Once I realized that I was going to return to the land of pony, I decided that I needed to take stock of all the remnants on gear in my tack room. I'm ashamed to say that a lot of it is trashed. Time, heat, and squirrels can do a lot of damage to tack, saddle pads, blankets and wraps.
I'm pretty sure I'm down a (luckily free to me) all purpose saddle due to red rot. Also gone are number of bridles and parts to dry, brittle leather. The leather of my ancient Ariat paddock boots started disintegrating when I pulled them out of my closet and god knows where my gloves ended up.
Thankfully, my dressage saddle is still in okay shape and it's currently getting new billet straps on one side. Also still usable: two pairs of my Tropical Rider deerskin extended patch breeches (LOVE LOVE LOVE), my TR deerskin full seats have a hole in the fabric on the butt, so those need to be fixed. My old Ariat terrain boots are still going strong, if a bit ugly, and the Ariat half chaps that I grabbed from a tack sale a few years back are perfectly serviceable. I have my Charles Owen JR8 helmet, which is unfortunately unvented, so I had to add a new schooling helmet to my shopping list.
Luckily for me, and upsetting for my bank account, I've been picking up some things that I need to get back into horses. I've been doing a lot of internet window shopping and some purchasing. And this past weekend, one of my local(ish) tack shops was having one of their giant yard sale events. I managed to get all the equestrian-specific things I needed for at least 15% off. Hello new things!
So far, I've managed to acquire one (with another on the way) Columbia Freeze Degree long-sleeved sun shirt, a Horze Supreme Functional Shirt, a Tipperary Sportage helmet, a pair of Noble Outfitters perfect fit mesh gloves.
After waffling for several minutes I went back inside to buy some Bridleway zip paddock boots. They were a whopping $34 on super special sale, and I figured, even if they only last for 6 months, I'm not out a whole lot of money.
When I have more time with these items, maybe I'll review how they're working out for me.
I still have a bunch of stuff on the ol' wish list, but this will be more than enough to get me back into the life.
No comments:
Post a Comment