Over 1 Year of TBE!

Happy anniversary to us! This is a late posting but I just noticed that I've had this blog up and running for over a year now! Enjoy this trip down memory lane- it's 2014 memories in order!

Just the major things: the first ride of 2014, when I snapped my fender, when we went camping, swimming Drift, riding Ray with the new bosal, getting the mares, Pigeon's first ride, Riley's first ride, when Pigeon tried to kill herself, Zara riding Pigeon, my first lesson, Pigeon's first drill team pattern, Riley's first REAL ride, and Christmas. 

Thanks for an eventful year, guys! I'm excited to see what comes in 2015! 

2015 Updates

I seriously keep forgetting to post on here. Whoops. I do have a few things to go over- I'm going to do them in order.

First order of business is the saddle pad from my Dover Christmas thing. It's starting to stain from my saddle around the girth on both sides, but that's it. You can actually see the stains in the picture, they aren't too bad. I've had no tearing or slipping issues, and I think the Velcro is really convenient. 

And suddenly: SNOW. I'm in Northwest Tennessee. We do not get snow EVER, and the really rare occasion we DO get some, it's mostly ice and there isn't much of it. But this was like a giant dump truck of snow fell from the sky overnight. It was so deep in some places that I have a picture of a friend of mine standing with snow up to her chest. Once it warmed up a little, I went to get snow pictures with the beasts. They were being goofy as usual, Riley kept trying to shove her head into my arms, and Pigeon actually didn't stand up when I walked over. I ended up laying on her for probably an hour before I rubbed her legs and pulled her up.

Ignore my riding. Goofy boy was feeling GOOD and was galloping straight for a massive drop off onto ice and he couldn't see it was there because of the snow drifts. So this picture was of my "Oh CRAP! STOP!" moment. But he looks graceful and snow is pretty so yay.

Product Review: Sundance Halters Reins

So I got some custom paracord reins because I think they're super cute. Yeah, I'm just now jumping on this bandwagon. Some of my older followers will probably remember in July when I got ripped off with my bosal.. That's why I haven't ordered anything like this until now. Christina was super patient with me, showed me different combinations of colors braided, and was willing to try a style of reins she had never made before! (She now offers the cobra braid) I really am happy with these reins! They're the perfect length and are really cute and not as weird to use as I thought they'd be! They're usually 8ft long, but I asked for some extra length so they are the exact same length as standard braided leather reins. So I can use them for English as well as western with no hassle at all!

If you want to know-

These are 6 strand reins, 9ft long, in "Bucky blue camo" with 6 royal blue decorative knots and royal blue cobra braiding by the buckle. 

The pictures where the reins are darker is their actual color, I just had incredibly bad lighting. And you can see where my loving mares decided to rub out their manes. Hooray, now my spring will consist of trying to fix that! 

*OH NO IGNORE WHAT IM WEARING. it went from like 8 degrees to 70 degrees in 2 days and I wore shorts with my boots. Don't you judge me.*

I started working with Riley on neck reining. I took off her headstall and just clipped the reins so they were like a neckrope/cordeo, and worked on just a light cue to back up clicking to go forward, and extremely light cues to turn each way. I would start off with just a touch, and increase the pressure until she took a step, then I would instantly release the pressure and praise her verbally while petting her. She started to do it really well after not even 5 minutes, so we worked with her verbal cues to walk up to me. She's getting better at that, too, so maybe I can start leaving her halter off soon. (Check out that mane rub) I wasn't pulling on her like the pictures look like I'm doing, either. I was just trying to evenly distribute the pressure so she had clearer cues and wouldn't get confused.

Product Review: Laney Farm Designs Bridle Charms

Okay, big news time! We are now officially brand ambassadors for Laney Farm Designs!! Delaney sells various bridle charms, bracelets, hand painted stall signs, and hand painted brush sets. She's got great prices, great quality products, and great customer service! I fixed up a new website for her, equibling.wix.com/laneyfarmdesigns, and got two anchor charms with royal blue gems as a thank you. I can't wait to try these on the babies this weekend! The color is just about accurate in the second photo- they're incredibly bright blue. That was such a pleasant surprise! I'm totally in love with these and am very, very obsessed. I am planning on having a charm for each bridle and name tags for some new halters I'm going to get very soon. Like before summer soon. So I'll try to be better about keeping this updated for you all. Thanks for being patient!

Dover Christmas Haul

Merry Christmas! I haven't been in the Christmas spirit this year at all and everyone is being super immature as always, so I've retreated to my room to do a small tack review to answer some basic questions I had when buying this stuff, and I'll update it when I get to try things on the horses. 

1.) Riding essentials breeches by riding sport

Light tan

32L (I will never live in Italy or Europe. Y'all make me feel fat.)

