touched on leg support at all. That is for a very specific reason: I call BS on any and all claims that a few strips of leather or fabric or foam is capable of supporting ANYTHING on a 1200 pound animal. No. The physics literally do not make any sense. Stable bandages can help reduce fill in legs if wrapped correctly, but that isn't supporting the horse as much as just moving some fluid around.

Ok, so if we've covered why we use protection, next we need to cover HOW. There are two primary types of leg protection on the market: boots and wraps. There is a huge variety. Jumping horses primarily use boots--open fronts for jumping over things that fall down and closed front for things that do not. Dressage horses occasionally wear boots, but are most frequently seen in wraps. Let's talk about why.

open front jumping boots

When a horse is jumping a stadium fence (with rails that fall down), we want that horse to be hyper-aware that touching a pole is no bueno. Whether it's your 2' stadium round at a schooling show or the Olympics, your score is dependent on rails staying up. The configuration of an open front boot in this scenario allows the horse to feel the rail on his legs if he hits it, but still protects him from an interference injury on the soft tissue of his leg if he were to overreach or stumble.

sometimes you have to use fluffy boots

So if we want the horse to feel stadium rails, why do we cover his legs for cross country? Simple. If your horse hits a stadium rail, it falls. If he clips an XC fence, he's very likely losing hair. It hurts. We don't want jumping to hurt. Horses do tend to respect solid fences more, but the higher consequence of hitting a fixed obstacle needs to be minimized. There are a lot of technical things that go into XC boots--air vents are becoming common and hydro-phobic boots are great innovations for a sport that guarantees encounters with water. I'll leave those descriptions to someone who actually events, though.

black BOT polos

And that brings us around to wraps. You rarely see wraps on jumping horses in the arena and should never see them on XC. Wraps are simply not as stable as boots. Fleece polos especially stretch when wet and tighten as they dry, which translates simply to the potential to slide down and trip the horse (bad) or tighten and injure a tendon (worse). Plus they don't have a hard shell like a boot to disperse the impact of a flying hoof. So what's the appeal?

Aside from being the classiest-looking option, polo wraps provide the most customized and flexible level of protection. They are my favorite for dressage for this reason. They're soft, which never impedes movement, they lay nicely around cuts and scrapes that might be aggravated by a boot, and they provide simple coverage to cushion incidental interference. Quite honestly, for dressage, they are my favorite. Especially with my narrow-behind horse, I love that they are almost flush with the leg and don't contribute to him tripping himself.

That said, polos take longer to roll and wrap and are a pain to wash. They take some skill to put on, though it's not rocket science.

dressage boots

There are also dressage boots, which are generally fleece-lined and have a softer shell. I do have a couple sets of these for busy days, but nothing beats the all-around protection of a polo wrap that covers the horse from just below the knee to just above the ankle.

And that's my basic philosophy of leg protection. Boots and wraps have a very specific function. If we're going to use (or omit) a piece of gear on a horse, I think we need to have a systematic reason for it beyond "they're trendy"*.

polo art!

*Unless we're talking about half pads, which I'm convinced are about 99% trendy anyways. Yes I have three.

PS I haven't covered bell boots at all. In my mind, they are shoe protection, not leg protection, and if you don't have a good understand of what I'm talking about, count yourself very lucky.

PPS As per the usual, I refer to all horses as he because I have a gelding and dislike mares. If that offends you, remember that mares offend me.

Back on Track Dressage Saddle Pad Review

ALL THE BOT

Back on Track products have been all the rage for quite some time now. I've been slow to jump on the bandwagon because it's a very expensive bandwagon to be on and I had enough of those already.

But.

I snapped up a pair of polos a couple months back because a local friend was selling them for a steal and I wanted them. Then I found another pair for another steal.

And that set forced me to jump on the Back on Track band wagon. Courage is a princess OTTB who likes to stock up random legs willy nilly, have massive overreactions to tiny cuts on the regular, and generally get odd fill in odd places that make me not happy. I found that with the Back on Track polo wraps, the random swellings would go down faster and stay tighter than leaving the legs bare, using boots, or using standard polos (to ride. Never leave polos on overnight).

it does look lovely in action

THAT fascinated me. I mentioned my impulse buy of a Back on Track saddle pad a couple weeks back. I figured that Courage has a lot of miles on him and any little thing that might help is worth exploring. I love how it looks. I love how it's cut. I love the color. It sits great under my saddle and doesn't shift or bunch,

Honestly, I figured that even if it didn't have magical properties, it was still a very nice pad and I was enjoying it quite a bit.

Back on Track Dressage Pad in Navy
Retail Price: $90
What I paid: $90 and they threw in free polos

clean, tight, and rubbing

But then I saw it.

