I Tack Ho'ed So Hard

I know, I know. Every time I say that, you think I can't top the last time I said that.

Well.

I can.

I don't even know why you doubt me anymore.

shame on your doubts

Soooooo this story starts back in January when I visited my sister and we skipped through a tack store whilst tossing dollar bills into the air willy nilly (metaphorically).

One thing I saw that many of you were like OMFG HOW DID YOU NOT BUY THAT was this:

make sexy eyes at otto!

I mean. Yeah. It's lovely. But also like a billion dollars and OH YEAH perhaps you remember how ZB fits in approximately off-the-rack NOTHING.

Plus I happen to know that the thing with Otto is that you can order custom but you have to go through a dealer and there isn't one close to me. Also one thing about me is that I have the attention span of a caffeinated gnat, so custom ordering is not in my wheelhouse. I'm an instant gratification girl.

But then you all probably know Stephanie (say with me: THAT BITCH!) who I legit hung out with at Rolex last year and one day on facebook she started this out-of-control thread about ugly custom bridles which somehow segued into her casually dropping the fact that she works for an Otto dealer.

HOLD THE PHONE.

I did what any responsible tack ho would and casually filed that information away for later.

every day is a good day for rolex pictures

lol jk this is me

I immediately messaged her every detail of what I wanted and asked what it would cost.

She for some reason didn't think I was a tire kicker and got back to me all polite and professional and told me the cost.

We'll leave it vague, but let's just agree that it was enough that as a seasoned tack ho who's used to paying for quality, I most definitely threw up in my mouth and was like NOPE HARD PASS LOL WE ARE NEVER EVER EVER GETTING THAT TOGETHER.

Buuuuuut

Once you know

And you've had some time to get used to it

And then you think about your life without it

I mean.

The mare legit doesn't fit in off the rack sizes, which means 1) finding things for her is impossible and 2) impulse buying strap goods is dead. Also she's the nicest horse I've ever had, so doesn't she deserve the nicest bridle?

And you know. I'm not showing this year, so what better time to buy a ridiculous bridle than now when I'm not paying entries and memberships?

logic. we has it. 

I messaged Stephanie something mature like YOLO (after several weeks, I'll have you know).

Then the wait began.

I was super patient for like the first 38 seconds.

Then it was pure torture.

I think Roxie's (and Halo's!!) mom got so tired of listening to me that she sent me a link to a purple padded FSS bridle for pennies on the dollar on eBay, which I most definitely bought to kill time.

again with the photo edits

I waited. I waited more. THERE WAS SO MUCH WAITING.

THEN ONE DAY

DROP IT LIKE ITS HOT

THE WAITING WAS OVER

I MEAN NO DEFINITELY DONT DROP IT

BRIDLE PARTAY

Except it also wasn't over.

DO YOU SEE IT

SOBBING

I was hoping to hold off on writing this for a while and be like "everything is awesome!" but it's been a week+ and despite repeated attempts to reach out to Otto, I don't have a firm plan or a ship date for the correct browband and it's leaving a sour taste in my mouth for sure.

I mean. I may be small potatoes to Otto himself, but I didn't pay $$$ for a custom to bridle to get *almost* what I wanted.

mmmm classy

Bright side: I managed to finagle my topline leather browband on and it does look fabulous. And I'm obsessed with the bridle. And it's exactly what I wanted (other than the browband). And it looks fabulous on ZB.

taking a bridle picture
wtf is zb doing

hi zb

yeah now it's not a bridle pic

So anyways. It's in progress and after waiting as long as I did, I am not thrilled to be waiting longer.

Otoh, the bridle is gorgeous and I do not regret a cent.

#goshopping

I Went Shopping (again)

I've been promising a tack write-up, so here goes an explanation of Zoe's latest outfit acquisition. 

she is cartoon pony

Labor Day weekend was... stressful... so I voted to allow myself one good, solid splurge on related tack sales. I'd just started riding Zoe bareback, so I was leaning towards that Thinline Bareback Pad that I have wanted since the Izzy days. It was 20% off with free shipping, which is tempting. 

