Shopping

This may sound silly but I knew I was feeling better mentally and motivation wise with horse stuff when I wanted to do some shopping again.

Yes, I’m pretty sure I’m officially a tack whore.

I had picked up a few things since I last posted much but nothing too exciting. I got a couple pairs of summer appropriate breeches and a couple of warm weather shirts. I also got some fly gear and other assorted summer items all from Riding Warehouse. I had also picked up a rope halter and lead rope since the main thing I was working on with S2 was natural horsemanship techniques and I didn’t have appropriate gear for that.

Honestly, whenever I move barns I feel like I need to get at least one or two things in order to have what I need with the new set up. At this barn I needed to reassess my winter gear and pick up another blanket for Katai, namely one with a neck cover. I’m not quite sure what this winter will bring but I’m pretty sure that I’ll be riding enough that I’ll need to clip. I’m going to go pretty conservative at first since I’m not sure how Katai handle the lack of heated barn and heated arena but I want to make sure I’m prepared so I picked up this pretty blanket so that I’d have one with a neck.

I spent the additional money on this name brand since I have two of the liners for this system and they also sell various, different weight neck covers. Hopefully that will give me some flexibility to make sure she stays warm and dry. This time I didn’t need much more than that. I may pick up a blanket bag for the front of Katai’s stall but with the move I’m really needing to stick to my budget so I’m going to make what I have now work, and store stuff in my car for the time being, and will just figure it out as I go. However, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t do some shopping just for fun. The items I have on my list for potential future splurge purchases (maybe Christmas and birthday money?) are:

Now Katai can finally be a proper pony ;)

HKM Flower Power pony dressage pad

Eskadron bandage liners

Eskadron polos in pink (can you believe I don’t have any pink polo wraps?!?)

PS of Sweden grooming bag (totally over the top but the space to store my phone and separate brushes sold me on this one)

Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

Nope, not getting married but where most girls seem to dream about their weddings, I've dreamed  about doing my first rated show.

I've been slowly putting together a set (or two) of show clothes since I've known for awhile that I couldn't afford to invest in the things I wanted when I finally found out I'd be doing a rated show. I am SO GLAD I DID because I had no idea that I'd be doing a rated show on June 3rd this year until just over a month ago and there's no way I could have bought all this stuff at the beginning of this year. Without further ado, here is what I have so far!

Something Old:

The friend that I lived with and rented from when I first got Katai and I exchanged Christmas gifts a couple of years ago. She got me this incredibly pretty stock pin for Christmas in 2012 so it's not that old but I've never had a reason to use it until now :)

I also have this Horze show shirt that I bought early last year (so not that old but I haven't worn it yet) that I will be wearing this year likely.

Something New:

Most of my stuff could go into this category honestly but these are my newest.

This is the shirt I got at the World Cup! It just showed up yesterday and I LOVE it just as much as I did when I tried it on at the show. With my shape I always struggle with finding tops that look good but breeches are easier. Show shirts in particular have been tough for me and this is easily the nicest one I've found. The fabric is technical and light without being clingy and cut really nice! It was also under $100 which is tough to find in cute show shirts (for my body type) it seems.

There are quite a few things that I'm happy to invest money in from a riding outfit perspective however, a stock tie isn't one. If we start showing more and "earn" a cute one then I'd invest in a nice one but otherwise I didn't want to spend that much. The problem was that even the cheaper ones were expensive in my mind and they had poor reviews. Between spending $35 for something with bad reviews and $60 for something that's amazing I'd rather spend $60 but I just couldn't make myself actually buy the thing. So I went to Etsy and found this for $13! With shipping from Europe it was just over $20 but it's amazing. Really nice fabric and fluffy enough. I went with the pre-tied option because I just don't want to fuss with it but they have untied versions as well. I would definitely recommend them if you want a nice stock tie that isn't too expensive. They have lots of options at great prices and awesome reviews!

Something Borrowed:

Well not borrowed but I bought this from another blogger, Amanda, over at $900FacebookPony. When she listed it for sale and it happened to be dark blue and in my size, and an Equiline coat I messaged her right away. I was really excited about the amazing deal I found but now what I'm actually excited about is that this is an experienced show coat and hopefully it will help me and Katai have a great show experience ;) Oh, and it's GORGEOUS!

Something Blue:

I've got navy blue throughout my show clothes closet. Eventually I want to get Katai a grey saddle pad and then I'll wear something navy blue as a show shirt or jacket. I think it will be cute but not too different or shocking to anyone who's more traditional.

Or the seat of my breeches ;)

Modeling my outfits!:

So sorry for my murderous expression. I wasn't feeling that well on Friday morning but I knew I wouldn't have much time this weekend to do this so I went with it.

First two pictures: EGO7 Show Shirt and B Vertigo Rachel breeches

Third picture: Equiline show coat from Amanda and Horze Desiree breeches

Fourth picture: Back to the Equiline show coat, EGO7 shirt, and B Vertigo Rachel breeches

Fifth picture: Old Navy polo (this was $5 so if anyone is looking for a cheap but cute polo this is a good place to check) and Ovation breeches

I'm pretty happy with this! The fifth picture is what I'm going to wear to the schooling show and will probably go with the fourth picture for my first rated show. No pictures of me wearing the stock tie since it didn't get here until Tuesday and the lighting has been horrible for pictures. I'm sure I'll get some pictures from our upcoming show though!