Courage was developing some thin spots in his hair, which is normal for his princess self in the summer. What wasn't normal was the very-odd placement.

I didn't put two and two together until after a hard ride the other day.

Oh. Oops. Sorry buddy.

huh I wonder if he's asymmetrical

I maintain that this is a very well-made pad, but the binding on the pad is more nylon than cotton, and it completely disagrees with Courage's very fine hair and low tolerance for anything strange.

Big sigh here. I'm very disappointed. I'd like to just say "oh, that's Courage, but I've never had problems with him rubbing in this location before and I've used all kinds of pads on him and never seen something like this.

I was hoping to come here and write a super positive review. I was really excited to try this pad out in the colder months, when it can take Courage a while to get warmed up.

Unfortunately, I'm pulling it out of the regular rotation for now and I really can't recommend it. It's a shame, because it's a really pretty pad and other than that, I quite like it.

How To Wrap Bandage Liners Like a Pro

Let's wrap this up nice and tight: First I had a Teach Me Tuesday about bandage liners, then I bought some and had a friend teach me how to use them. I got a couple of requests for a tutorial, but since at that point, I had officially done like one liner-wrap by myself, I thought I'd better wait. NO LONGER!! Here is your official Sprinkler Bandit's how-to of bandage liners for exercise wraps.

First off: Supplies!

You will need a normal set of fleece polos and your choice of liners. My favorite set up right now is to use Centaur polos ($16.95 from Riding Warehouse) and I go back and forth between my Roma channel quilted leg pads ($13.99 from Horseloverz) and Eskadron climatex bandage liners ($47.95 from Smartpak).

If you don't have liners yet, let me break it down for you.

Here are the Romas:


The only color option I've found is white. This is the 12" model and it's 18" long. As you can see, it's a rectangular shape with hard corners. These are mildly harder to wrap into your bandage. The material definitely has two different sides, but it's hard to tell which one is supposed to go next to the horse because they look the same. (hint: it's the towel-y side, not the soft flannel-ish side).




Here are the Eskadrons:

I got these used off of facebook and was told they were the 10.5" model. Here is what I can tell you: either they stretch like a SOAB or they are the 12" model. They are slightly bigger than the Romas. They are also softer. The inside/outside delineation is clearer, and the lack of hard corners makes wrapping about 30% easier.

Does that 30% justify the extra $30 in cost? Your call. (My vote: buy these used for the same price as Romas new. They really are better.)

NEXT

The process. 

Of course, I decided to take pictures for this tutorial now that it's dark at 5pm and the aisle lights went out in the barn. Thus, pictures were taken while it was 9f in the indoor. My apologies.

Next off.

Here is what we need to wrap one leg:

One bandage liner.

One neatly-rolled polo wrap.

One bad flash photography job not required.

Go ahead and roll the liner like a standing bandage--outside rolls against itself, like so:

Then lay the edge of the liner against the inside of your horse's cannon bone and wrap to the end of the liner.

This is not a contest to see how tight you can get it. If anything, I go a little looser than a standing bandage. You don't want them to slide down, but this IS NOT a pressure wrap.

even harder? photographing this moment

Now here's the tricky part.

While holding the liner in place with one hand, start the polo wrap. You want to start dead center on your liner. Just like with regular polos, do a wrap, then a second wrap over the top to anchor your bandage.

yup had to straighten this up after i took the pic

Now your liner is starting to stay in place by yourself, but keep one hand gently on the liner and polo until it is fully stable. You don't want it to twist/bind on the leg.

If your anchor wrap is solid, the rest is pretty easy.

On Courage (medium bone, 16.1h OTTB), I do the anchor, then one wrap below, then do the cradle on his fetlock, then work back up. It is important to wrap under the fetlock to secure your liner and keep dirt out of the wrap.

This picture I actually wrapped a little too low, but I was using one hand and it was bloody cold. Back off, ok?

You want to make sure the liner is covered at the bottom. If you used the Romas, this is when you swear a little because those stupid corners are really hard to wrap in. If you used the Eskadrons, pat yourself on the back.

I've always been taught to do a loop around the fetlock, then an anchor straight across, then another loop around the fetlock and head back up the leg. If you also wrap this way, STOP. One pass under the fetlock, then wrap in nice, even rolls up the cannon bone.

Now you're at the top of the cannon bone/liner. Most likely, you are very close to your horse's knee. There are two ways to finish this wrap. The first way I was taught produces a very clean finish and keeps the bandage very tidy.

This way entails making sure your liners finish RIGHT BELOW the knee joint when you first put them on. If you wrapped this way, you take your last pass around the liner and overlap aboue 1/4-1/2" of polo over the top of the liner material.