But.

There was a local tack trailer (that I love) at a local show (that I was going to). I waited to pull the trigger on the pad until I got to the trailer to peruse their selection. I was the first customer up the ramp like WHAT HAVE WE HERE when the owner took the one bridle I've been drooling on for well over a year now and stuck it on the sale rack. 

It was still substantially more than the bareback pad. And I have a Zoe bridle. 

But. SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESSES, AMIRIGHT. 

teeny supports local shows. unrelated man supports teeny.

Plus I explained how Zoe is a custom fit girl and the shop owner was 100% on board with letting me try it on her and then swapping out parts to get the fit right.

Plus notorious spend-thrifts Alyssa and Nadia were both on site. They always tell me no to everything (and are like "spend your money on lessons/shows" because they are haters) but they both saw the bridle and the sale price and went "yeah the bareback pad will always be there GET THE BRIDLE".

When hell freezes over, you don't question it. You just get your skates and go for it. 

 (Leah and T were obv on board as well. I believe they voted for "both".) 

my trunk is busy, ok?

Unfortunately, the downside to having a SMOOSHY FACE to shop for is that I don't have smooshy measurements memorized (yet) and I'm not solid at just eyeballing her size either. 

I pranced out to the barn the next day. Put the bridle on the Zoe. 

Zoebird is not impressed

...and found out that apparently it was dinosaur sized. Whoops. Fortunately, my mobile tack shop lady makes barn visits and when I sent her the photo, she brought me the next size down. Ladies and (maybe) gents, I give you Zoe in a horse sized bridle:

kyoot

Dear bridle makers: if your horse size fits my 100% custom mare face, you are doing it wrong. 

So that happened. And that was certainly enough. I pretty well blew the stress shopping budget out of the water there. 

#worthit

But I was wandering around the internet, as one does, and I ran across a saddle that Roxie's mom and I had discussed as a potentially good fit for Zoe. It looked like it would work for me. It looked like it would work for Zoe. It was priced at like 40% of what I'd expect given the brand and condition. And yeah, there were like 7 people in front of me in line for it. 

So I kinda forgot about it for a few days, then followed up. 

And got an invoice. 

And then a box. 

quite a box

A real big box. 

i should have made a better selfie face. oh well.

With a fancy dressage saddle inside. 

Again, I pranced out to the barn to dress up Ms. Zoebird.

baby mare!

And uh. Does she look like a fantastic little future dressage mare or what? 

I regret nothing. 

And if you're looking for my checking account, it's definitely not in the shallow grave in my back yard. HUSH YOU.

Outfitting a Zoëbird: Part Two

Needless to say, when you go from the cobbiest of cob size OTTBs that ever cobbed the earth to a Percheron cross baby, not a lot of your tack is going to fit.

Like. Less than you'd think even.

i mean. they go on. and they're purple. so they stay.

I did not expect C's boots to fit, but they do. Sorta. As in. Well. ZB has good, solid bone but isn't exceptionally enormous, so the height is pretty ok. She's definitely broader than C is, so boots that overlapped a little on him don't quite close on her.

o hai expensive boots

I do have this fancy schmancy set of Schockemohle dressage boots that I bought for Courage, but by the time I got done dicking around with eBay UK and they actually arrived, I'd already decided to rehome him. (So if you don't recognize them, that's why.) Anyways. They fit just slightly differently than the knock offs and are the best fitting boot I have right now.

I did not expect my boots to work.

I did expect my saddle pads to work.

yeah she thinks i'm funny too

I keep meaning to take a fairly hilarious video for you guys, but essentially, my beautiful Ogilvy wither-relief pads... uh... don't work for a horse without withers. Like. You push one end down and the other pops up. And if you're wondering, no they do not stay under the saddle. Oops.

Fortunately, I have more dressage pads and those seem to work ok for her shape.

and that shape is hella sexy

 Then saddles. 

Yeah. 

I knew my $$$$ Custom was never going to fit her and I know it's idiocy to buy a $$$$ saddle for a baby horse that's going to change shape dramatically unless you can afford to just keep buying them. Which yeah no. Not happening. 

