Sunday Photo Share

I don't have too much to share beyond that I had an AMAZING time at the beach this morning and really enjoyed my meal at Native Foods. I was going to spend more time in Portland but the traffic even 30-40 minutes away from Portland was nuts and it was hot so I just didn't feel like driving into the city mainly just to eat lunch or dinner.

Instead I'll share the pictures that I took over the past few days!

Space needle from the Uber on the way to Pikes Place Market

Planning to go back tomorrow to get some produce!

Schilling cider bar in Fremont with a colleague, we had two flights and
ended up finishing everything except the hot pepper cider. It was spicy!!

This cider from Moonlight was our favorite.
Over 13% alcohol and sweet and toasty going down :)

Only at an AirBnB would you have
cherries waiting for you in an antique bowl

I passed Devonwood on the way to my AirBnB. I would have LOVED to have gone and checked it out but there were signs posted that it was private and I know they wouldn't appreciate me poking around. There was supposed to be a schooling show scheduled this weekend and I would have loved to have gone but it was canceled :(

I was hoping to see some horses but didn't. On the way
back to town I saw SOOO many trailers though!

Proposal rock

Had to get a picture of the mountain. Not a common sight for me!

I ended up having an interesting experience at Gallops. I walked in and said hi to the sales people and let them know I was just shopping, when they asked, all said with a smile. I grabbed a bunch of stuff to try and asked about where I could find the fitting rooms. The woman who was working made a face and said "you must have not been here before?" Thinking she was just curious I smiled and laughed and said that no, I was from MN. She looked at me sideways, not teasing, and said "well everyone who rides seriously has been here before". I sort of laughed it off but it was awkward and seemed rude to me. Then as I was going to get more stuff to try she caught me and asked if I was moving to OR or just visiting. I said visiting, again with a smile on my face, and she just nodded at me and didn't say anything else.

Just so weird! I probably would have bought something (I still want a hot pink C4 Belt and they had one) but I just couldn't after how weird it got so I tried on a few more things and then left. Really cool place though and I'm sure that's not normal. Maybe my accent scared her off haha.

Nice saddle selection!

My Event-ful Weekend

I had some tentative plans with some horse friends for this weekend that I hadn't shared previously because I wasn't quite sure if they would happen or not.

First though, on Friday I went to my tack shop to pick up my HKM stuff!

So pretty!!!

I also went back and looked at their consignment section since Jane wanted me to get a pair of regular irons and found a great deal on a pair for $10. On the way I saw this.

Brown and padded with sparkles!!!

I didn't get it but I sure wanted to. Katai's halter is starting to wear out and after our recent trailer loading experience I noticed that theres a hairline crack in the ring you attach the lead rope to which probably isn't safe for long term. It's not in the budget now but over the next few months I plan to replace it.

I then went to the barn to ride and had an AMAZING ride on my incredible little mare. She was really tuned into me and was behaving so well that I was able to really focus on myself. There are so many things right now that I have to focus on that it was nice that she allowed me to do that.

So gorgeous :)

I also got this, sort of, confirmation shot where you can see what a little beefcake she's turning into!

Sport pony goals

Then on Saturday I got to go watch eventing and groom/cheer on my friends!! They were doing a schooling show at Roebke's Run which holds 1* and 2* events. It's just under 2 hours away from where I live and easily the closest facility for eventers in my area. I had never been there, love eventing, and was looking forward to spending time with friends so when Allie and Vanessa (both of which I went to the hunter pace with) let me know that they were going I was excited to be able to go with as their groom.

This is from the stadium ring at the show office and kitchen

The facility is absolutely gorgeous and there is not a bit of it that's imperfect or untouched. They've done everything so well and the cross country course is amazing, along with everything else.

You know you're at a fancy place when you pull up and see this rig

Both Vanessa and Allie were doing starter. It was Allie's first event and Vanessa had brought her greenie that was on the hunter pace. Allie would have had her green horse as well but he, of course, turned up dead lame two days before the event so she was riding a horse that one of the other boarders had lent her who is a champion hunter (over fences).

Course walk

Water complex, it was optional for starter

I spent most of the day carrying stuff, cheering them on, keeping them on time, holding horses, and bringing snacks as well as taking pictures on Allie's fancy camera so these are just a small number of the total pictures I took. Once they share some on Facebook I'll have more to share on here hopefully because it was an amazing day for photos and they both had a great show.

Look at that sky!

Both did Dressage and did really well, especially for having a green horse and a horse that had never evented before and both scored under 40. Other than circling back to a fence for a second try both made it through stadium clean and then it was on to cross country!!

This tiny pony was named Hotsauce and I just about put him in my car.
The starter jumps looked like Rolex height jumps for her but she made it through the entire course!

Allie was first and my heart was in my throat because up until that moment no one had made it past the 3rd fence and the previous riders had all fallen. Allie however went in and owned it! She jumped the entire thing clear other than, I believe, one circle. I was able to go down and check in with her before running back out on course to take photos of Vanessa and cheer her on.

Watching show jumping

Vanessa also went clear up until the last fence but got her mare over and they made it through!

Ironically this is the only jump that I took a photo of during the course walk and it's the
one where the first few riders came off.
Apparently I'm not the only one that thought this fence looked interesting ;)

It was amazing to see both of them so successfully complete their first/horse's first event and on top of that it was an absolutely beautiful day. It was in the 70s and sunny with an amazing breeze so I couldn't have chosen a better day to be there.

Allie and Dream walking back from the wash stall with HotSauce and his rider.
Too bad it's so blurry!