Holy moly long is right. I'm 6ft tall, and these go down almost to my ankles (you can see in the picture of the knee patches). Don't let the pictures fool you, they don't bunch up like they look like they do. I just decided last minute to put my socks and boots on so they ended up getting screwed up and I didn't care to fix them. I don't know what it is with me ONLY getting high waisted breeches. I actually hate how they look (except my Ashley's) on me. These are a lot thinner than my other breeches are, but I think that'll be a relief in the summer. Honestly, with as crazily high waisted as these are, I'd probably prefer just using them for schooling where I don't have to tuck my shirt in... But they'd be fine for shows too.

You can also see my new SSG gloves! 

2.) SSG slip on gripper gloves

Black

Medium 

Overall, I love these gloves! They're the perfect length and thickness, so they can easily be used year-round. I like how they look, except at the ends of the fingers where the stitching is. The stitching makes the fingers a little boxy at the ends, so you can't use your phone or whatever. I did put it through the iPhone/otterbox test and managed to unlock my phone with no issues, but I couldn't text at all. So I guess you could answer a call but that would be about it. The palms are SUPER grippy, but not in a bad way. Honestly I love the look of their other gripper gloves better, but they weren't on sale so they'll probably be an eventual upgrade so these won't get stretched out. 

3.) All purpose brushing boots by woof wear

Black/black (the white and black/royal blue WILL BE MINE.. Eventually)

Medium and let's pray they fit

As much as I really didn't want these, I like them. The Velcro is REALLY impressive, it's a great high quality super sticky Velcro that gives you that satisfying noise when you tear them apart. The impact guard things aren't as hard as they look, they feel like just more layers of the neoprene with a slightly harder shell. The neoprene is THICK. I'm really nervous to use these in any kind of heat, but we'll see how it goes. (Reasons I was holding out for Roma boots part 1...)

4.) warendorf square dressage pad (not the swallowtail pad. Forget that fancy stuff.) 

White

Dressage size

Dover fudged this whole part of my order up. This was SUPPOSED to be the riders international dressage pad that was on sale, but the day I ordered it it totally disappeared from the website and out of my cart so I settled for this. Then I open it and it has a black stain on the trim over the withers on the spine already! Kinda mad about that. Hopefully it'll look ok on the beasts. For the life of me, I could not find any pictures of this pad's thickness or of it on any horses on google. I literally almost didn't buy it because of that, so I posted a bunch showing texture (the inside is like a cheap fleece type fabric) and thickness and stuff. I'll post pictures of it actually on the beasts when I can get out there, for any of you considering buying this pad. It actually looks about as thick as my classics III pad, and seems to be decent quality, so I'd probably reccomend it even though it wasn't my first choice..

5.) rider's international quilted cotton pad

White/white (and I didn't get my monogram that I wanted. Grr)

All purpose

Oh hey look my phone decided to start taking decent quality pictures again. How nice. This pad scared me to buy. Callie got their lite pad, and it's paper thin and just awful, so I was scared about the thickness of this one. I'm actually really happy with it! The trim kinda sucks, you can see where they overlapped it and stitched it on the back right side, but that's not a big deal. No stains on this one, thanks, Dover. It's not as bright white as the dressage pad is, it's sorta like an off-white 'I left the notebook paper in the sun too long' white. Again, it's about as thick as my Classics III pad. It doesn't have the weird felty underside like the warendorf pad does. I love the cut of it, it's shaped perfectly even for saddles with a more forward flap. This is the only pad I have with Velcro billet strap keeper things. Whatever the technical name for them is. I don't know how I feel about that yet... They're really long, which is good, (the one thing I hate about my classics III pad is how short the keepers are) and the Velcro SEEMS to be pretty decent quality.. Not near as impressive as the woof boots though!

6.) korsteel eggbutt style full cheek snaffle (with keepers)

Super shiny (probably stainless steel)

5" 

Okay I love this bit. I got it from www.saddlesandmore.com (the lovely owner is a member of HGS and was kind enough to tell me she had a bunch of bits for sale) and it's super duper shiny. Not my ideal copper double jointed bit, but it's lovely anyway! It was a steal: I got for $25, and I screwed up with the keepers. I didn't realize how incredibly dark my freaking crown bridle is and it makes the chestnut keepers look like pumpkins. They're fine for schooling and riding around here, but they're going to bother me until I break down and replace them with some darker ones. I might see if I can talk the Amish guy down the road into matching the color for me... Hmm.. Anyway, the bit itself is curved A LOT to make it easier on the horses' mouths and I'm getting a lot better with putting bits and reins on so yay! 

(Aw and I think I just put it on upside-down too...)

6.) Stübben eggbutt snaffle

Shiny shiny (again probably stainless steel)

5"

YAY I'M ADDING TO MY STÜBBEN COLLECTION! Now I have a bit, AP saddle, 2 sets of irons and pads for said irons. Still totally obsessed. I got this bit from saddles and more as well, for the same price as the full cheek bit I posted a above with a link to the site. It's SO SHINY. It's curved too, but not as dramatically as the full cheek is. I've been saying I was going to get an eggbutt for about 4 years now, and I FINALLY got one! Again, no copper and no double jointed mouthpiece, but I'll survive because it's a stübben product. Is that a bad thing? No, I don't think it is.