I scrounged up a saddle at a local consignment place that fits both of us well enough but won't completely break my heart to sell when the inevitable time comes. 

sad lil jump pad

Bridles were tricky of course. Zoëbird is actually the same measurement bit to bit over the poll as Courage, but let's just say all of her other dimensions are... larger. If you're counting, yes, that means off-the-rack bridles are out for her. SOB. This is a shopping killer. I ordered her a Nunn Finer Custom event bridle because they let me pick the size of each piece without ever talking to an actual human being. (That's the whole point of the internet. Retailers, take note.) 

hey baby. sad bridle.

Now of course I have already ordered Ms Zoëbird her very own Topline Leather browband (custom specs omg can't wait!) buuuuut the wait time is killer and no matter how many times I'm like BUT LOOK AT THIS SAD BRIDLE WITH NO SPARKLES, I don't get to jump the line (sob) so I needed an interim browband also. Alyssa let me play with her cool new toy from Blackjak Refinery and with my great sense of restraint, I ordered my own immediately. 

rainbow hematite. i think yes.

Haha and remember how I buy every bit I can get my grabby hands on and never sell them and have this life goal of being the crazy bit lady in 30 years with basically every bit that was ever made?

Uh yeah. 

Well like 85% of horses on the planet wear a 5" bit. So my entire collection is 5" bits. And one 5.5" because there was a sale. 

Guess where this is going.

mmhmm

Yeah the "little" D bit in that picture is my lone 5.5". And yeah. It's too small. The eggbutt is a 6" that fits just fine. Jury is out on the ramifications for the bit collection, but it's a strange position for me to be in. 

Oh and halters? Hahahahahahaha shut up. When Roxie's mom dropped Ms. ZB off, she handed me a rope halter and was like "this fits weird. you can have it." 

just. weird. not bad. 

She's not wrong. It does fit weird. It also goes on Zoëbird pretty ok, so we use it on the daily. 

My inner optimist stuck Courage's fancy clinician-style stiff rope nose-knot halter on her...

someone should slap my inner optimist

Yeah it just straight up doesn't fit. Her smooshy nose barely goes in it and the tie throatlatch is BARELY long enough. 

So uh. Possibly there was some late night online shopping that hopefully rectified this situation. I'll keep you posted. 

Oh. And. We're not even talking about bonnets, ok? WE'RE JUST NOT. 

(definitely) let them tame you

I mean. I guess I would have been disappointed if I didn't get to shop for her. Silver lining?

Budget Bridle Breakdown

As you might have guessed, lil Ms. Zoebird doesn't fit in a single beautiful cob-size thing that Courage left behind. This means shopping. I like shopping.

And of course, shopping means putting all that expensive, time-consuming product research I've done to use. 

And if I'm going to do that, y'all might as well benefit. 

So if you're looking for a solid bridle on a budget (and your horse is a standard size):

...and you can spend up to $200:

I realize that just because I think a ~$200 bridle is "relatively affordable" doesn't mean everyone does. However. This starts to be the range where you don't have to compromise a whole lot. My favorite in this range is Eponia Equestrian. Nice leather that breaks in fast, fantastic, thoughtful details, interesting designs and solid customer service. A recent blogger review from Austen pretty well dials it in. I snagged one of these babies at Rolex and it was GORGEOUS. Super sad that it was never ever gonna fit Ms. ZB. 

why yes that's Teresa's horse rocking brownie now

10/10 would buy again and don't be surprised if another one shows up in my collection. 

...and you want to spend about $100

This is a dicey price range. There are some options on the table but you're definitely going to have to make some pretty serious compromises with either design details or product quality. Or both.  

One entrant in this category the Premiera line by Hypostore. (These are also marketed by a popular instagram retailer for a 200% mark up. Friends don't let friends pay 200% too much.) I picked up one of these last winter. The leather is ok. There are definitely attempts at thoughtful details, but the budget nature of this range just means that it's not... quite... something. Mine just sat funky on Courage's head. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't in love with it. Blogger Karen hasn't written a full review, but she had a double from this line (on my referral, sorry Karen) and the noseband just didn't work for her horse and the browband fell apart. Buyer beware apparently--their customer service was underwhelming when I dealt with them. 