Then today I went out to the barn and had another amazing ride! Katai was great and was almost listening as well as she did on Friday. During the second half of the ride she did get a little speedy but the great thing was that I was able to slow her down and adjust her stride with my posting so that almost made it better just because I was glad to be able to practice my new skills :)

Since I didn't ride on Saturday I'm planning to ride tomorrow and then I'm really looking forward to another lesson on Tuesday!

Special

I adore my local tack shop. They’re great and the owners are amazing and board at my last barn. They’re very active in the local horse community and put on the large schooling show that I participated in. I shop there and support them whenever I can, however, I don’t always love the clothes that they have. They, like any business, need to reflect the local community and in that community my tastes are underrepresented.

There is another small, boutique, tack shop on the other side of the city that has more of the brands that I like such as Asmar , B Vertigo, Equiline etc. but the owners of that place aren’t amazing and charge a higher markup on their stuff so I don’t like to shop there as much. Recently though my tack shop got in a bunch of stuff from HKM.

I loved the breeches and saddle pads that they got but wasn’t shopping for anything at that point so I passed on getting anything. However, I started to wonder if they would let me do a special order through them and thus save on shipping. One of the people that I did the hunter pace with actually works there and so I finally brought it up and found out that I could!

HKM is one of those places, like Horze, that has pony sized saddle pads and I’ve always loved their breeches. As I’ve mentioned I’ve sort of moved my saddle pad shopping “addiction” to breeches but I couldn’t say no to ordering and adorable European dressage pad. The best thing is that now that I have a European pony saddle I’m not worried about whether the pad will fit.

So we "scheduled" some time for me
to stop by and for us to shop together

So, I went in and spent too much time trying to make up my mind on what to order. I was originally going to order a couple of saddle pads but when I started looking at the breeches I couldn’t say no so I ended up with one pair of breeches and one saddle pad. Unfortunately I didn’t know the total going in since the tack shop needed to determine what the markup was going to be so it ended up being more than I would have probably spent.

Gotta love having a friend at the tackshop ;)

I’m going to sort of call these my Christmas present to myself which works since buying some European stuff is kind of what I was planning to do for my Christmas present. More pictures and a review to follow!

Road Tripping 2: In Which The Shopping Happens

Ok, so really, when you go on vacation in a new place why wouldn't you visit every tack shop possible? 

I had the opportunity to visit three between yesterday before seeing my sister play in her recital and today. I did some googling and found a few likely paces.

First, the Schneiders.

I honestly didn't realize they had any retail locations and when I asked I was told that this is the only one. 

It was large and lovely inside and was split pretty evenly between English and Western tack with lots of horse care supplies. I bought healthy horse treats and whitening shampoo, it is mud season :(

Second was Chagrin Saddlery.

This one was smaller and recommended by my sister's horse owning friend. If anyone reading this is ever in the Cleveland area I HIGHLY recommend that you visit them. It was small but the people were extremely friendly and helpful without being at all pushy. Plus, they had Asmar products!!!! I've been wanting to try on their clothing for a long time now because while they look really excellent on models I wasn't sure if they would look good on someone with curves. Even better, one of the jackets that I had my eyes on was 40% off 0-0 I totally lucked out and really couldn't leave without it. I will probably even do a review since it is one of the best purpose made riding jackets that I've ever tried. I also bought a pair of Asmar socks to add to my sock collection :)

Last but not least I went to Clippity Clop.

 It was the most western of all of the shops and I picked out a pink nylon halter since I no longer have a spare that fits Katai and since my main halter is leather and breakable it would be good to have a spare.

So as you can see it was a fun productive day :)

If you want more information about Asmar or haven't heard of them I highly suggest you check them out here -> http://asmarequestrian.com

So Proud!

Today was the first day that I feel I can call what I did with Katai "riding". Up until now it was sitting on her, training, working with her or something along those lines but tonight I rode.

This morning my parents drove up to see my new apartment and I showed them where I work. Once they left I went to the local tack store which is now only about 15 minutes away. Scary how easy it is to go there now haha. I needed a dressage whip since my old one was lost and it had actually kinda needed replacing anyway because it was falling apart thanks to poor care. I'd had it as a teenager and it had been left outside and driven over in the law mower a dozen times. I picked out a cute purple whip with nice balance and some fancy treats that I knew Katai had liked since they were part of her Christmas present this last Christmas. This is the first time in my life, well since i was about 8, that I've had only one animal and so she gets to be spoilt :)

Then I went out to see her. She got one of her new treats when I caught her and I don't know if it was an incredibly effective bribe or if she just wanted to be on her best behavior but either way she was perfect for everything.

She was very calm so just got lunged for a couple of seconds in each direction and then I mounted up. The new whip was perfect to endorse my leg and follows the same idea as when I ground drive her so it helps her understand the leg cues. I rode for about fifteen minutes and during that time she went where I asked and was nicely forward compared to how she's been in the past. Now I can't wait to ride again!

I actually took some pictures today and in blogger app fashion they are all going to be stuck at the end but it looks like I may be getting Internet!! It would be awesome to be able to blog from a computer again, it's been about three years! At any rate the pictures are of the tack shop and then the incredibly spoiled pony's fan which runs anytime the temp is over about 75 0-0 they were actually sleeping under it when I got there :)

Finally are pictures of my new saddle pad, I'm officially a Mattes fangirl! Yes that is a Navy blue pad with pink fur, binding and piping and a blue strip of piping. Katai's official colors in a pony sized Mattes and I things it's completely adorable :)