Your result is very polished and correct in any company.

OR

You may want to let the whole world know how trendy you are, that you have liners, or that you're totally copy-catting all those trendy-cool-strange horses you see in pictures on the internet. This entails letting your liners finish a little higher on the knee when you first wrap them, then wrapping up to the bottom of the knee with your polos and finishing about 1/2" below the top of your liners.

I've done it both ways. I would NOT recommend the second method for the roma liners--again the hard corners are not your friend here. It looks fine on the eskadrons. I guess it's just a matter of preference--I like the tidier finished top for lessons and clinics and daylight, but if it's pitch black at 5pm and I'm the only one at the barn, HELLZ YEAH we're gonna pretend we're Euro dressage stars.

liners peek out

liners covered up

So there you have it. Two methods to wrap bandage liners. Who else is in love with the look? (And frankly, the function too. This at least doubles, probably triples the amount of interference protection a polo provides, plus the added benefit of protecting the leg from the polo. So much win.)

Recent ZB-Related Purchases

Alternate title: "You Buy It Best When You Buy Nothing At All "

The best thing about ZB is literally everything.

But if I had to pick one thing that isn't 100% her most winning feature, it's that she doesn't fit in tack.

Her bridles are custom. You know why?

You literally can't buy that off the shelf. When I sent her measurements to Otto, they replied, "this horse does not exist".

Well ok no problem, right? Just get boots instead. Boots are so fun.

you see the gap?

Relevant problem: percheron x paint. Think thick, drafty cannons that are stock horse length. She can't wear taller than M fronts and L hinds in most brands and 0% of her boots actually close around her leg. (And yeah polos fit better but there is not time in my life for polos right now.)

So saddles then? Saddles are fun.

this saddle is too wide

Saddles are also expensive. And like. Hoop tree. And also. There are a lot of "draft" products out there, but most of them are some combination of heinous, made of horrid plastic leather, totally not optimized for anything athletic (the balance point is... where?), and just plain hard to find.

I basically call dibs on anything Roxie's mom sells and otherwise don't saddle shop.

But hey, there's always half pads!

Try again. My entire horse is a half pad. 

I typically think half pads are primarily fashion based anyways, but when your horse is a literal couch and now has 350 lbs of hair on top of couch status, like no. Do not pass go, do not spend $200, do not collect half pads.

That brings us to the obvious choice of saddle pads.

i miss fall and free time
Not pictured: any saddle pad

That sort of presupposes that I use a saddle, which I'm trying to be better about. Here's the rub: I have saddle pads. I sold a few I didn't like on her and bought a few in nicer colors, but like. There's a stack at the barn. I have an entire bin at home. Nice, clean, barely used pads.

I'm not opposed to buying an occasional high end saddle pad, but I have so many colors and models and since I can't use boots, don't have time for polos, and OH YEAH THE BONNET ISSUE.

You'll notice there aren't a lot of pictures of zb in bonnets.

this excluded. this is her winter hat.

There is literally one thing on this planet the little lady has voiced a strenuous objection to, and it is bonnets. THEY MAKE HER EARS ITCHY OK. She'll tolerate them in the fall before her winter coat comes in. They're OMFG MUM TOO HOT in summer and winter and shedding in them is unconscionable.

Plus given moose dimensions, she's an all-custom, all-the-time sort of lady so. 

In terms of fun things to purchase

That leaves 

(drumroll) 

6" bits

If you can find them. 

Coming Clean: Tack Ho Confession

Hullo, I'm the Sprinkler Bandit, and I have a problem.

A beautiful, beautiful problem.

I like boots. All kinds of boots. Lots of them.

At last count, here was the tally:

1) Equifit T Boots originals full set with velcro closure

2) Majyk Equipe Series Two full set of open fronts in black

3) Eskadron fleece lined open fronts full set in brown

4) Blue patent leather jump boots full set


and that's not even including:

5) Heidi galloping boots full set in brown

6) Valena wool-lined full set dressage boots in white

or:

7) full set of Back on Track polos in white

8) full set of Eskadron climatex polos in black

or even:

9) an entire rubbermaid of fleece polos



You'd think with that kind of problem that I'd you know, STOP BUYING SHIT.

But no. That's not how it works around here.

How it works is that facebook tells you Jess is selling some stuff you want but don't need in a size you can't use. And then you message her and find out that she also has your size. And the price is a steal. And she'll ship today. And I need something to assuage the pain of bad dressage scores and remind me I do other things (less poorly, one might hope).

So that happened.

Um.

Yeah. I guess message me if you need horse size jump boots? I obviously have kind of a lot.