5/10 would use them in a pinch but probably won't go back

...and you want to spend less than $100: 

Once you hit this end of the spectrum, you better know what you're getting in to. Royal Sports is probably the best option here--lots of options, lots of coupon codes, reasonably fast shipping from India. Downsides include leather that smells weird (technical tack ho talk here), iffy-at-best customer service, and kinda wonky sizing. Like. Cob size is TINY and horse size is HUGE and maybe oversize is for elephants? I have no idea. Haven't tried the OS. Alli wrote a review here, and she's the most recent purchaser I'm aware of. It's not my favorite option, but you can get a bridle pretty inexpensively and if you're not too picky, it's probably fine. 

browband unrelated

2/10 unlikely to place another order unless I need something cheap and weird 

Not to worry!! You're not SOL if your horse is full or semi custom, but you will have to take some measurements and try a little harder. There can also be a bit of a premium for buying piece-by-piece. It's definitely more expensive than just buying an assembled bridle. So. 

If you want to spend up to $300 (and you need custom sizing): 

I know it's not super sexy, but a quality standby is the Nunn Finer custom event bridle. You can pick leather and buckle colors and then pick a different size for every different piece. Or at least choose from three different sizes. It's not fancy and modern, but we're talking solid leather that does the job and isn't embarrassing. The look blends seamlessly in the dressage and eventing rings and the bridle will pretty much last you forever. 

ZB not getting a figure eight obv

9/10 have already ordered one for Zoebird

If you want to spend up to $200 (and you need custom sizing):

I've written a very positive review of Uisce Saddlery in the past. Elaine makes a quality product with excellent craftsmanship that is surprisingly affordable. Because these pieces are hand made, you can get all crazy-go-nuts on hyper custom sizing and details. I did contact her this time around and apparently mid-busy-season she's a little slower to respond than if you catch her in the off season (and I have the patience of a gnat, oops). On the whole, my experiences have been positive and I love the little extra zazzle you can get with colored padding if you're bold. 

i love different stuff

8/10 we all know this is going to happen again

Noted: Flexible Fit Equestrian also theoretically lands on this list but I have no personal experience with them and haven't been thrilled with the designs I've seen out there. I'm happy to be proven wrong but haven't had the impetus to spend the money yet. 

If you want to spend about $100 (and you need custom sizing):

A bit of an unexpected entrant in this category is the Equiture line of bridles. I'm not sure where they're sourced from (well I mean Asia obv), but you can order each part individually and get some fun details like patent or white padding. It's more of a dressage look, but with the right pieces you'll be ok regardless. Downsides are of course that you're looking at pretty mass-produced leather that's just... not that pretty. It has that cardboard-y shine that doesn't really come off and it doesn't break in like super nice leather, but it's affordable and it will do in a pinch. 

this qualifies as a pinch

4/10 unlikely to buy again 

Final Thoughts

Ummmm I hesitate to add at this point that I've (obviously) owned models from all of these lines and all of my reviews are based on actually owning/handling them. I also paid full price (or used publicly available sales) and received no compensation for any of my thoughts on these. This is also just a list of budget options and doesn't include bridles from higher-end price ranges that take a little more commitment to acquire.

and none of this includes browbands haha

At this point, I'm playing with an Equiture frankenbridle with a Nunn Finer on the way. What are some other options that would be worth checking out? 

Zoëbird Meets Tack Ho: Phase One

One thing about going from an OTTB to a draftie cross: nothing you own will fit. None of it. I've been sitting over here like "i'll always have my saddle pads", but guess what? Those gorgeous Ogilvy non-slip anti-microbial, contour-cut, tastefully-chosen beauties slip like a bitch on my round, witherless lil mare.

but she's cute!

Oops.

But hey, at least that means Z-bird is wearing a saddle, right?

saddles delicious!

Well yes. It does mean that. Of course, nothing I own will fit her except maybe the western saddle. But that seems like a lot of leather to lug around when it is a millionty-five degrees, so we haven't pulled it out yet.

I talked a local friend (auntie Crystal) into making a run to consignment with me and we resurfaced with saddles to try. I refuse to shell out $$$$ for a saddle for a four year old who's going to grow and change. We did find one that fit nicely inside the budget and yay! It's an all-purposey one, which I prefer for baby shenanigans.

Breastplate originally purchased for Izzy. Is magic. Fits.

Bits and bridles are a trip and a half. Zozo isn't that big of a horse, in terms of height. Hell, her girth is nearly a foot shorter than Courage's. Buuuuut. Her big smooshy face is not ever going in a cob bridle or (gasp! pearl clutch!) any of my browbands.

A moment of silence for the pretties.

A moment of raucous applause for shopping.

Of course,  "shopping for what" has been kinda the kicker here. Apparently "Zoëbird size" isn't really off-the-rack anything.

a flash of future Zoebird!

Auntie Crystal used to have a big mare, so we cobbled together a frankenbridle out of parts. It's a mishmash of three different brands and sizes, but it looks respectable. Of course, then I got all excited like MUST USE GIANT ASS PADDED BRIDLE WITH BLING BLING and we tried that on:

or not

So uh. That's a no on giant padded. It takes her pretty lil face and makes it look coarse. THE HORROR. I kind think Zo is going to just stay a custom/franken girl in the bridle department.

 You may also have noticed Ms. Zoëbird rocking a full set of boots. They are basically the one thing from Courage that still fits. Sort of. I'm deciding what I like on her and what I don't, but I would be remiss if I didn't share the video of her first time in hind boots:


We are supposed to get this shitshow on the road here pretty quick, so hopefully the girth and bit I ordered show up before my trainer has any real expectations. Or whatever. "Millionty-five" is the forecast for the indefinite future, so Ms. Zoëbird's training is not going to be overly strenuous.

Reactions

Courage wraps up his post-injection stall rest this evening when I'm cleared to pull him out and lunge him. I've been hand grazing him every day and he's been a champion patient.

But you know.

Will he be ok? What is ok going to look like for us? Should I stress buy a brown dressage saddle?

Obviously, the #1 thing I'm concerned about is Courage's comfort level. Objectively, I know that we have just taken the first steps in terms of management. I know there are a ton of options left on the table. I know I have a fabulous team in our corner. I know that we weren't planning on showing this year anyways. I know that I'll make responsible choices for Courage.

But I wouldn't be an ammy owner if I didn't have a few he's-crippled-for-life-omg-im-the-worst-owner-ever meltdowns a day, you know?

So those have happened.

jumper show!

I also keep thinking about jumping. Which. Obviously. He will never do again. Part of me knows that we took jumping off the table a long time ago and bitching about that now is just weird. And part of me is glad to finally know why the horse always hated grids (pound those ankles, baby) and jumps (landing sucks) and why I could never get him to use his body correctly (hard pass. don't blame him).

But part of me is profoundly sad that it's gone. Because that is something I miss.

There's also the questions--when I tell people what happened, the first thing they say is almost always "so what will you do if you can never ride him again?"

Which is clearly melodramatic, because I rode him before and I'll ride him again and it's not the end of the world, though it definitely might modify our goals somewhat.

But you know. Just hit that nerve with a hammer, why don't you.

ass. poopy ass, no less.

Though perhaps equally bad is the "well many horses with much uglier legs do much harder things", which again, is true.

But like.

If Courage was one of those horses, we wouldn't be standing here right now. WHERE WE ARE CLEARLY STANDING.

or sitting. ymmv.

As the vet said about the structural stuff going on with Courage, "it's not a problem til it's a problem and then it's a problem".

So it's a problem.

And we're dealing with it.

And bay horses look kind of washed out in brown tack.

But if the right brown dressage saddle came along, it would look fabulous with my new bridle.

I mean. It's not like I need a jump saddle any more.